Pre 1950s rides of LFGSS: old bikes, vintage rats, classic lightweights

The gearing and for that matter the braking system is staggeringly elaborate. I would love to see it in action.

You’re correct about the brakes. They are complex, but when properly set up they work as well as anything else I’ve used. They had a long run as the best brake available, starting in the late twenties (I think) and continuing up to about 1960 and were particularly favoured, as I remember, by the CTC and tandem riders.

The Cyclo Standard dérailleur also had a long life, from 1932 (according to the Disraeli Gears website) and they were still widely used up to the late fifties. The mech is robust and runs quietly with very little noticeable friction. The long arm allows it to cater for a big jump on the chain rings. Its weak point is the control cable which has to be the right one for the mech and lever – if not set up correctly it will get damaged, and you’ll probably end up back at Venhill engineering. The DG site shows an earlier (1912) mech –‘Le Chemineau’ which looks remarkably similar!

The front changer is a modern ‘Altus’, because that is all I have available, but front changers don’t seem to be all that fussy – I have used an old Campag ‘cigarette packet’ changer with 32/44 rings and that worked perfectly.

I certainly hope you will see the bike in action and in the flesh, but there doesn’t seem much chance in the near future. I know it’s not really what you meant, but for the time being I offer these two pics of the bike on the Cote de Wanne which is a little south of Stavelot on the Liege – Bastogne – Liege course.
Second pic on another post.

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