The Walkling is a very attractive proposition. As Bb suggests, that front derailleur must have been really cutting edge when this machine was new. I understand it was common practice to shift the chain by hand (or foot!) between chainrings
Although we don't know the size of the sprockets, it looks as though they would give a useful range of gears, which was not common back then. I note the three speed block has a big size gap between the middle and bottom sprockets - all the triples I've come across recently have the same gap (either two or three teeth) which doesn't make sense to me, because surely you need a low bottom gear to climb and reasonably close gears for the flat. It's not necessary, I believe, to have a large number of gears as long as you've got the right ones when you need them. I think this Walkling would do that job well.
However, I would not choose to ride it downhill in the rain with those steel rims and ancient Resilion brake blocks and cables!
This bike is an original version of my 'Cyclo Bike' (pic a long way back in this column): mine is an attempt to imitate this one.
The Walkling is a very attractive proposition. As Bb suggests, that front derailleur must have been really cutting edge when this machine was new. I understand it was common practice to shift the chain by hand (or foot!) between chainrings
Although we don't know the size of the sprockets, it looks as though they would give a useful range of gears, which was not common back then. I note the three speed block has a big size gap between the middle and bottom sprockets - all the triples I've come across recently have the same gap (either two or three teeth) which doesn't make sense to me, because surely you need a low bottom gear to climb and reasonably close gears for the flat. It's not necessary, I believe, to have a large number of gears as long as you've got the right ones when you need them. I think this Walkling would do that job well.
However, I would not choose to ride it downhill in the rain with those steel rims and ancient Resilion brake blocks and cables!
This bike is an original version of my 'Cyclo Bike' (pic a long way back in this column): mine is an attempt to imitate this one.