Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi

[mpemburn]

We are the beneficiaries of a long legacy of innovation in bicycle design. Imagine how it must have been in the early days of racing when the bicycles of the champions featured only a single chainring and cog—and yet they climbed mountains!

I ran across this article in my news feed a few months ago, and was amazed to learn about one of the earliest innovations in “derailleur” design. It was both ingenious and jaw-droppingly difficult to operate. Read and be edified.

https://cycling.today/retro-pro-bike-fausto-coppis-bianchi/

 

[Ian H]

An old friend had a Roubaix gear, like that, in the early 50s. He said his clubmates, riding fixed-wheel, had to push him along whilst he changed gear so they didn't drop him.

 

[Specialeyes]

The picture is a 'Due Leve' Cambio Corsa changer, which was Tulio's first successful stab at a gear change, though the article is about the Una Leva Paris-Roubaix changer. One of the issues with Cambio Corsa, apart from the simple difficulty in the contortions required to reach the bloody thing, is that because the chain tension is applied simply by the rider's weight pushing the rear axle back up the angled dropouts heavier riders tend to force the chain back so hard that the chain becomes too tight. (DAMHIKT! )

Apart from the elegance of reducing it down to one lever with the part-QR-part-fork-controller of the Paris-Roubaix, the never-mentioned genius of the Paris-Roubaix changer is that the outside of the housing is a fine-tooth cog, which as you tighten the QR having changed gear, is backed off about 1mm by a 'claw' during the last part of the lever's throw. It brings the chain back to perfect tension - bloody genius.

My bike above. Edited to add this close-up below

You can see both the retensioning 'claw' and the splined axle, which mates with teeth in the angled dropouts to keep the wheel square-on while the QR is released and the whole wheel sliding backwards/forwards as you change gear. Just don't pedal forwards, or you land in an expensive heap!

 

[GuyBoden]

Getting off your bike and pushing it uphill was common place in the early Tours of Britain (Milk Race).

 

[ColinJ]

Getting off your bike and pushing it uphill was common place in the early Tours of Britain (Milk Race).

Indeed...!

The Milk Race went up local climb 'Mytholm Steeps' once in the 1980s. I got chatting to a local cyclist who had been standing on the steepest section (see my photos below) and he said that spectators were having to catch the cyclists as they toppled sideways, their feet still strapped onto their pedals. They certainly weren't climbing well on their 21s - ha ha!

 

[tinywheels]

the early tour boys were hard as nails.
we can only only wonder how they got over the mountains
the history of this race is truly great reading
one of the reasons I ride the brompton is I get a kick out of hauling it over routes normal riders consider it unsuitable for.
I feel my pain connecting me to those early riders lol

 

[Ian H]

There was also a later version with the chain hook on the lower chain run, so that you pedalled forwards to change.