Simplex Retrofriction
 

Currently there is a beautiful pair on ebay in france. Shipping is 15. I am pondering on bidding. Do they really work that much better than the old Campy shifters? I have a pair of Campy shifters in very good shape that I can e-bay and probably make up part or all of the cost of the Simplex.

I have always been fond of Simplex components.

They work better than any other friction shifter.

I think the average price of the campy is closer to $20 and the simplex closer to $50. I just downgraded my bike to campy in a trade with another forum member. The funny thing is when I was putting my super record bike together I scored a bike with super record on it but it had retro frictions so I used them. I've never even used a record Frction shifter! But I can say the simplex are better than any others I have tried.

Not sure why you have to try to buy a set from France. These things are pretty common on ebay, both in the 2 Simplex variations and the Spidel model.

There are more than two Simplex variations

Do you need banded or braze on?

in addition to the Simplex & Spidel badged units,they were also available re-logo'd as Mavic and Gippieme(GPM).
the only negative is that they do have a much longer throw and the levers are set slightly further apart from each other than campy levers so one-handed double front/rear shifting is awkward and sometimes not possible, particularly with small hands

My only complaint about them is that the mounting screw is unplated and it rusts.