Spoon brake pictures

[c***@comcast.net]

Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
Valkyries used:

Loading Image...

I'd heard of spoon brakes, but never seen their levers and details.

Sergio Servadio emailed me these pictures of a penny-farthing and its
spoon-brake, which show the brutally--er, elegantly simple mechanism
of its spoon-brake.

Side view of spoon-brake L-arm on penny-farthing:
Loading Image...

Rider's view of the right-hand brake-lever arm:
Loading Image...

Front view:
Loading Image...

3/4 front view:
Loading Image...

Side view of L-arm and spoon:
Loading Image...

Whole mechanism:
Loading Image...

When you pull the huge brake-lever back with your right hand, the
other end of the hand-lever pushes the top of the upright L-arm
forward. As the L-arm pivots, its foot (the spoon) presses down on the
top of the tire.

Compared to modern rim caliper brakes, this spoon-brake arrangement
provides little pressure and braking, but that's probably a good
thing, since anything more than very modest braking would pitch the
rider over the handlebars of a penny-farthing.

Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
Loading Image...

Even more gratuitous view of penny-farthing pedal adjustment-slot:
Loading Image...

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

[Tosspot]

Post by c***@comcast.net
Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

I was a bit surprised to find these bikes (or replicas) can still be bought.

http://www.hiwheel.com/

I was shocked, nay, awed, to find the "Excelsior Standard" comes with
toe clips!

[A Muzi]

Post by Tosspot

Post by c***@comcast.net
Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

I was a bit surprised to find these bikes (or replicas) can still be bought.
http://www.hiwheel.com/
I was shocked, nay, awed, to find the "Excelsior Standard" comes with
toe clips!

There's a real market, actually, with a range of vendors:

victory bicycles, Diane Blake
***@victorybicycles.com

Loading Image...

[d***@yahoo.com]

local noise sez mitzi died in 1933.
fame.

but is that a theatrical painted backdrop of bicycles with ladies real
heads posed thru the backdrops holes?

apparently the spoon was widely used.
remembering my surprise at the new double jointed shimano deore rear
deraillleur, i found frank berto's account of the single jointed
suntour's deray demise.
and wonder why no cable with side pulls?

We racked with a rear roller brake, frame with generator connected to
5 inch lamp, folding rear wire racks. all inoperative, headed for the
dumpster.

[Michael Press]

Post by c***@comcast.net
http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

They should be tied and soldered.

[Darryl C]

Post by Michael Press

Post by c***@comcast.net
http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

They should be tied and soldered.

Otherwise they could get damaged when this happens:
<http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

cheers,
Darryl

[j***@stanfordalumni.org]

http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

Post by Michael Press
They should be tied and soldered.

http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv

This video is where you can see the tire lifting off just ahead of the
ground contact point until it rose so high that it came off the rim.
The rim on the road is making the scraping sound before the crash.

Cross lacing spokes on high wheelers was introduced by John Starley to
prevent headers when a spoke broke, which often resulted with the
heavy black-painted spokes of that time. Cross lacing allowed tying
the spokes to one another so that they did not entangle with the fork
when they broke loose at the hub. Not long after that, the chain
driven bicycle was introduced, but tying spokes stayed for another 100
years with no functional reason. It was with great difficulty that
the method vanished after it was debunked in "the Bicycle Wheel".

That's how high tech bicycles are!

Jobst Brandt

[d***@yahoo.com]

aw your just jealous you can't do that!

are modern penny farthings equiped with a coasterfront hub?

re the squirrel- a library of these great momnets in sports! eg the
downhill spped record of the volcano cone.

is castor the x country rider in rodale's road rider book?

[A Muzi]

Post by Darryl C

Post by Michael Press

Post by c***@comcast.net
http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

They should be tied and soldered.

<http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

Hmmm
That link crashes my Netscape
??

[d***@yahoo.com]

may the bluebird fly north!

[Darryl C]

Post by A Muzi

Post by Darryl C

Post by Michael Press

Post by c***@comcast.net
http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

They should be tied and soldered.

<http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

Hmmm
That link crashes my Netscape
??

Andrew,

try deleting the 'flv' at the end before you try to access the link.
I think that should make it launch using Quicktime instead of Flash.

regards,
Darryl