Curious Components - Engineering Extravaganza

What are curious components?
Well, I guess it is something that made it out of the Hacks and Bodges thread to become an actually manufactured bike part or prototype only to end up in Noahs Ark or the Bike Innovation thread.
However, rather than whole bikes featuring the latest stupid idea from somebody who never rode a bike but wants to cash in on the amazing lifestyle and freedom cycling offers (marketing terms) we want to look at "older" parts. Something that seemed to fulfil a niche at some point or was engineered in a seemingly superior or just cool and curious way.

From what I've seen around here these threads now need a list of rules in order to be valid. So here we go:

1. Posted components shouldn't be something that is or was widely adopted
   
2. We are talking components only. Please no weird folding bikes or aero space nasa crabon frames
   
3. Over-engineered mechanical components are prefered over new electronic bs
   
4. Weird artisan CNC porn is highly encouraged
   
5. Single image posts are equally valid as deep dives with background knowledge where available
   
6. We are not super serious here. Just post cool and curious shit.
   
   

I am going to kick this off with the White Industries LMDS (Linear Motion Derailleur System).
A neatly designed derailleur that would move on two rails left and right controlled by a double cable pull.
Some more background can be found on Disraeli Gears and on this blog. There was also one for sale on retrobike a while back with some nice detail pictures.

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basically this? https://www.instagram.com/bike_crap/

It’s not bling or flashy but serves its purpose well and presumably a one man band shed business.
Fucking love a BikeBuddy cage. I’ve got the studs mounted on a few bikes so can attach fuel/thermos as needed.
Bike Buddy

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PMP L Cranks

Expanding chainring cranks, e.g., the Hagen All-Speed

Source: http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/2016/01/new-is-old-again-expanding-chainring.html

Been on my watch list for, like, 3 years...

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Dyna drive coolness

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Rotor RS4 crank system. Before they adopted non circular chainrings, rotor developed these cranks which have an integrated cam mechanism that alters the phasing of the cranks arms through their rotation so that when one foot reaches the dead spot at the bottom of the crank stroke, the other foot has already passed 12 o'clock and is under power, essentially removing the deadspot and debatably increasing power

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And then they realised they could just make the chainrings oval?
THAT is exactly the stuff I am talking about :D!

Oh, I love this!

I don't have information about these but the cable pull looks interesting.
Source

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frontlight-beam adjuster;
https://www.facebook.com/551334108337363/videos/892998324170938/
from TimTas&Rek

https://youtu.be/VAlFpcph1LM

https://road.cc/content/feature/retro-l-shaped-cranks-bad-idea-just-wont-die-181256

Before Rotor over-engineered their little mistake, L cranks were all the rage for power transfer (although unlike the Rotor cranks, these INARGUABLY didn't work)

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L-cranks boggle my mind. How they ever got beyond the sketch on a napkin phase... /headdesk

🔅

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I'll throw a couple more on here:
Shimano Positron: the original index shifting for the masses (ignoring Sturmey Archer et al) where a solid metal wire both pushed and pulled the springless rear derailleur.

This cool system is the bane of shop mechanics who have to explain that, yes, the customer will have to replace the entire shifting because parts don't exist and no, we can't just "throw a cable on it"

Shimano Front Freewheel System (FFS)

This aptly-acronymic system included a fixed rear gear cluster and a crank-mounted freewheel. This made it so the drive train was always in motion whenever the bike was in motion. The idea was so that a rider could shift while coasting, but maybe having the chainrings always spinning during the time of bootcut and bellbottom pants wasn't the best idea. Most common on old Schwinns.

I'd like to see how the RD fared when the chain jammed on a front shift, lol.

Seen some parts around, but I'll probably never get a chance to ride this system...

Honestly there's no difference. The shifters were cheap friction shifters on bikes weighing 45 lbs. Any half-decent rider on this forum pedals their bike more than not, and it turns out that pedaling while shifting is a pretty easy skill to learn, so much so that most riders don't think about it.

The rear wheel freewheel could still freewheel but had greater drag than the crank freewheel. If the chain started to jam up (e.g. fell between the crank and chainring), the rear freewheel started working. I only ever worked on a bike with this system once. ‘Designed to a price’.

Jan Heine's entire PBP bike might count - featuring a twin cable push/pull chainstay mounted rear derailleur completely reproduced from an old & forgotten design and a push rod front derailleur attached to a pole

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Ive got a few spare "cables", and maybe a shifter and a derailleur somewhere back home in Hungary :) Those were already like a decade old when I was born...

http://www.debromptonwinkel.nl/index.html

debromptonwinkel

We need more winkels.