The Dancing Chain : History and Development of the Derailleur Bicycle

by Frank J. Berto

The history and development of the derailleur bicycle is the story of the modern bicycle and the gadget that makes it the derailleur gearing system. A decade of research by three co-authors and numerous contributers on the history of the 20th century bicycle technology.

Genres: Cycling

352 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Richard Kendrick]

This is an absolutely exhaustive history of bicycle gearing. I cannot imagine another book getting even close to the level of detail found here. If you have a hard core interest in bicycle gearing or bicycle history, you need to read this. I was totally geeking out whenever the discussion came around to a particular manufacturer or piece of hardware that I had personally used (or suffered).

I have a few complaints, but certainly nothing that would tempt me to drop a star rating. I wish that the book had gone through one more round of proofing. There were a handful of typos and cut off captions that really should have been caught before printing. By nature of the organization of the chapters and sections, certain histories were repeated. And sometimes the level of specific detail became a bit much, even for me.

[Jacob Webber]

I very much enjoyed this book. It contained a lot of information about bicycle gears.

I think it could be edited to be improved. There are lots of figures that are not well referenced by the text and are not appropriately placed within the text. There is quite a lot of material repeated between chapters, which makes each chapter make sense on its own, but does hinder a full read-through.

The final chapter describes in detail how bicycle gears work. This should have been mentioned earlier in the book. It would have been useful to refer to the mechanics while reading about the history. The two things were kept too separate, and it made understanding some of the material difficult for me.

The thoroughness of the book is remarkable. I love bikes and this book made me very happy.

[Peter]

Incredibly comprehensive. If it had anything to do with changing the gear ratio of a bicycle it's probably in here illustrated with contemporary sketches and diagrams, of which this book as absolutely packed. I would recommend against the author's ordering and suggest starting with chapter 14 and 15, then start the history from the beginning.

[Michael]

I have the third edition - each edition has updated the previous one quite a bit, I believe.

This isn't the sort of thing one sits down and reads from start to finish, but some parts of it do read fairly well. Lots of good photographs/illustrations. Some of the writing is uneven but that's OK.

[Michael]

Excellent. A catalog of dérailleur technology. Tons of pictures and great descriptions.

[Mark Karnowski]

The long circuitous development of variable gear bicycles. An engaging read with detailed illustrations.

[Tony]

Wonderful coffee table book, for your bike shop.

[Josh]

Gorgeous history book. Chronological themed chapter overlap naturally. The current gear summary chapters were a highlight.