I can confirm that in the early 50ies the coaster brake three -speed derailleur was quite a common set up and worked well. My Dad had a Dürkopp 26' touring bike which he had bought in 1950. It came with a Fichtel and Sachs Torpedo coaster brake and a Honer brand three speed daraileur. It used a cable mechanism for shifting and the derailleur just had one pulley. There was also a special chain guard mounted on the chainstay to align the chain probably when pedaling backwards for braking. Als Fichtel and Sachs produced those deraillers, buth these worked on little chains and rods for engaging movemnet from shifter to mech. I still have the shift-system but not the bike, this was "modified" and later lost in fire... The modification was initial to my wrenching and bike passion but as far as the bike goes I regret it somhow.....
Michael Schmid Oberammergau Germany Tel.: +49 8821 798790 Fax.:+49 8821 798791 mail: schmid@zunterer.com http://www.zunterer.com
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] Im Auftrag von Harvey Sachs Gesendet: Donnerstag, 22. Februar 2007 02:33 An: curmudgeon1957@yahoo.com; Classic Rendezvous Betreff: [CR]coaster brake w/3-speed derailleur, was JRJ...
Larry Myers wrote:
I went to the Seattle Bike Swap this past weekend; wonderful event! Saw some real eye-candy there- an Iver-Johnson track racer (fully restored-beautiful!), an early 40's Durkopf ladies touring bike (coaster
brake w/3-speed derailleur) <snip>
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Larry - This combination astounded me. To me, "coaster" has always meant hub brake actuated by back pressure on the pedals. This doesn't seem compatible with the post-war derailleur mechanisms with chain slack take-up, the ones that I'm familiar with. But there were lots of interesting "experiments" in days of yore, so I'm just curious if I read
you right, and how the darned thing might have worked. Might it have been a hub brake w. 3-speed FW, with a cable- or rod-operated drum brake
assembly? I think those were available from Schwinn, among other sources, but would have to check.
thanks
harvey sachs
mcLean VA