On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:30:32 -0500, Tim McNamara wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

The weirdest chain ever seen:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne...4095459&size=o

How do you measure chain wear on that thing? Note the Schrader or
Woods valve and the spider-web shock-mount for the fender.

La Chaine Simpson or "The Simpson Chain" which was through to confer
some kind of advantage or another. There's a famous poster by
Toulouse-Lautrec that features that chain:

http://www.yaneff.com/html/plates/pl238.html

The Wikipedia entry has a description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson_Chain

It sounds like the long upright links were supposed to leverage and
multiply the cyclist's effort.