Jerry, regarding your question about the chainring range of a lever front derailleur, the Simplex catalogue (and The Dancing Chain book) both say that the Simplex lever front derailleur covered 26 to 52 teeth. Here I'm running one with 26 to 53 chainrings on my Mondia, and it shifts fine, even being one tooth over its spec .
http://www.peterbrueggeman.com/
Peter
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Peter Brueggeman
La Jolla California USA
4peebee(at)peterbrueggeman.com