THE RAMSEY SWINGING PEDAL.
([See Pages 90] and [91].)
The usual pedal has its tread above the pivotal point; the Ramsey pedal reverses this and always has the tread below that point. Its great claim is that “it transmits automatically, in conformity with the arc of the circle described by the pedal, the applied power of the rider, thus maintaining the full leverage of the crank over a vastly increased arc of the circle; in other words, it converts the straight push into an improved and automatic ankle motion and renders possible a higher development of foot power than has hitherto been obtained.” The ingenious “[clock]” diagrams, the circle being cut into twelve divisions representing hours and of 30 degrees each, illustrate this. As the inventor is pleading his own cause it need not be counted against him that he unconsciously exaggerates the foot positions somewhat, and when he says that a continual pressure may be applied “from 11.30 to 8, or 8½ hours out of 12,” our comment is that we think it possible for a good rider who pays attention to doing it to apply pressure thus on the usual pedal. But the difference is that the [Ramsey] gives a better hold to the foot, thus applying mere pressure instead of merely “some” pressure, and makes the ankling semi-unconscious and automatic; this forms a substantial improvement, and, as the inventor puts it, “it gives ankle motion where there was none before, and those who ankled some now ankle more.”
Incidentally, the twitch which many riders give to the chain slack by incorrect pedalling is more easily avoided with this pedal, and, of course, there is less trouble about being “caught on the centre,” hence hill climbing and control in crowded places are favored; as one trouble with a high gear is in passing over the centre at slow speed, the [Ramsey pedal] has an advantage in control for this reason. The “pick-up,” either when mounting or when quickly spurting ahead, is also particularly good with it. Another peculiarity of this remarkable pedal is that its tread is as much below the pivot at the top as at the bottom, so that the leg reach is increased near the ground and decreased at the top. This will be valued in practice, according as the riders find it comfortable to drive (as does the writer) with a full leg reach, or not; yet it is plain that the Ramsey must be a very desirable pedal for women, because it decreases the objectionable rise of the knee.
The construction is clearly shown in the cut. A removable screw replaces the usual pedal shaft, and the pedal will fit any wheel, but it requires lowering the saddle or using a lower frame, and it therefore rather strikingly suits the present fad for reduced frame heights. Although a single row of balls has to be used, they are one-quarter inch, eighteen in number, and two-thirds are claimed to be always under pressure. As to durability, the inventor says that after some thousand miles’ use under average conditions, the nickel on the cones has been found intact; this must be explained by the large number and size of the balls, the large diameter of their track, the correct construction of the bearing (which is a four-point of right-angled V section), and the complete exclusion of dirt and retention of oil. In the last particular nothing could be more perfect.
After careful practical test, we think the inventor’s claims are well sustained. The [Ramsey pedal] is certainly fast, and distinctly good on hills. Other conditions being equal, it should beat the ordinary pedal in pace and endurance, and we regard it as one of the most practical contributions of the season.
CHAPTER XI.
THE SADDLE.
Naturally, the saddle for the steel horse followed that long used on the living one. It began as a pear-shaped sheet metal plate, inclosed between two pieces of pigskin, sometimes with a thin padding of hair and sometimes without. Of course, this was hard underneath and rigid on the edges, and gradually there was enforced consideration of the practical difference between sitting on a broad-surfaced horse saddle, with nothing for the legs to do, and a concentration of pressure on a small surface, with the legs compelled to be in constant working up and down. Take a chair—not a big, stuffed Turkish chair, but any decent, ordinary one—and observe how large a portion of the body the support is spread over; then assume the nearly vertical position and observe how small the available surface left for support, and it will not seem strange that the saddle is a serious problem in cycling, and one not wholly solved yet.
The first step in advance was the appearance of the “suspension,” the upper plate being left off and the leather being hung from three points of support, without padding; this left the edges flexible. In later years the so-called “hammock” type appeared, and in essence this is still in vogue in all the saddles bearing the name of “hygienic,” the leather being hung from the front as one point of support, and a cantle (formerly of steel, but now largely of wood), serving to give the needed breadth at the rear. Yet the principle is the same as originally used, many years ago, by Lamplugh & Brown of Birmingham in their “suspension,” and afterward in their “Long Distance” suspension. And this principle can never be quite abandoned.
The early saddles had some form of spring under them, and were not made to attach without one. The “[boneshaker]” saddle rested flatly on a very long plate, like a leaf from an ordinary wagon spring, extending from the head clear back to the rear wheel; but this was not so much from choice as dictated by the construction as a whole. On the high wheel the usual support was a flat spring, hinged at the head, and curving back to slide slightly on the backbone by some sort of movable clip. This was varied in several ways—by curved or spiral springs, and even by suspension from enormously thick rubber bands; but the most notable one was the Arab Cradle, a spring formed of a single piece of steel rod, bent about into four acting single coils, which had an open-and-shut work like that of the familiar safety pin of the nursery.
The early rigid saddle survives substantially in the “hard” saddle of the [Brown type]; the old “suspension” is in the type with hard nose, steel cantle and stiff sides; the “hammock” is represented by the soft-nosed and flexible-sides saddle of the Hunt X type, having wood cantle and aiming to support gently everywhere; the air saddle, one of the oldest, reappears in pneumatics of various sorts; the old “pan” seat is now in the [Christy], with solid metal base, which does not touch the body, but supports by raised pads; the “cradle” is represented by various looped wire springs, usually of a few wound coils, which are to yield by compression. The term “pigskin,” as designating the bicycle saddle, seems, however, to have entirely dropped out, as has also the use of that material itself. Cycle saddles are now made almost exclusively of tanned leather, and it may be suggested that the increase in the number of cyclers has outrun the increase in the number of pigs; but probably the saddle maker has some commercial reason for the change.