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Spoon brake pictures

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01 / Original postSpoon brake picturesEmail address hidden · 31 Mar 2007 02 / This pagePosts 1–11Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #11Darryl C · 3 Apr 2007

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Cycling Equipment
Published
31 March 2007
Last activity
3 April 2007
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Email address hidden
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11
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Contact pointsIndoor trainersRim brakesWheel building

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  1. Original post
    Email address hidden
    Archived post
    #1

    Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
    to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
    their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
    Valkyries used:

    http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

    I'd heard of spoon brakes, but never seen their levers and details.

    Sergio Servadio emailed me these pictures of a penny-farthing and its
    spoon-brake, which show the brutally--er, elegantly simple mechanism
    of its spoon-brake.

    Side view of spoon-brake L-arm on penny-farthing:
    http://i12.tinypic.com/2mzl8jb.jpg

    Rider's view of the right-hand brake-lever arm:
    http://i12.tinypic.com/2crpyrc.jpg

    Front view:
    http://i10.tinypic.com/2wrde04.jpg

    3/4 front view:
    http://i14.tinypic.com/2wfs3k0.jpg

    Side view of L-arm and spoon:
    http://i5.tinypic.com/2hxookg.jpg

    Whole mechanism:
    http://i12.tinypic.com/2rykk7t.jpg

    When you pull the huge brake-lever back with your right hand, the
    other end of the hand-lever pushes the top of the upright L-arm
    forward. As the L-arm pivots, its foot (the spoon) presses down on the
    top of the tire.

    Compared to modern rim caliper brakes, this spoon-brake arrangement
    provides little pressure and braking, but that's probably a good
    thing, since anything more than very modest braking would pitch the
    rider over the handlebars of a penny-farthing.

    Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
    http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    Even more gratuitous view of penny-farthing pedal adjustment-slot:
    http://i14.tinypic.com/2dm8uvn.jpg

    Cheers,

    Carl Fogel

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  2. Tosspot
    Archived post
    #2
    Quoted message said:

    Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
    to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
    their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
    Valkyries used:

    http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

    I was a bit surprised to find these bikes (or replicas) can still be bought.

    http://www.hiwheel.com/

    I was shocked, nay, awed, to find the "Excelsior Standard" comes with
    toe clips!

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  3. Michael Press
    Archived post
    #3

    In article <[email hidden]>,

    Quoted message said:

    Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
    http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    They should be tied and soldered.
    --
    Michael Press

    Report
  4. A Muzi
    Archived post
    #4
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Elsewhere a current thread has wandered off from making your own tires
    to a picture from James Thomson of 1893 German cycling beauties and
    their odd tires to the huge spoon-brake hand-levers that these
    Valkyries used:

    http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg

    Tosspot said:

    I was a bit surprised to find these bikes (or replicas) can still be
    bought.
    http://www.hiwheel.com/
    I was shocked, nay, awed, to find the "Excelsior Standard" comes with
    toe clips!

    There's a real market, actually, with a range of vendors:

    victory bicycles, Diane Blake
    [email hidden]

    http://www.yellowjersey.org/photosfromthepast/ORDNARI.JPG

    --
    Andrew Muzi
    www.yellowjersey.org
    Open every day since 1 April, 1971

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  5. Email address hidden
    Archived post
    #5

    local noise sez mitzi died in 1933.
    fame.

    but is that a theatrical painted backdrop of bicycles with ladies real
    heads posed thru the backdrops holes?

    apparently the spoon was widely used.
    remembering my surprise at the new double jointed shimano deore rear
    deraillleur, i found frank berto's account of the single jointed
    suntour's deray demise.
    and wonder why no cable with side pulls?

    We racked with a rear roller brake, frame with generator connected to
    5 inch lamp, folding rear wire racks. all inoperative, headed for the
    dumpster.

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  6. Darryl C
    Archived post
    #6

    In article <[email hidden]>,

    Michael Press said:

    In article <[email hidden]>,

    Quoted message said:

    Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
    http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    They should be tied and soldered.

    Otherwise they could get damaged when this happens:
    <http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

    cheers,
    Darryl

    Report
  7. Email address hidden
    Archived post
    #7
    Darryl C? said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:

    http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    They should be tied and soldered.

    Quoted message said:

    Otherwise they could get damaged when this happens:

    http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv

    This video is where you can see the tire lifting off just ahead of the
    ground contact point until it rose so high that it came off the rim.
    The rim on the road is making the scraping sound before the crash.

    Cross lacing spokes on high wheelers was introduced by John Starley to
    prevent headers when a spoke broke, which often resulted with the
    heavy black-painted spokes of that time. Cross lacing allowed tying
    the spokes to one another so that they did not entangle with the fork
    when they broke loose at the hub. Not long after that, the chain
    driven bicycle was introduced, but tying spokes stayed for another 100
    years with no functional reason. It was with great difficulty that
    the method vanished after it was debunked in "the Bicycle Wheel".

    That's how high tech bicycles are!

    Jobst Brandt

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  8. Email address hidden
    Archived post
    #8

    aw your just jealous you can't do that!

    are modern penny farthings equiped with a coasterfront hub?

    re the squirrel- a library of these great momnets in sports! eg the
    downhill spped record of the volcano cone.

    is castor the x country rider in rodale's road rider book?

    Report
  9. A Muzi
    Archived post
    #9
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
    http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    Quoted message said:
    Michael Press said:

    They should be tied and soldered.

    Darryl C said:

    Otherwise they could get damaged when this happens:
    <http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

    Hmmm
    That link crashes my Netscape
    ??
    --
    Andrew Muzi
    www.yellowjersey.org
    Open every day since 1 April, 1971

    Report
  10. Email address hidden
    Archived post
    #10

    may the bluebird fly north!

    Report
  11. Darryl C
    Archived post
    #11

    In article <[email hidden]>,

    A Muzi said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    [email hidden] wrote:
    > Gratuitous rider's view of penny-farthing spokes:
    > http://i5.tinypic.com/2gt8zle.jpg

    Quoted message said:
    Michael Press said:

    They should be tied and soldered.

    Darryl C said:

    Otherwise they could get damaged when this happens:
    <http://one.revver.com/watch/31941/flv>

    Hmmm
    That link crashes my Netscape
    ??

    Andrew,

    try deleting the 'flv' at the end before you try to access the link.
    I think that should make it launch using Quicktime instead of Flash.

    regards,
    Darryl

    Report

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