D'oh!
I'd browsed past these photos before, but I didn't notice that the
forks are reversed to let the rider get a tiny bit closer when
drafting a pacer:
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/Card3.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/Card4.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/Card5.jpg
I haven't found a picture of a reversed fork in action yet, but these
pictures show how close the rider with a straight fork was to the back
of the pacer, and the small front wheel that helped him get an inch or
two closer:
http://www.oldbike.com/walthour3.jpg
Same rider, reversed fork, but no pacer:
http://www.oldbike.com/walthour.jpg
***
Pictures of tandem motorcycle pacers puzzled me:
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/motorcycle2.jpg
Why the hell would you need two men on a _motorized_ pacer?
I always assumed that it was a matter of the big guy on the back being
able to sit up straight as far back as possible. Imagine the draft
behind a small woman (wife or girlfriend) perched in the middle of a
Vespa. Now imagine Chalo perched on the license plate of a modern
motorcycle.
But more draft is only part of the reason for putting two men on an
early motor pacer, where a windshield would have been cheaper and
simpler than an extra rider.
The text here explains the real reason for the early two-man pacers:
"He [Walthour] purchased a motor tandem from the Orient Cycle Company
in Waltham, Mass. to use in the races. It was a huge machine weighing
nearly 300 pounds and geared to 170 inches. With each turn of the
cranks it would travel half a block. It was the first motorized
machine in the state of Georgia. The purpose of being a tandem was so
that one man could steer while the other would operate the motor."
http://www.oldbike.com/Walthour.html
The first motorcycle pacers were so clunky and awkward that they
needed a pilot and an engineer!
Later pacers were improved so that the rider could sit upright and
all the way back for good drafting, but still steer and run the engine
single-handed. Here's a more modern single-seater:
http://www.printsoldandrare.com/bicycles/145bike.jpg
They often wore heavy knee-length coats. The coats might have helped
if it was cold, zooming around a track at high speed just sitting on a
motorcycle, while the bicyclist behind was out of the wind and stayed
warm by pedaling. But the long dusters probably also improved the
draft for the bicyclist.
Here's another two-man with an engine operator behind the pilot:
http://www.nostalgic.net/index.asp?S=arc/pre1920/1901+bicycle+racing+postcard%2Ejpg
Notice that the engine above is so feeble that the pilot has pedals to
help get it all going--another reason for two men.
In the picture below, an Orient tandem with stoker, circa 1900, _both_
engineer and pilot have pedals to get the thing going:
http://www.statnekov.com/motorcycles/book-photos/orient-tandem-pacer.jpg
A similar Hedstrom tandem pacer with pedals for all hands (sorry,
couldn't resist it):
http://www.statnekov.com/motorcycles/book-photos/hedstrom-tandem-pacer.jpg
The next five pictures show similar tandem pacers with pedals for both
the engineer and the pilot to help the huge but feeble engine:
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/i1_B_L.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/i1_B_L2.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/i1_B_L3.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/i1_B_L4.jpg
http://www.oldbike.com/Photo%20Gallery/i1_B_L5.jpg
Note in the first two pictures how the bicyclist literally uses his
head--instead of a back bar preventing him from running into the rear
wheel, he just leans his forehead against the back of the engineer
sitting bolt upright on the back of the pacer.
It took wives on Vespas about a century to replace all this.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel