In a message dated 3/20/2003 10:33:04 PM Eastern Standard Time,
wa2vuy@mindspring.com writes:
>
> >Bio-Cam (Weird cam follower in cranks)
> >Bio-Pace (lever * pull chains..same inventor guy? Larry Brown?)
> >Alenax (Lever action again)
> >Rise-in-Go (up and down makes it go!)
> >Mobius "continuous tube" frame
> >
> >Can anyone add to this "curiosity" list?
> >
> >Dale Brown
>
Power transmission experiments are a specialkty of the Black Hole collection John Schubert and I have been colleborating on oddities for years We are calling a chapter in my book 'nothing is really new'
First Biopace is not about pull chains, BUT,my 1936 Glide-a-Cycle is proof there was an Alenacx before alenax I call this 'treadle-pedal' And before that the Star (or was it Eagle?)HighWheeler and others had treadles with reciprocating drive belts. Treadle pedaling was supposed to use only downward forces for the mostr efficient action but in practice try to keep up with your even moderate riders and see what doesn't happen
The Browning B.E.A.S.T. on my 1991 Giant has the segmented chainwheel that I thinkl is a great idea for the antiquated-before-it-ever-started front derailleur that has been trying to shift a chain by brute force inits tensioned phase. Yhr Browning is back as the 'smart shift' and it works. The drive shaft is back in the 'Incline' bicycle and it really really wo0rks anbdis on a real bike. It tried in the 70's and 80's and flopped.
There was the Nordic Track transmission and a large belt drive continuous velocity gearing. It was called the Yankee Drive for awhile in a previous attempt.
The Auto Shift comes and goes for 30 years, now back on late bnite teevee as the land rider.
Ihave a Hagen All-Speed in ther box that has a series of teeny 6-tooth sprockets on a spirally-grooved chainwheel. They are one-way ratchets and as they go farther out it acts like a larger chainwheel. about 12 lb.
The Paradigm about 14 years ago and a sister product from NC about 10 years ago were to be an infinitely variable version of the Rohloff hub.
My most interesting system would harness the upper body and armenergy and transfer it to the cranks The bars are on a pivot. They link to rods that go through an oversize downtube to a Honda-50 or lawnmower-sized two-cylinder crankshaft that's also the bb axle. Yep, the piston motion of the arms helps turn the cranks.
There's a hole-shot spring-action two speed rear derailleur and atwo speed bmx crank from browning.
This was fun! the suspension front hub by isolator Too funny for words-more innovative than cool-whip. Made the 'Shockster' seem legit.
Air shifter came and went. STI and Ergo new stuff? nah, just before thay hit there was a pivoting brake lever mount that had a kludgy cable arrangement to dhift the derailleurs.
Schubert remembers the name of the 'L'shaped crank arm that defies 9th grade geometry that the shortest distance between two points is a line
The German off-set stay frame that eliminated wheel dish? not too bad an idea.
The spring-loaded crank arms that soaked up energy to the chainwheeland gave it back during the rest of the stroke
Helical dynamic? This was fun. The seat stays had a very shallow helocal groove The 'pedals' slid up and down and turned internal shafts that were connected to the rear hub via bevel gears. Rotor system actually felt great on my trial at Eurobike but getting $600plus is gonna make me a second hand buyer,and I can get em wholesale! Biopace and the others including the Durham E wheel , cycloid, the ovaltech... they work for me after a short break-in as long as I'm slow pedaling or in a middle or inner chainwheel.
Can we include the Original plastic bike?
The rest will turn up and will be included in the book.
Cirque attendees can see some of the examples and pamphlets that I'll be bringing.
Keep 'em weird
Larry Black
Mt Airy Maryland