A few bikes came in at work today, most notably an old Rayleigh bike - big heavy steel frame, sprung saddle and exquisite mud and chain guards, with a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub. It was a rust bucket truly at the end of life, but it would have been beautiful in it's time. It's a part of the job that I really enjoy - looking and handling the old bicycles. It's tough too - making decisions as to which are 'scrap' and which can have a second chance. It can be sad when you see one of the old ones and you know it'll never be restored or reused and it's pointless putting it to one side.
The others were pretty standard modern bikes - nothing about them really shone, but they were salvageable and reusable.
The older designs were much simpler and basic. I like the economy of the gearing. Let's face it, years ago all bikes had a fixed wheel, then you had 3 hub gears followed by the 5 speed derailleur and now the 47 gears or something like that.
It's not really the number of gears - it's the size of the gaps between each that matter. An extreme would be where the largest sprocket is the size of a dinner plate and the smallest the size of 10 pence piece, with 5 increments between. That would cover all needs. Do we need more? I doubt it. More gears are just another selling point.
The Town and Country Trike will not be over designed or over built.
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