Velocio was inventor of the floating chain, Blake rode with him in 1913 an became a convert to the floating chain. Velocio abandoned the floating chain in 1919. Blake wrote an article in the CTC Gazette in 1915 promoting the floating chain, in comparison to the BSA 3 speed hub. The Brits of the era considered derailleurs a French plot to destroy good English cycle chains by running them in a less then perfect straight line.
Source VCC Cycling History #3, Vernon Blake. Which includes a Cycling article from 1919, showing how to setup a floating chain bike, nicely illustrated. On Saturday, September 23, 2023 at 3:25:48 PM UTC-4 Patrick Moore wrote: > The Vernon Blake article is worth a read: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/epicyclo/albums/72157626583588000 > > 30 lb, 6 speeds with 46/38/24 chainrings welded to the crank spider, 16 > and 18 cogs on either side of the hub, and no "change-gear" or chain slack > takeup, instead a roller to keep the chain on the cog of choice, > "decrocheurs" to skim mud off the cogs, paper thin 50 mm tires, hollow > steel cranks, oil bath bearings, canti brakes, 400 gram lamp, and a 30 lb > weight. > > And Mr. Blake is at the time of this 1930 feature an elder cycling > statesman looking back to the 1890s for solutions to modern problems. > > > On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 12:01 PM Scott G. <nation...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Who needs sticks or tin cans, you can make a floating chain drive train, >> like Vernon Blake. The Veteran Cycle Club put out neat little book on >> Mr. Blake, >> worth hunting down. >> >> >> https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/gravelbiking-its-nothing-new-you-know/ >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bf1c12b4-a107-40d9-aa1b-ead50fefbbc1n%40googlegroups.com.
