Cycling related things that are not seen any more...

[youngoldbloke]

What about the inner tubes( early TdF style) worn around the body?!

Not inner tubes but Tyres - tubulars or 'tubs'. No support vehicles allowed so if you punctured you ripped the tub off the rim and crossed tour fingers that there was enough glue left to hold the fresh tyre on. (see also the OP re Walls (or similar company) ice cream flag used under the saddle as a tool/spares roll. Commonly also used to wrap your spare tub, and held under the saddle with a spare leather toestrap).

 

[YahudaMoon]

You mean like this. I have had this one since the '70's and it is still in regular use, and miraculously, dent free.

I clocked one in our community bins only a few weeks back, I was somewhat happy with my vintage Afa french bicycle pump

A few weeks later my new £25 Zefal high pressure pump flew of my bike, as I went to retrieve it a car went over it oh well.........

 

[Venod]

Wheel spindle wing nuts

 

[youngoldbloke]

Sew on YHA badges on your saddlebag, along with those embroidered sew on badges from all the interesting places you visited.

 

[MossCommuter]

Does anyone remember those "child seats" that were effectively a mini-saddle attached to the cross-bar, so that the child sat in front of dad?

I remember ours, I don't remember riding on it but I remember my "little" (now 38 year old) brother on it.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Bike brake lights

 

[snailracer]

The brackets were truly awful.
How on earth can it have been that the technology of bike lights remained so archaic for so very very long. In the 80s and even into the 90s there were mostly these things which hadn't really changed in their basic design since the end of world war two. Just what the hell was going on? It makes no sense.

Despite the development of halogen bulbs and white LEDs, most bike lights are still rubbish. Even the expensive ones are often rubbish for road use, because they have poor beam shape.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Despite the development of halogen bulbs and white LEDs, most bike lights are still rubbish. Even the expensive ones are often rubbish for road use, because they have poor beam shape.

What is going on then. Surely with bulb and battery technology as it is there should be some good lights out there for a fair price.

 

[snailracer]

What is going on then. Surely with bulb and battery technology as it is there should be some good lights out there for a fair price.

It is about the lenses/optics, rather than bulbs or batteries.
The mass-market for decent bike lights has been cannibalized by cheapo rubbish lights, at least that's how I see it in the UK.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

You mean like this. I have had this one since the '70's and it is still in regular use, and miraculously, dent free.

Yes that's the one - was it called a Bluemel or similar? Or is my old brain confusing me?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Also short 'racer' mudguards - about 8" long.

 

[compo]

Yes that's the one - was it called a Bluemel or similar? Or is my old brain confusing me?

That's correct, Bluemels. lovely pumps and very efficient, only problem is the metal is very thin and only too easy to dent.

 

[Davidc]

That's correct, Bluemels. lovely pumps and very efficient, only problem is the metal is very thin and only too easy to dent.

Bluemels also made mudguards. Originally from the same wafer thin ali alloy, then from plastic. SKS still make mudguards under that brand name.

I had one of those pumps until the end of the '90s but it got bent in a crash. I could get 100psi with that pump, but can't get near that with any hand pump I've used since.

I still use trouser clips. I have one pair my grandfather passed to me - wartime so half the width of any normal ones but made of excellent spring steel, and another pair I bough when I picked up a new Peugeot bike in Southampton in 1976, again good spring steel. Both are much better quality than the steel now used.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Had one of those pumps too in the 1960s, mine had a Campag push on chuck. You had to buy the correct length pump for your frame, and the ONLY position for it was inside the frame triangle on the seat tube!

 

[compo]

Had one of those pumps too in the 1960s, mine had a Campag push on chuck. You had to buy the correct length pump for your frame, and the ONLY position for it was inside the frame triangle on the seat tube!

Whilst I am inclined to agree about pump length and positioning I had the pump many years before my present bike. It is too long to fit inside the frame anywhere so has to go where it will!