I think the friction/indexed debate has become a little passé.  Although, I am probably not the person to declare such a thing.  Frankly, I’m profoundly indifferent on the matter these days.  I can work with friction on five and six speeds, and maybe seven.  Actually five and six speed is probably where I would prefer to draw the line.  But my Mercian touring bike and my daily commuter are both indexed 8 speeds.  I prefer eight speed over nine, ten, or, God forbid, eleven!  (The competition to add cogs to the cluster reminds me of the competition between Gillette and Schick to see how many blades they can load onto a plastic shaving razor.)

I do miss the days before indexing and before Shimano ruled the world.  There was a little more variety and that kept things interesting.  The 70s and 80s brought us some very appealing and useful rear derailleurs.  I’ve always been a tourer and commuter, not racer.  And, thankfully, there were plenty of long-cage offerings during that period.  Huret, Simplex, Campagnolo, Suntour, and Shimano all had respectable touring derailleurs. 

Suntour made some excellent derailleurs and I have logged a lot of miles on the old V-GT Luxe.  This was a light and durable touring derailleur.  I used the same V-GT Luxe for 5 or 6 years of serious loaded touring before finally breaking the cage tension spring somewhere in Utah.  Even then I was able to disassemble and manipulate the broken spring enough to make it work until I could reach Park City and replace it.  In addition to my experience, I would say there is general consensus that the Suntour V-GT Luxe was a fine derailleur.

Not all vintage derailleurs have such broad support, however. The Huret Duopar is another touring derailleur from that era that is sometimes praised and other times maligned.

Recently, I was helping a friend of mine outfit a commuter bike he’s building.  It’s an early 80s Trek originally setup with a titanium Huret Duopar.  This Trek and its Duopar came matched to a wheel built with a Maillard Helicomatic.  Not an uncommon combination for the time. If you’re not familiar with the Helicomatic hub, look it up.  I remember when they first came out and having a shop owner show me the ease with which the freewheel could be removed using nothing but a little bottle opener tool. 

The easy-off freewheel was intriguing for a touring cyclist.  You see, replacing a rear drive-side spoke on tour meant you had to remove the freewheel to slide the broken spoke out and replace it with a new one.  I’ve replaced a lot of spokes while on tour and often miles from civilization.  To make this repair you had to carry a wrench big enough to fit the freewheel removal tool and give you the leverage necessary to break the freewheel loose.  Something like a 10” Crescent wrench was the minimum requirement.  With the Helicomatic you could use the bottle opener.

Unfortunately, the hubs turned out to be marginal.  I used one for a short time and broke spokes.  So I was glad the freewheel popped off easily.  The other part of this hub was the proprietary Maillard freewheel.   Trek sold touring models in the early 80s that included a Helicomatic and Maillard freewheel matched with a Huret Duopar.  Again, the Helicomatic had its issues, but the Maillard freewheel was perhaps the real weak link in this combination. 

The flat, non-profiled cogs on the Maillard spoiled the shifting performance of the Duopar.  If you hear some old-timer complain about how poorly the Duopar shifted you could usually find a Maillard freewheel was an unmentioned part of that grievance.

I’ve used the Duopar off and on over the years and I think it is a good derailleur.  I currently have Duopars on my Woodrup and my old Raleigh Competition.  When matched with the modern ramped and profiled cogs on a Shimano Hyperglide, it shifts like butter. This leads me to the conclusion of this rambling post.  An important but sometimes overlooked variable in the quality of shifting is the freewheel of cassette. 

Because everything is indexed today, we take the profiled and ramped cogs for granted.  But there was a time when French and Italian freewheel cogs were flat and square.  Suntour freewheel cogs changed that.  The teeth were tapered and sometimes slightly twisted to help grab the chain during gear changes. Not to take anything away from Suntour, but at least some of their reputation for great shifting originates with their improved freewheel design.

So, next time you get into a debate about the comparative shifting quality of vintage derailleurs, be sure to check the freewheel. 

Back in mid-May, I noticed the new owners of a neighborhood duplex were clearing out some of the old tenants’ stuff – mostly big stuff that was broken or too big to mess with and thus abandoned.  Among the heap of discarded items was a broken treadmill. 

Now, I am one of those guys that will complain about people driving to the gym to ride a stationary bike.  Likewise, I would always recommend a brisk walk around the neighborhood over an electric treadmill.  Funny, treadmills used to be a power source to mill grain or something.  Now they require electricity so people use power to get a workout.  Maybe there is a compelling reason why these things exist like rehabilitation, stress tests, clinical research, etc.  But, generally, I’m not too fond of them as a tool for exercise.

Okay, well let’s forget about the value of a treadmill as an exercise device for a moment and focus on what might be salvaged from this behemoth to serve a more practical exercise tool… the bicycle.  The treadmill was shot.  But I remembered that my friend, colleague and Ironweed retailer, Stevie Goetzelman had once mentioned how someone he knew had used the tread off such a treadmill to make mud flaps for bikes. 

I let it sit on the curb for a couple of weeks, just to make certain that no one wanted this broken heap.   When I figured it was destined for the landfill, I went down and removed the tread, rolled it up and brought it down to my shop.

This weekend, my wife needed to replace the tube in the back tire on her daily commuter bike- a 1972 Atala.  While we had the wheel off, I decided to add mud flaps to her old Zefal fenders.   A sharp knife and a couple of rivets later, here are a few pictures of the final product.  I still think electric treadmills are goofy, but they do have some value as salvage.  I now have enough mud flap material to last for a couple of generations!

Maybe someone could combine the treadmill with the bicycle.  Wait... it's already been done!

I spent this past Sunday afternoon doing a few chores around the homestead, including cleaning up my bike storage shed and workshop.  As a reward for my self-declared good work, I decided to invite a couple of friends over for a beer and conversation. 

Unfortunately, I only had one beer in the fridge.  So I decided to take a trip down to John’s Grocery to pick up a sixer of IPA.  I grabbed the ’66 Raleigh RSW off the hook, removed the original tattered tartan bag and threw on the ironweed trunk bag prototype.  I thought this would be a good beta test with a practical return… cold beer.

The Ironweed bag was still packed from a ride last week and contained several tubes, tire tools, Park multi-tool and a couple of bungees.  I figured I’d just leave the stuff in there and try to fit the six-pack in around it.  So off I went.

On the way out of my backyard, I stopped briefly just outside the perimeter of my neighbor’s mulberry tree that has been casting its fruit carelessly over the sidewalk on the backside of our property.   Scurrying around in the tree was a frenetic gray squirrel hopping from limb to limb carefully selecting the right berry to eat.  I wondered if he was picking the riper fruit with perhaps a little fermentation.  Although, I was on my way to pick up beer and realized I was probably projecting.

After managing to avoid the falling mulberries, including the ones dropped by the squirrel, I hopped on the Raleigh and sped off down Bloomington Street.   It was a beautiful afternoon and the ride was pleasant.  

I was thinking about bells on bikes.  I love bike bells and their friendly yet effective tones; very different from the horns on motor vehicles.  Even the word “bell” is friendly and perfect for the device.  I am not really superstitious, but I have long felt that bells on bikes are lucky.  I can trace this superstition back to a St. Christopher bell I bought in Austria years ago to ward off harm while on tour.  The bell on the RSW was put on by the previous owner.  It is not my favorite but it has a cheerful enough brrrriiinngg! 

I was also thinking about the gearing on this little-wheeled British beauty.  I switched out the 13 tooth rear cog with a 20 tooth and I was grateful I had.  They were tougher back in 1966… they could handle the taller gears.  I guess when I picture the 1966 rider, I think of a bandy-legged, chain-smoker with zip-up leather boots who could leave me in the dust.

I arrived at John’s and briskly walked back to the beer room and selected a six-pack of one of my favorite IPAs. (Interesting note… I noticed that a couple of my favorite IPAs are now available in a handy 4-pack of 20oz. cans, which is great for picnics by bicycle.)  I made my way to the front of the store and paid the quiet clerk with the well-kept beard and made my way out the front door to the bike rack to load my booty. 

Once outside, I unlocked my Raleigh and placed the six-pack of bottles in the trunk bag.  The bottles were a little too tall for the lid to fit down all the way against the sides of the bag, but the lid did completely cover the bottles. 

All in all it worked out pretty well.  I arrived home safely with my libations.  My friends arrived shortly thereafter and we enjoyed a beer and good conversation.  Next time, though, I’m getting one of those 4-packs!