A few odd bicycle pictures from James McGurn's 1987 "On Your Bicycle."
In explorer, click on the lower right for full-size.
The handlebars of these pre-highwheeler 1867 boneshakers rotated to
pull on brake cords. Note the mention of bronze-aluminum bling:
http://i9.tinypic.com/5xyvnug.jpg
The familiar ad for uncle Starley's lever-tension wheel with its
spokes going through little hoops attached to the rim, opposite an ad
for highwheeler handlebars designed to detach in crashes:
http://i19.tinypic.com/677i42s.jpg
I've seen pictures of uncle Starley's 1878 Coventry rotary tricycle,
but never one with a rider to show how the hell it worked. The dress
hides the treadle (or pedals in later models), but the single
spade-grip steering is shown in action:
http://i16.tinypic.com/4pjs606.jpg
Digression . . .
The Coventry rotary above came as a tandem, too:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/tricycle/rudgerotary1884.jpg
The advantage, supposedly, was that you only needed to find two
parallel tracks, not the three needed by a normal tricycle.
The site above also shows how Chalo tests bicycles and tricycles:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/tricycle/eletri1a.jpg
Back to McGurn's book . . .
A drawing of an early 1885 Rover safety bicycle from young nephew
Starley, showing radial spokes, not tangent spokes, plus a curious
mounting step on the axle that shows the lingering high-wheeler
influence:
http://i13.tinypic.com/4v67a5z.jpg
To prevent tipping in any direction, the pentacycle used four small
wheels around a high-wheel, resembling four chicks around a mother
hen. A dip in the road could leave the rider high and dry, but the
design appealed to the geniuses at the Post Office:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4lytlsg.jpg
Not one but two no-helmet 5-man-tandem pacers. I still have no idea
why the motorcycle pacers and the bicyclists behind them wore little
round helmets. Note the usual monster sprocket on the last bottom
bracket:
http://i9.tinypic.com/6aga25t.jpg
Nicole Hollander's Sylvia, circa 1860 on a boneshaker:
http://i10.tinypic.com/688xd06.jpg
Cheers,
Carl Fogel