This is it - the brochure announcing Simplex’s launch of the new Prestige line constructed in space-age plastic.

Simplex may have had cause to regret claiming that their revolutionary plastic technology was ‘a symbol of French quality’. Unfortunately, for them, that is exactly what it became over the next decade or two - and not in a good way. Few cyclists in the mid 1970s would have struggled to arrange the words ‘cheap’, ‘French’ and ‘garbage’ into a meaningful phrase.

Cleverly, the photographer has mounted the body of the front derailleur upside-down - did no one at Simplex do any proof-reading?

• Publisher: Simplex
• Country: France
• Date: 1962
• Derailleur brands: Simplex
• Derailleurs: Simplex Prestige (532)