STRAUS REMOVABLE PEDAL RUBBERS.
Among makers using the Fauber construction are the Winton, World, Defender, Fenton, Outing and Union (the last-named on their special).
CRANK THROW AND VARIABLE GEAR.
THE RAMSEY PEDAL.
The crank, like the axle and most other parts, used to be very thick and heavy. As the quality of steel was improved and a more exact knowledge was obtained of the relative strength required through the parts of the structure, the metal was gradually pared away; in fact, there could be no better object lesson of bicycle evolution as a problem in mechanical work than to compare, side by side, the axles, cranks, hubs and pedals of today with those used in 1878. The old slot for variation of crank throw, sometimes replaced by three holes, disappeared from the crank long ago. Right here we might say—without stopping to consider the topic at my length, because it is not at present in agitation—that two-speed or three-speed gear and variable pedal stroke, while a tempting subject for inventors, are not and never can be really practical in the complete sense. To exchange power for speed or vice versa at will, so that one may vary his “gear ratio” to suit surface and circumstances, is indeed desirable; it is not in question that if one could drive the driving-wheel as fifty or as 120 or as anything between at pleasure it would be a consummation devoutly to be wished—but this cannot be done. If lever-driving is used, which is the most manageable mode for this particular object, a variable leverage can be obtained; but the offsetting disadvantages, which are not small, must be accepted too. As for shifting gears, they allow only two speeds, and it is not wholly easy to decide in advance what two are on the whole best; when the choice has been made one is sure to want more than two and almost sure to be as little satisfied as before. Moreover, the weight, complication, wear and cost of these devices are obstacles which must ever bar them out.
CRANK DROP AND CRANK THROW.
There seems to be some disposition to substitute “what is the drop” for the recent question “what does it weigh?” It is not certain that most people understand that “drop” means anything more than a lowering of the crank-hanger and a relatively slight lowering of centre of gravity; it does in fact mean more. The drop is the lowering of the crank axle below a line drawn between the two wheel axles. This line is fourteen inches from the ground. If one will stop to consider that from this must be taken, in use, the drop of axle, the crank throw, the dip of pedal below its own pivot, and the further dip of the toe-clip which no strictly up-to-date scorcher can omit without endangering his caste, he will see that to combine (as some wish and propose to do) a 3-inch drop with a 7-inch crank is to invite disaster. Not more than a single inch of clearance from the ground remains. This inch is as good as a yard while it lasts, but can anybody carry it in his pocket and thus make sure of always having it? There is the inclination on curves, and ruts and stones may be encountered, even if riding is confined strictly to the asphalt.