Bicycle Mechanics - gearing history

Where can I find a history on the history of development of gearing?

Deraiulers where developed in the 30's (I think) and different systems where tried.

In particular, I was wondering how long the 5 cogs freewheel lasted.

If I'm right it was for a long time in comparrison to todays rush through 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 cogsets.

Has the 6 - 10 cogs rush been in the last 15 years and did the 5 speed freewheel last about 25 years? Or, was the 5 cogset just another system that lasted in popularity about the same amount of time as any other system?

If I remember right when I was reading The Yellow Jersey, there was a passage about a race in which there was a discription of shifting through the 5 cogs and that book took place in the 60's (or am I off there too?)

Look for "The Bicycle" by Pryor Dodge. It is a good complete history from velocipede to present day. May be out of print. I also have a book on the history of Sturmey Archer(can't remember the exact title, and it is at work) The internal epicyclic gear hubs predate der shifting. The book is a little dry, but still pretty interesting, lots of patent drawings and background of the people involved.

I also have a book on the history of Sturmey Archer(can't remember the exact title, and it is at work) The internal epicyclic gear hubs predate der shifting. The book is a little dry, but still pretty interesting, lots of patent drawings and background of the people involved.

Hey... that sounds just like my kind of book!

Thanks for the book info. I'll try to find those.

I remember the 4 cogs sets on the early derailuer bikes in the 30's but, do you think I'm on the right track with the 5 speed freewheel?

I have books printed in the later 80's and early 70's that show just 5 speeds and as I mentioned, The Yellow Jesey was printed in the 60's.

That system worked really well for 25 plus years and then, all of a sudden, BAM, new systems faster than it takes to wear out a cog!

That system worked really well for 25 plus years and then, all of a sudden, BAM, new systems faster than it takes to wear out a cog!

Yes... I think that was the idea... quite the marketting strategy the component manufacturers have isn't it? ;)

Yeah, it's kind of sad when you find replacement of a part of something (that is built to last a lifetime) will cost almost as much as an entire bike, rendering the well built bike useless.

Woudn't we think it terrible when this would happen to other items? Throw away a stove perhaps beacause a heating element has to be replaced?

Derailleurs are older than that, the 30s is when you start to see production models. Try these sources:

Dancing Chain and Data Book. Both are supposed to be incredible, both are strangely out of print. I've paged through the Data Book and what I remember was very good.

Vintage Bicycle Quarterlyhttp://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/index.html.

Awesome scholarly journal! A little OT but mandatory nonetheless.

Tony Hadland:

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hadland/

Rob van der Plas publishing:

http://www.cyclepublishing.com/

I'm forgetting lots of others but these are all good.

Thanks for the book info. I'll try to find those.

I remember the 4 cogs sets on the early derailuer bikes in the 30's but, do you think I'm on the right track with the 5 speed freewheel?

I have books printed in the later 80's and early 70's that show just 5 speeds and as I mentioned, The Yellow Jesey was printed in the 60's.

That system worked really well for 25 plus years and then, all of a sudden, BAM, new systems faster than it takes to wear out a cog!

I remember the 5's from the late 40s or early 50s and they weren't re[laced untill the late 70s or early 80s.

Now that the marketing guys took over....

Joe

I went up to by book shelf and pulled out Richards New Bicycle Book - revised 1987 and on the 5 vs. 6 or 7 cogsets he doesn't give too warm a review to 6 and 7 speed sets:

6- and 7-speed freewheels (which give 12 and 14 speeds with double chainrings, 18 and 21 speeds with triple rings) are not uncommon on production bikes. Set up with close-ratio cogs they are great for competition, but are more trouble than gain when set up with a wide range of cogs for a town or touring bike. For one thing, gear ratios have a greater tendency to duplicate, negating the point of the exercise. For another, a narrow chain is required, which makes shifting more fiddly. To make room for the 7-speed model freewheel, and certain of the 6-speed model freewheels, the wheel must have more dish (off-set of the hub) and is therefore weaker - not the thing for bumpy urban streets or heavyweight touring. Finally, a 7 -speed block matched to double chainrings in actual practice gives 10 speeds at most and not 14. Why? Because even with a 5-speed block and double chainrings you should never run the big front chainring to big rear cog, or small front chainring to small rear cog- It causes the chain to cut across at too severe an angle, creating excessive wear, a tendency to rub the derailleur cages, and reduced efficiency. With a 7-speed block the problems are even worse. At most you can use only 5 of the 7 rear cogs on each front chainring, and it is better to limit the number to 4 - a rather anemic total of 8 speeds out of a possible 14. Throw in a couple of duplicated gears and you are down to 6 usable ratios - the minimum that even a poorly designed 5-speed block/double chainring combination will produce!

Before I went to work today I email Sheldon Brown and asked when the 5's started to show up.

At work (I work on aircraft at Vancouver International Airport) I found a European cycling magazine (in what language, I don't know) that had a feature on Jack Antiquile's bike from 1960. It had a 5 speed cogset.

I got home from work and Sheldon responded:

5 speeds came in in the late '50s. Before that there were 3- and
4-speed freewheels.

I also asked:

>Is the reason
>behind the multiple changes in gearing in the last few years just to sell
>more product?

and he said:
In one sense, any manufacturing process or design is for the purpose
of selling more product, but more gears were a genuine improvement,
especially for folks who live in hilly regions.