There is reasonable probability that a vintage bike with a Houdaille PowerCam will be available for riding at the 2009 Cirque de Cyclisme, in Leesburg, on Friday and Saturday. A roadworthy successor to my (Charlie Brown) Award-winning Alenax, which featured a stair-stepper drive. Unfortunately, it will not be a Houdaille Exo bicycle; I have no information on whether the bikes were ever sold as such.
I bought a full PowerCam assembly at the Westminster swap meet a number of years ago, from a serious fellow who had used it in his very serious recumbent enclosed HPV. The PowerCam gave a very high gear. It's just been waiting for the chance to build itself up.
The key part, the powercam, is a bi-lobed cam that is attached to a special BB cup, so it can be fixed in place at an angle chosen by the installer. The crank arm itself is pretty elaborate. The works comprises a lever. One end is the cam follower, with appropriate bearing. The other end has teeth that engage teeth geared to the spider, which moves independently of the crank arms. The effect: circular rings that give an effective gear ratio that varies with the angular position of the crank arm. As someone observed, a really expensive way to emulate an elliptical or Biopace ring set. We'll see how it works.
harvey sachs, funkmeister mcLean va usa ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Listmeister wrote: Norm, FYI, your message went crazy somehow.. Hard to read etc.
Have you got some good pictures of that bike? Been nice to have for the CR web site:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/
Dale Brown
cycles de ORO Bike Shop
1410 Mill Street
Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 USA
336-274-5959