Oh, the French, a thing of beauty...

[dbrk]

It never ceases to amaze the efforts to which folks have gone to realize their dreams and make darn interesting things. This is a French rear derailleur on a city style bike (the lever is just as interesting). It comes from Mike Barry. Now when Mike tells you that he's never seen anything like it, you know it's more than a little unusual. It's apparently from the 1940s or 50s when lots of people were thinking about getting to more than one gear. I want to see it work before I try to rehearse the description of its mechanism.

We'll soon have electronic derailleurs (it's not that far ahead) as our newest benchmark of progress and far be it from me to stand in the way of the future. I already prefer the past so that won't be anything new then as it is now. _This_ thing is cool.

dbrk

[staggerwing]

Curious yes, but from a conceptual standpoint, remarkably close to what we have now.

The French as visionaries, who woulda thunk it. ;)

[roman meal]

If Carla Bruni is part of the French future, then I'll be the first to stand her way.

[DarrenCT]

v

pls enlarge that picture

thnx
-d

[roman meal]

You owe me a beer for this.

[72gmc]

I was sort of hoping this thread was about Emannuelle Beart. But the derailleur is cool too.

[rsl]

She's a derailer, not a derailleur.

[DarrenCT]

You owe me a beer for this.

im in love.

[roman meal]

im in love.


Get in line. The French President is not happy with you.

[DarrenCT]

Get in line. The French President is not happy with you.

im willing to take the risk

i cant stop looking at this girl btw.

time for a beer

[Brian Smith]

She's a derailer, not a derailleur.

What's the difference?

[roman meal]

My apologies for the deraillment, dbrk.

[DarrenCT]

My apologies for the deraillment, dbrk.

wowzaa!

very nice geo atmo

[justinf]

wow.

even her music is pretty good.

but. . .wow. great thread :beer:

oh no! the derailleur!

[DarrenCT]

wow.

even her music is pretty good.

but. . .wow. great thread :beer:

oh no! the derailleur!

exactly

i just googled her and found some good stuff. she might be my new favorite

[Blue Jays]

Sunscreen is urgently needed for everyone pictured so far in this thread! :)
That is a very cool derailleur. I dig it.

[whitecda]

she might be my new favorite

Poor Paris! Kicked to the curb...... Yeah, sounds about right!

[jeffg]

It never ceases to amaze the efforts to which folks have gone to realize their dreams and make darn interesting things. This is a French rear derailleur on a city style bike (the lever is just as interesting). It comes from Mike Barry. Now when Mike tells you that he's never seen anything like it, you know it's more than a little unusual. It's apparently from the 1940s or 50s when lots of people were thinking about getting to more than one gear. I want to see it work before I try to rehearse the description of its mechanism.

We'll soon have electronic derailleurs (it's not that far ahead) as our newest benchmark of progress and far be it from me to stand in the way of the future. I already prefer the past so that won't be anything new then as it is now. _This_ thing is cool.

dbrk

I agree it's cool, though like many things Douglas and Mike have stumbled upon I am unlikely to ever have one or be able to use it ... Description eagerly awaited

[BumbleBeeDave]

I am unlikely to ever have one or be able to use it ...

. . . that would describe most of us and this Bruni woman! :crap: :crap: :crap:

BBD

[Steve Hampsten]

interesting dropouts

anyone have any pix of the suntour rear derailer similar to this?

bruni is into polyamory - dealkiller for me imho

[roman meal]

bruni is into polyamory - dealkiller for me imho


The only woman I have a chance with these days.

[e-RICHIE]

The only woman I have a chance with these days.
she's a sticky atmo?

[roman meal]

she's a sticky atmo?

.

[shinomaster]

Roman meal. . . .Shame on you!

[vaxn8r]

Where's Roy Munson?

[jeffg]

. . . that would describe most of us and this Bruni woman! :crap: :crap: :crap:

BBD

quoting out of context ;)

That white bikini is definitely unnecessary. I know she is Sarkozy's partner/fiance, etc. I do not need to see her nipples or the outline of her vulva atmo

[bigtime]

funny hadnt noticed those specifics. thanks.

[Steve Hampsten]

he said "nipple"

heh heh

[confente]

...also said "vulva"

heh heh

[whitecda]

also said "I do not need to see...." :confused:

heh heh

[pjm]

quoting out of context ;)

That white bikini is definitely unnecessary. I know she is Sarkozy's partner/fiance, etc. I do not need to see her nipples or the outline of her vulva atmo
I do.

[sg8357]

Thank you Beavis and Butthead.
Remember the boyfriend has nuclear weapons and his own secret service.
As Mel Brooks said "its good to be the King"



The derailer looks like a Nivex, supposed to be the best derailer design.
The Suntour S1 is a copy.

[bfd]

It never ceases to amaze the efforts to which folks have gone to realize their dreams and make darn interesting things. This is a French rear derailleur on a city style bike (the lever is just as interesting). It comes from Mike Barry. Now when Mike tells you that he's never seen anything like it, you know it's more than a little unusual. It's apparently from the 1940s or 50s when lots of people were thinking about getting to more than one gear. I want to see it work before I try to rehearse the description of its mechanism.

We'll soon have electronic derailleurs (it's not that far ahead) as our newest benchmark of progress and far be it from me to stand in the way of the future. I already prefer the past so that won't be anything new then as it is now. _This_ thing is cool.

dbrk

It looks ok. Reminds me of a refined version of the rear derailleur on Chuck Harris' bike:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.web/CH.html

Scroll down to the picture of his 1951 Raleigh and the close-up of his rear der.

If its shifts anything like Chuck's rear derailleur, then it should work fine. Then again, its pretty hard to beat the shifting of a $20 Shimano rear der. Brewster

[bfd]

It looks ok. Reminds me of a refined version of the rear derailleur on Chuck Harris' bike:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.web/CH.html

Scroll down to the picture of his 1951 Raleigh and the close-up of his rear der.

If its shifts anything like Chuck's rear derailleur, then it should work fine. Then again, its pretty hard to beat the shifting of a $20 Shimano rear der. Brewster

Actually, I found an article on Chuck's rear der and it appears he copied a Rene Herse:

"Soon after becoming involved with bicycling back in
Massachusetts, he saw a picture of a new derailleur in a magazine while
visiting the shop of Charlie Hamburg, a Harvard professor who imported Rene
Herse bicycles. He liked the way the derailleur seemed to hang directly
under the chainstay, where it was protected better. He was familiar with
the plunger derailleurs prevalent at the time which had a tendency to be
damaged easily because they hung out so far. He drew it up from memory
and later, made a wire-frame molding to understand how the derailleur
worked. Once he thought he understood the mechanism, he built a
prototype. It worked so well, he built several more and began using them
on all of his bikes."

http://mutsclub.googlepages.com/AVisitWithChuckHarris.pdf

So, there you go, that Rene Herse's rear der should work just fine! Brewster

[roman meal]

Thank you bfd. I was going to apologize publicly to dbrk again for making possible the link from early French porteur derailleurs to Carla Bruni's vulva.

[shinomaster]

If Carla Bruni is part of the French future, then I'll be the first to stand her way.


That's an Objet d'art. And that's French for "art object."

[72gmc]

hey, I just noticed the dropouts in dbrk's picture. Is it too late to make a bicycle comment in this thread? Oh.

[zeroking17]

It'd be cool to see that derailleur in action (i.e., a youtube clip). I enjoy seeing the realization of someone's mechanical dreams.

p.s. hey kids, Carla Bruni is Italian.

[shoe]

looks like they were on to something with the drop outs as well....pretty sure you could open a beer with that baby...dave

[palincss]

It never ceases to amaze the efforts to which folks have gone to realize their dreams and make darn interesting things. This is a French rear derailleur on a city style bike (the lever is just as interesting). It comes from Mike Barry. Now when Mike tells you that he's never seen anything like it, you know it's more than a little unusual. It's apparently from the 1940s or 50s when lots of people were thinking about getting to more than one gear. I want to see it work before I try to rehearse the description of its mechanism.

We'll soon have electronic derailleurs (it's not that far ahead) as our newest benchmark of progress and far be it from me to stand in the way of the future. I already prefer the past so that won't be anything new then as it is now. _This_ thing is cool.

dbrk

Looks a lot like a Nivex, doesn't it? The SunTour derailleur S-1 referred to earlier was an update of the Nivex. There are some close-up photos of a Nivex here http://www.hetchins.org/singer01.htm (unfortunately too large for this site, or I would have uploaded them) a little more than half-way down the page. According to articles in BQ, they never wear out, handle an enormous gear range, and work extremely well.

[PaulE]

To me what looks different about this derailleur compared to the early chainstay mounted derailleurs seen in Bicycle Quarterly or in The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles is that this chainstay mounted derailleur appears to use a parallelogram mechanism attached to the chainstay for shifting movement while the ones seen on the bikes that plane look like their shifting mechanim is accomplished by sliding sideways on a post attached to the chainstay that is perpendicular to the wheel/parallel to the rear axle, mais non?

As for the Derailer, she has been with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, is a tire heiress, singer and former supermodel. I bet she planes.

Couldn'f find any derailleur videos on Youtube but found this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTMEV2-ej7k&feature=related) on a topic related to the Derailer pictures. Warning - immature (certainly not adult or mature) content!

[fiamme red]

.

[97CSI]

I want to see it work before I try to rehearse the description of its mechanism. dbrkBelieve it is pretty straight-forward. As it only needs to move the chain between two cogs, it pivots between the two planes. The big step with modern 'parallel' style derailleurs is that they remain parallel with the rear cogs when shifting by using a 'parallelogram' motion. The old lever derailleurs did not stay parallel because they didn't need to (a good thing, as they couldn't) while only moving between two cogs. Rear drivetrain wear is likely very high as a result.

[bruce-e-boy]

if she's holding Sarko's hand in the first picture then he's even shorter than I thought.

[catulle]

I have it from a good source what was Carla's present for Xmas. The French fascist dude loves Hollywood.

[palincss]

To me what looks different about this derailleur compared to the early chainstay mounted derailleurs seen in Bicycle Quarterly or in The Golden Age of Handbuilt Bicycles is that this chainstay mounted derailleur appears to use a parallelogram mechanism attached to the chainstay for shifting movement while the ones seen on the bikes that plane look like their shifting mechanim is accomplished by sliding sideways on a post attached to the chainstay that is perpendicular to the wheel/parallel to the rear axle, mais non?



The Nivex uses a paralleogram, horizontally mounted. The Cyclo slides sideways on a post, along a spiral groove. Both appeared in the 1930s, and both were excellent with wide-range gearing, in part because both had constant chain gaps. V?BQ has illustrated both, indeed has road tested both (and both shifted better on wide-range gearing than modern derailleurs).

[dbrk]

I frequently use a 4spd Cyclo and, as Steve describes, it's wide range works well ---mine is set up half-step on a 650B Herse. It's a straight forward shift and relatively easy to adjust once you get the idea ---and no amount of description or pictures ever works for me, I have to put my hands on it (and I'd be clueless had Mike Barry not shown me).

Of course, when you can climb an 8% grade shifting a Campagnolo Paris-Roubaix changer, which requires you to disengage the rear wheel and pedal backwards to shift, and not lose an inch, then you got skillz. Mr Barry can do that, I can't quite manage it. (I feel much more confident riding with folks who have had the experience of reaching to the down tube to shift friction. Any other Paris-Roubaix Changer riders?) I'm not so fluent with my own Paris-Roubaix Mariposa ---perhaps the first bike built for this changer since Mike built his in the 70s?--- but you watch Mr Barry and you see what it must have been like to see Coppi shift in that 1950 rendition. Smooth ain't in it; it's so fun to see. Honestly, it's a blast to ride these kinds of bikes.

It's _not_ about being retro or nostalgic or refusing modernity, it's about having different kinds of experiences cycling using equipment that is functional, fun, and requires skills. That the pieces happen to be old and obsolete is not the point for me. Wanna ride on some gravel and sand roads too?

dbrk

[julia]

I frequently use a 4spd Cyclo and, as Steve describes, it's wide range works well ---mine is set up half-step on a 650B Herse. It's a straight forward shift and relatively easy to adjust once you get the idea ---and no amount of description or pictures ever works for me, I have to put my hands on it (and I'd be clueless had Mike Barry not shown me).

Of course, when you can climb an 8% grade shifting a Campagnolo Paris-Roubaix changer, which requires you to disengage the rear wheel and pedal backwards to shift, and not lose an inch, then you got skillz. Mr Barry can do that, I can't quite manage it. (I feel much more confident riding with folks who have had the experience of reaching to the down tube to shift friction. Any other Paris-Roubaix Changer riders?) I'm not so fluent with my own Paris-Roubaix Mariposa ---perhaps the first bike built for this changer since Mike built his in the 70s?--- but you watch Mr Barry and you see what it must have been like to see Coppi shift in that 1950 rendition. Smooth ain't in it; it's so fun to see. Honestly, it's a blast to ride these kinds of bikes.

It's _not_ about being retro or nostalgic or refusing modernity, it's about having different kinds of experiences cycling using equipment that is functional, fun, and requires skills. That the pieces happen to be old and obsolete is not the point for me. Wanna ride on some gravel and sand roads too?

dbrk

yes, please!

i love the perspective, uh, shift that occurs just from trying to picture the movements required to operate a system other than the familiar, modern one. we tend to accept the current technology as "the best" or "normal", yet the pure mechanical, physical problem (in the sense of engineering challenge) of changing to a different gear is one that of course has many potential solutions. it just makes me smile to see a device that solves the problem in a way we are not accustomed to thinking about. i would love to see mr. barry in action.