Hello Mark,
I got this Simplex front derailleur equipped my Alex Singer, from kindly American gentleman in 1997. I heard that he is a bicycle enthusiast and also guitar enthusiast. I exchanged this Simplex for some pictorial books about guitar published in Japan. It was only that I got Simplex front derailleur from non-Japanese. Probably, the person about you called "Ken" is not me. "Ken" is popular name or nickname in Japan.
LJ-23 is mate of Juy Export 61. I confirmed from photocopies of Simplex catalogue. Juy Export 61 is a good derailleur. This works fine, and never broken. This is made of steel not plastic. I think, LJ-23 works slightly poor. The action about Inner chainwheel to outer chainwheel is good. But outer to inner is poor. I heard from my friend that LJ-23 have some varieties. Chrome polish body, Non polish body, Simplex badged, transfered, long wing and short wing.
Kenji Fusejima Tokyo Japan
At 8:59 PM -0700 01.4.5, Mark Bulgier wrote:
>I noticed the buyer of that Simplex front derailleur recently is called
>"Ken" by some people involved in previous transactions. Is that you? Ken =
>Kenji? I apologize if this is an impolite question, the buyer is entitled
>to anonymity if he or she wants it, you can just ignore my question and I'll
>drop it.
>
>I also notice your Singer Cyclosportif has this same front derailleur,
>labeled as "Simplex LJ-23" on your web page. Mated to a Juy Export 61 rear.
>If this is the correct pairing, I suppose I need to look for an LJ-23 to go
>with the Juy Export 61 rear I have now - or maybe I should sell my Juy
>Export 61? It's in very good shape, anyone want to take a stab at what it's
>worth?
>
>Mark Bulgier
>Seattle, Wa USA