Originally Posted by
T-Mar
You'll also find them on some Italian bicycles of this era, notably Battaglin. After winning the Vuelta and Giro in 1981, Battaglin set up his own bicycle company and persuaded his team to switch bicycles from Pinarello to his eponymous brand. They took on Gipiemme for their component sponsor. Consequently the team bicycles used this braze-on, as did most models in the Battaglin line. There were several models that were Simplex/Gipiemme compatible but only one token model with a Campagnolo braze-on. Framesets sold in the USA through Italia Velo Sport came with the front derailleur, due to the compatibilty issue.
I wasn't aware that anyone but French makers used the Simplex braze-on FD system???
Simplex braze-on FDs first shown in the 1981 Simplex catalog, I always considered these to be part of the short lived Aero Fad of the early 80's. I have or had a number of French bikes from Peugeot, Gitane and Motobecane that used these FDs. They work OK but I never considered braze-on FDs of any benefit especially when changing front gearing on a classic bike.
Braze-on mount for Simplex FDs.
Simplex made Gipiemme badged derailleurs from the late 70's through the mid 80's. This is what came with a Battaglin frame or bike shown above: Gipiemme/Simplex SJ A222 or SLJ A422 braze-on FD.
Simplex also produced derailleurs with the French Spidel consortium marque, the Swiss EDCO brand plus Peugeot and derailleurs for Motobecane with their M logo on the self adhesive thick aluminum stickers.
So,
MRich1104 your best FD solution is to find a Simplex braze-on front derailleur. There's a number of these on eBay but the sellers are pretty proud of them....
If you want to switch to a standard band style clamp FD you may have to remove the braze-on in the seat tube because it may get in the way of the clamp. You'll have to check it out. The easiest way is to grind it down with a Dremel tool.
verktyg
