The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories

by Alex Schwalbach; Julius Wilcox

DEFENDER MIDGET—1898.

The last paragraph is not to affirm or to imply that the teeth will not prove equal to their task. But such gearing has never been used on cycles; the bevel wheels of the tricycle “balance-gear” were larger and were not common enough to constitute an exception. Spur gears have been successfully used for many years on the Crypto gear already described, but four pinions are employed on that instead of one, for the express purpose of dividing the strain. So it is fair and well to note that when we resort to gearing as an escape from the chain we are going from the long-tried to the untried.

Here it may be in point to quote from the current advertisement of one of the oldest concerns in the English trade, the Centaur Company of Coventry:

“The pioneers in the cycle trade can afford to view with equanimity the appearance of the faddist who, from time to time, tries to resuscitate some obsolete and exploded notion which, in the early days, has already been thoroughly tested and abandoned. The Chainless Safety, with which we have been threatened during the past two years, is an example of this. Bevel-gears, spur-gears, roller-gears, rod-and-piston-gears, intermediate wheels, and every conceivable form of gearing were experimented with by ourselves and many of the older makers in the early ’80’s, for the purpose of dispensing with the chain. If, as a medium for transmitting power, they were then found to be inferior to the crude and imperfect chain available at that period, it must be manifest to everyone who is familiar with cycle construction that, with the perfect chain of today, the comparison must be still less favorable to the chainless methods.”

This is not quoted as endorsing it, nor do we regard the experimenting mentioned as conclusive; the point lies in the last sentence. For while it is true that the cutting of bevel or radial gears has been so much improved that the results of trials long ago do not signify (as is frankly admitted by not over-friendly English trade journals in commenting on the [Columbia]), it is equally true that the chain also is greatly improved.

THE CHARGES AGAINST THE CHAIN.

In the action for ejectment, which we have supposed the chainless to be bringing, the worst counts which can be brought against the chain are that it is “lubricated” with grit, being left exposed; that it clogs with mud and is a fair-weather device only; that it is very dirty and troublesome to keep clean, and that chain and sprockets wear rapidly. All this is thus far quite true, and yet quite answerable. The chain very rarely breaks, and whenever it does the reason is that it has been so neglected that the joints could no longer bend. A great deal is said about “backlash,” or the back-and-forth looseness of moving parts between themselves. A little slack is necessary in a chain, and if it is excessive that is by the rider’s fault, as it is a matter entirely within his control. If the rider “jerks up” the slack of his chain when passing over the centre that only shows that he does not pedal properly, or perhaps that his chain needs a little tightening. If a chain does break, chain parts are fast becoming staple goods, procurable anywhere almost as readily as nails; a temporary repair on the road is not difficult, and there are also spare pieces which can be carried in a vest-pocket and applied almost without tools. On the other hand, repair on a chainless cannot be made on the road, and will in any case be very much greater, in cost and trouble, than any which are called for on a chain or a sprocket.

Every mechanic knows that a shaft “out of line” cannot operate properly, if at all, on any construction, from an ocean liner down to delicate machinery for watchmaking. A chainless bicycle—although this requirement is not quite so severe on those with the roller gear, since that has a semi-flexibility—must have its shaft and gears laid in exactly right at first, and then they must stay so. The chain-driver is the opposite in this respect. The frame may be considerably sprung out of line, and the front sprocket may even have quite a twist, and yet the driving not be noticeably affected. The reason is that the chain, instead of being rigid and unyielding, is jointed and can bend, accommodating itself to any little irregularity. This is the reason why bicycles have been able to run, even when not in very good condition, all these years, while frames have been undergoing tests and have been having their weak places strengthened. It is said that “the weak part of a chain-and-sprocket bicycle is the chain,” and that the chain is “the one serious source of danger that every bicycler realizes.” Yet it is the last thing about which the average rider troubles himself, either to be anxious for or to take care of, and dealers and repairmen will almost unanimously testify that the chain and the sprockets have figured less frequently and less importantly in their repair shop than any other part of the bicycle.