At 5:10 PM -0500 1/18/03, CMontgo945@aol.com wrote:
>Chuck, Sheldon, anyone else;
> A while back I picked up a mid-50's or so Brompton flip-flop from Tom
>Hayes. It's for my '52 Viking Path Racer. A nifty little unit with a fixed/4
>speed Cyclo freewheel. Works pretty well too. I'd love some history on these
>things and how they were originally intended to be used. Touring? Road
>training? Any enlightenment will be greatly appreciated.
>Craig Montgomery
>Tucson where it's the upper 70's and I'm playing more with this bike than
>riding it
Isn't that "Brampton?" There is a Brompton folding bike, but I don't think it's the same company. Brampton made chains and hubs. Hilary Stone probably knows more about this than I do.
These were set up to allow the choice of fixed or freewheel with the same wheel. Folks would typically remove the derailers and ride fixed during the winter, then switch to freewheel when they started doing longer rides during the season.
My earliest fixed-gear experiences were on my late '50s Elswick Lincoln Imp, which had a similar setup, possibly the same hub.
I've got a ton of stuff about fixed gears on my Website, see:
http://sheldonbrown.com/
Sheldon "Fixed Is More Fun" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
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