As I recall, Bicycling road tested a Hypercycle recumbent back in the day and said heavy (emergency) braking was a thrill-seeking, death-defying event.

With Shimano Front Freewheel System cranks? Really?

I've seen these referred to as 'donkey bikes' or 'velocinos'.

Is it? I missed that.

Pederson Self-Engagement System - The calipers are on a spring loaded helical track. When the brake is applied, the resistance pulls the caliper in towards the rim, increasing the brake force.
P1010340 on Flickr
Suntour removed the front brake from the market due to lock ups potential and litigation risk.

Imagine threading those cables…

[img]blob:https://www.bikeforums.net/afedda3b-79f6-44e6-af8b-f12d7bedd8da[/img]

That Trimble reminded me of these; very similar to Brent Trimble’s carbon monocoque MTB…
Oops, I must’ve done something funky (again) google Sbike in images and you’ll get there. If you want…

This seems like a bike version of the VW bus, where your legs -- or in this case, your face -- is your first line of protection. Watch those potholes.

Cottered front freewheel.

Don't ask me - I haven't a clue. But it sure is weird:



DD

Lookes like the chain is doubled and the adjustment is the sliding of the bb on a shaft! Nice rear brake!
Did someone take this seriously?

That is an very early 1890s Victor bicycle by the Overman Wheel Co. They were very popular in their day and extremely collectable to-day. Pneumatic tyres were the new technology and solid tyre proponents like Victor used used suspension forks in attempt to soften the ride and compete with pneumatic bicycles.

I've ridden a bike with solid tires once, so I completely understand the desire/need for a front suspension like that!

The bottom bracket arrangement is similar to a bike on display at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. The whole bottom bracket is adjusted fore & aft as a way to tension the chain. It makes me wonder when horizontal dropouts were invented.

a couple of shots of the bike at the Museum of Transportation.....






I'm not sure why the manufacturer used radial spoking on the rear wheel. Tangential spoking was used on the earlier Ordinary bikes, so it existed when this bike was built.

Steve in Peoria

I assembled a ton of those bikes and when positron used a solid shift cable with continuous housing it worked quite well. It wasn't light or beautiful but it did work.

I had one too that I bought at Nashbar for something like $15-20. I never took it out of the box. not sure why...

I don't believe that the chain is doubled, as that would requitre dual chainwheels and cogs, or at least a groove cut into them to accommodate a middle chain plate. However, they were very wide. Here's detail photo showing the width and Overman's hubs, with straight pull spokes that produced a cross pattern. Overman were quite inventive, They also develped hollow, aero rims and hollow, large diameter, bottom bracket spindles.

Here's my favourite weird chain technology, the 1890s Simpson lever chain. I became aware of it in the 1970s, via the famous Toulouse-Lautrec poster. Originally, I thought that he had committed a faux pas and drawn the teeth on the chain, instead of the cogs and chainwheel. Only decades later did I discover that Toulouse-Lautrec was an avid cyclist who regularly attended competitions at the Paris velodromes and that his representation of the Simpson Chain was accurate.

Simpson claimed a mechanical advantage over traditional chains. The benefit reportedly came from driving at two different levels, at two different pitchs, as a result of the triangular links. The inner pins at the base of the triangle were driven by the chainwheel while the outer pins, at the peak of the triangle, drove the cog on the rear wheel.

Of course, these claims were the subject of much ridicule, Consequently, Simpson set up a series of match races for June 1896 in which he gave 10:1 odds for anybody using traditional chains that could beat his sponsored riders. The races, held at the Catford track in London, reportedly drew crowds of 12,000 to 20,000 spectators. All the eveents were distance races, preformed with pacing bicycles consisting of triplets, quadruples and quintuples (i.e three, four and five rider bicycles). Simpson prevailed but only because of the superiority of his team. The company would go bankrupt in 1898, when the bicycle boom went bust.

The poster depicts a similar 1896 event at the Vélodrome de la Seine in Paris. The Simpson chain would probably had been relegated to obscurity had it not been for this poster being produced by an artist of Toulous-Lautrec's stature. However, it merits attention beyond the artist and chain. In the back ground, upper left, is a depiction of what appears to be two bicycles with five riders on each (quintuplets). Of more interest is the solo cyclist in the foreground. It is Simpson sponsored rider Constant Huret, 1900 World Champion, and brother of André Huret, of wingnut and derailleur fame.

Loads of fun stuff here:

The Bicycle Museum of Bad Ideas

In particular:

• PMP Cranks
• 

Superfast chains. Looks like it could use some help from those little blue pills...

How about 3 in one photo? I DO have the Pedersen SE Brake front version with Odessey Straddle Rods instead of cable on an SR Litage bonded aluminum fork. This is on a 1985 Cannondale SM 600 with 26" front wheel and 24" rear wheel.



Also have Bullseye Cranks. Maybe not weird, but kind of ahead of their time with 2-piece construction.

that is one of the best crazy ideas in the history of bikes, imho!
It combines unnecessary mechanical complexity with a fairly ludicrous claim of improved performance. At least as good as oval chainrings, curved crank arms, etc.
For some reason, it brings to mind the amplifier with the knob that goes up to eleven.

I'd seen the part of The Dancing Chain that discusses it, but don't think I'd seen a modern photo of one. Very cool!

Steve in Peoria

In the defense of whoever designed this, pendulums were/are not all that rare as a means of measuring slope. I used to deal with inclination sensors in my job, and was familiar with the current technology. In fact, I found an inclination sensor on the road while riding once! It must have fallen off a Klaus combine (a piece of farm equipment), and it used a pendulum in an oil bath. The oil just slowed the pendulum and made it less sensitive to mild vibration, bumps, etc. The pendulum was connected to a potentiometer, which provided a voltage that changed with the slope angle. Nothing fancy or expensive, but it did the job, more or less.

These have largely been replaced by solid state accelerometers that are fairly small and cheap. Surprisingly, GPS receivers seem to be cheap enough and accurate enough that most modern devices just keep track of their X, Y, and Z position, and can track the elevation gain by simple addition and subtraction.

Steve in Peoria

Have I mentioned the curved crank arm yet?
It may have been the first among the various schemes to vary the mechanical advantage as the cranks go around.
The concept, as I understand it, was that the crank would bend during the power portion of the crank stroke. The bending would cause the crank to get a bit longer, increasing the rider's leverage and allowing more power to be generated.... or something like that?
Like Biopace or the original Rotor crank with the cam driven rings, or the Powercam with the cams that changed the chainrings rotational position as the crank rotated (similar to the Rotor), there wasn't much data to support the claims, but it looked high tech and there was probably some sort of placebo effect.

The tandem that featured the cranks for both the captain and stoker (although the captain is in back, and the stoker is in front.






The tandem was built by the Ide company (or sold under the Ide name?) here in Peoria a long time ago!

Steve in Peoria

Cool, thanks! I saw this years ago at a swap meet and thought it was pretty interesting. Any ideas as to the function of the two small fixtures midway along the curve of the forks?

Wish I had a close-up of some of the details; for example, I can't quite make out exactly what the linkage in front of the head tube goes and if it's gear or brake related.

Shoulda given it a test ride

DD

Suspension bikes kicked butt in the few cobble races they participated in before they were banned.