Dale, do you know if the poor blighters use Benelux, Simplex (with aluminum or plastic knob), Huret or some other brand/model of suicide front changer? Now I see the wisdom in Simplex changing to a plastic knob for their lever front changer so that bicyclists can't hurt themselves. I would guess that the Huret lever front changer is ineffective for suicide. I bet the Archer Chimera family used Benelux lever front changers.
Peter
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Peter Brueggeman pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu
San Diego California
> 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
>
> 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.
[snip]
> Peter Brueggeman
> pbrueggeman@ucsd.edu
> San Diego California