The Company:
Simplex was founded by Lucien Juy, a bicycle shop owner, after he made his first derailleur in 1928. He chose the name as a bit of a dig at the competition, whose products he thought overly complicated.
He was a prolific inventor and held many patents. Most of today’s derailleurs incorporate features which he originated. At one point Simplex made more derailleurs than all competitors combined, but ultimately lost out and disappeared. There is probably no one very significant reason that the company met its demise, but many contributors such as late adoption of parallelogram mechanisms, product quality and reliability, aesthetics, premature use of plastics – the list goes on. That said, some of their products in the 1970s onwards with the introduction of the Super LJ were amongst the very best available.
A key part of Lucien Juy’s marketing strategy was racing success and here is a leaflet from circa 1939 in conjunction with Helyett, whose racing team used Simplex gears, as did all their gear-equipped racing bikes.
Simplex Racing Gears:
Here is an overview presentation that I gave to the Cheshire Section of the Veteran-Cycle Club on March 25th, 2015 (Click on the link below):
This is not intended to be a scholarly work and does not go into great depth – just a general interest piece, up to the introduction of plastics