+1 In my experience the freewheel and chain have a bigger influence on shifting performance than the derailleur alone. I’m running a NOS Prestige on my Super Course with an Hyperglide freewheel and love the performance. After one pulley chipped a tooth (in 20 degree weather) I replaced the pulleys with Suntour items and haven’t had a problem since.

I liked the set-up so much I installed a Simplex 1000t and IRD freewheel and on my Gitane TdF.

I agree with these two points. In the last 7 weeks, have put 970 miles on a 1972 Steyr/Puch with the red-black plastic Simplex setup.

I am liking the shifting more using a narrower-range 5-sp Uniglide freewheel, which allows the old panta-design to track the cogs pretty well.
It's a 36-52 in front with a 13-24t, 5-sp FW in back.

Your freewheel being spaced away from the frame is detrimental to this derailer cage's travel path (it's no Suntour). Too many freewheel spacers may leave you with too few threads securing the fw.

I found that once I changed the un-reinforced, plastic shifters to the downtube location and fitted modern housing out back, that the rubbery shift feeling all but went away.
I dial way back on the shifter's friction screw to make the shifting effort as low as will hold on the climbs, so my shifting force is more of a finger-tip action, not a lot of force!

With this smaller freewheel (was 14-28t), I simply adjusted the derailer's cage pivot spring tension a little tighter, which moved the guide pulley closer to the freewheel. I'm running the Uniglide cogs with 9-sp chain and narrower ball-bearing pullies.

The front derailer is working great, no cracks in mine! Again, like the rear, shifting force is very light with the modern cable housing. Only when the cage's push-rod gets pelted with wet road muck will the downshifting action slow for a little while. I haven't dropped a chain once in 970 miles!

Whenever I finally shift to the small ring, after shifting to the biggest cog in back, I immediately also nudge the rear shifter up one gear, so the big drop doesn't have me losing so much momentum. This yields a full 7 sequential gear ratios going across the entire range. I worked hard to master this quick double-shift, and now it gets me up the steeps AND has me keeping up with the more serious "training ride" riders. I love the challenge, my five gears to their 10 and 11, and my 27.5 lbs to their what, 15 lbs?

So, I'm good with the plastic Prestige mechs as long as the cabling, drive parts, pullies, axle spacing and adjustments are all of good spec, and even better with just 5 speeds on the freewheel.


I've posted some of these pic's already, but since I'm still doing all my riding on this one, dig these dropouts(!):



Early, un-reinforced Prestige shifters replaced the broken, black, stem versions:



Finding a more-adjustable 25.6mm (odd size) seatpost, and fitting longer/wider stem/bars got this rider settled for high-effort duties.



Will be doing a cotter-crank rebuild using my modified $8 chain breaker in a little while here, before tonight's ride. I always assist the pushing process with a brief ~30-sec. blast of the torch to the big end of the crankarm.
Looking foreward to getting 11 Grade-25's into each cup, and will be curious as to the bb threading to say the least (might be anything other than Italian).
The original factory bb assembly assembly has served perfectly thus far however.

Like

My daughter's UO-8 has the original Simplex Prestige mechs and plastic shifters. Uncracked. I douse them with plastic protectant (I forget the name, not Armor All) occasionally. It shifts well. The only headache is that the right lever has to be tightened down more than I'd like, to hold a gear. I think these parts work just fine when they are not too worn out or cracked. They just aren't built to last, though a few obviously have.

Okay, mk123, this is your thread. Whadayathink? Does it work for you? Yea or nay? Yay or no-way?

His is still out riding.

I kinda like them. But I've only used the Criterium, which is very similar to the Prestige. Interesting to note the main critique here concerns the floppy shift levers.
What say all ye to Frank Berto's summation in his Dancing Chain book that the material used in the rear derailleurs just wasn't stiff enough for the task and that this made the Simplex Delrins shift poorly?

I had one crack... At the bolt.

the one on my gitane didn't work with a 28t.26t max I'd say

True--their compressive strength is said to be comparable to that of peanut brittle.

I wish! I've just been busy the past couple of days. Lots of work lately.

Everything went a-ok on my short commute.... 4 whole miles. It replaced a Suntour Cyclone, I thought the simplex worked nice, not at all worse. The Atom free wheel is as bad as I remember, getting stuck between cogs and "skating" on top. I think I have a 28t shimano that I will toss on.

I want to go back and read all these replies, didn't expect so many. I've just been short on time.

Looks like you need a 28T Atom.



Or maybe upgrade to a 28T Maillard?



Ignore the prices.

The levers will not flex much if the cable housings are lined, except when the derailer bottoms against the lo-limit screw (my levers lack even the flimsy stainless sheet-steel reinforcements that were added to the later Prestige shifters).

The rear derailer itself doesn't see any high, varying forces that would induce any significant flex, except when it hits the lo-limit screw, but this doesn't affect shift quality at all.

If the shift housing isn't modern (lined, linear) shift housing, the shifting action will feel rubbery and mess up the rear shifting quality. I tried to utilize the original housing (with plastic liner inside), but still that short piece of housing was enough to cause poor shifting, so I ended up using slim, modern shift housing.
Note, linear housing requires ferrules at both ends, which is problematic with some cable stops that are brazed or welded on.

My shifters were NOS, and the plastic friction surfaces hadn't yet conformed and burnished with the mating metal friction surfaces, so the shifter didn't have a snappy feel but rather felt more viscous, which gave almost no tactile feedback that lever movement had occurred.
On many occasions, I had to wait for the shift to hopefully occur to even know if the lever had moved, then move the lever again. I took the shifters apart and used a lighter oil, and after a few hundred more break-in miles, it finally has the right feel.
Once the shifters are lightly oiled and broken in, the shifter's tension screw doesn't need to be so tight to hold from slipping, so the level of flex becomes unnoticeable.

Most Prestige derailers never get adjusted to put the guide pulley as close as possible to the cogs, and this causes vague shifting when smaller (than 28t) freewheels are used.
They provided a locknut and 5mm allen socket so the "A"-tension (cage pivot spring tension) can be adjusted in 20 seconds, but few know what it is for. It's the ~12mm locknut that tightens against the cage plate, and after barely cracking it loose, the "A"-tension spring can be tightened by turning the allen key 30-40 degrees CCW, and then re-securing the locknut.
Note that you have to hold the cage with your free hand to keep it from turning when attempting to crack the locknut loose, but not when re-tightening it.
Also note that you don't want to fully loosen the locknut, only loosen enough to just be able to turn the 5mm allen key to it's new position. This is quite easy, so one can test several fine adjustments in a very short time.
Lastly, increasing the "A"-tension has the same effect on shifting as does loosening the "B"-tension screw on a modern derailer, except that in this case the chain tension is actually increased a bit, instead of decreased.
I prefer a tighter chain, especially since I use ball-bearing pullies.

I think I read something about cyclists changing the cable mounting locations on 50's Huret rear derailleurs for a great improvement. It seems like a common problem is bad pull ratios.

Yes, it looks just like all the gazillions of Prestiges. Oh, that one was yours? Great-lookin' mech!

I stand in admiration of someone who can presumably make an Allvit (Alvit?) set work right!

Skating on top: chain too narrow? cage spring sacked? Teeth worn so they don't grab the chain plates right on transition?

Try it with something modern and good, like a Sachs-Maillard 6-speed. Your wheel seems to be set up for 126 and a 6-speed, anyway.

Sexy!

Yes, I have a Shimano 6 speed that I will probably put to use. It still sits pretty far in though, far enough in that the chain makes a clicking noise leaving the lower pulley in the middle chain ring of the triple. It might be a spindle length issue? It's the original stronglight BB, maybe not for a triple.

No, the older Atom freewheel teeth had a slot on the top of each tooth, ostensibly to improve shifting, but in practice more often catching the chain side plates and allowing the chain to slide freely over the tops of the teeth without engaging.

Yes, I remember those! Didn't Reginas of the same vintage have the same feature?

I remember also having these problems a few times when using modern chains on these freewheels.
Also, with the Varsity and Continental, the Shimano-built, sealed "Schwinn-Approved" freewheels usually have the same problem with modern chain. Just don't blame the Allvit derailer!

If there is one thing that almost guarantees that I won't ride a bike as-is, it would be that there is a chain-skating problem. Oh, the misery!
I really, really hate that.