Most of the Toei's that I've seen have the generator remote turn on routed through the seat stay internally. Most of the Singer's and Herse's run the remote on the outside of the seat stay. Neither one is better than the other but certainly routing through the seat stay is more labor.
Curt Goodrich
Minneapolis, MN
Curt,
Not sure how generator wiring can be more concealed than on a René Herse with "eclairage sans fil" (where the generator wiring is routed through the headset via carbon brushes)? Can you explain?
The reason the French concealed the wires was that it looked cleaner, and was less prone to damage from getting entangled in stuff.
Many French, then and now, transported their bikes by train, where they'd be handled by railway employees, hung in a baggage car, etc. In fact, Ernest Csuka complained how they bent his handlebars on his last trip to the Alps.
Jan Heine, Seattle
Curt Goodrich wrote:
Most notably, Toei goes to greater lengths to conceal generator wiring than the originals. Why? I don't know but I bet he gets off on it.