TV tech: Hipster bicycles on Downton Abbey
I’m still hesitant about jumping on the Downton Abbey bandwagon. Especially when the other major overproduced melodrama on television features zombies. But being the nerd I am, I have noticed some awesome retro tech amid the droll witticisms and aristocratic intrigue.
Exhibit A: the 1901-1910 Raleigh:
This thing was a triumph of British engineering - not to be confused with an actual Triumph. And, at 28 pounds, it was like a tank built for comfort. Brooks saddle. 26” tires. Usually included a rear luggage rack. Instead of cables for the brakes, these older bikes are readily distinguished by their rod-actuated brakes, also known as stirrup brakes. Basically, instead of a cable to pull the brake pads toward the rims, a fixed steel rod is used to pull the pads upward into contact with the front rim.
Bicycle superstar Sheldon Brown had this to say about these old Raleighs:
“From the mid 19th century, well into the 20th, the word “steel” was magic in Britain. Britain’s rise to an industrial superpower on the crest of the Industrial Revolution was based, as much as anything else, on the steel industry and the new technologies it made possible: steel ships, steel bridges, steel buildings…and steel bicycles. Raleigh originally introduced the slogan “The All Steel Bicycle” to differentiate Raleighs from competitors who used cast iron for some critical parts, a heavier and cruder technology.
The fact that Raleigh 3-speeds are made of steel shouldn’t fool you into thinking that these bikes were cheap or inferior in any way…they were not…they were the finest utility bicycles money could buy.”
Only the finest for the Crawleys.
