French Barn Find - Buckets of Patina!

[pete_mcc]

No levers nor gear mechanisms, one continuous length of chain and no need to mount or dismount to flip the wheel over.

To go in the high gear, you pedal forward (normal) and to go in the low gear you pedal backwardl

I ran this system on a bike many years ago using a cassette hub with two sprockets and a single speed chain tensioning arm. It not only works superbly but it also tests muscles you never knew you had. Only thing is you have to use non-profiled teeth and get the line fairly spot on.
More recently I’ve seen people do this with white Industries two cog single speed freehub sprocket

 

[Woz]

Are you sure it ain't Campagnolo. That thing in the middle reminds me of my racing days' SR hubs...

Definitely not Campag, but yes the oil port cover is similar.

It's the axle that gets me:
- a shoulder on the right side to tighten the cones against
- once the left side is loosely assembled, the wheel can go in the frame
- screw down the right side wheel butterfly nut
- tweak the left side, the notch and keyed washer helps to adjust bearing load to perfection without the whole lot turning together.

Everything is automatically perfectly centered without messing about. Only one normal spanner is needed, no cone spanners. Front and rear axle diameters the same; everything interchangeable.

In fact, if they thought about it a bit more, they could / should have just put another rear hub in the front forks with different sprocket sizes to have an amazing 4 gear option. The fork spacing is 95mm and rear spacing only 110mm so not like a significant difference.

How lovely that would have been - spend massive time fiddling with it to change gear rather than riding it

 

[26er]

In fact, if they thought about it a bit more, they could / should have just put another rear hub in the front forks with different sprocket sizes to have an amazing 4 gear option. The fork spacing is 95mm and rear spacing only 110mm so not like a significant difference.

Well, that woulda been almost like 4WD. But you're onto sometning there. What's the real reason the front hub's always narrower than the rear. Even on track bikes I suppose.

 

[Woz]

The De Dion Bouton progress is at a snails pace; perhaps the only real progress is I've decided which brakes to use, got them woking and de-laced both wheels ready to build with either 700c or British 27inch 1 1/4 rims ( 630 mm ) like OldTel suggested way back on Page 8.

A trip to the tip earlier this week got me another old French rust bucket. As always, couldn't resist as it seemed to be calling me - it was dropped off at the tip some 30mins earlier after coming out of a barn attic, and luckily the tip manager kept it back rather than chucking it into the container from a great height.

So far, I have not identified the model nor dated it, but it is an early Peugeot. I'm guessing 40s or 50s.

Once again I'm a proud owner of a bottomless WD40 pit. Still, tis lovely though.

 

[Woz]

Very advanced 3 speed cluster.

Rear derailleur missing - not sure exactly what type of chain-stay rear derailleur it would have had.

 

[Woz]

Lovely looking brakes with canti-studs on the frame. Bliss.

 

[Woz]

More of that red licorice :facepalm:

 

[Woz]

Flaky chrome I believe.

 

[Woz]

The complete opposite to Oversized. Lovely whittled down to razor blade thickness steel stem.

 

[Woz]

Only one brake lever present. Shame really.