I think he means one of these!
we got one for my little bro one birthday, but the shop only had 28" or 26" versions - and little bro wa on a 24" wheeled bike still. We got him a 26" wheel version thinking he'd like to feel he'd gone those extra miles. No idea if he ever found out either ....
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.
I used to use one until (a) some nameless child broke off the hands and (b) I acquired a copy of autoroute. I found it handy enough but didn't need massive accuracy. I'd wind forwards along the route and then wind backwards along the scale counting off km until it got back to zero.
As mentioned in that other thread, I still have single pivot brakes attached to suicide brake levers (though I removed the downtube shifters as I never changed gear (Suffolk is flat ..)). I swapped the 6" mudguards for real ones, but still have the brake cable cover that goes the whole way along the top tube.
My fixie has cottered cranks, carefully filed as the first lot of cotter pins loosened and fell out.
Rod brakes? (Like on my childhood tiger tricycle, inherited from big bro). Actually tricycles for children are pretty rare nowadays.
Those nice rubber pedals to make it possible to ride a bike in bare feet (shoes were for school, mainly, between age 8/9 and about 12)
There's those lovely wire baskets you can hang on your handlebars.
