That's what I was told by Art Wester, who was VP and part owner of Mavic USA in the 70s and 80s. I think he left Mavic around 1994.
Peter Jon White
Peter White Cycles
24 Hall Rd.
Hillsborough, NH 03244
603 478 0900 Phone
603 478 0902 Phax
http://www.PeterWhiteCycles.com
> Peter Jon White wrote:
> >
> > The Mavic derailleurs were all made by Simplex. (cut)
>
>
> Are you sure, Peter?
>
> I know that Mavic bought out Simplex sometime in the 1980s. And I have
> seen lots of photos of the Mavic factory showing them machining the
> crank forgings they got from SR (Japan) and machining their hub
> forgings. And it is very obvious looking at the design of the rear
> derailleur that the body, its internals and pulley plates are designed
> to be made by CNC machining (you can even see the machining marks in the
> outer plate of the 1st generation with the engraved "MAVIC" letters).
> And separate pulley cage stops and upper pivot stop (usually missing) of
> stamped stainless steel to make the CNC machining steps as simple as
possible.
>
> I once saw "SIMPLEX" marked pulleys on a Mavic derailleur, but I put
> this down to Mavic having bought out Simplex!
>
> I know that Mavic outsourced many of their parts such as the MODOLO
> sourced brakes, LOOK sourced clipless pedals, Simplex sourced
> retrofriction shift levers, but their derailleur looks to me to be
> designed as simply as possible so they could CNC it themselves.
>
> Of course, I don't have any documents to back up any of the above
> conjecture and am eager to learn what you know.
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
>
> .