I'm interested in this discussion of "thin" lever Simplex. I have several of these, but until now I always assumed they were just the same as the early 70's Simplex QR's, except that mine had lost their black rubber lever hoods. Are we saying that older examples of the Simplex levers came without the rubber hoods? Nick, are you saying that, by removing the rubber from newer examples, they have been passed off to Japan as the older ones?
In a related question, the late 60's/early 70's alloy Simplex Criterium DT shift levers also had hard rubber hoods very similar to those found on the Simplex QR's. Ocassionally one sees the hoods fro sale on eBay. Were the hoods for the shift levers in fact the same ones used on the QR's?
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, TX
Nick March <nicbordeaux@yahoo.fr> wrote: What is the correct QR for the Normandy Luxe hubset?
I have the Simplex QR with the thin levers, and I have, or can finish re-building, a Spidel QR set that is a copy of the Campy curved lever QR. Is Spidel too late for 1975-6?
--Mitch Harris
Mitch, I see any number of Normandy Luxe (or other named variants of the Normandy) fitted bikes from the period, they come with mainly Atom QR, or "standard" simplex. The Spidel I believe to be a bit late, but I may be wrong in which case someone will correct me. Regarding the thin lever simplex, they are normally oldish, even very early. However, Simplex farmed out the making of these to somewhere (Italy I believe) and they were fitted to middle of the range bikes (oftnot with white plastic coated levers) early to mid seventies. Given a choice, I say Simplex.
Interesting point: the early thin lever simplex fetch good money in Japan, so some clever people fob off quite tarnished modern examples as the old ones. Actually, the only way to tell the difference between the real vintage ones and the later production is the thread.
Nick March, Mont de Marsan, France
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