Bike trends that went out of fashion

[Alex H]

Handlebar bottle holders

Complete with bottles sporting plastic tube 'straws'

 

[spen666]

Frenchmen wining the Tour de France seems to have been out of fashion for many years

 

[petek]

The bottom end of your back mudguard HAD to be painted white.
That's gone.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The bottom end of your back mudguard HAD to be painted white.
That's gone.

The patch became law on 18th October 1934, under the ‘Road Traffic Acts 1930 to 1934, the Pedal Cycles (White Surface) Provisional Regulations’
https://thefrugalcyclist.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/white-tail-english-mudguards-aka-fenders/

 

[petek]

My first proper two-wheel bike was a Raleigh and that had a white bottom end to the back mudguard.
That said it came second hand.
I seem to remember reading or being told that the relevant law ended in 1954. I was born in 52 and got that bike for my 7th birthday.
It was like new.
People looked after their bikes in those days.

 

[Gasman]

Oval/square chainrings, right angled cranks, shaft drive, automatic transmission.

Maybe not fashions as such but they keep being 'rediscovered' from time to time

 

[Dogtrousers]

My first proper two-wheel bike was a Raleigh and that had a white bottom end to the back mudguard.
That said it came second hand.
I seem to remember reading or being told that the relevant law ended in 1954. I was born in 52 and got that bike for my 7th birthday.
It was like new.
People looked after their bikes in those days.

And here, from Hansard in 1953, are discussions of the repeal of the white surfaces regulation:

LORD LEWELLIN: The comparatively small areas of white surface involved now appear, after experiment, not to give any effective extra safeguard, and I am told that the technical advisers of the Ministry have come to the conclusion that that is an unnecessary provision. If it gives a false sense pf security, it is better repealed rather than that people should be put to the trouble of painting these surfaces white when, in effect, they do no good.​

 

[petek]

And here, from Hansard in 1953, are discussions of the repeal of the white surfaces regulation:

LORD LEWELLIN: The comparatively small areas of white surface involved now appear, after experiment, not to give any effective extra safeguard, and I am told that the technical advisers of the Ministry have come to the conclusion that that is an unnecessary provision. If it gives a false sense pf security, it is better repealed rather than that people should be put to the trouble of painting these surfaces white when, in effect, they do no good.​

We had proper legislators deliberating on stuff that actually mattered back in those days.

 

[raleighnut]

Those big butterfly nuts that those of us who couldn't afford QRs used in place of wheel nuts.

I've got a lovely set on the front wheel of my Raleigh Equipe

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Wonder lights. These were very popular in the 1980s and easy to attach and detach, so that the front light made a very handy torch.

Yes I had Wonderlights, they ran off a doorbell battery and you'd have been better off with candles on the bike, I can't believe I trained down pitch black lanes with them on the bike. The plastic brackets would go brittle after 12-18 months then shatter when you put the lights on the bike.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Chain guards

 

[KnackeredBike]

Penny farthings seem to be scarce recently.

I have always idly wondered, if your normal bike was broken and you only had a penny farthing at at back of the shed - could you use it for a utility ride? If you could avoid stopping, have somewhere suitable to mount and dismount and legs for the extreme fixed gearing?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Cycling capes

 

[palinurus]

[QUOTE 4975852, member: 259"]Still very popular in countries where cycling is very popular.[/QUOTE]

I'd love a reasonably lightweight commute bike with a chaincase.

 

[palinurus]

Cycling capes

True, I buck the trend a few times a year though.