Now my dear Marcus,
We Rene Herse DeMontable Owners call those things crotch shifters, and I must say reaching back there and fiddling is fun indeed! Actually the bike performs flawlessly and in practice the shifting is very easy to get used to. A very tall rider might have a bit of trouble reaching back but for most of us it is no problem.
Cable splitters had not been developed at the time the bike was introduced. It is likely some one some where had produced them at some great expense and trouble but this was an expensive bike and hard to produce in single numbers so little time was invested in the cable split solution. The first photo of the Demontable Herse that I saw was a city bike (Porteur ?) from about 1960. These normally had a single chainwheel and perhaps 5 rear cogs; designed to quickly go from auto to park road in an instant. The 5 speed shifter presented few difficulties in use. I suspect that cyclotourists and a few racers saw the demontable idea as a handy way to carry their cycle with them with a MINIMAL of FUSS. IT IS VERY QUICK. A demontable can be completely separated and have the bars tuned parallel in 10-15 seconds with practice. By comparison you might spend that long just finding an S&S coupler tool.
In 1982 Alex Moulton introduced his space-frame AM2 and AM7. While the AM2 (two speed kickback with coaster brake) had no rear cables to fiddle with the AM7 ( 7 speed rear shifting derailleur gears) and it's child the AM14 (DUAL CHAINWHEEL 14 SPEED) had 2 and 3 cables to fiddle with respectively with shifting and brakes. Alex used a much more conventional down-tube shifter mounted to a stainless steel demontable plate (actual name). The same 6 mm allen key stowed in a cute little holder under the saddle, removed the seat pillar (pump was inside the pillar), tilted and turned the bars (with captive bolts that would not fall out) and removed the demontable shifting plate bolt and allowed the shifters and a cam mechanism for the rear brake separation (complex) to be brought to the rear half of the frame and reattached there to a duplicate brazed on boss. While this procedure was relatively simple and quick a couple of years later he introduced stainless steel cable splitters that are now common on take-a-part bikes of many stripes.
I'm not sure if he invented these items but knowing his passion for patenting everything if he would have some sort of worldwide notice of the fact. I feel confident Alex Moulton was certainly the first to use cable splitters in a production setting as he built thousands of bikes before the clones of the mechanism were developed.
What seems like a simple idea now was in need of serious development effort before the idea was to come to life. WE are surrounded by examples of this in every day life.
<<Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:36:15 -0400 From: marcus.e.helman@gm.com Subject: [CR]Rene Herse Demontable bike on eBay Referring to eBay item 7250978225
I know it is sacrilege to criticize Rene Herse, but I am amazed that he put the shifters on seat tube. Clearly it is done so that the shifters and cables could stay on the half of the frame that includes the derailleurs, making disassembly and reassembly easier. I understand that making a ladies demontable bike presents some serious challenges, but come on. Surely M. Herse could have figured out some sort of coupler to allow the gear cables to be disconnected.
The seller says "Bike riding was my father's passion, not my mother's. She only rode when my father pushed her." Who can blame her? How much fun would riding be if you had to reach between your legs to the seat tube every time you wanted to change gears?
Very unimpressed, Marcus Helman Huntington Woods, MI>>
The Cirque was grand wasn't it? Perhaps a Demontable Herse will be at the next one?
Yours in Cycling,
Gilbert Anderson
North Road Bicycle Company PO Box 840 166 Court Square Yanceyville, NC 27379 USA
Our newest direct local Yanceyville Area phone is 336-421-4054 Our new direct local Triangle phone is 919-283-4525 Toll Free Research Triangle Area, NC area 919-828-8999 Toll free voicemail Nationwide 800-321-5511
email: cyclestore@aol.com
http://www.northroadbicycle.com ----> New Website Improved Daily On Jun 21, 2006, at 12:03 PM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org wrote:
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:36:15 -0400 From: marcus.e.helman@gm.com To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Rene Herse Demontable bike on eBay Message-ID: <OFDCF4EABE.D7E46663-ON85257194.004F01E0-85257194.00503946@gm.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Message: 5
Referring to eBay item 7250978225
I know it is sacrilege to criticize Rene Herse, but I am amazed that he put the shifters on seat tube. Clearly it is done so that the shifters and cables could stay on the half of the frame that includes the derailleurs, making disassembly and reassembly easier. I understand that making a ladies demontable bike presents some serious challenges, but come on. Surely M. Herse could have figured out some sort of coupler to allow the gear cables to be disconnected.
The seller says "Bike riding was my father's passion, not my mother's. She only rode when my father pushed her." Who can blame her? How much fun would riding be if you had to reach between your legs to the seat tube every time you wanted to change gears?
Very unimpressed,
Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI