By the turn of the century, the ‘novelty’ of the bicycle had ended and increasing competition forced down prices. The bicycle was starting to be an essential form of transportation rather than just a plaything for those who could afford it. In order to appeal to a wider market, manufacturers invested increasing amounts of money to find new aids to safer cycling. With death and injury common to riders and pedestrians alike when cyclists coasted down hills without brakes on their fixed wheel bicycles, the invention of an efficient braking system became a priority. When the freewheel hub was introduced in 1898, brakes became an absolute necessity.
In the following years many different types of front and rear brake were invented and fitted to bicycles. The majority were only in production for a short time because, by around 1904, the rim brake became the industry standard. So it’s interesting 120 years later, with the benefit of hindsight, to examine various braking systems from the early 20th century that the rim brake replaced.
THE BAND BRAKE… was favoured by companies such as Humber, Quadrant, Sunbeam and Triumph, and subsequently used for motor bicycles.
THE COASTER BRAKE… was efficient and convenient: the first examples were imported from Morrow in the USA, followed by New Departure coasters which were an option on British bicycles from 1903. Sturmey-Archer Tricoasters replaced them when they came onto the market in 1908.
BACK-PEDAL RIM BRAKES… Sunbeam brought out a back-pedal rim brake in 1900 and it featured on their machines for many years. BSA’s patent Back-Pedalling Brake was available from 1900 when customers bought a bicycle built with BSA fittings. It was a popular option for a few years, though back-pedal brakes have a disadvantage in that they lock up when you wheel the bicycle backwards.
CABLE or ROD LINKAGE RIM BRAKES… Rim brakes connected by bowden cable and, subsequently, by rod linkage soon dominated the market as, once developed, they were cheap to produce and maintain and very efficient.
1900 High Frame Machine with Double Top Tube built entirely of BSA Fittings
with BSA patent back-pedal brake
28″ Frame
28″ Wheels
(Now sold)
The turn-of-the-century double top tube BSA Fittings Racer is a rare beast. I’ve never seen another. I bought this one on ebay in 2012. It had been ‘restored’ without attention to period detail, and covered in disgusting green paint. After ten years sitting in my storage, I’ve eventually pulled it out and the paint has now been scraped off by hand and the frame repainted in silk finish black. It’s ready to ride.
EVOLUTION OF DOUBLE TOP TUBES
BSA BACKPEDAL BRAKE
SHORT VIDEO OF BSA 1900 BACKPEDAL BRAKE
1900 BSA IN DISGUSTING GREEN PAINT
Above: when I bought it. I spotted the article below in an old News & Views magazine, illustrating the same bike in previous ownership.
BSA FITTINGS CHAINWHEEL CHART 1899-1908
Each ‘BSA Fittings’ bicycle is unique, though, due to the consistent standard of its components, its parts would be interchangeable with other ‘BSA Fittings’ machines.
As there are no records of machines built by the many small cycle companies who used BSA fittings, it is impossible to know the exact age of such a bicycle. However, we are able to date such a machine from its chainwheel.
This 1900 High Frame BSA Fittings Machine has the inch pitch second pattern chainwheel identified in the chart below as current between 1899 and 1903.
If you also examine the Eadie Fittings Double Top Tube bicycle in the photos above, you can see it has an inch pitch 8-bar version of the first pattern chainwheel, current for BSA Fittings machines pre-1899. From this we can see that the pre-1899 BSA Fittings chainwheel was actually an Eadie product.
Chainrings up to 1899 had no more than 20 teeth and straight arms.
From 1899 to 1903 the chainring was detachable and had `Y` arms (as on this bicycle).
From 1904 to 1907 the arms took the form of an `X`.
