1895-96(6) F.F. Ide Special: For Track and Fast Road Work!

[hoofhearted]

Do the crank arms straighten when pedal is under downward force ... elongating the lever-effect to the chainring ? .......... See Fig. 2 ... above. ........... patric

 

[corbettclassics]

Interestingly that when you look at the racers of the day nobody used these curved crank arms. I've only found one racer who actually tried these and that was Major Taylor. I have so many photos in my archives of racers and can't find one that used them.
The Major used them on his Orient 1:30 racing model with smaller front wheel. The question is if he actually won anything on this bike while using these curved cranks. I believe the photo is 1898 but not 100% sure.
Does anyone have photos of a racer with these curved cranks?

 

[pedal4416]

Does anyone have photos of a racer with these curved cranks?

No racers but a stunt triplet!

 

[Blue Streak]

No photos of an rider on a racing bicycle with curved crank arms but here are Road and Track Racer Bicycles from 1894-1898 Ide Catalogs with curved crank arms.

From 1894 Ide Catalog:

From 1895 Ide Catalog:

Ide ad from October 31, 1895 issue of The Bearings with testimonial from W. A. Parker who raced one:

From 1896 Ide Catalog:

From 1897 Ide Catalog:

From 1898 Ide Catalog:

 

[New Mexico Brant]

An 1896 letter with the wholesale pricing of Ides:

 

[39Rocket]

That crank is awesome 👌

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

A huge thanks to Chris S. for sending me catalog scans and this patent drawing.

View attachment 1855103

If you use #10 as the center of the crank arm radius, and since the crank to pedal spindle length remains the same length, this patent drawing is "hockus pocus", nothing more than you would hear a carny talking up on the midway. If the crank arm was flexible enough to bend like shown in the drawing the pedal spindle would bend down as soon as you got into a sprint like a wet noodle.

Over the past 125 years variations of the bent crankarm design have been tried many times, they do not add performance. If they did, every road and track bike would have copied the design by today.

Now on to elliptical chainwheels.

It does "look cool" and is a "conversation piece" at the rest stop.

John

 

[New Mexico Brant]

Ok, moving on...

 

[New Mexico Brant]

From the 1895 catalog:

It is amazing they offered four different fork options:

 

[New Mexico Brant]

I wish I had a this in better resolution for everyone.