Also, just something I'm stupid excited about, Bart from the Netherlands is looking into shipping me one of his custom rocket coaster brake arms. Duck Norris might need a CB110 hub upgrade
He also made other styles, and cut that 1 piece sprocket too. The Popeye model lives on one of his builds
They're hammering out the rules for a freak bike build off at RatRodBikes. Someone suggested that one requirement be an actual bicycle wheel used in the proper fashion. I countered that one of these bikes could be 50% freakier
Agreed. 20th C. aero is fascinating: how come it shaped so many things from planes, to trains, to automobiles, to bikes, to interior decor?
The promise of personal speed.
In the 19th C the speed of a horse was fastest; or if you were richer than a horse owner, maybe mimic that speed feeling on a yacht. Trains topped that but were … impersonal - public.
WW1 showed that powered machines could make speed personal: planes, cars, motorbikes, boats. Because of the war, many would have an idea of the capabilities of powered machines, and maybe a taste of the feeling, but they couldn’t afford to buy them. So the things that they could afford got more ‘speedy’.
Schneider trophy planes, Duesenberg cars, Mallard trains kept the dream alive, and aerodynamics entered the public consciousness through private goods: bikes, fridges, haircuts, duke boxes, lights, baby buggies, mirrors - all sculpted by the promise of speed.
And so it continues - as speed limits for cars reduce, the personal need for a feeling (and now social proof) of speed keeps drawing us: witness Strava, even for cycle commuters who need lightweight aero bikes and tech to monitor their speed and time to work (the range of titanium bunk you can strap to a Brompton!); or behold the Lycra-clad parents that go running, pushing their child in a (lightweight, state of the art) baby buggy.
One of the perennial Retrobike chestnuts is how older bikes are lighter, faster, better feeling than newer ones. This is obviously true and goes to prove that need for speed is always present, and always already retro.
and goes to prove that need for speed is always present, and always already retro.
