What’s
in
a
Name ?
By Reynaerts K.F.J.
Whether this ..
.. is Justly attributed to him or not,
many Items Unjustly bear his name.
How the misunderstanding came into the world
is difficult to ascertain after such a long time.
Point is that many shaft driven bicycles are being
advertised as being Cardanic while they aren’t ..
It isn’t the fact a vehicle is shaft driven which
makes it Cardanic, after all, but the manner its
Traction Power is transferred to the wheel[s]
In the case of Bicycles this never being Cardanic.
The first shaft driven bicycles certainly weren’t
called Cardanic, a century ago.
Bevel-Gear Bicycle is the correct term for any
Bicycle or Motorcycle using this type of Gear.
In Bikes or Motorbikes without Shock Absorbers
this much simpler and less Energy Loss Incurring
Transmission will suffice.
US Manufacturer Pope was amongst the first
to sell them at the price of 75 Dollar in 1899.
50 % more expensive than Chain Driven models.
Advertisement for Shaft Driven Bicycle
Even bicycles with Springs can still use Bevel Drive
transmissions as is the case in the FENDT bikes
which are incorrectly named CARDANO since
the very beginning.
Motorcycle with genuine Cardanic Transmission
Heavy motorcycles with elaborate Suspension
Systems in the rear can’t avoid lateral movements
to some extent which would damage the Bevel
Gears, rendering them less Reliable and Durable.
BMW adopted it first and has been consistently
applying it on their heavy models until today.
Cardanic Transmission
These pictures show the distinct difference
between the two types of transmission.
Bevel Gear Transmission
Even the 1st Shaft driven Motorcycles still weren’t
Cardanic.
Belgian Manufacturer FN was first to market a
Shaft Driven Motorcycle in 1909 when most of
them didn’t even have a Chain but a Leather Belt.
They didn’t hold on to their Lead, however.
Two decades later FN Motorbikes were outdated.
FN Bevel-Gear Bicycle
Bevel Gear Shaft Driven 4-Cylinder FN Motor
Can you imagine, a 4-cylinder engine and still
No Suspension on the pre-WW 1 cobbled roads.
The Bevel Gear Transmission was adequate as
no vertical or horizontal movement occurred
between the Engine and the Traction Wheel.
Although Bevel Gears can function at an angle,
unlike genuine Cardanic Transmissions they can’t
freely change the angle in all directions while in
full rotation which distinguishes both clearly.
The first shaft-driven motor cars still had the
engine in front conveying torque to the rear
wheels by means of a long steel shaft which only
moved slight relative to the differential gear.
This solution was no longer adequate when
Citroën introduced the Traction-Avant, the
first front wheel drive car in the world.
The distance between the motor block and both
the front wheels being so small and the relative
movements between motor and wheels so great,
Cardanic traction axles were indispensable.
Citroën Traction Avant
Of course, there were a few eccentrics who tried
to avoid the whole issue by coming up with
wholly original ideas.
No Rigid Transmission at all, Propeller Driven
Is this Cycling World Champion Major Taylor ..
.. trying out the propeller driven motorcycle
invented by Anzani, first World Champion
motorcycling on a Closed Circuit ?
No Rigid Transmission
The vehicles Ferdinand Porsche designed around
1900 avoided rigid transmissions by putting two
or four small electric motors inside the Wheel
Hubs fed by a Battery and/or Petrol Generator.
Acatène, the 1st Bevel Gear bicycle in the World
Manufacturer Métropole, and particularly their
brandname Acatène became so much associated
with shaft-driven bicycles that even the early
shaft-driven motor cycles [which weren’t yet
Cardanic but Bevel Gear] were referred to as
Acatène in France, not Cardanic ..
.. even though this term was never officially
entered into any French Dictionary.
Transmission Acatène
The Black Cycle Champion Major Taylor even
won Track Races on Bevel Gear Bikes it appears.
Raleigh Compy, wrongly advertised as Cardanic
Beixo, unjustly referred to as Cardanic
Fendt Cardano ???
Who began to call Bevel-Gear bicycles Cardanic ?
My own grandfather manufactured this type of
bicycle in-between the World Wars.
Because of the similarity with the Mechanism
found in manual Coffee Grinders at that time,
they were popularly known as Coffee Grinders.
Old Bevel-Gear Coffee Grinder
Reynaerts K.F.J. - 2006