To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 10:34:09 -0700
Obviously you folks are not aware of the very sad history of the so called "Suicide Levers"?
I am far from an expert, but a Google search might (or might not) reveal more details about the Archer Chimera family in South Dakota? I will not go into any depth about this grisly situation except to say that shortly after WW2, 4 members of this family (Archer and Fred having been ardent cyclists) are said to have ended their lives in a bizarre pact and to have used these very shift levers to carry out this awful act. Urgghh, indeed!
So if and when we USA folks say "Suicide Levers" it is not a term we use lightly......
Dale Brown Greensboro, NC USA
-----Original Message----- From: Peter Brueggeman <pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:34:09 -0700 Subject: [CR]"...American list terms a Simplex suicide front changer Urrgh!..."
To expand on Mick Butler's comment "This would have been originally fitted with to use the American list terms a Simplex suicide front changer Urrgh!"
Urrgh is right. There's nothing suicidal about lever front changers and yet one occasionally hears a CR listee use that confusing term. As you know the term suicider shifter comes from motorcycle's that shift by lever directly into the transmission, and in order to do so the hand is removed from the handlebars while travelling at motorcycle speeds. This simply doesn't apply to a bicycle's lever front changer; the only similarity is the direct transmission to the gears. A bicycle doesn't go very fast compared to a motorcycle at speed, so what is the suicide in taking your hand briefly off the bicycle's handlebar? And for those of you who take your hand off the handlebars to shift a downtube shifter, or shift a Cambio Corsa, or drink your water bottle, or blow some snot out of your nose. Do you call those "suicide downtube shifters" or "suicide Cambio Corsa shifter" or "suicide water bottles" or "suicide snot rockets" ...........
Peter Brueggeman
pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu
San Diego California