Retrodirect
The Retrodirect is a bicycle manufactured in France in the 1920s / 30s that works like a normal bicycle with an average gear ratio. If, on the other hand, you pedal backwards, you will also drive forwards with a lower gear ratio - for example when driving uphill.
This technology is implemented by two parallel freewheel sprockets and a chain guide , which leads over deflectors over both rear sprockets , once forwards and once backwards.
However, the technology could not prevail. Stepping backwards, which is unfamiliar to the muscles, also causes problems in the long run.
Some examples are still preserved and are often admired at historical bicycle meetings when the rider is pedaling backwards forwards up a mountain.
The Briton Drew Buck successfully mastered the 1200 km Paris-Brest-Paris certification with a bicycle of this type in 2007 .
Web links
- English-language page with explanation and pictures: http://www.m-gineering.nl/retrog.htm
- More detailed article with picture in PedalWiki: http://wiki.hpv.at/Retrodirect
- Drew Buck and his Retrodirect bike at PBP 2007: http://fotoalbum.dds.nl/ivo_m/pbp2007/large/IMGP3972.jpg
