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[–]lawnchairtd 136 points137 points ago


History! Because history everyone!

Ok, Listen up, so this this italian homeboy Tullio, he races bike, see? Now, it's like the late 1920's, so this cunt if riding hisself a fixed gear bike with a flip flop hub, and some big ol wingnuts on that back wheel. Now, Tullio here is going to rides to the top of the mountains, gets off, spins them wingnuts off, flip the wheel around to the stiffer gear, tightens the wheel back on with the wingnuts, and rides down the other die, hoping he got the ruddy wingnuts on tight, and does loose his back wheel at speed and die like that guy straight up did. And he's all, fuck that noise! So in 1930, he goes into his workshop that every italian dude has had since da vinci, and whips up the quick release. Suddenly homeboy has got the rear wheel switcheroo on fucking lock! Everyone else is all, "shit bro, gimme one of those", and he's like, "wallets out please." This quick release design is still like, how we do quick releases now.

OK, so, Tullio was pretty stoked on the QR, just like everyone else, but he was still feeling this whole gear operation just wasn't there yet. I mean, seriously, pulling the wheel off every time like an asshole, spectators sitting there holding their dicks like "I thought this was a race bro", what the fuck are we doing here. Like, this is not how we're going to win it people! Let's put all the gears on one side, fucking duh! Boom, done. Pop the qr, slide the chain over, pull the wheel back and tighten her down. Hmm, so easy, in fact, can we do this while riding? Let's see, one lever loosens and tightens the wheel, one lever moves the cage and shifts, put them on the seatstay, and, Cambio Corsa has happened. Is it insane, fuck yes, but it makes gears happen and you ain't gotta get off. Everyone is loving it, well, not really cause racers are stodgy, but still everyone knows it's better, so...


Ok, that's done, now, let's boil this stew of crazy, prehistoric shifting alchemy down till we got more gears, and more refined tensioning system, and bespoke, geared dropouts. This was Campys Paris-Roubaix group, released in 1950. The final, crazy fucking group. The last hurrah from the old school, it was dead before it was out, the parallelogram derailleur that was released by campagnolo a year early arguably brought derailleur shifting into the mainstream for the next forever years. This is the high tech of our predecessors ladies and gentleman. Know where cycling came from so that you can find your place in it. And respect this shit, motherfucker, this is history.

[–]orrangearrow'06 Trek Pilot 5.0 & 1000sl 4 points5 points ago


I read this is David Attenborough's voice. Easily the best history lesson I am going to get today.

[–]SwellJoe 0 points1 point ago


I read this in Eddie Izzard's voice. Because: