Bandera

Truly remarkable nonchalance by everyone.
To achieve such casual competence handlebars must have failed like twigs in a hurricane, and with metronome like regularity en peloton.
Astoundingly bad luck for your cadre.

-Bandera

63rickert

Some of us with long memories will also recall when Cinelli 'bars were made with soft metal and would droop in a seasons use. Basically replaced annually. Cinelli bars were good but compared to current production none of them were that good.

When reaching down to shift there is no need to think about balance. When grabbing a waterbottle there is no need to calculate and plan, you just grab the bottle. Same for breaking a handlebar. Controlling the bike is automatic. Does not require special skills. Nonchalant? Maybe. The alternative is to throw your hands in the air, scream, drop the bike. Simple choice.

There's a whole litany of these things that are supposed to go wrong and be impossible to handle. Breaking cranks makes you fall?? Striking a pedal launches the bike into next county? Plastic waterbottles cause cancer. Exposed brake cables are just treacherous. Breaking an axle on a freewheel hub does something awful, I am not sure what. And on and on. And the experts endorse all this.

My own take is most enthusiast type riders are sitting so high and forward their bikes are not stable. Many will never have experienced a stable bike. In a tight situation no, you cannot control a tri-bike or a TT bike or any bike set up to mimic that style. Plus they are too busy with GPS and phone to watch the road.

browngw 

Reverse action Benelux rear derailleur on my 1958 Sun makes sense to me. If the cable breaks or slips, I get to ride home in the default lowest gear. In modern terms "limp home" mode. You also have to shift with a "suicide" DT shifter but it's much safer because there is only one of them!

rm -rf

Campagnolo Corsa, 1940s. Just reach back, unlatch the hub quick release (!), move the chain with the other lever, then lock the hub again. It required a toothed dropout to keep both sides of the hub aligned.
1947 Legnano (scroll down)

In operation:

rm -rf

Some things are just not very obvious.

Using a rotary phone:

gugie 

That's funny! I searched for a similar video for a manual typewritter, couldn't find one. Anybody?

unterhausen

that's why I want to build electronic cambio corsa. Parts are getting really expensive though.

I still reach down to the DT to shift occasionally, then I laugh at myself, because I currently have no DT shifters except on my trainer bike, which rarely gets shifted.

I always reached behind the seat stays to wipe my rear tire. And used my fingertips. Even BITD this was considered extremely risky, but I had no issues. Now all my bikes have fenders, and I keep putting off buying tire wipers.

Manny66 

Suicide Levers?,, so for many years I was carelessly risking my life with those Levers and Toe Clips/Straps?
I never knew ..

sykerocker 

I've got the same on my '58 Raleigh Lenton Grand Prix. Like the derailleur very much, was surprise how well something that old performed. Of course, there is this little matter of running a virtual corncob on the rear due to design limitations. The only mistake I made on restoring mine was using a five speed chain, where I understand I should have used a single speed chain. If I'm not quick on the front change, it'll drop the chain in between the chainwheels, and that's a ***** to get out.

eja_ bottecchia

browngw 

I run a 5 speed chain on mine and the old chain on it was a worn out 5 speed as well. It actually has never happened to me. I get the virtual corncob comment. I've often referred to the Sun as "single speed with five levels of difficulty"! Do you have pics of the '58 Lenton on BF? Love to see it.

HarborBandS

I've always thought "Suicide Levers" were the horizontal brake lever extensions on older low-end road bikes. They were called this because they offered poor stopping power compared to the main vertically oriented brake levers.

Isn't this the proper use of "Suicide Lever"?

OldsCOOL

Salamandrine 

Yes, and therein lies the joke.

As lostarchitect astutely observed in post #11 , most likely people have heard the term, but never seen actual safety levers. They haven't been a feature on new bikes for around 35 years, and the new generation of riders has never seen them. So the assumption was made that it must be downtube shifters that are suicide levers.

obrentharris 

This is my experience also. Although, when riding my vintage bikes, I am regularly passed by thirty-year-old riders in full team kit who will shout "Ooh! Nice bike!"

Last weekend, on a fine muddy day, I crossed paths with a group gravel ride, lots of carbon, predominately disc brakes. One of the riders shouted at me "Center pull brakes? Come with us!" (OK, I'll admit that it was Otis Guy doing the shouting... and he's been around as long as I have.)
Brent

eja_ bottecchia

Salamandrine 

This story is 100% true. Really, what incentive would I have to make something like this up. If you don't believe me that's your problem.

Of course, almost all comments I get on the road are friendly "Cool old bike" or "what is that?" sorts of things. Most common of course are the usual good mornings and complaints about headwinds, weather, etc...

sykerocker 

I've had this bike about ten years now, it's one of my earlier restorations. The wheels are now period (this photo was taken immediately after the build was done, but I hadn't come up with the acceptable hubs at the time) correct, but not stock. Everything else was done to factory spec. I'd gotten the bike about 60% complete, no wheels, fenders or rear derailleur. Fenders are old Blumel Populars, which is the closest I could fudge to original. Love riding the bike, I really enjoy the slack angles. Catching up to a ride is usually an enjoyable time, after the rest of the rider's eyes stop bugging out. In most rides I've been on, the bike has been older than 90% of my co-riders. And I'm normally riding blackwall tires on the bike, as I've found that the rims won't hold gumwalls on at anything over 70psi.

browngw 

Thanks for sharing this beautiful old bike. My old 58 Sun is still 5 years younger than I am!