Bygone bits

[tiermat]

Rear mech covers, tried one once and ripped it off after 5 minutes as I found I could only use 2 gears!

[Mr Larrington]

• cable-driven speedometers
• bullmoose bar/stem combos
• tyres with "a raised centre ridge for lower rolling resistance"
• aftermarket bananananana seats
• Competition Cycles' (Cricklewood) aerodynamic Mars bar holders
• Magura rim brakes that fit my trike

[Pete]

• tyres with "a raised centre ridge for lower rolling resistance"

I remember the Michelin '50'.  One of the earliest wire-ons of which it was claimed 'feels like a tub'.
It didn't.    And: the centre ridge wore down quickly, then the faeries played havoc...

[donpedro]

Blue and purple anodised Crud Claw isn't made anymore:

http://shop.vendio.com/benscycle/item/974523983/index.html
Pretty good British invention that kept the kassett's on my MTB from packing up with mud and snow. But fiddly to adjust as it came off every time you loosen the QR. Still have one fitted to my winterbike though...! 

[donpedro]

Purple anodised Ringle parts and White 1,95" Onza Porcupine's! 
[img height=480 width=640]http://www.yetifan.com/henningYOMFEB04-2ws.jpg[/img]
I never got hold of the white ones but the 2,1" black version was great for downhill racing! Mtb:ers today have to have at least 2,5" tyres and 6" front and rear suspension to go anyware! Still have some neon lycra tucked away somewhere.

[donpedro]

Anyone still got a (mechanical) cyclometer?  I had one of those, fits to the fork, small wheel advances one tooth each time the peg hits it.  Click, click, click, click...   In my case it was more: "click, click, click, TWANG!" as the wretched thing swivelled round and embedded itself in the spokes.  I lost mine riding through a flood...

Pete, it sound's like the French Huret speedometer!


http://www.bikeville.com/french.html

Had one on my bike in the 70's that looked alot like this one: 



Kids in my apartmentblock used to head for the highest hill we could find and race down staring at the meter without looking where one's going. Probably caused more injuries and bruises than all my other bikes combined. Mind you there were no helmets for kids in those day's.
Damn annoying ticking sound btw! 

[Gus]

Maillard freewheels with the cool tool. :


Time Equipe pedals with brass clamps :


Avocet Cyclometer( first real computers):


25.0 mm handlebars 

I know those cyclometers Pete. It was a little counting device mounted on the fork
and a peg mounted on a spoke. Pure mechanic simplicity. 

[donpedro]

Time pedals are still some of the best stuff i think. Damn expensive though! I settled for Look ages agoe and still use the old Delta system on my racebike.
Had the same purple Avocet computer to mach all the anodised bits on my Litespeed Obeed mtb. Still have the sensorkit if you need one!

[Mr Larrington]

Pete, it sound's like the French Huret speedometer!


http://www.bikeville.com/french.html

I had a slightly more racy looking one - it was big and round.  The cable bit went to my grate frend gNick, who planned to use it for causing to revolve a plastic lobster, to be placed on the upper rear part of the fairing of his Windcheetah.  The plan foundered in the face of the unavailability of plastic lobsters in Ashford (Middx).

I had one of they Avocet computers as well.

In pink

What was I thinking?

[donpedro]

Time Equipe pedals with brass clamps :

I have a scuffed set of another type called Time MID 57 gathering dust:

http://www.togoparts.com/items/view_item.php?iid=1154&did=0&cid=255&bid=343
Anyone want these for free? Come with some new red cleats, just PM me!

Lots more strange pedals here:
http://www.speedplay.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=pedalmuseum.intro

[nuttycyclist]

Anyone still got a (mechanical) cyclometer?  I had one of those, fits to the fork, small wheel advances one tooth each time the peg hits it.  Click, click, click, click...   In my case it was more: "click, click, click, TWANG!" as the wretched thing swivelled round and embedded itself in the spokes.  I lost mine riding through a flood...

I know exactly what you mean.  And it's in the garage   (or still in the junk I abandoned in my parents shed when I moved out*.)



* No I wasn't living in the shed as that sounds.

[FatBloke]

Anyone still got a (mechanical) cyclometer?  I had one of those, fits to the fork, small wheel advances one tooth each time the peg hits it.  Click, click, click, click...   In my case it was more: "click, click, click, TWANG!" as the wretched thing swivelled round and embedded itself in the spokes.  I lost mine riding through a flood...

Pete, it sound's like the French Huret speedometer!

I think he means one of these!

[Pete]

I think he means one of these!

Mine was more like Fatters', but I think it had only four digits and they were in line horizontally.   It may have been mounted on the left fork, so that the 'units' was nearest the toothed wheel, this would have made sense as the escapement mechanism would be more simple in design.

Another reminiscence.  Not exactly a bike bit, but nevertheless a useful accessory, I remember my father giving me, in my teens, a map-measurer.  No photo I'm afraid, it looked like a compass with a dial and needle calibrated in miles, driven by gearing from a small steel wheel (about 2-3mm) projecting from one end of the gadget.  Calibrated for one-inch-to-the-mile maps (1:63360, now obsolete!), before the days of Google Maps and suchlike, it was the only way of measuring out a ride in advance.  It was not very accurate!    Has anyone got a piccy of such a thing?  I think the face opposite the mileage display was a compass...

[edit] good old google has found me an image of something just like it!  So it seems they still exist.

[Cyclops]

There's a job lot of 50 cycle pedometers on ebay for the princely sum of £9.99. I seem to remember that these had a maximum recommended speed which you could quite easily exceed coming down big hills causing some quite alarming banging and clunking from the front wheel.

[rogerzilla]

Rumour has it that the UK version of the Huret speedo had a stop pin at 40mph as well as 0mph.  A schoolmate, determined to max it out, said he hit 40mph and the needle came off.

[Glosbiker]

Shimano XT thumbies, most underated bikepart ever!:



(Got me a nos set today!) 

Seconded!

Still using a set on my 1989 Lava Dome - on friction, of course!

[donpedro]

Great, not many Rapidfire+ shifters that last half that long is there!   
I have another DX set that I bought ten years agoe and they only begin to become broken in now.
This XT set has reached £41 even though it's still 24h left!:
 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110247627410&ssPageName=ADME:B:DBS:GB:1123

What Shimano were thinking when they stoped making them I will never know.  But Paul Component probably thank their lucky star they did!

http://www.paulcomp.com/frmthumb.html

[TimO]

Maillard freewheels with the cool tool. :

I'm pretty sure I've still got one of those in my toolbox, on the off chance that I need to remove a lockring!  Weren't those the hubs with the heliomatic thread?

Avocet Cyclometer( first real computers):

I'm pretty sure I had several of those as well.  Were they the ones which had the magnet in a ring around the hub?  I certainly had some with a long wire fitting kit so I could use them on the read wheel, and on recumbents.  Very good reliable beasts, unlike some of the modern cr*p (...speaks the man who just had to replace a computer which started dying in the rain).

[giropaul]

I have just checked the shed, I have

• At least one set of Delta brakes
  Several Avocet computers
  several old "ticking" cyclometers
  several Unica saddles, including orange
  Sprint wheel carriers
  
  and much more stuff as mentioned.

[Has someone been having a look round?

[/list]

[Gus]

I'm pretty sure I've still got one of those in my toolbox, on the off chance that I need to remove a lockring!  Weren't those the hubs with the heliomatic thread?



I'm pretty sure I had several of those as well.  Were they the ones which had the magnet in a ring around the hub?  I certainly had some with a long wire fitting kit so I could use them on the read wheel, and on recumbents.  Very good reliable beasts, unlike some of the modern cr*p (...speaks the man who just had to replace a computer which started dying in the rain).

Yes it was Maillard Heliomatic
and
Avocet was the one with the ring around the hub.

G

[nuttycyclist]

I think he means one of these!

Mine was more like Fatters', but I think it had only four digits and they were in line horizontally.   It may have been mounted on the left fork, so that the 'units' was nearest the toothed wheel, this would have made sense as the escapement mechanism would be more simple in design.
...

Yup, that's what I was thinking of (and must hunt out at some point)

[rogerzilla]

What Shimano were thinking when they stoped making them I will never know.  But Paul Component probably thank their lucky star they did!

The Bandits of Bridgwater make, or made, handlebar mounts for still-available* Shimano bar-end shifters, so you can have 9-speed thumbies.  If you're running road kit and flat bars, you could even have 10-speed.


*and likely to remain so; although originally they were for 'crossers and tourists, they've found a more profitable niche stuck in the end of tri-bars.

[drossall]

Karrimor bag uplift. Neater than any modern design, as no parts fitted to saddle or seatpost (but only works with Brooks and similar leather saddles).

[rower40]

Karrimor disk-lock pannier attachment system.  Specially the pannier hooks at the top, as they don't last for ever.  And I've broken my fair share as I use the same panniers on just about the entire fleet.  (Except Brompton and Windcheetah, who provide custom luggage solutions.)

[giropaul]

Karrimor bag uplift. Neater than any modern design, as no parts fitted to saddle or seatpost (but only works with Brooks and similar leather saddles).

How about the leech attachment for saddles with no loops? A superb bit of engineering, I think by Cliff Peters in Birmingham. A matching attachment on the bag slotted in, and came in several rise versions.