Re: [CR]RE: Simplex and other French Garbage?

(Example: Framebuilders:Richard Moon)

Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 17:51:40 -0500 (EST)
From: "Brandon Ives" <monkey37@bluemarble.net>
To: Diane Feldman <feldmanbike@home.com>
Cc: TW406@aol.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]RE: Simplex and other French Garbage?
In-Reply-To: <00b301c105a2$cf8f4b40$1c29b018@vncvr1.wa.home.com>


Dave is right on about this, but if like me you grew up riding cheap SunTour on the first couple of bikes by the time I could afford a full "classic" Campagnolo bike,'89, I was really disapointed in the shifting. I know all the tricks to making them shift well, but they'll never shift well under pressure or more than 2 cogs at a time cleanly. Cheap SunTours of the time would. With the way I ride now "classic" Campy derailieurs work fine, but when I was expecting them to shift like a Dura-Ace or Superbe of the late-80's I was sorely let down. All the tricks in the world won't make a correctly set up drop parallelagram shift as well as a wellas a well set up slant parallelagram. Actually, I think this might me another subject we beat to death a few months back. I like old Campagnolo, Simplex, Benulux, ETC very much but not for their shifting quality. enjoy, Brandon"monekyman"Ives Off to go surfing in 70-degree Santa Barbara,California

"Nobody can do everything, but if everybody did something everything would get done." Gil Scott-Heron

On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Diane Feldman wrote:
> A NR doctoring thing: Many cages on these were crooked right out of the box.
> They do respond to straightening; here's how: Check derailleur ear of rear
> dropout with straightening tool, straighten as necessary.
> Mount derailleur on dropout, remove pulley bolts, pulleys, back plate of
> cage. After wiping cage clean, put a straightedge on the outer (still
> attached) plate of the rear derailleur. If it doesn't run parallel to the
> chainrings, bend it carefully until it does. You can use a crescent wrench
> for this, I'm a VAR bending bar snob for this job.
> Reassemble cage and pulleys, you should find the derailleur will run more
> quietly and shift with less hesitation than before if the cage was really
> bent.
> David Feldman
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <TW406@aol.com>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 3:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [CR]RE: Simplex and other French Garbage?
>
>
> > In a message dated 7/5/01 2:48:54 PM, moos@penn.com writes:
> >
> > << "a Campy NR will shift badly almost forever". >>
> >
> >
> > Jerry, I don't know how you're setting up your bikes, but I've never had a
> NR
> > that worked any way other than beautifully.
> >
> > I've learned chain length is important, and that many times the derailler
> > hanger or the derailler body is not square to the chainline, affecting the
> > smoothness of operation and noise level. Properly setup they should be
> > almost silent.
> >
> > They like a clean, well-oiled chain (I've always used motor oil myself, no
> > modern ointment works as well!) I believe they do get better with age, and
> I
> > don't think I've ever had one that was worn out. Other than that, they're
> > pretty bullet proof other than crash damage.
> >
> > I think the old Gran Sports and Records work almost as well given a good
> > setup. If its a bike I'm going to ride a lot, I replace the steel jocky
> > wheels with plastic on those old ones.
> >
> > I've had Simplexes from time to time, and they're alright, but I would
> want
> > to place any longevity bets on em! The plastic becomes very brittle with
> age
> > and I've had many break at the mounting locations.
> >
> > But enjoy your fantasies. Send me all those old badly shifting NRs you
> can't
> > stand! I'll trade you all my broken plastic French gems.
> >
> >
> > Ted Williams
> > Its a joke from Berkeley