Wolsit about 1939

[andreaviola]

Have you ever seen Gino Bartali's Legnano winner of 1938 tour de France that is exposed at Ghisallo museum?

this bike is a Wolsit probably 1939, the yellow colour of the frame may be for the succes of Gino Bartali at tour 1938, because Wolsit was a second brand of Legnano.

cambio vittoria Margherita modello "Giro di Francia"

 

[kgt]

Magnificent

 

[Jonny69]

Stunning machines - thanks for the pics.

 

[Old Ned]

Those Margherita gears require a great deal of dexterity in use. The main arm in the toothed quadrant alters/reduces chain tension and the little 'triangle' on the top swivels to move the little arms on top of the chainstay which move the chain to the desired sprocket whilst back pedaling. The chain is then re-tensioned. Talk about multi-tasking. All this is done of course whilst struggling to climb an Alp in 48 x 20 on a dirt road in the middle of a bunch. No wonder Snr Campagnolo's parallelogram idea quickly took off!

A friend of mine has a bike with this gear fitted. I think he's only ridden it once. He rode it down the road from his house and nearly fell off twice trying to change gear. He made the decision after that to keep it as a museum piece.

 

[keithglos]

I don't know why it has a 1960's Silca pump with Terrys pump clips.
This Margherita just about beats jumping off and changing the wheel round.
Pros in those days kept their chains surprisingly slack, and this allowed a measure of control.
The Pro Super Champion (osgear) also had a control to reduce the chain tension. As some of you may recall, I rode a road race in 1956 using my Paris roubaix gear with the back pedal gear change, and frightened a few.
This also has a device for slackening the chain as the wheel is retightened. I had a 10 speed, which meant changing the front with the back wheel undone.
After the osgear came the Simplex Tour de France, which rapidly became the gear of choice (also Huret), but this ran the chain tight, and the rollers bounced on the chain. The Campagnolo GS was much smoother, having worked out a sensible distance between the tension rollers, but the gear change was not as accurate. It had the added reliability in bad weather, and rarely got damaged.