What the heck are those?

[Thorn]

First time I saw a bike like that was in a museum in Italy. Being engineers, my DH and I were trying to decode the Italian plaque and figure out how it worked. At the time a tour bus of elderly Italians came by and one of the men, stopped to talk (of course Italian was limited to hello/goodbye so it wasn't a very fruitful discussion). He was awed because this was "Coppi's bike". Sadly, I also didn't know who Coppi was (but I do now) so I couldn't share his awe.

Anyway, best as I recall....this is an early derailleur. You change while you're riding. One of the quick release thingies disengages the wheel (just like your rear wheel quick release). Then you pedal backwards, change gears, reconnect and start pedalling again. Well....something like that...all while not falling down.

And, I complain when I mis-shift ????<hrrumph/>

Edit: Can't seem to find someone who really explains how it works, but I found this referece: http://patentpending.blogs.com/paten...nolos_fir.html The blogger has all sorts of fun historical bike tidbits (well, fun for an engineer)