Originally Posted by
poprad
... I think firearms peaked in their perfection in the early 1900's much as bikes did in the 70's. Appearance wise anyway. A colt .45 is like a downtube shifting 10 spd with toeclips. It might not have a mag safety, double stack magazine, plastic bits allover, or luminous sights, but like knwoing how to shift up and back a touch on old Campy bikes, learning to make it work is half the involvement. Now that I'm writing about it the parallels abound; 5 spd freewheels are like 7 rd mags, downtube shifters are single stage triggers that have to be carried in cond III, and sewups are like handloads. Huh. Interesting similarities ...
Great comparison!
You'd probably appreciate a comparison of revolvers and single-speed bikes of the same era (1890s to early-1900s).
In fact, examples of each were sometimes promoted as perfect in their precision, mechanical simplicity and lightness for their time.
Here is an old advertisement from a 1900 magazine...
note the cyclists pictured at the left side of the ad - who were the intended purchasers.
Photos below... shows one of the actual guns
