Originally Posted by
old's'cool
I've always instinctively run away screaming from anything Simplex, and my instincts seem to be confirmed by verktyg. To be sure, the actual derailleur I am considering is all metal construction; I have no interest in Delrin as a structural material.
I was pointing out to all the problems with Simplex SX100 RDs.
The plain old cheap bottom of the line Simplex Prestige RDs from the bike boom era actually shifted far better than Campy NR RDs when they were new, well lubricated and with good cables. The reason being, Simplex used sprung upper pivots.
Refer to Frank Berto's book
"The Dancing Chain".
Simplex Super LJ all metal derailleurs came out ~1973. They were as good or better than any RDs on the market at the time. They had a published FW capacity of 14-34T...
In the mid 70's Simplex started offering RDs with a dropped parallelogram like Suntour and Shimano. They worked just as well.
The problem with the Simplex all metal Super LJ derailleurs back in the 1970's was that they were more expensive than equivalent Campy components. Plus they carried the bad rap of the Delrin Simplex derailleurs.
Simplex introduced some less expensive models than the SLJ series that worked just as well. They were the SX410 with a standard parallelogram and the SX610 and SX630 with dropped parallelograms. they can hand;e at least a 30T FW sprocket.
Several other choices, the SX610 GTSP and SX630 GTSP long arm RDs. Here a SX630 on my Motobecane Grand Jubile with 48-38-28T triple chainrings and a 13-30T 7 speed FW. It's the same design as the Shimano Crane GS RDs.
Originally Posted by
old's'cool
I have a Crane GS waiting in the wings to handle the chain wrap in the mean time until I figure out a cost-effective European derailleur for the job (grail RD being a Campy Rally; but I don't expect to find one for a price I can justify).
You can't go wrong with a Crane GS. I've used them since 1975 and they're bullet proof! They were the design model for a lot of later derailleurs including Campy, Simplex, Sachs Huret and eventually Suntour. The first generation Campy Rally design was a knock off of the Crane GS. Apparently Shimano slapped Campy's wrist and they withdrew that style after a few years.
The problem with the first generation Rally RDs was the upper pivot arms were made of cast "pot metal", a cheap zinc alloy. The first version frequently broke at the neck because of a very poor design! They tried to fix it with a second version then the discontinued the drop arm Rally. I wont go into the kluged together 2nd generation Rallys.
[MENTION=209177]3alarmer[/MENTION] +1
Aside from the aesthetic or vanity factor, there's not much if any advantage to going to a Campy Rally RD.
verktyg
Chas.