[CR]Simplex timeline and demise..

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: "Norris Lockley" <norris@norrislockley.wanadoo.co.uk>
To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 00:36:48 -0000
Subject: [CR]Simplex timeline and demise..

The demise of Simplex was not simply brought about by the arrival on the world stage of Shimano and Suntour, but was also hastened on by the company's reliance on a handful of large European bike manufacturers, who had sufferd severe fiancial problems themselves.

One such company I recall was Kalkoff of Germany. This company had a huge presence on the mainland of Europe and also in the UK. All the company's bottom and mid range bikes...perhaps as much as 85% of the production used Simplex gears. When Kalkhoff stared to experience financial difficulties around 1982/83, Simplex's affairs started deteriorating.

Once the Dijon company had gone into liquidation, Mavic bought out the remains, as well as certain patents..eg. the retrofriction d/t levers, and one or two mountain-bike levers and mechs that Simplex had started ..far too late..to manufacture. Simplex had introduced possibly the first indexed derailleur gear in 1981 - the Selematic..but did not market it well.

When Mavic decided to reorganise itself and to narrow its product range the rights to the Simplex name and to certain patents was sold on to Stratec. This was a last ditch attempt by some of the smaller isolated French accessory manufacturers to form a "groupement"..a way of getting road and ATB equipment groups into bike manufacturers. So it was that Simplex, Nervar, Perrin (hubs), Lyotard, and what little remained of Mafac got together.. The problem was that the owners of the new group did not understand the bike business...and how much it had changed and globalised..nor was there the money ...nor the market clout...nor, more importantly possibly..no niched left unfilled by the large Japanese manufacturers

I saw some of the prototype groups displayed at French trade shows..and they were not all bad...just that some of the parts were very dated. Simplex produced some very reasonable mid-range gears such as the Foret..and attempted to enter the low-end market too, but there was no room for them. Manufrance , loyal to French goods to the end, bought in some of the groups, but itself went into liquidation when the new owner, a certain Bernard Tapie, broke up the manufacturing group and sold off the assets. The lastSimplex gears I bought from a retailer came from the Manufrance shop in St Etienne, where they are still selling off , or were not too long ago,some of the "100% French" bikes bought from the liquidator.

A couple of years ago I took a pilgrimage around St Etienne to take photos of all the old premises that I could find. Apart from the huge art-nouveau Manufrance factory that has been turned into a magnificent regional business centre, the rest have either been demolished to make way for retail supermarkets, or turned into a mass of small industrial and warehousing units.That was the fate of the Nervar company's factory. Belleri, the maker of bars and stems were still there...but had diversified..and some of the Mercier framebuilders had taken a small unit, producing frames under the "Cycles-Tonic" brand.

Just an after-thought. Did any of the Stronglight groupsets, launched by the Zefal group, about three years ago ever make it to the States. There was some interesting high-tech stuff proposed..but it was very short lived.

Norris Lockley..Settle UK