The Picture of the Day showing the five Opel brothers is a very well known one from a series taken towards the middle of the 1890s in which
the Opels posed (real poseurs here, note the flattened rear tyre) on a
pacing quint used to pace track racers before the advent of the petrol
engine.
As was often the case right up to the demise of Opel cycles in 1936, the quint´s construction is not really top class. Opels were mostly cheapish bikes. The Opel car division was sold to GM in 1928 who even then weren´t overenthusiastic about acquiring a cycle company, so NSU
bought the cycle division, producing so-called NSU-Opel cycles for the
next 8 years. You can readily discern them by their cheap, stamped metal chainwheels.
Of course Opel must also be remembered as having employed the genius Ernst Neumann-Neander who created the unbelievable "Fahrmaschinen" and
designed the Opel Neander motorcycle for Opel. This machine featured an
inflatable saddle among other things. Then again, the firm started car
mass production by buying a licence for the Citroen Clover Leaf.
Returning to pacing quints, there were really crafty things about like
those quints (or even sixts) on which the last rider (fourth stoker?) would sit on a construction over the rear wheel, necessitating a complicated power transfer mechanism either via chaines on both sides of the ral wheel, or via a bottom bracket spindle revolving in the hollow rear wheel axle. The advantage of the last man being that far backwards was of course an enhanced draft for the paced racer which was
that paramount that cycle makers would go to great lengths to create it.
Also one notes that all chainwheels on the Opel save the last one are the same size. Really nice pacing quints would have increasing sizes from the captain´s to the last stoker´s, giving the whole rig a rather dynamic look.
The Opel´s front fork, however, seems to be a triplex one and is rather unusual.
Re the spokes: Nickel ones are nice, black ones can have a certain appeal, but the supreme look must be those who were black on their lower halves, and nickel plated towards the hub, as was often seen on luxury cycles before WWI.
Regards,
Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany.