Jan Heine wrote: According to those who have ridden the Integrals, they didn't ride well. The bearings never were aligned correctly - being one in each fork blade, they moved as the fork flexed - and so developed play very quickly. We published a letter from Fred DeLong's files, from M. Rabault, who reported that it was a bit of a disaster.
Too bad, because I, too, had been fascinated by the bike. Another, perhaps even more interesting Integral was featured in one of the first issues of Vintage Bicycle Quarterly. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Deja vu all over again, eh, Jan? The mountain bikes have found that going to a much oversized front axle helps handling on front suspensions on which the legs can move independently. I suspect the issue isn't the concept, but not thinking through how the assembly would have to work as a system.
thanks harvey sachs mcLean va just back from the DC "Tweed" ride, where the bikes tended to be ordinary, but the riders were wonderful, and wonderfully attired in various dressy iterations of the tweed concept. Wayne Bingham (Raleigh Gran Touring), Ken Sanford (Carpenter), Marty Walsh (Motobecane), and me (Ephgrave #1 series).