In a message dated 2/2/04 12:40:19 AM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org
writes:
>
>Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 13:32:37 -0800
>From: "henox" <henox@icycle.net>
>To: "Mick Butler" <pariscyclesuk@hotmail.com>,
> <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: Re: [CR]British "Flat" Bars To Name A Few
>Message-ID: <01fe01c3e9d4$14ab1200$8f0056d1@pavilion>
>References: <LAW11-F121rpsca7hl20004eaeb@hotmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain;charset="iso-8859-1"
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>Precedence: list
>Message: 8
>
>
>Subject: RE: [CR]British "Flat" Bars To Name A Few
>
>Mick:
>
>Your next assignment is to assemble a dimensional database for all of the
>handlebar designs you have listed!
>
>
> Mick wrote:
>
>> The array of handlebars available prior to the second world war is simply
>> mind boggling. Here goes these are the more common "FLAT BARS" that
>I
>can
>> remember the names of.
>> 1. NORTH ROAD
>> 2. COMFORT
>> 3. LAUTERWASSER FLAT
>> 4. ANELAY
>> 5. SPRENCHLEY
>> 6. CRANSLEY
>> 7. ALLROUNDER
>> 8. W PATTERN
>> 9. FLAT ORDINARY
>> 10. MIDDLETON
>> I am sure there are a lot more I have forgotten.
>
>Hugh Enox
>La Honda
Hello Mick and Hugh,
Please understand that by far the best style or flat bar as selected by strength, double blind testing, weight, reputation, integrity, attitude and character is the North Road Style. A close second is the Lauterwasser named or developed after Jack Lauterwasser who after a stint as a 1930's Olympic road medalist worked at Raleigh and left to become production manager for Moulton Bicycles before retiring a just a handful of years back. Jack sadly passed early last year at about 90 years.
The North Road handlebar is much like the haircut known as "The Mullet (you know, business in the front-party in the back). Many school boys loved to reverse the bars making a shallow drop bar for weekend club runs. This arrangement seems to be found in many Frank Patterson drawings from the 1930's. Now these same school boys I am told could not ride into the school yard with drop bars or risk being sent home. Flip them over Sunday night and then look smart and proper in your uniform as you peddled off to school on Monday. I guess it's sort of like wearing your baseball cap backwards in church; not very respectful.
To Mssr. Hilary Stone; is this story on old Jack and the bars accurate or did I just make something up again like Raleigh Cycles being started by Sir Walter Raleigh (in print in a book I have no connection to as explained by the late publisher John Pinkerton a while back)?
Yours in Cycling,
Gilbert Anderson
North Road Bicycle Company 519 W. North St. Raleigh, NC 27603 USA Toll Free Ph: 800\u2022321\u20225511 Local Ph: 919\u2022828\u20228999 E-mail: cyclestore@aol.com
Yours in Cycling,
Gilbert Anderson
North Road Bicycle Company
519 W. North St.
Raleigh, NC 27603
USA
Toll Free Ph: 800\u2022321\u20225511
Local Ph: 919\u2022828\u20228999
E-mail: cyclestore@aol.com