• I'm 1955 they were all available from Holdsworth Cycling Aids.
    Campag gran sport 75/
    Simplex 543 79/6
    Simplex juy51 43/9
    Simplex TDF 27/6
    Almost twice the price for the Juy51 over the Plain TDF and double again for the 543, they all seem to share the same materials and mechanisms.

  • It's hard to understand what Simplex thought they were doing.

    The Juy 51 does look at least slightly superior to the TdF - for example the TdF jockey cage side plates are rather crudely stamped out, whereas the Juy 51 side plates are nicely bevelled.

    My memory may be unreliable here, but I was barely aware of the Juy51 and the only Simplexes I remember seeing in use were TdF's - possibly this just reflects the company I was keeping!

    I think the 543 and the Juyrecord60 were pretty much the same thing, as the price implies. As I mentioned above I never saw one in the flesh when they were current. They do appear to have been a better proposition than the earlier mechs - they certainly look more robust - but I think they were hopelessly overpriced against the Campag.

    By the time of my first season as a club cyclist (1959) the great majority of riders I came into contact with were Campag equipped - I believe Simplex was already doomed by that point, and they effectively admitted defeat by producing their own parallelogram mech, I think for the 1960 season.

    The French, while progressive in many things, can have a streak of stubborn conservatism and I think that played a part here. Another example is Henri Desgrange's refusal to allow any variable gears in 'his' Tour de France.

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