[CR]Where did the Bivalent design originate

(Example: Events:Eroica)

Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 05:59:58 -0700
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine93@earthlink.net>
Subject: [CR]Where did the Bivalent design originate

Cinelli Bivalent hubs to me look like a development of the French "moyeu a broche," a hub that left the freewheel on the frame when you took out the wheel. The basic design of the hubs was the same as the Bivalents, including the screwed-in skewer, but they were used on rear wheels only. They appear to have become available in the late 1930s, and definitely were found on some high end cyclotouring bikes in 1947.

Later, chainrests brazed onto the frame and Maxi-Car hubs with keyhole spokeholes more or less made them obsolete, as they offered the same advantages (no need to touch chain when removing wheel, plus being able to replace driveside spokes without tools). But some bikes in 1950 still featured the "moyeu a broche."

One French maker was RAS, there was at least one other. The Italians seem to have modified the same design with spacers and such to make front and rear wheels interchangeable.

I never understood the advantage of being able to exchange front and rear wheels. Cyclists don't carry even one spare wheel (in which case it would make sense to make it fit in both positions). And a support car in a race carries 10 or more wheels, so carrying several fronts and rears isn't a problem (I'd carry 6 rears and 4 front, considering the preponderance for rear flats). Maybe others didn't see the point either, and that is why these hubs never caught on.

Brilliant design, nonetheless.
--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/