I submit that the Regina and Atom FW designs were poorly thought out. I suspect that the 5, 6, and 7-speed versions were just stretching earlier designs; no one would have done so many poor choices all at once. --> The two-prong remover was at very best user-hostile. Sure, we all learned the work-arounds, like using a skewer to hold things together, but that is not good design. --> The incredible inelegance of a fundamental design that made it all but impossible to remove all 5 cogs. Yup, could do it with special tooling, but...a design that was inherently hard to work on. --> and there were how many different bodies, with how many different thread types for the cogs? To say nothing of flanged cogs, etc. --> And, the sheer elegance of the pair of LH threaded cogs on the inside.
Compare with the contemporary CycloPans, or the British TDC, both of which used splined cogs. Easy to make, easy to change.
I still have a bunch of Regina FW, at my age surely a life-time supply. I use them where they are appropriate. Otherwise, I much prefer the lowly Suntour Perfect (14 th min).
harvey sachs mcLean va 22101 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I just used the skewer method to hold the tool in place. Never had one slip. I agree they could have made the the prongs thicker from the beginning though.
On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 6:19 AM, John Thompson <johndthompson@gmail.com> wrote:
>> mike scammon wrote:
>>
>
>>> > Was it really flawed? Or did something just come out that was
better?
>
>>
>> In the late 70s, Regina changed from the fragile 2-prong design to the
>> same splined design used by Atom and Zeus.
>>
>> --
>>
>> -John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
>> Appleton WI USA