One theme to which I often return in this blog is "there is nothing new under the sun". Just about every "innovation"--whether or not it actually changes the way we ride, or simply look at, bikes--has been done before. I include bicycle frames made from aluminum (1890s), titanium (also 1890s) and carbon fiber (1970s, possibly even earlier). I also include most newfangled componentry. Also, everything we associate with modern bike componentry--including "freehubs" and dual-pivot sidepull brakes--had been done before Shimano introduced them in the late 1970's and early 1990's, respectively.
Turns out, the "new" genres of bicycles aren't so new, either. Although they weren't called "mountain" or "off-road", there were surely bikes that were, or at least seem like, prototypes of what we see on trails and in the woods today. Ditto for folding bikes: As I've mentioned in an earlier post, some were made for the French Army during the 1890s.
And, as it turns out, "fat tire" bikes were rolling, bouncing and thumping along New York City streets (some of them cobblestoned) more than eight decades ago. At least, that is what this Safety Day Parade photo from 1930 could lead us to believe:
But that bike had nothing on this "fatty", which beat it by sixteen years--and was aquatic, to boot:
That bike was entered in a waterbike competition on Lac Enghien, just north of Paris, in 1914.
Speaking of Paris: When I saw this, I thought it was an entrance to a Metro station:
If it flew, I'd love to know how far. Can you imagine having a waterbike and an aerobike? You'd be ready for any disaster!
There was The Look.
It was knowing and hateful--with a healthy dose of fear mixed in. The giver wanted to instill fear in the receiver. But the receiver had already done the same: Something in his walk or demeanor said, "Don't F- with me."
I know it well because I was the intended recipient of The Look. And I was getting it because I had wrapped myself in psychological barbed wire. The person who gave me The Look wanted to sell me drugs or his or her body. Or lure me into a "theatre"--or an alley. Or try to suck or force me into some other scheme or scam to part me with my money and leave me part of the sidewalk or pavement, at least for a moment.
What I have described was an experience of walking 42nd Street from the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Times Square about thirty years ago. That stretch of "The Deuce"--the street's nickname--was, of all New York City thoroughfares, the one in which a person had the best chance of being the victim of a crime.
Today Times Square has been turned into a cross between Disney World without the rides and a shopping mall. Fresh-faced families flock to the same sorts of chain restaurants and stores they could find in their home counties--with higher prices. And, instead of pimps, prostitutes and hoodlums, costumed street perfomers and "painted ladies" accost tourists and ply them for cash. Some of those performers are even more aggressive than those old denizens of the demimonde I remember from my youth.
At least, they seem more aggressive. Or, perhaps, they are because they can be to those fresh-faced families, who have no experience in walking by people they have never seen, and never will see again. They do not have the ability to wrap themselves in psychological barbed wire and be unaffected by The Look.
Now the City Council is scheduled to vote on a measure to regulate those ersatz Batmans and Wonder Women, and all of the other costumed characters who terrorize Times Square.
I used to fancy myself a libertarian. Sometimes I still do. But I know when regulation is necessary, or at least beneficial. This is one of those times. I mean, do we want people running around the fashion capital of America looking like this?:
A few posts ago, I mentioned the Shimano Dura-Ace aerodynamic (EX and, later, AX) components of the early 1980s. While the components themselves didn't catch on quite as much as Shimano hoped, they had (and still have) their devotees. More to the point, they have their influence on today's components and bikes.
Perhaps no part of the EX system better epitomized the ensemble's inability to catch on with the cycling public and its long-term impact than the Dyna-Drive pedals.
The Dura Ace EX Dyna-Drive (DD) crank was actually a lovely piece of work and would look as appropriate on a current bike as one of the era, or even an earlier time. It resembled other Dura Ace cranks made since, more or less. Its spider and pedal arm have a finish and shape like those of its successors, save for the flare near the end of the crank arm. There was a reason for that: the pedal mounting hole was about double the diameter of that on any other crank.
That oversized pedal hole was made to accommodate the DD pedal, which had eliminated the through-axle found in most pedal bodies in favor of something shaped more like a plumbing joint that mounted outboard of the pedal. The bearings were inside of it. In contrast, most pedals have a set of bearings inside each end of the body.
In addition to lighter weight (about a third less than Campagnolo and other quill-caged road pedals of the time), this setup, because of the size of its mounting, was supposed to be stiffer. I never used the pedals or crank myself, but I knew a couple of cyclists who did and wouldn't use anything else.
The mounting system also resulted in a pedal platform that was lower than, rather than level with, the center of the mounting hole in the crank arm. As a result, at the bottom of the pedal stroke, the bottom of the foot was lower than the pedaling axis. This was supposed to offer better biodynamics in the pedal stroke, which would lead to a more even power transfer throughout the rotation of the pedal.
To me, it sounds like the benefit the Biopace (slightly elliptical) chainrings Shimano would make around the same time. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I never used Biopace for any length of time, so I can't say whether or not they actually offered the claimed benefit. Likewise for the DD pedals, which I never used. I will say, however, that the few cyclists I knew who used them liked them very much.
Shimano made adapters so that conventional pedals could be used with DD cranks, or so that DD pedals could be used with conventional cranks. I don't know anyone who used those, but I saw some cyclists ride conventional Dura Ace cranks and the pedals of their choice with the other aerodynamic EX parts.
Eventually, the 600 racing series and the then-new Deore touring and mountain bike parts would also offer the Dyna Drive option. They were even less popular in those ensembles than in Dura Ace. It makes sense, especially for the touring ensemble: If your DD pedal hit a curb or got snagged on a rock or tree root in the middle of nowhere, you probably wouldn't find a replacement--or even an adapter--in the local farm machinery shop where bike repairs are done.
Still, those pedals have had a lasting influence: Look and other contemporary pedals, while they don't completely eliminate the through-axle, use a shorter axle than on earlier pedals. More important, though, they use one set of oversized bearings on the side of the pedal that mounts to the crank, eliminating the bearing on the outer part of the pedal. This makes lighter, more streamlined pedals possible.
And, of course, the shapes of many of today's pedals owe much to the aerodynamic design of DD pedals, which in turn were influenced by the Lyotard No. 23, a.k.a. Marcel Berthet, platform pedal.
