Simplex gear mechs are heaped with abuse principally by riders who have used them. The Simplex Prestige work really wonderfully offering a faster change with far less overshift needed than any pre-1990 Campag rear shifter. They also cope far better with wide range chainwheels with the shifter retaining its preciseness on both chainwheels. True they are fragile compared Campag Gran Sport but I certainly know which one I would prefer to ride with and it's not the Gran Sport. And the pre-parallelogram pushrod rear mechs also work wonderfully with a quick change even over 14-26T freewheels. The change is infinitely superior to the Gran Sport despite the crude appearance. Simplex mechs took a lot of stick in The Dancing Chain but the criticisms are not in general justified. Try a Simplex mech on your bike and you'll be surprised by just how nice they work rather than look. Hilary
Russ Fitzgerald wrote:
> .. and, oh, yeah - WHAT kind of gearing system was Fausto Coppi, Il
> Campionissimo, venerated maestro and most Italian of Italians - what was he
> using in the 1949 Tour de France?
>
> For that matter - in 1975, Bernard Thevenet sure didn't seem held back by
> French parts ... and they didn't seem to be an issue for Jacques Anquetil in
> his five TdF wins, either ...
>
> Seriously, deciding French bike parts are junk based on the Simplex Prestige
> makes about as much sense as deciding Italian parts are junk based on the
> Campagnolo Valentino or Gran Turismo.
>
> Leonard Bulger wrote:
>> Not to mention headsets that wear out in a season, touring derailleurs
>> that don't shift and sometimes break the frame, pedals that don't have
>> replaceable cages, no pedal washers on the cranks...
>>
>>
>> Jerry wrote:
>>
>> Yes, one misses a lot by using the inferior French garbage. Like none
>> of those stylish little cracks on the spider of Campy cranks, no laboring up
>> hills in a 42 x 24 because NR cranks wouldn't take 40T ring like Stronglight
and you didn't want to spend the time adjusting chain length to get an NR
derailleur to wrap a 28T cog, unlike Simplex rears that wrap more chain..
No 15 minutes of bliss adjusting a Campy NR seatpost when a Simplex post can
be adjusted in 30 seconds. No powering up hils on the 13T cog because the
Campy shift lever has slipped into high gear, unlike Simpex retrofrictins
that never slipped.