On Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:50:05 GMT,
[email protected] (Király) wrote:
>[email protected] wrote:
>> The brake lever shows that the photo is not reversed--all spoon brakes
>> were on the right.
>>
>> The _drive_ is on the wrong side, meaning the chain.
>
>Oops! Now I feel silly for not noticing that.
Dear K,
To be fair, the monster spoon-brake lever on the right is what catches
the viewer's attention in that picture, not the sprocket.
I felt considerably sillier recently--I must have seen spoon brake
levers before in various books, but somehow I never really noticed
them until James Thomson posted a link to this picture:
http://woment.mur.at/images/GrazerDamenBicycleClub.jpg
The actual spoons are small and hidden behind the enormous tires, so I
was baffled by the enormous levers. Kinder and better-informed RBT
regulars had to explain the obvious to me.
I don't know why the spoon brake levers are always on the right, but
it seems to be a rigid custom. Maybe someone will find a picture
showing a left-hand spoon brake lever, but I'll want to check the
buttons on any clothes in the photograph, lest it be a reversed
photograph like the famous one of Billy the Kid.
It may be just a matter of the right hand usually being stronger and
the huge but primitive brake demanding a python-like squeeze to
produce any results. Despite the giant lever, the spoon just presses
down on the top of the tire, unlike modern pads pushing toward each
other from the side.
I long to sneak a push-down spoon brake into either a wheel-ejection
thread or else introduce the monster levers into a debate about
handlebars fatiguing.
Cheers,
Carl Fogel