Michael Schmid schreib:
>My two cents here:
>I think the german bicycle industry was at least as big as the english
Not so sure about that, because the English
bicycle industry had a very large export market,
while the German industry was mainly geared to
the domestic market.
>and probably bigger than the american inudstry
Quite possibly. It's interesting to note that
the early U.S. industry was VERY heavily
influenced by German immigrants. I'll just
mention the names "Schwinn" and "Wald" but there
are others that I can't recall from the early
part of the 20th century.
> but had a totally
>different focus in what kind of bikes were demanded and therefore
>produced. Go to any german train station any you will find lots of bikes
>locked there used as a daily transport for all kinds of people. Same
>thing in the UK but hardly ever the same amount of bikes in the U.S.
>where bikes are considered sporting goods. We had huge manufacturers in
>the two old industrial centers Bielfeld and Nürnberg but they all
>produced mostly ordinary city bikes but not lightweights.
Right. It has always puzzled me that German industrial technology is so high in many areas, such as optics (I used to be a camera repairman) while the German bikes I've seen are mostly pretty low in quality.
As to the issue of "German threading" there is actually a German bottom bracket type called "Thompson/Thun" which is very common on German utility bikes. It's not a threaded bottom bracket. It uses pressed-in cups, as with Ashtabula type sets, though a smaller diameter. These are two-piece cranks, where the right crank and spindle are a single unit. The left crank usually uses a binder bolt and splined spindle interface.
I might mention a bike in my own stable, a pre-WW2 German Torpedo bike that was given to me by a neighbor. Initially I found its design completely baffling:
It has a super long wheelbase, something like 52 inches, if memory serves.
It has super slack frame angles, I'm guessing 65 degrees or less.
It has a friction damper on the steering column. This knob on the right side of the head tube, which tightens up a clamp around the steerer, deliberately making the steering stiff, to whatever degree the rider desires.
So far, it sounds like some sort of serious off-road machine...but it's a one-speed coaster brake bike, with relatively high gearing!
At first the design made no sense to me...and then I remembered: cobblestones! Northern Germany is VERY flat, so low gears are not needed, but the rough cobbles of old German city streets would be pretty nasty to ride on with a bike that was not designed for it.
Sheldon "700 x 47C" Brown
+-------------------------------------+
| Only those who attempt the absurd |
| will achieve the impossible. |
| --Albert Einstein |
+-------------------------------------+
--
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com
Useful articles about bicycles and cycling
http://sheldonbrown.com