Chuck, All: You are fairly close, Chuck. Again, geographic semantics was a factor. I remember the 1900's old timers refer to their machines as fixed wheels. Coaster brakes were in use concurrently, so the definition was easy. People in the '30s through '50s used terms such as fixed gear, stiff hub, track bike meant a fixed gear. We didn't use freewheels much in the 20's into the '40s and when a rider did they would yell at him to get out of the line, 'cause it would cause spills. Some guys rode a single freewheel, no brakes! Not much traffic. Hand brakes weren't allowed in many races, 'cause it was all track bike fixed gear on the road til into the '50s except for some long 100 mile type events and Olympic trials. It started giving way around '50 and by mid '50's most had road bikes with multi speed-8 then soon 10. Many park and closed course criterium races wer still fixed gear until mid '50's. By then track bikes were out on the road, especially with fixed gear, but a fair amount used single freewheel and first one then two brakes on track bikes, but that too was short lived. I can remember people comparing track fixed gear bikes to circus bikes because you could ride them forward and backward, and they had no brakes. People in trade and sport would say track hub because they understood a track hub had two step thread for cog and lockring, and that's what track bike meant. Fixed gear and stiff hub were about equal in useage. Ted Ernst Palos Verdes Estates, CA
> Ted Ernst wrote:
>>
>> Pete, Harvey, All:
>> The common terms for the 1" x 3/16" bicycle chains more depended on where
>> you lived, and how old your mentor was. Skip tooth, as many people
>> thought the sprocket looked like it had every other tooth knocked out.
>> Other terms: skip link, inch pitch, double link chain, then of course
>> either roller or block chain. Some riders referred to the block chain
>> as a racing chain. (snip)
>
>
> Ted, could you comment on the names used for track hubs? I've heard
> "fixed-gear" and "stiff hub." Was "stiff hub" the term for fixed-gear
> in the fifties and before in the US?
>
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, CA
>
> .