Originally Posted by
3alarmer
I'm at a loss to figure out why your frame has cabling stops on both sides. Usually in the early 50's (on up through about 1957 or 58), what I've seen is some kind of lever mounted like that to operate the rear, and a manual rod you flip for the front changer (if so equipped). But things were in flux then, and certainly the Campagnolo Gran Sport parallelogram design came on the scene early in the 50's. The bicycles from the 50's I've had and worked on were slightly more mundane, production cycles from Raleigh (Lenton)and Follis.
Somehow, I doubt what I'm about to say, but do you think it was made to work with one of those band-on Simplex shifters designed to fit over a single right-side brazeon?
Granted, this would definitely indicate the Campagnolo plate has been painted in place -
but I'm not sure if Simplex made an equivalent of these dating back to the 1950's. Heck, I'm not even sure if they were used on anything other than Peugeots.
-Kurt