Yep,
Keep piling the stereotypes on... Goes well with the one about Britain being a relatively flat country... Perhaps relative to the alpine mountain ranges, yes, but almost the same as most of Northern Europe bearing in mind that this island fell off mainland Europe in the Pre-CR timeline. Nope, living in the Grampians I have to say it's hills to get in here, and hills to get back out.
As far as derailleurs are concerned I would argue that Britain was not alone. In the pre and post-war years, out of all the European nations, the French led the way with development of the derailleur. The Italians, in the main, from the post WWII period (more than 30+ years after Velocio was advocating their use) were represented only really by Campagnolo and then only in improving the breed, and specifically for racing.
The British like the Germans continued to plod on for some years with variable speed hub gears that were considered for a long number of years far more reliable than the fragile derailleur systems. Derailleurs have to be cycling's VHS and"Sturmey's" Betamax. Who can't admire the "keeper of the flame" modern 7-speed hub gears ?
Okay pile it on.
Bob Reid Stonehaven Scotland
On 1 Aug 2005, at 07:37, Mitch Harris wrote:
> Good question-- why didn't Sturmey-Archer make a derailleur? Like, why
> Brooks never made a carbon saddle. Why Morgan never made an SUV. You
> have to love it. This probably explains why I fell off my chair a few
> years ago when I saw that Reynolds was making carbon forks.
>
> Here's a cultural theory explanation: During the early development of
> deraillures, the French struturalism movement was bent on turning
> things inside out and making the insides visible. Derailleur systems
> are all surface. The innards are on the outside; same thinking that
> produced the Pompidou Center. Meantime, British syncretism was intent
> on holding everything inside, keeping secrets, wrapping and cloaking
> things, spy stories, Le Carre, while showing the world an ubane casual
> exterior as though nothing was happening. Sturmey-Archer hubs are like
> most brits: banal and plain on the outside while inside there's a
> galaxy of tiny gears and frenzied spinning. Derailleur systems, like
> most French, are pointy, notchy, and prickly on the outside, a blur of
> contorted effort and convoluted chain run, while inside there's not
> much going on except where to find the next pack of Gitanes. Now if
> only I could connect Sturmey-Archer's abandonment of hub gears to the
> breaking of ground on the Lloyds of London building.
>
> Mitch Harris
> Little Rock Canyon, Utah