"Cycling Life"

A 156-megabyte 1382-page scan of "Cycling Life" caught my eye:
http://www.archive.org/details/cyclinglife00test

You can take a quick peek at it online--see the various formats under
view-the-book.

"Cycling Life" was a dealer's magazine during the collapse of the
bicycle boom around 1896, so there are a depressing number of short
articles about failing bike companies.

Here are a few more cheerful examples.

***

The more you look at this adjustable wrench, the less silly it seems:
http://i55.tinypic.com/2ppzp0i.jpg

***

A strange way to find slow leaks:
http://i53.tinypic.com/wrar85.jpg

It would be easier to find a modern leak by dunking a suspect tire in
a sink and looking for bubbles, but maybe long-forgotten factors made
the strange leak-detector useful--lower pressures, natural rubber
tubes, crude sew-ups, wooden rims, and so on?

***

A foot-actuated rear-brake for fixies, guaranteed against your chain
breaking or your pedals falling off:
http://i54.tinypic.com/2qcnf3p.jpg

Broken chains, lost pedals, and runaway downhill disasters were more
common back then, but not common enough to make this brake popular.

***

A foot-actuated front-brake, mounted on the coasting pegs:
http://i53.tinypic.com/x3gy9s.jpg

Threats against patent infringement were routine in bicycle ads at the
time, but they were usually utterly unnecessary.

***

An automatic rear-brake, activated by fighting the pedals on a fixie:
http://i52.tinypic.com/2ykdzk0.jpg

Reversing the chain tension caused the lower chain run to push up on
the idler pulley, whose arm pressed a spoon brake against the rear
tire.

It was regularly advertised in the magazine.

***

Even I wouldn't consider this anti-flat scheme:
http://i52.tinypic.com/f255b7.jpg

Appropriately, it was invented in Washington, D.C.

***

Curiously, we don't see this sort of endorsement nowadays, featuring
photos of eighteen famous racers who owe their success to their tires:
http://i54.tinypic.com/oucv9j.jpg

Look at all the different brands of bicycles in parentheses!

And yes, that's Barney Oldfield, second from the top.

***

An early approach to saddle adjustment:
http://i53.tinypic.com/246oya8.jpg

***

It's hard to appreciate how much a bicycle cost over a century ago.

Iver Johnson sold bikes for about $100 like almost everyone else, but
they also made other things and believed in synergy.

"Like Iver Johnson Cycles, they are honest goods at honest prices":
http://i53.tinypic.com/2vwzkti.jpg

That's only $5, including shipping and handling, versus $100 for a
bicycle with tires. Ammuntion not included.

(No, it's not what we think of as an automatic. There were a few rare
true semi-automatic revolvers, but the I-J just ejected its cartridges
automatically when its cylinder was tipped up, making it easier to
reload. Despite the ad's claims, the I-J was considered cheap and
unreliable.)

***

Speaking of bicycles and prices, how much are your worn-out tires
worth?

Price of Tire Scrap.

"What do you pay for tire-scrap?" a representative of the India Rubber
World asked a junk dealer in New York.

"At the rate of $100 a ton for bicycle tires, and $75 for old rubbers
[galoshes]." That would make 5 cents and 3 & 3-4 cents per pound,
respectively-—lower than published quotations for scrap, but this
dealer sells in turn for higher figures.

"Do you handle tires by the ton?"

"By the ton or the single tire. I buy all that come in. There's a good
demand for them. They're worth more than rubber shoes because there's
better gum in them. It was about this time—-August—-last year [1895]
that I first began to get old tires along with other rubber scrap that
came to me in lots of rags. I looked around and found out what they
were worth, and since then I've taken all that I could get of them.
There are several big rag dealers in the city that handle tire scrap,
and plenty of mills ready to grind them up. A big lot of tires comes
from the repair shops all over town. Solid rubber tires come in, too,
but they are worth only half as much as the pneumatics. Nor are the
red pneumatics worth as much as the others."
http://tinyurl.com/2affht7

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote:

:The more you look at this adjustable wrench, the less silly it seems:
: http://i55.tinypic.com/2ppzp0i.jpg


Only if you've never used a proper crescent wrench, I expect.
I've handled one of these (or something very like it, it had a hammer
head on one side of the jaw, and screwdriver at the end, in an attempt
to be the wrong tool for even more jobs); the little things on the
side of the studs are protusions that you use to slide the shims in or
out, in a vain attempt to get it to fit your nut. The shims were
quite thick (1/16, probably), so there'd be a bunch of space on a nut
that's not the right size. I confess to not trying o use it to turn
nuts with.

--
sig 3

On Jan 5, 4:04*am, wrote:
A 156-megabyte 1382-page scan of "Cycling Life" caught my eye:


A strange way to find slow leaks:
*http://i53.tinypic.com/wrar85.jpg

It would be easier to find a modern leak by dunking a suspect tire in
a sink and looking for bubbles, but maybe long-forgotten factors made
the strange leak-detector useful--lower pressures, natural rubber
tubes, crude sew-ups, wooden rims, and so on?



It's a test to see that the repair is successful without resort to a
week long inflation test. It is simply an instrumented 'thumb', a
clock gauge with a foot and a spring. Ideal for a professional
tubular repairer when business is based on 'quality repairs'. "Each
tyre tested before return"

On Jan 5, 4:04*am, wrote:
A 156-megabyte 1382-page scan of "Cycling Life" caught my eye:
*http://www.archive.org/details/cyclinglife00test


A foot-actuated rear-brake for fixies, guaranteed against your chain
breaking or your pedals falling off:
*http://i54.tinypic.com/2qcnf3p.jpg

Broken chains, lost pedals, and runaway downhill disasters were more
common back then, but not common enough to make this brake popular.

Ah, the beginings of the Sanyo dynapower!

***

On Jan 4, 11:04*pm, wrote:

Iver Johnson sold bikes for about $100 like almost everyone else, but
they also made other things and believed in synergy.

"Like Iver Johnson Cycles, they are honest goods at honest prices":
*http://i53.tinypic.com/2vwzkti.jpg

That's only $5, including shipping and handling, versus $100 for a
bicycle with tires. Ammuntion not included.

The White House Blues is a song about President William McKinley's
assassination. Depending on the version, it contains the lines "Look
here you rascal, see what you've done; You shot my husband with your
Iver Johnson gun"

or in John Renbourne's version (which I like better) "You have shot
the president with your Iver Johnson gun."

- Frank Krygowski

On Jan 5, 9:31 pm, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Jan 4, 11:04 pm, wrote:



Iver Johnson sold bikes for about $100 like almost everyone else, but
they also made other things and believed in synergy.

"Like Iver Johnson Cycles, they are honest goods at honest prices":
http://i53.tinypic.com/2vwzkti.jpg

That's only $5, including shipping and handling, versus $100 for a
bicycle with tires. Ammuntion not included.

The White House Blues is a song about President William McKinley's
assassination. Depending on the version, it contains the lines "Look
here you rascal, see what you've done; You shot my husband with your
Iver Johnson gun"

or in John Renbourne's version (which I like better) "You have shot
the president with your Iver Johnson gun."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDb7FIsNnso

On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:31:44 -0800 (PST), Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On Jan 4, 11:04*pm, wrote:

Iver Johnson sold bikes for about $100 like almost everyone else, but
they also made other things and believed in synergy.

"Like Iver Johnson Cycles, they are honest goods at honest prices":
*http://i53.tinypic.com/2vwzkti.jpg

That's only $5, including shipping and handling, versus $100 for a
bicycle with tires. Ammuntion not included.

The White House Blues is a song about President William McKinley's
assassination. Depending on the version, it contains the lines "Look
here you rascal, see what you've done; You shot my husband with your
Iver Johnson gun"

or in John Renbourne's version (which I like better) "You have shot
the president with your Iver Johnson gun."

- Frank Krygowski

Dear Frank,

Sirhan Sirhan also favored Iver-Johnson.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On Jan 4, 9:04 pm, wrote:

Curiously, we don't see this sort of endorsement nowadays, featuring
photos of eighteen famous racers who owe their success to their tires:
http://i54.tinypic.com/oucv9j.jpg

Look at all the different brands of bicycles in parentheses!

And yes, that's Barney Oldfield, second from the top.

"Cannon" Bald, first on the list and pictured just beneath Oldfield,
was grievously injured during a car race with Oldfield about ten years
after the ad was published. Tom Cooper was killed while joyriding in
1906. Amazing that Oldfield never suffered the same fate.