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  • What a fabulous photo - thanks for sharing - is he a friend of yours?
    I can also confirm that mine will never move as quickly as Doug's did

  • It's almost impossible to be involved in West London cyclesport and not know Doug.

    Although I've known him almost all my cycling life, our friendship has grown over the past decade through our Pedal Club connection (he was my mentor). I have the 1952 pic in my archive because I'd scanned it for him for the Pedal Club website (http://thepedalclub.org/ ).

    The Dawes

    You've certainly created an interesting machine. I'd like to hear how well that derailleur actually works - I have discussed this subject with a clubmate ( a highly competent bike mechanic) who was old enough to have dealt with single pulley gears when they were current, and his view was that they were pretty hopeless. Yes, they could just about be made to change onto all three sprockets, but they were never very reliable.

    It looks as though you have 3/32" chain and sprockets - I didn't know that ever existed for 3 speed blocks. Do you think the jockey wheel was intended for 3/32" or has it just worn thin?

    As for only having three gears, I have two bikes in use like this (although one cheats by having a double chain ring ) and I find it's quite satisfactory - as long as the gears you have are the ones you need for that day's ride. I think your block is 16 -18- 20, and with a 52 ring I'm not sure what sort of riding those gears would suit.

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