steelbikeguy

With the early version requiring manual chain manipulation, how many fingertip scars did you get during the learning phase?
The advantage of simplicity does seem appealing, but the advantage of not getting your fingers in the spokes has some value too.
I wouldn't have suspected the VM of being so sensitive to the tension adjustment. I don't recall the coarseness of the "ratchet" for the adjusting lever, but I can imagine that the range between too tight and too loose is not huge (based on my time riding a fixed gear). I seem to recall The Dancing Chain showing other manufacturers (or just other designs) where the tension arm uses a spring to manage the chain tension?

The Cambio Corsa does strike me as being potentially more robust (I've never gotten to inspect the Margherita to see how thick or stiff the steel components are). The demo videos of the CC show that people can make a fairly quick shift, which is a testament to how well behaved it is. I suppose the main disadvantages of the CC are the need for splined ("toothed"?) axle and the dropouts with the matching teeth... and the need for a certain degree of flexibility! If you started out by moving the chain with your fingers, then the CC would be trivial.

Steve in Peoria

Pompiere

The red fender in the picture is a hop-along bike. The hub is laced off-center to the rim, so you propel it by hopping up and down. When I visited the museum, they had it out for hands-on demo, so I was able to ride it around the room a couple times. It's not as simple as it sounds.

After comparing your pictures of the Chicago museum to mine from the Ohio one, it's interesting how much alike they are. Not just the same bikes, but in the way they are displayed.

iab

You hit the nail on the head. The VM chain tension arm is long stamped steel. Very flexy. And when it flexes laterally, you get the noise or dropped chain. That is why perfect alignment is need. It is fussy.

I have never used Osgear. I wonder if their arm is as flexy.

steelbikeguy

nice pics!

My photos are not the greatest, but I think the new museum does a nicer job of displaying the bikes. They seem to be grouped a bit better, and I like the lighting better too. The lighting might just be fashion, though... the spot lights were more dramatic, perhaps, but not great for photography.

Steve in Peoria

chain_whipped

There was a bike introduced in the middle 1930's named the Ingo-Bike. Curly of the 3 Stooges was riding one in the title; Yes, we have no Bonanza (1939).

I recall seeing one at the massive toy and auto collection of Elmer's in Minnesota. Believe he's passed on and there was an auction a few years ago.

chain_whipped

Not exactly Osgear though of the era~
Have a circa 1920's "le Simplex" idler arm that sets directly under the crank, mounting clamp to the downtube with pivot and coil spring tensioner. Its designed to use with a chainstay mount derailleur. The arm is fairly elegant thin yet cast in heavy bronze with cross section 'T' for rigidity. Though originally had a lousy non-toothed, narrow and sharp pulley to ride the chain, plus the pivot where the spring wraps, it was very poor tolerance and sloppy. Did re-bush and changed the pulley to a more conventional looking toothed jockey wheel, yet still very much vintage and has deeper teeth. Problem solved.

steelbikeguy

I had to pull up a short article by Hilary Stone to remind myself of what the Osgear was.
Perhaps others will find it useful too....




Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

Rolling Relics
This article was from 1997, when bike collecting was getting a lot of attention. Was it just the change of ownership of the Schwinn collection? Maybe it was just the recent growth of the internet, allowing people to connect and share info, thus making it easier to buy and sell stuff? This article doesn't get into why this was a growing hobby, but Mr. Langley does look at a few folks and the stuff that they have found to be fun and interesting.













Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

Otto Dicycle
The early days of cycling were fascinating! Folks were still exploring all the ways that 2, 3, or 4 wheels could be combined with some pedals and a seat. Putting one wheel behind the other was not the only way to do things! Some clever person asked "maybe I can put one wheel on each side and the seat between them?". A reasonable question, and a reasonable person might have added a third wheel to keep the rider from flipping over. Not the inventor of the Otto Dicycle, though!




Steve in Peoria

RCMoeur 

We visited the Burgwardt bike museum in Orchard Park twice - once in 2001 and again in 2005. Too bad it didn't stay open.

steelbikeguy

Where was Burgwardt? Is this the Schwinn collection,or an entirely different one?
It's a shame that something like this doesn't draw more visitors, but it seems like a lot of little museums have trouble keeping enough money coming in.

I do like that military bike with the machine gun! Can't imagine what it would be like to ride a bike with that much steel mounted that high up front.

The 5 place tandem is interesting too. I see one brake lever on the handlebar, and perhaps a reaction arm at the rear wheel? That barely seems like enough brake power for one heavy single bike, much less a bike carrying 5 people!

Steve in Peoria

RCMoeur 

It was in Orchard Park, NY - a suburb of Buffalo.

The Wayback Machine has archived versions of their website with more info.

Always thought crew-served weapons would be useful on a single or tandem bike, but all that ammo weight...

steelbikeguy

1886 Singer Xtraordinary
In the era of high wheel bikes that positioned the rider high above the ground and positioned slightly behind the front wheel's point of contact with the ground, the Singer Xtraordinary was a step towards a safer cycle. A curious linkage allows the pedals to be (roughly?) 6 inches lower than for a typical high wheel (or "Ordinary") bike. The pedals are also aft of the center of the front wheel, allowing the rider to sit further aft, and reducing the chance of going over the front if the bike hit a bump. Unfortunately, there's no data provided on how well this was received by potential customers.




Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

1897 Duquesne road racer
Another cool bike from the collection of Chuck Schmidt! A clean, simple design. Compared to the geometry of modern bikes, the chainstays seem incredibly long! Might be appropriate for the roads of the day? The handlebars seem to be rather close to the saddle, at least compared to modern conventions. I've always wondered whether this was due to a slow change from the set-up of the highwheelers, which had the handlebars nearly in the rider's lap. It takes time to adapt to the possibilities of the diamond frame.



Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

1901 Pierce Pan American Special
It's not just bikes that can be classics... the problems that bike designs try to fix can be classics too! In the case of the Pan American Special, those problems are the need for a clean, trouble-free drivetrain, and rough roads that call for a suspension system. This bike avoided the problems of chains by using an enclosed drive shaft. Of course, drive shafts have their own issues, which has led to them not being popular. The suspension system on this bike includes small leaf springs in the fork, and a coil spring inline with the seatstays. Other than a lack of damping, this seems like a reasonable implementation.




Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

1954 Bianchi Campione del Mondo
Another bike from the collection of Chuck Schmidt... a 1954 Bianch that is a replica of the bike that Fausto Coppi rode to victory in the 1953 World Championship. It's relatively modern, with downtube shifters and Campagnolo derailleurs that aren't too much different from the Nuovo Record of the 70's. The matching fenders are both practical and stylish!



Steve in Peoria

52telecaster

Very cool.

steelbikeguy

1963 Carlton International
Carlton was one of those mid-sized British bike manufacturers back in the day. They were known for making some high quality and good looking bikes. Raleigh ended up buying them, but still keeping them as a somewhat separate brand and manufacturing group (as I understand it). Here in the USA in the 70's, the better Raleighs had a "Carlton" decal. In fact, Raleigh kept a number of the model names, including "International".

For example, here are the Carlton decals on my 1974 Raleigh International:





The 1970's Internationals had chromed Nervex lugs, which was pretty fancy for the day. However, it appears that Carlton would do much fancier work at times. Today's "Bike of Interest" is an example of that!

This bike dates back to 1963, and was built at the request of someone in the movie business. The lugs are rather extravagant, and described as "English Baroque". It seems to be entering the realm usually assigned to Hetchins.

The use of contrasting head tube and seat panels is another detail usually associated with British bikes, and this International certainly does follow that pattern. The seat tube panels go a bit further in the use of two shades of blue, one of which looks like it might be Carlton's trademark "lagoon blue" color.






Just to give a little more indication of what Carlton could do in the middle of the last century, let me offer one more example of their work. At one of the last Classic Rendezvous gatherings, Jim Cunningham of Cycle Art displayed a gorgeous 1956 Carlton International Longfellow. I assume he refinished it, so I don't know whether it originally looked like this. Presumably it is fairly representative of the most elaborate Carlton frames of that era. Regrettably, the bikes were packed fairly tight, so no shot of the whole bike. These shots of the details ought to give an idea of what the bike was like.







Suddenly my lovely '74 Raleigh International is looking pretty drab!

Steve in Peoria

steelbikeguy

1974 Wizard
This is a much briefer column than it deserves to be. Wizard was a collaboration of Brian Baylis and Mike Howard (not John Howard). Brian and Mike went on to build for Masi's shop in California. I'll attach another article that quickly covers Wizard and Confente.
The bike shown in this article is part of Chuck Schmidt's impressive collection.
The Classic Rendezvous site has a little more info on Wizard, as well as some bike photos.








Steve in Peoria

repechage

I think that Confente is a replicant, not a real one.

steelbikeguy

what's the indication that something isn't right?
(other than routing the brake cables in front of the bars.... imho )

Steve in Peoria

repechage

Wrong headlugs- in particular, straight across the front, spade is too big and shoreline about the head tube is curious. The spade cutouts were semi finished engraved by a local engraving shop, so they are for “hand finished” cutouts quite uniform in the USA bikes. There are two outliers, one a frame I would call a B line study frame and the other one that surfaced here and was later repaired by Brian Baylis, possibly his last torch and paint work.

Wrong top tube cable guides, Silva type which did not exist then, also Mario had his own design that first appeared on a very few Carlsbad Masi bikes, then his LA bikes and by liberation, Medici.

seat stay caps are iffy, not a great view but the flute is too short.

the paint is not great, which is OK, but the head tube color break is not how Cunningham did it.
the painted pump was not a “thing” back then.

What could it be? A replicant or one of the 2 or 3 frames started but not finished when Mario was locked out. These in process bikes were confirmed but not the exact number by Jim Cunningham. He was not willing or able to confirm what bikes they might have been.

one of those frame sets popped up on eBay a few years ago, weird rear triangle details but align with what Medici was building. Bottom bracket stamping was all wrong.

52telecaster

Love the Carlton stuff. My Carlton's look pretty shabby but they ride nice!

repechage

see above, BF went from edit to quote.

mpetry912 

yes, there were a couple of uncompleted frames left at the time of Mario's passing

And I think there were a couple outright counterfeits as well, maybe back in the 2000s.

thanks for re-posting these articles.

/markp