Originally Posted by
kroozer
It sounds like you want a wide-range drive-train, but your current one is composed entirely of racing components. I would just replace everything, and make it all-French (except for Japanese freewheel) since it's a French bike, and that way you can leave the dropout intact. Of course, this will take some money, but just pay it and make yourself happy and later you won't even remember how much it cost. I have been using a Simplex SX410GT wide-range derailleur for several years and it has worked great. There are also several nice vintage French wide-range cranks. TA Cyclotouriste uses the same arms as yours but with different rings. Nervar 631 and Stronglight 49 also are compatible with TA rings. Stronglight 99 is a later design with different rings. With any of these cranks, plus a wide-range derailleur, you'll have a lot of latitude on the gearing.
This is a fair solution, thanks. On a purely aesthetic side, when compared to the nice Campy transmission group in place, Simplex derailleurs don’t look nice, but then it’s a matter of tastes. What is sure is that this frame was built for them. On a functional side I guess that opinions vary and there are fans on both sides on this forum. The Disraeli guy comments on Simplex are not very enthusiastic. I have the SX410 on two 70s Peugeot, it has some plastic parts but it’s look is more acceptable than many other models and according to velobase the T model would have the capacity needed as you rightly mentioned. Prices look however quite expensive for such a group, even if I wanted to buy the RD only and use it with Campy FD and shifters (is it possible btw?).
I’m a bit confused on TA cranks and understood that my crank would not accept smaller chainrings, guess I’ll have to give a closer look, not so much info on TA out there…
All Simplex and French bike experts (you are a lot on BF), be welcome to join this thread.