Originally Posted by
jonwvara
Thanks, Chas, that's a real help. So the 80s version of the Simplex hanger--the one I referred to as the "pre-butchered" version--is essentially just the Simplex interpretation of a standard Campagnolo hanger, and it will accept pretty much any non-Huret derailleur?
By "pre-butchered" I'm assuming that you are inquiring about the original style Simplex dropouts with the 9mm mounting hole that hasn't been tapped a the round portion still intact?
Like these:
The standard procedure was to thread the 9mm hole with a 10mm x 1mm or 10mm x 26 tpi tap then cut away the round portion to provide clearance for the travel stop on Campy, Suntour and other make derailleurs that were common in the early 70s. Several examples:
BTW, at our shop we only made those modifications until ~1976 when other derailleur options became available - i.e. Simplex SLJ, Shimano and so on.
I have to rewrite my message above about the Campy style dropouts. The 1981 Simplex catalog is the first reference I'd seen to them.
I just found these pictures of mid 70's Peugeot PY-10 Team bikes. The 1974 bike has the "banjo" style derailleur hanger while the 1975 bike uses the Campy style; so they were available but not in the catalogs!
It was only the Simplex and Huret
dropouts that were proprietary. Simplex direct mount derailleurs fit Campy style dropouts. Huret made derailleurs or adapters to use their products on Campy style dropoutshey just didn't fit Simplex DOs.
Originally Posted by
jonwvara
The most interesting piece of information to me (assuming I've interpreted what you said correctly) is that both the earlier and later direct-mount Simplex RDs could be installed on Campagnolo hangers. I'd always assumed that they required a Simplex hanger.
Yes they fit. Simplex was maybe the first company to make the tab style travel stop that fit over the front of the hanger.
The first Shimano Titlist came out in 1971. It had that tab stop feature but those style Shimano derailleurs weren't readily available in the US market until ~1974 when Schwinn started using them and Shimano introduced the Crane model.
Campagnolo introduced the first generation Rally long arm derailleur which was pretty much a copy of Shimano's Crane design. Shimano hit them with patent infringement so they went away after several years. Campy replaced the original Rally with a kludged together mix of parts.
Any derailleur with a tab stop "should" fit most Simplex dropouts. The 9mm hole needs to be threaded to 10mm to attach non-Simplex derailleurs.
BTW, a Simplex direct mount derailleur will still fit the threaded dropout without any problem because the inside diameter of the hole is still 9mm.
verktyg
Chas.