This seems very strange, Kevin. First, all the Team Champions I've seen had Campy dropouts. The Team Champions, at least the ones I've seen, were all-Campy bikes and therefore were built with Campy DO'd. The LeChampion, on the other hand, came with top French equipment and Simplex DO's. Are you sure that what you have isn't a LeChampion? The Simplex DO has been modified if it is threaded for a Campy RD. They came unthreaded, as the Simplex RD's did not require a threaded DO. The normal route "In the Day" to adapt a Simplex DO for a Campy NR RD was to tap AND notch the DO, just as Sheldon suggets. If you file the notch correctly, this DOES work. Several guys in a club I rode with in the early 70's added Campy NR RD's to their PX-10's in exactly this way.
I've never done this modification to a Simplex DO myself, as I personally consider it an ugly and unnecessary mutilation of a perfectly good DO. The right solution, IMHO, is to simply use a Simplex SLJ RD, which was designed for the Simplex DO. The SLJ, in my opinion, is the best noindexed rear derailleur ever made, infinitely superior to a Campy NR or SR. I never understood the impluse to fit Campy derailleurs to Simplex DO's, especially after the all-alloy SLJ replaced the partly plastic Criterium as to top-of the-line Simplex RD.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Kevin D Salyer <kdsalyer@sbcglobal.net> wrote: I have received some helpful suggestions in the past on building up a 1973 Motobecane Team Champion and I am hoping for a repeat of this pleasant experience. I am using a Pat. 74 Nuevo Record rear derailleur on the bike but am having trouble with limiting forward movement of the changer. The Simplex dropout, while threaded for the Campy NR, has no forward stop. For the small cogs on the freewheel, this is not a problem, but the 22t cog (largest) meshes with the pulleys. Sheldon Brown suggested that I file a notch in the dropout but this did not work. Is there a washer with dog-eared flap that creates a stop? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin Salyer (Lafayette, CA)