Bicycle Terminology

I read a comment on a news article where someone described themselves as an “Avid Cycler.”

I’m sorry, if you call yourself a “Cycler” you are not an avid bike rider, which I think is what you were trying to say. The term is “Avid Cyclist.”

You could be an Avid Recycler if you collect old newspapers, and plastic bottles, but that’s a whole different story.

George Bernard Shaw once described England and The United States as, "Two countries separated by a common language." As well as using different words for the same object, people tend to make stuff up if they don't know the correct term. I read an ad on Craig’s List where a person selling a bicycle described it as having:

“Covers over the wheels, so you won’t get your clothes wet when riding in the rain.”

They are called “Mudguards.” In America most call them “Fenders,” which is also acceptable. At least we know what you are talking about. In this case I never would have known had there not been a photograph of said bike, sporting mudguards.

When I first came to the US in 1979, there was a whole different vocabulary for bicycle parts that drove me crazy.

People called a handlebar stem (Left.) a “Gooseneck.” If I ever saw a goose with a neck shaped like that, it was one sick bird.

A spanner was called a wrench, now some call it a spanner wrench. One of those words is obsolete, and back in the day, Americans would insist on calling a saddle, a “Seat.”

The fact that a saddle was attached to a seat post, or seat pillar in the UK, which in turn slid into a seat tube on the frame, was neither here nor there. I wasn’t around for that planning meeting.

Before we had freewheel cassettes, the old screw-on five and six speed freewheels were called a freewheel “Block.” Back in 1979 in the US they called them a “Cluster.” Talking of Freewheels, the opposite is a Fixed-wheel, not a Fixed-gear, and never Fixie, unless you’re a newbie avid cycler.

Some terms have never changed, Campagnolo was always abbreviated to “Campag” in the UK, in the US it is “Campy.” (In the UK Campy could be mistaken for a certain way of walking.) I never abbreviate the name, that way I am correct on both sides of the pond.

Tubular tires, (Or is it Tyres?) in the UK were “Sprints and Tubs.” Sprints referring to the sprint rims, and tubs being short for tubulars. In the US they are “Sewups,” which no longer drives me crazy, although it does make me a tiny bit uncomfortable.

Then the “Hipster” crowd started calling them “Tubies,” which like Fixies is kind of ‘cute,’ but what does drive me stark raving bonkers, was the hipster element referring to toe-clips as “Cages.”

They have always been “Toe-clips,” on both sides of the Atlantic. It was the one word for a bicycle part that didn’t get bastardized in translation.

They have been abandoned by most branches on the sport for clip-less pedals. (There is a clue, right there.) Anyone who calls them cages should be locked up in one.

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Wash your hands, and don’t panic

The recent events have caused me to think back to sometime around October 1957 when I was 21 years old.

I dealt with the worst case of flu, or for that matter the worst illness I have ever suffered.

It was caused by a worldwide pandemic known as the Asian Flu.

Politically incorrect today, but if I used its other name of H2N2 virus, few would know what I meant or understand the impact it had at the time.

I lived in a boarding house in North London, located in a huge Victorian brick and stone building. I lived on the fourth floor, and as heating was by an individual gas fire in each room, when everyone in the house had their gas fire on, there was so little gas pressure on the fourth floor that heating may as well been from a candle. A bucket of drinking water I kept in the room would sometimes freeze overnight in winter.

As well as renting a single room, the owner of the home provided breakfast and dinner which we ate in a communal dining room. There was also a shared sitting room with a TV. When the virus hit, it quickly spread though almost all the residents.

I was not hospitalized but stayed in my room, and do not remember even seeing a doctor. I was given aspirin by my landlady, and food was left on a plate outside my door, where it mostly stayed overnight as I was too weak to get out of bed to go get it.

I ran a high fever and my sheets and bedding were soaking wet from sweat. My landlady would come in every day, help me out of bed and down one floor to use the bathroom. She would then change my bedding, and try to get me to eat something, or at least drink some water.

In the early stages I was either in a semi-coma, or delirious with the room seemingly spinning around. I felt like I was about to die, and one knows they are really sick when they feel that death would be a blessed relief, and they care little for the outcome either way.

I remember at least one person died in this boarding house, a nice old gentleman named Mr. Edwards, whom I had got to know quite well. Altogether some 14,000 people died in the UK, 100.000 in the US, and estimates vary worldwide between one and two million.

Looking back on these events, I can’t help but compare the situation then and now. For those of us who grew up in the 1930s and 1940s, getting seriously ill was almost a way of life. Throughout our childhood we would catch at least one (Sometimes two.) contagious diseases every year.

Mumps, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, and German measles went though entire schools, towns and villages alike. I had them all at different times throughout my childhood except German measles.

My mother, born in 1897, lived through even worse diseases. Typhoid fever, smallpox, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. Plus, the Spanish Flu of 1918 and 1919 that killed 50 million people worldwide.

Catching the Asian Flu at the age of 21 was just part of life that had to be dealt with. We knew it was coming, it had been on TV and the radio, and in all the newspapers, but life went on as normal. But back then news casters simply read the news, and the big difference was, they didn’t express opinions, and above all they didn’t express political opinions.

No one blamed the government, the then prime minister Harold McMillan, or President Eisenhour. Trains and busses kept running, people flew on airplanes. Businesses did not close, and people did not view everyone else with suspicion and bump elbows instead of shaking hands.

Looking back, I wonder, were we too complacent? Possibly, had I washed my hands a few more times, and avoided eating in the communal dining room, I may, or may not have become infected.

I can tell you what I was not. I was never at any time fearful of catching the flu. Neither were most people as I recall.

The difference was, we didn’t have news 24/7, and we did not have cell-phones or the Internet. How many times a day do I need to be told to wash my hands?

Governments are placing restrictions on everything but the news media, where restriction is needed. Tell us what we need to know, and give us some other news, not just the coronavirus.

Take precautions, but don’t panic. Look out for your elderly neighbor, go buy their groceries so they don’t have to go out. If you get the coronavirus it will be unpleasant, but it probably won’t kill you.

In spite of receiving no medical attention what-so-ever, and only being checked on once a day, the Asian Flu didn’t kill me at 21, and along with all those other childhood diseases, it probably helped me build a strong immune system that will serve me well now I need it in my eighties.

When this is over, and we compare this pandemic with past ones. Possibly the numbers will be better and there will be fewer infections and deaths. However, the way it was handled could be greatly improved.

Was it really necessary to throw the whole world's population into a panic?

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It all started with the bicycle

Modern road and air transport owe a great deal to the bicycle and to those who experimented on perfecting it.

Some thirty years before the first automobile was built, innovations appeared on bicycles, many of which are built into the design of powered transport today. A few of them are:

•   Pneumatic tires
•   Cable control brakes and other units
•   Ball Bearings
•   Free wheels
•   Differential gears
•   Chain drives
•   Shaft drives
•   Variable gears – the foundation of the transmission

Equally important contributions were improvements in the specifications of metals, also changes came about in machine tools, engineering techniques, and in production methods.

Many of the people who designed and manufactured bicycles went on the design and build the first automobiles. American aviation pioneers Orville and Wilber Wright designed bicycles in their Dayton, Ohio factory that subsequently became a proving ground for airplane components.

Today, bicycle advocates must lobby government to maintain the cyclist’s rights to be on the road. Many forget it was similar bicycle advocates who were instrumental in getting roads paved in the first place at the turn of the last century. Paved roads that were suitable for the introduction of the automobile.

The bicycle came into being as a viable form of transport and for many years was recognized and accepted as such. Somehow over the years the bicycle became relegated to the status of a recreational toy.

The next time you are sitting on an airplane, or you see an eighteen-wheeler truck hauling the nation’s supplies along our highways, you might do well to remember it all began with the humble bicycle

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The Redheaded Stepchild

Cyclists have always been society’s “Redheaded Stepchild;” unloved and abused throughout history. The above picture is titled, "The Unrestrained Demon of the Wheel,” published in “The Judge,” Sept. 23, 1893, reflects the attitude of the day.

Since the invention of the ordinary, or high-wheeler in the late 1800s, when horse drawn carriages were the transport of the day. It was the wealthy classes who owned carriages, and bicycles scared the horses.

It was not uncommon for a coach driver to lash out at a passing cyclist with his horsewhip, and pedestrians were not above putting a walking stick through a rider’s wheel.

Bicycles were expensive and initially cycling was a sport of the wealthy, but it was a young man’s pastime and even wealthy young men were viewed with disdain by the older generation.

Cycling was initially banned in places in England as being too dangerous. However, being a “rich man’s sport,” the ban was short lived. By 1880 there were 213 established cycling clubs in the UK. Remember, this was before the invention of the “Safety Bicycle” in 1885, and the pneumatic tire in 1888.

With the invention of the “safety” bicycle, and mass production that followed, it really changed the face of the sport, and people’s attitude to it. Cycling became affordable to the working classes and it quickly became both a pastime and a mode of transport of the masses.

In England the wealthy who lived on large country estates, suddenly found their space invaded on the weekends by the working classes on their bicycles as they ventured outside the cities for the first time to explore the countryside.

 Cycling was no longer a pastime for the wealthy, in fact to ride a bicycle was now a definite sign of being lower class.

The privileged upper classes looked for new ways to reclaim the highways again; of course, they found it in the form of the automobile.

However, the resentment towards cyclists, by the upper classes, was already established long before the automobile arrived.

The invention of the pneumatic tire meant there was an explosion in the sport of cycle racing. And nothing will disrupt a quiet Sunday drive to church by the local gentry, like a bike race. This led to a ban in England of mass start road racing in 1894; a ban that would last until the 1950s.

The result was road racing never developed in the UK as it did in the rest of Europe. In countries like France, Holland, Belgium, and Italy cyclists receive respect and toleration because of the popularity of cycle road racing in those countries. The general public on the continent of Europe has become used to seeing cyclists racing and training on the highways.

The only competitive events open to British cyclists were track racing, of course limited to those close to a track. A few mass start circuit races in private parks, and individual time trials, which would become the mainstay of British cycling competition.

It is interesting to note that in 1894, as road racing was banned in England as being too dangerous; the first motor race was held on public roads in France. This led to almost ten years of absolute carnage as racecars quickly developed to reach speeds of 100 mph (Without the brakes, steering and road surfaces to match these speeds.) and there was wholesale slaughter of both spectators and drivers.

The attitude of the wealthy was no doubt one of, what were the deaths of a few of the peasant class, as long as they could enjoy their sport? Much the same state of affairs existed in the United States; it was the privileged who initially drove cars. They set the rules of accepted behavior and attitudes, which still exist today.

Is this not still the attitude now? “What is the death or injury of a few, as long as I can drive as fast as I like, and in a manner that suits me?” Of course, no one intends for people to die, but behave in a certain way and the inevitable will happen. And if a cyclist or pedestrian gets hit, no real concern, just the question, “What were they doing on the road anyway?”

When Henry Ford made cars available to the masses, naturally they expected to drive to the same standards set by their wealthy predecessors. All road safety legislation since has been aimed at protecting the person inside the car, with little thought going into the protection of other road users, namely pedestrians and cyclists.

Those of us today exercising our rights by riding our bike on the public highways should not despair. However, we should be realistic and recognize that current attitudes of the general public have been formed over a 100 years, or more; change will continue, but slowly.

In the mean time we will remain the Redheaded Stepchild, and should expect the abuse to continue until further notice..

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What’s in a Logo

What do you see when you look at the head tube logo on my custom frames?

Many people see a tic-tac-toe or the pound symbol you see on a telephone keypad.

If this is what you see, you are looking at the blank space inside the logo.

It is simply four lower case letter “m” placed north, south, east, and west in the form of a cross.

During the 1970s in England there were strict rules regarding the amateur status of athletes, especially Olympic athletes. No sponsorship was allowed, and I could not advertise the fact that a few 'World Class' cyclists were riding my bikes. One way around this was to have my name prominently displayed on the frame.

I did this in a simple typeface similar to that used on British road signs, easy to read and distinctive in my name being spelled out in all lower case letters.

A picture of a leading cyclist riding my bike on the cover of the British "Cycling" Magazine (Like the one on the right of Paul Carbutt.) would result in a huge boost in sales.

Sometimes a photo would be a head on shot and all that could be seen was my logo on the head tube. The logo was simple and instantly recognizable.

Paul Carbutt at the 1976 Olympics held in Mantreal, Canada.
When I resumed building my own custom frames in California in 1981, while still working for Masi, I used the old stock decals I had brought with me from England. This included the logo with the words “Worcester England” underneath. (The address of my English frameshop.) I felt somewhat justified because after all the Masi frames said “Masi, Milano” on the head tube even though they were built in California.

I later added a decal that read:

FRAME GUARANTEED HANCRAFTED
BY DAVE MOULTON
IN CALIFORNIA USA

This was placed at the top of the seat tube, under the seat lug where the tube manufacturer’s decal would normally go.

I followed Masi’s lead and left the tubing decal off my custom frames because they were prone to bubble and fester in the heat of the paint-curing oven.

To my chagrin there was resistance to the ‘dave moulton’ name on my frames when I first started building in California. “Not exotic sounding enough” was the excuse I usually heard. Some wanted to order a frame without decals for that reason, which I refused to do.

It was traditional for English framebuilders to have their full name on the frame, usually with an abbreviated first name; Bob Jackson, Ron Cooper, Harry Quinn, Stan Pike. To the ear (Or is it the eye?) of the American cyclist these names were not as appealing as Colnago, Cinelli, Pinarello, or Pugliaghi.

When I decided to bring out a line of production frames in 1984 my main competition was these Italian import frames, so I looked through an Italian/English dictionary for a suitable name. I ended up choosing a word that did not sound particularly Italian.

I came across the word “Fuso” Italian for molten metal. It was a play on words on my name.

I sketched out the logo of a crucible pouring molten metal into a mold, and the Fuso brand was born.

I did not know at the time that Fuso was also a Japanese word and there was a famous Japanese battleship named Fuso during WWII.

There is a subtle difference in pronunciation; my frame is pronounced the Italian way, Fuse-oh. The Japanese pronunciation is Foo-so. Mitsubishi has a line of commercial vehicles with that name.

If you can believe this also, when I brought out the Fuso frame, many of my customers protested and wanted ‘dave moulton’ on it. By now, I my reputation had grown, and no one cared if the name sounded exotic or not.

However, to put ‘dave moulton’ on a line of production frames, even though the quality was high, would have been unfair to those who had paid top dollar for individually built custom frames. So once again, I had to refuse.

I am reminded of the old adage, “You can’t please all the people all the time.”

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