Here Comes the Rain (Or The Case For A Chaincase)

Autumn seems to arrived here in Yorkshire. Low cloud and drizzle have dominated our skies for days (although the London-based weather forecast each day has predicted sunshine). The Beverley Tweed Bicycling Club, undaunted, indeed exhilarated by "weather", and suitably dressed for it, continue to enjoy the pleasures of bicycling in town and country.

For decades after the modern bicycle (the English roadster) was invented, most bicycles came with a chaincase as standard. It rained (and snowed) in England (and elsewhere) for millennia before that. Some chaincases even included an oil bath for the chain. As well as protecting trousers and skirts from oil. the chain and sprockets are protected from the worst of the British weather, and the dust and grime of everyday riding. This means that chains can (and do) virtually last forever, well years anyway. They don't require time and expensive cleaners to clean them; nor time, and frequent applications of expensive lubricants to maintain them.

Most bikes these days don't come with chaincases. Although apparently one or two are made for derailleur-equipped bikes, we suspect very few have been ever fitted to one, and most modern hub geared and single speed bikes don’t have them either. Some will say that mending a puncture is a “nightmare” (which means a few minutes more work ). They do add a little weight, but a roadster is an elegant, utility, transportation bicycle, not really intended for racing. Style not speed. We wonder if the reason more bikes don't have them fitted is that most cyclists are interested in fashion and wouldn't have one for fear of being off-trend or old fashioned.

The cycle trade certainly would sell less chains, lubricant, sprockets and cleaners if chaincases were common. Call us cynics (we are), but we also wonder if that might be a reason why most bicycles today don't come with chaincases.

When the Dutch took the English roadster to their roads (and their hearts) in the 1890s, they took the chaincase with it. The Dutch are a practical as well as a stylish people, like their Dutch bicycles, and saw the benefits of having an enclosed chain as well as hub gears.

To the members of the Beverly Tweed Bicycling Club, the benefits and style of enclosed chaincases is something we like very much. We certainly admire the looks of our Pashleys, and other roadsters that are fitted with them.

  

When other cyclists are cleaning and lubricating their chains, we raise a  glass ( or a cup) to chaincases, while we enjoy out tea and cake.