Hi Gang!
Bowden brakes brings up an encounter with an old Belgium bike and lawn mower shop! Anyway, while doing a Sunday recon of some shops in a certain area we noticed a shop with some bikes parked outside so we figured to check it out! Sundays are not the days to find much of anything open at all! We took a look around the old run down place and we picked up a few goodies here and there! Then the old guy said, I don't know if you might be interested but I have some stuff in the back! We said OK!..........Let's take a look!!................Well the guy took us out to the back but there was nothing there but an open field and a big tree with a broken down trailer sitting under the tree!........We thought what was this guy be up to, maybe the barn in the distance, a good click!...Nah!...Nothing there! He said over here in the trailer!!...................He pulled up the top and there was a good 200 of pieces sitting in the trailer! All still in their boxes and free of rust! One box contained a single stamped caliper and lever with the double ended cable! Drove back and fourth but never stopped again. But it looks like we will be doing this sometime soon! And with the way the type of $$$ the old French stuff has been going for on ebay!................We might as well grabb some of those old Peugeots sitting under the shed as well.
Just another day at the office!
Baron C....................And the gang @ http://www.renaissance-cycles.com Eindhoven Holland. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody!.............I'm back to work!
Hi gang, first the obligatory well-wishing according to the season at hand, this time it´s Christmas.
Brakes: In the twenties people had a wide choice of smaller manufacturers, but one of the larger ones must have been Bowden Hilary mentions. However, I´ve got a pair stamped Bowden, Tyseley, Birmingham. Their cable brakes were used by many cyclists as they were about as reliable as brakes then came. They were fixed to the fork blades, not yet the crown. Those can indeed be found on many French twenties racers. Many nice sets are completely unbranded. Weirdly enough, in the thirties after the introduction of internal expanding brakes, these would also be used on racers because of their heightened effiency.
Then, of course, one must not forget the many special coaster hubs raced in Germany and German-export influenced countries. Either racers would use a straightforward Torpedo by Fichtel & Sachs of Schweinfurt, Germany, or even special, expensive Renntorpedos, racing Torpedos. These were all single speed coasters. Because of their reliability (and weight) many racers would do away with the front brake altogether. This setup would also increase wood rim life as the rims would not be braked on. The Torpedos might feature a double sprocket to be switched by hand (same side), then three sprockets switched by a rear mech, and Renntorpedos would in their dying years, about 1955, sport as many as five sprockets.
I hope to have not been too general. Perhaps I can muster answers to more specific questions.
Toni, Osnabrueck, Germany.