I have a circa 1950 frame with Simplex dropouts to take a Tour de France rear derailleur -- except that a previous owner neatly cut off the gear hanger. I could of course just use a separate hanger for the derailleur, but would much prefer to restore the hanger on the dropout. Any thoughts on how I do this?
Easiest would be to cut the hanger off another old dropout and braze it to mine. Problem -- where to find an old dropout I can cannibalize.
Alternative would be to fabricate a new hanger to braze on to the dropout. Problem -- how to tap the fine thread for the derailleur attaching screw (it looks distinctly non-standard to me)?
Before I acquired this frame, I sold another with unmolested Simplex dropouts of the correct era and would have been happy to get a framebuilder to swap the dropouts between the two frames. Sod's law as one says over here.
Hugh Thornton
Cheshire, England