RE: [CR]Dating Simplex vertical dropouts

It seems I may have caused a little confusion with my request for information about Simplex vertical dropouts, so I have posted photographs of them at http://ntlworld.photobox.co.uk/album/1571123 . They are on a 1951 Rotrax Super Course frame. The Rotrax catalogue of the time offers Simplex dropouts as an option, but is not specific about the type. I am trying to establish whether or not these dropouts are original before stating to renovate the frame.

Peter Brown. Lincolnshire, England

Hello Peter,

If you mean the forward-facing dropouts for the Tour de France, Juy 51, etc., they aren't listed in the 1952 Brown Brothers catalogue, but they are in the 1956 catalogue. I don't have any catyalogues in between the two

dates. The fitting instructions in the 1950 Fonteyn catalogue don't mention

ends with an integral gear hanger; they only refer to the fixing plate.

This tends to confirm that they may not have been available, in England at least, until after 1952, but that they certainly were by 1956.

They were no longer listed in the 1960 Brown Bros. catalogue.

I'm afraid I can't get any more specific.

Neil Foddering Weymouth, England

>Is anyone able to tell me please when Simplex vertical dropouts with
>integral gear hanger were introduced, and possibly also when they went out
>of production.
>Peter Brown, Lincolnshire, England