For Carl Fogel to decipher

http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Sergio
Pisa

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Decipher?? It's a normal bike!

"bicicletta da corsa in pista" says it all!

28" (singles?) wheels , acetylene lamp and block chain are about all
that distinguish it from a modern urban fixie!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:48:52 -0800 (PST), sergio
wrote:

http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Sergio
Pisa

Dear Sergio,

It's one of those new-fangled chain-rear-drive safety bicycles.

They all look alike, though there are a few details.

The 1890 date is probably a little off, more like 1892 or later. Only
people like me fuss about exact dates on such things.

Skip to the bottom for comments on that particular photo.

Around 1817, the running machine invented by Karl von Drais enjoyed a
brief vogue--two cart wheels, a backbone that the rider straddled,
front steering, and no pedals.

Laws were passed to keep the silly things off the sidewalks, and the
running machines simply vanished in less than a decade. Their initial
appearance was partly due to a terrible winter that led to a severe
shortage of horses where von Drais lived.

A nice page with photos of the running machine:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p..._id=40616&v=9L

Other early claims about two-wheeled contraptions appear in many older
bicycle history, but they're no longer credited. New histories either
dismiss them as tactfully as possible or else ignore them.

The drawing on the back of a pasted page in one of Leonardo da Vinci's
notebooks is considered a modern forgery (which didn't stop
enthusiasts from building a model), the odd church window image at
Stoke-Pogis has been explained as a weird example of traditional
iconography (and many drawings of it added stuff that wasn't there),
the long-accepted claims for 1790's French two-wheelers were found to
be made-up in the 1890s, some really obscure Italian claims were shown
to be preposterous, and the claims about the Scots machine of
Macmillan have been shown to be mostly wishful thinking that ignored
the few known details of what was probably a quadracycle--the
well-known photos of the Macmillan bicycle are pictures of a
"replica", not any actual machine.

Bicycles were immensely popular, so national pride was a motive for
making fake or simply mistaken claims for the first bicycle. Here are
two pages about faked and forged early bicycle claims:

http://www.karldrais.de/kd-en-overvi...dd1d7e6e1680ae
http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/bicyclehistorywh.html

In contrast to all the other pre-1860 two-wheeled claims, the von
Drais running machine was patented, produced, and repeatedly mentioned
in contemporary accounts. You can see genuine examples at several
museums.

But the von Drais running machine had no pedals, so historians argue
about whether it was a true bicycle.

In the 1860s, two-wheelers reappeared with pedals mounted on the front
wheel. It's thought that the inspiration was the crank on a
grindstone, the kind shown to the right of the photo that provoked
this reply:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Who first came up with the idea of putting pedals on the front wheel
is a hotly debated question in the bicycle history world. A 12-page
example in two columns is David Herlihy's "Who Invented the
Bicycle--Lallement in 1863 or Michaux in 1861?" in Cycle History 4.
(No, you probably don't want to pay that much.)

Whoever invented the pedaled bicycle in the 1860s, the idea caught on.
Called velocipedes or boneshakers, two-wheelers with front pedals
became immensely popular.

Without a rider, photos of these front-wheel drive beasts can be
deceiving--they're huge, with 36-inch wheels being common, front and
rear. The bigger the wheel, the higher the gearing and the smoother
the ride. (And the more likely the rider was to have trouble turning
the front wheel with his feet on its pedals.)

These illustrations show how big the boneshakers we
http://i37.tinypic.com/351enpx.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/21e24o1.jpg

Here's a late-model, stylish velocipede or boneshaker:
http://utopiaparkway.com/ba/images/bicycles/3.jpg

The awkward velocipedes soon morphed into the modern highwheelers,
with strange wire spokes and solid rubber tires appearing around 1868,
the front driving wheel getting bigger and bigger (52 inches to the
top of the tire was common), and the rear balance wheel getting
smaller and smaller (14 inches was typical).

Here's an 1869 Phantom, hinged in the middle to get around the problem
of turning a front-pedal machine:
http://utopiaparkway.com/ba/images/bicycles/2.jpg

It has solid rubber tires and what might be called vee-spokes that run
through little hoops on the rims.

"Velocipede" is not a strict term--anything with two wheels can be
called a velocipede, including whatever you ride today. Highwheelers
soon became known as ordinaries. If you see a highwheeler called a
penny-farthing, you're looking at something written after highwheelers
vanished--the penny-farthing term wasn't used back when highwheelers
flourished.

A nice site with detailed highwheeler photos:
http://www.eriding.net/media/vintage_bicycles.shtml

Go to the very bottom for photos showing how to get up onto a
highwheeler and get going.

"Ordinary" distinguished the highwheeler from the older and clumsier
boneshakers, which were slower, but easier and safer to ride.

Even slower and easier to ride were tricycles and quadracycles, which
were very popular--that's why Sharp's 1896 book is called "Bicycles &
Tricycles" and why Harry Hewitt Griffin could put out "Bicycles &
Tricycles of the Year 1889" with bicycle models covered on pages 1
through 58 and tricycles still taking up pages 59 through 96.

No, tricycles and quadracycles didn't look quite like what we expect
nowadays:
http://flickr.com/photos/51035800994@N01/10112421
http://flickr.com/photos/zheem/10112590/

Various tricks had been tried to make highwheelers safer. Front wheel
drive by chain or treadle allowed a smaller front wheel or let the
rider sit further back, the two chief methods of avoiding the header
accident, in which the rider tipped forward over the huge front wheel.
http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/kangaroo.htm

The other safety approach was the small-front-wheel highwheeler, in
which the rider sat on a big rear wheel behind a small front steering
wheel. Treadles let him power the rear wheel, and he sat so far back
that there was no real danger of a header over the little front wheel.
http://i11.tinypic.com/8ak80wj.jpg

In 1884-5, a raft of rear-chain-drive safety bicycles appeared, mostly
cobbled together with parts from the tricycle and quadracycle world,
where transmissions and steering had been worked out.

Here's what the first "modern" bicycles looked like.

BSA and Starley Rover:

http://books.google.com/books?id=gFM...page#PPA278,M1

Humber:

http://books.google.com/books?id=gFM...page#PPA155,M1

Pausey's Pioneer:

http://books.google.com/books?id=gFM...page#PPA277,M1

Antelope:
http://i35.tinypic.com/21ke7uf.jpg

Notice the under-the-seat remote steering on the Antelope. The BSA and
the earliest Starley used remote above-the-seat steering. The awkward
remote steering is just a sign of the safety bicycle's tricycle
origins--like the chain-drive, the steering was borrowed from the
tricycles.

Nephew John Starley's Rover was a huge success. Strangely, despite our
modern notions about safety, Starley later wrote that he designed the
Rover for hill-climbing, not to solve the safety problem, which was
old hat by 1885. Highwheelers had many fine qualities compared to
boneshakers, but they didn't climb worth a damn, so the speedy
highwheel riders were often forced to walk up hills and be passed by
tricycles.

The Irish veterinarian Dunlop produced the first practical pneumatic
tire in 1889. Again, our modern notions are mistaken. Dunlop wrote
about the speed increase gained by pneumatics, not about comfort.
After his 1888 experiments on his son's tricycle's rear wheels (the
fork was too narrow for a front air tire), Dunlop put air-tires onto
racers and showed the speed advantage.

By 1894, it was all over. The dwarf safety rear-chain-drive bicycles
ruled, solid tires were quaint relics, and not much has happened
since.

Here's an 1894 Crescent Wheel Works ad:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1894-Crescent-Bi...photoho sting

Looks just like the photo that started all this:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

A few details about that bike . . .

Typical moustache handlebar with wooden grips--the modern ram's horn
came later. Some early safeties came with spade grips.

Left rear axle mounting step--mounting steps from highwheelers
survived for years on safeties because they made it easier to get up
onto the larger old-fashioned safety frames.

Speaking of large frames, look carefully at the head tube. Old bikes
were bigger and longer. The angle isn't good, but the fork is probably
sticking out much further than anything you ride.

Thin round steel cranks--aluminum cranks haven't been thought of.

Rear-facing dropouts with chain-adjuster just visible--an improvement
over the earliest floating crank-hanger method, where the front crank
was moved back and forth to adjust the chain. The floating
crank-hanger is another sign of how early safeties borrowed tricycle
parts:

http://www.auctionflex.com/auctionim..._2BX0TXQOY.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/5l4qzy

No seat-stay bridge, but the chain-stay bridge is visible. Seat-stay
bridges tended to be for fenders. Chain-stay bridges had some theories
about strengthening the crank area.

No brakes (at least I can't make out any brake arm on the rear)--bad
as fixed-gear braking was, it was much better than spoon braking.

Wheels with 36 spokes and tangent lacing (x2?)--they might be wood,
but they look like slightly rusty steel to me. On old bikes, you have
to be careful because it's common for parts to be replaced over the
years. There may be a missing spoke on the rear, just below what would
be 9 o'clock, but replacement wheels break spokes, too.

Same caveats about the chain and sprockets--inch-pitch was typical,
but I wonder if it's half-inch chain with half-inch front and
inch-pitch rear. I just can't make out if it's half-inch or block
chain.

The unworn tires are almost certainly modern replacements. Rubber from
the 1890s usually has to be taped in place.

Normal seat instead of early elaborate seat-spring--the pneumatic
tires killed the grotesque seat-springs that saved our great
grandfathers' butts. Here's an 1887 solid-tire seat spring:
http://tinyurl.com/6o773e

Valves front and rear, both just a bit behind the contact patch--no
one knows where the hell "presta" comes from.

Nice old candle lamp, probably worth more than the bike itself--the
long tail identifies it. Here's a page about the various kinds of old
lamps:
http://www.websolutionswa.com/pwc/candle.asp
http://www.websolutionswa.com/pwc/se...ampType=Candle

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

On 11/18/2008 11:37 AM A Muzi wrote:

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Decipher?? It's a normal bike!

"bicicletta da corsa in pista" says it all!

... acetylene lamp ...


Really? I see a candle in there. My vote is that the long hangy-down tube
houses a candle and a spring.

I like the knife-sharpening wheel. We were just talking about bike-powered
sharpening wheels.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"
Bend, Oregon

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

A Muzi wrote:
Decipher?? It's a normal bike!
"bicicletta da corsa in pista" says it all!
... acetylene lamp ...

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
Really? I see a candle in there. My vote is that the long hangy-down
tube houses a candle and a spring.

I like the knife-sharpening wheel. We were just talking about
bike-powered sharpening wheels.

As Carl elucidated, candle not acetylene. I learned the differences!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On 18 Nov, 22:01, Mike Rocket J Squirrel
wrote:
Really? I see a candle in there. My vote is that the long hangy-down tube
houses a candle and a spring.
I like the knife-sharpening wheel. We were just talking about bike-powered
sharpening wheels.

Good point, Mike.
There is supposed to be a candle in there.

About the other little machine on the right, I also thought I was
seeing a sharpening device, but the guy who had posted this picture on
it.sport.ciclismo corrected me and said that it is to separate the
grains from a corn cob (???).

Sergio
Pisa

On 11/18/2008 2:56 PM sergio wrote:

On 18 Nov, 22:01, Mike Rocket J Squirrel
wrote:
Really? I see a candle in there. My vote is that the long hangy-down tube
houses a candle and a spring.
I like the knife-sharpening wheel. We were just talking about bike-powered
sharpening wheels.

Good point, Mike.
There is supposed to be a candle in there.

About the other little machine on the right, I also thought I was
seeing a sharpening device, but the guy who had posted this picture on
it.sport.ciclismo corrected me and said that it is to separate the
grains from a corn cob (???).

Now all we need is a picture of an itinerant Italian corn kernel separator
separating corn kernels from corn cobs in the streets of old Italy. Ah!
I remember the traditional corn kernel separator song he always sang as he
pedaled down the street on his bicycle/corn kernel separator, "Corn
separated! Why use-a your teeth? Fast and inexpensive! I separate it for-a
you!"

Wasn't much of a song, now that I think about it.

Mama always closed the blinds when he rode by. "That guy's an a$$hole,"
she always said.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"
Bend, Oregon

On 11/18/2008 2:52 PM A Muzi wrote:

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

A Muzi wrote:
Decipher?? It's a normal bike!
"bicicletta da corsa in pista" says it all!
... acetylene lamp ...

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
Really? I see a candle in there. My vote is that the long hangy-down
tube houses a candle and a spring.

I like the knife-sharpening wheel. We were just talking about
bike-powered sharpening wheels.

As Carl elucidated, candle not acetylene. I learned the differences!


No worries, man. You kick my ass any day when it comes to matters
two-wheeled. I just happen to have been introduced to acetylene mining
lanterns by my late father, who used them when he was a kid exploring
caves in Missouri. Took me in one when I was a tad and showed me where
he'd written his name on the rock wall with the soot from the flame. I
also used acetylene lamps during backpacking trips back in the 70's for
reading light. A small bottle of calcium carbide chunks provided more
hours of reading time than the equivalent weight in batteries. Nowadays
LED lighting is the gold standard of lightweight lighting.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"
Bend, Oregon

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Nice photo. What is the purpose of the "peg" sticking out from the left
side of the rear axle? I doubt this bike was used for a lot of grinding
on curbs, etc.

--
Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:34:29 -0500, Dave wrote:

sergio wrote:
http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=geshkl9.jpg

Nice photo. What is the purpose of the "peg" sticking out from the left
side of the rear axle? I doubt this bike was used for a lot of grinding
on curbs, etc.

Dear Dave,

Mounting peg.

Absolutely necessary for getting up onto a highwheeler.

Useful for getting on early dwarf safeties.

Eventually they died out.

Here's a dangling mounting peg on an early safety:

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...g=2&imagepos=8

The dangling kind were replaced by a knurled stub sticking straight
out from the axle:
http://www.nostalgic.net/pictures/1659.htm
http://www.nostalgic.net/index.asp?S...EZ+hub+2%2Ejpg

Starley's early Rover had an axle-style mounting peg on the wrong
(shudder!) side--here it is in use:
http://i13.tinypic.com/4v67a5z.jpg

There it is, brazenly sticking out on the right:

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/r...2&imagepos=135

Cheers,

Carl Fogel