[CR] L'Integral: What a mind-bender!

(Example: Framebuilders:Tubing:Columbus)

Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:17:15 -0500
From: "Harvey Sachs" <hmsachs@verizon.net>
To: <hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk>, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] L'Integral: What a mind-bender!


Although I do like Funk, "L'Integral" isn't funk, but a single example of some really neat ideas - and some that have not proved in - and is well worth spending a few minutes looking at some really neat pix.

--> Of course, the original reference was to the double-down tube, doubled-seat-tube "ladder" construction, with the chainrings inboard. Neat. --> And that pair of really radical elliptical chainrings! Woolly indeed! --> Now, look at the BB. That's not an eccentric. Note the hinge just forward and under the downtube. To figure this out, look at the pix of the hubs and fork ends. They have the bearings attached to the forks, so the axles rotate on a rigid hub. Look how easy it is to drop out a wheel (sprung cam-over QRs for the wheels), and how you don't have any size constraints on the bearings (unlike the right side of regular rear hubs)! I sketched this kind of assembly decades ago, and I'm tickled to see how nicely it's been executed here.

Besides, the lugless work and pin striping are tres cool.

This is one wild, original, and carefully thought-out bike, and I wish I could afford one.

harvey sachs mcLean va.

Hilary Stone found great pix:

There's an L'Integral here...

http://www.reneherse.com/bachelier.html