The new design was great for the time and in the 7 years that followed, I never felt the need to change the pulley design. Sure the bearings were tweaked on a yearly basis to improve them, but the same pulley body was used each year.
The old pulley was made by a process called injection molding. This meant we'd have an outer bearing race put into the mold and then the plastic pulley body would be injected around the race. This process created a consistent Delrin quality and was cost effective. Here is the first Delrin body, ceramic pulley.
Noticed how our VCRC logo was not only laser etched onto the alloy dustcaps but it was also applied to the pulley body itself.
Later we tweaked it a little and removed the extra logo. Here is that version.
This model worked well but over time we found with lots of use the injection molding process was not ideal for the longevity of the Delrin. Most customers had no issues but a few would find the body would wear out quicker than we'd like.
So we studied how other companies like Shimano did their pulleys. One common feature found among really long wearing pulleys was that instead of injection molding, they would machine their pulley bodies from blocks of Delrin. This method is more expensive but offers a much stronger, durable and pretty result. Here is the new version:
Also, here is our new Titanium version, complete with ceramic bearings installed.
We are currently in the process of updating our website with pictures of the new version. The new machined Delrin version is currently shipping for all pulley orders placed at our website,
