Bicycle wheel

“ Look! If some one hasn’t been up here on a bicycle I miss my guess!”
“A bicycle!” exclaimed Bob. “Do you mean to say that the robbers rode a bicycle up here?”
“There are the marks of the rubber tires plain enough,” replied Jerry, pointing to them.
“That’s no bicycle track!” declared Ned.
“Why not?” the tall lad wanted to know.
“Or, if it is, the fellow rode on one wheel, or else is more expert than anyone I ever saw. See, there’s only one straight mark, and the best rider in the world turns his front wheel every now and then, making a separate track from the rear one. That’s no bicycle mark.” ”

“ A favorable place for a bicycle is along a railroad track—going in the centre or at one side. When suddenly attacked, my men can get out of the road like a covey of quail, and a bicycle can be trundled across the worst possible country as fast as a man can travel, for you see all the weight of the man’s gun and pack are on the wheel, which runs without any appreciable resistance, and all bike men know how to throw a bicycle over a [237] fence with ease, and my average march is eighty miles a day. Ladigo, remember—eighty miles a day. ”

“ The true definition of the bicycle is a two-wheeled vehicle, with one wheel in front and the other in the rear, and both in the same vertical plane. Its life principle is the physical law that a rotating body tends to preserve its plane of rotation, and so it stands up, when it moves, on the same principle that a top does when it spins or a child’s hoop remains erect when it rolls. ”

“ The reason why a small bicycle has, in general, more tendency to slip sideways than one in which the rider is seated high up is, that if the wheel slips off a stone or down the side of a rut, the distance sideways to which the wheel will slip is independent of the size of the wheel, and depends on the size of the stone or rut, the state of the road, the speed the machine is going at, etc. ”

“ His legs move only in the tread of the wheel, and his hands rest quietly on the ends of the cross-bar of his machine. The rope-walker keeps every muscle tense, and every limb in motion or ready to move. No wonder, when a tourist on his bicycle spins for the first time through a village here, or among the nomads of Asia, he is followed by a gaping crowd, till his machine carries him out of their sight. ”

“ The objections to the high bicycle were many, and among its chief drawbacks were that owing to the disparity in wheel diameters and the small weight of the backbone and trailing wheel, also to the rider’s position practically over the centre of the wheel, if the large front wheel hit a brick or large stone on the road, and the rider was unprepared, the sudden check to the wheel usually threw him over the handlebar. ”

“ An ordinary bicycle is used, preferably one with coaster brake and mudguards. Iron braces, 1⁄4 by 11⁄4 in., are shaped to make the framework, and the ends are looped to fasten around the frame of the bicycle and the supporting fork of the third wheel. This wheel is a bicycle front wheel with a fork. A mudguard on the third wheel is desirable. Make the iron parts as detailed, and fasten them into place. The body is made of 7⁄8-in. wood, preferably oak. The upper portion of the body is cut to receive the top brace, which is not in the way in loading or unloading the packages. ”

“ A bicycle having two wheels arranged tandem as shown, the rear wheel being no larger than the front wheel, and provided with a pedal crank-axle arranged between said wheels and connected to the rear wheel, for driving by an endless chain and sprocket-wheel, substantially as specified. ”

“ By thus providing the bicycle with a circular track engaging the driving-wheel the said track forms virtually the driving-wheel of the bicycle or velocipede, and as it is of very greatly increased diameter as compared with the driving-wheel of the velocipede, it enables the machine to be driven over rough and uneven roads without violent bumping and jolting, and without discomfort to the rider. ”

“ Perhaps an engineer enamoured of his engine can understand the love of a cyclist for his wheel.
[289]
The people around the Garfield Park Loop were beginning to get impatient. Most of them had stood for two hours holding their bicycles, and even a well behaved bicycle is an awkward possession in a crowd. Pedals scraped the shins of utterly strange riders, handle-bars got tangled in watch-guards, and front wheels got into mischief with unpleasant regularity. ”

“ This bicycle, however, as you can see in the accompanying illustration, is old style, for the cranks act on the front instead of the rear wheel. In fact the whole machine is like the tall bicycle first used in this country. ”

“ A bicycle with a large front wheel, because it rides smoother and steers easier than any other. 2. A bicycle in which you are directly over the work and do not have to reach out to do it, or lean over the handle-bar to get your centre of gravity over it. I should think the ‘Grasshopper’ good in this respect. 3. A bicycle in which the legs are at rest on all down grade, or when work is unnecessary, à la Star. 4. A bicycle with a treadle motion, as I think power is more economically applied by the same. (This is largely theory, so far.) ”

“ INVALID'S TRICYCLE.
Another interesting and possibly very useful development of the bicycle is the power to change the gear. This wheel has a rod under the right handle-bar, very much like a brake handle. ”

“ There are few, if any, parts of the modern bicycle that have played a more important rôle in its development, than has the chain, and yet it is safe to say that there is no part of the vehicle to which the average rider pays less attention, save to occasionally clean it of its accumulated impediments, or which he understands so little.
BROWN
ROLLER SPROCKET.
Every rider, of course, understands how important is the office of the chain in the propulsion of his wheel—that without it his machine is an utterly useless structure of metal, wood and rubber. ”

“ There are various claimants to the credit of introducing the first rear driven safety bicycle, where the wheels were practically of equal size and the gearing up of the driven wheel being effected by a pair of chain wheels and a chain. ”

“ The bicycle is entirely of wood, [Pg 353] so far as its frame and its wheels go. Old carriage-wheel hubs have been used, and the wheel rims are wide, strong pieces of wood. Even the lantern is "home made," for it was constructed from old tin cans. ”

“ The next improvement was to make the circumference of the wheel as perfectly circular as the art of man could devise, and,{470} instead of having the wheel solid, to fill up its interior with spokes, thus gaining lightness and strength at the same time.
Of all locomotive wheels, I suppose that the modern Bicycle affords the best example. The driving wheel is larger than the hind wheel of an ordinary coach, and yet the spokes are not nearly so thick as the porcupine quill with which this account is written. ”

“ This is a proper place to explain gear ratio or “gear,” which is a phrase not generally well understood, although in constant use; for instance, women have been known to ask dealers for a wheel with low gear, because they liked to be seated near the ground. The term gear, which is an adaptation from the old high wheel, expresses the ratio of forward travel of the bicycle for each pedal revolution, and yet this has nothing to do with either the height of the rider or the length of his leg, or the length of the crank. ”

“ The new principle—pedals on the rear wheel and saddle on the front wheel—is just the reverse of the construction of the ordinary bicycle, and is the only true principle for a Safety; the fault of the common rear-driving Safeties being that both saddle and pedals are fixed on the rear wheel, so that the front wheel must be controlled by the arms of the rider. ”

“ The problem of making the bicycle a relatively speedy vehicle had indeed been solved by the use of a large wheel—sometimes sixty inches in diameter—operated by a simple crank after the manner of the early machine of Lallament; but while bicycles of this type attained a considerable measure of popularity, the danger of156 taking a "header" on encountering any obstacle in the road was one that seemed to the average person to out-measure the pleasure or benefit to be derived from rapid transit thus attained. The safety bicycle, however, practically eliminated this danger. ”

“ Here is the first place where a bicycle begins to lose its usefulness. If the bearings are worn, either from use or lack of care in keeping dirt out, the wheel will never again run easily. Next look closely at the pedals, not only at the bearings in them, but at the condition of them generally. They get a large amount of wear and tear, and they strike obstacles which come in the way of the bicyclist more often than any other part of the wheel. ”

“ Lately there has been a tendency to spring both wheels of a motor bicycle, the generally accepted design being some form of leaf spring, which permits the rise and fall of the wheel against the action of the spring without throwing the wheel spindle out of its correct position in relation to the transmission. ”

“ Any one who can build such a bicycle as this deserves to have a fine new one presented to him, and that was precisely what happened, for the company gave him a new '96-model wheel in exchange for his own crude but serviceable machine. ”

“ Fasten the wheel hubs securely over the ends of the wood with pins or little bolts, or if the wheel bearing is of such a nature that it revolves on its own journal, the journal can be fastened to the end of the wood piece. Each of the wheels should be provided with a sprocket; any chain sprocket of a bicycle may be used. Fasten these sprockets on the outside of the wheels as shown in Fig. 1. They can be set on over the bearing end and secured with a set screw, or the original key can be employed. ”

“ EVOLUTION OF THE BICYCLE—1816 TO 1899. “The nothing of the day is a machine called the Velocipede. It is a wheel carriage to ride cock-horse upon, sitting astride and pushing it along with the toes, a rudder wheel in the hand. ”

“ Lift a bevel-gear bicycle free from the ground, give one of the pedals a sharp push, and the wheel spins with such ease, rapidity and smoothness that the novice is always surprised. There is no swaying and jump; there is no noise. Even neglect can have no influence on the effectiveness of the bevel-gear wheel, but will simply concern its appearance.
It should be said here that the Columbia pattern is distinctive—as the cuts show—in a very novel method of attaching the rear wheel to the frame and providing for its easy removal and replacement. ”

“ Here is a little object lesson in gear ratio as heretofore explained; the actual wheel was to be 28 inches, while it was to run per each pedal revolution as far as a directly connected wheel of 224 feet would run. Such a construction might be a little heavy, but there would be a difficulty with it in practice; it would probably require ten or twelve horse-power to drive, while a bicycle rider has only one man-power. A like difficulty prevents our flying with the birds, for wings could be easily made and attached. ”

“ This, of course, necessitates a great many joints, and as joints of thin material, whether sheet metal or celluloid, cannot be perfectly made to exclude dust and driving rains, and as such joints are always more or less noisy when a bicycle is in use, they are not even yet satisfied with the gear case, but realize its great usefulness, even when only partially efficient, so that it has become a fixture on nearly every English wheel. ”

“ In the present type the driving axle is a third, independent of the wheels, and the wheel hubs are either turned from the solid steel bar or drop-forged from steel, or formed from steel tube, the “bike metal” casting being kept very quiet in this as in other portions, or else reserved for the people who suggest that the cheapest way to procure a bicycle is to buy ready made parts and “build” one’s own. ”

“ Bicycle Propulsion.—So much has been invented for and said about bicycles, that it seems strange that anything is left to say or to do, yet here is a very novel idea. It is not so very long since wind and water were the only motor powers, but those days are so clearly superseded that it is quite a surprising suggestion that a wind-wheel be attached to bicycles. ”

“ The Rochester wheelmen debated the question, ‘Why does a bicycle stand up while rolling and fall down as soon as onward motion ceases?’ The answer decided to be correct was, that ‘the bottom of the wheel can have no side motion because it rests on the ground ”

“ At several points along the route we were delayed on this account. At last the front and rear parts of the machine became entirely separated. There was no such thing as steel to be found in the country, no tools fit to work with, and no one who knew the first principles of soldering. After endeavoring to convince the native blacksmiths that a delicate bicycle would not stand pounding like a Chinese cart-wheel, we took the matter into our own hands. ”

“ Roads must be, indeed, in a dreadful condition if space for one wheel to be driven easily over them cannot be found. The bicyclist can scorch in triumph along the tiniest footpath, while the tricyclist trudges on foot, pushing her three wheels through the mud or sand. Moreover, there is less resistance to the wind, and in touring, it is far easier to dispose of the small light safety than of the wider machine when you put up in a little inn at night, or are forced for a time to take the train. Many a night in Germany, Austria, and Hungary did my bicycle share my bedroom with me. ”