I agree that many people do not understand how bicycles work, if that was your point. My claim was that it is possible to look at a bicycle and understand how it works, not that it was inevitable for everybody who interacts with a bicycle to do so. I think the prevalence of misunderstanding of bicycles is not strong evidence against my claim, since my guess is that most people who interact with bicycles don’t spend time looking at them and trying to figure out how they work. If people looking at bicycles still couldn’t reproduce them, that would be strong evidence against my claim, but that was relatively uncommon.
[ETA: although I see how this undermines the idea that it only requires ‘a little’ thought, since that brings to mind thought that only takes a few seconds.]
Even having looked at a bike, there are details I don’t understand, but I think not enough that I’d dispute your claim.
Derailleurs, and the transmission from the break levers to the break pads, seem kind of magical to me. I’m not sure if there’s a detail I’m missing, or if they just work far better than I would have expected. Especially derailleurs—pulling laterally on the chain, a tiny amount, makes it move from one gear to another, even if the gears are very different sizes? (I suddenly wonder if the slow mo guys have done an episode on derailleurs.)
I wouldn’t be able to tell you how stability works, either.
I reckon I understand a fixie with stabiliser wheels well enough, though.
I agree that many people do not understand how bicycles work, if that was your point. My claim was that it is possible to look at a bicycle and understand how it works, not that it was inevitable for everybody who interacts with a bicycle to do so. I think the prevalence of misunderstanding of bicycles is not strong evidence against my claim, since my guess is that most people who interact with bicycles don’t spend time looking at them and trying to figure out how they work. If people looking at bicycles still couldn’t reproduce them, that would be strong evidence against my claim, but that was relatively uncommon.
[ETA: although I see how this undermines the idea that it only requires ‘a little’ thought, since that brings to mind thought that only takes a few seconds.]
Even having looked at a bike, there are details I don’t understand, but I think not enough that I’d dispute your claim.
Derailleurs, and the transmission from the break levers to the break pads, seem kind of magical to me. I’m not sure if there’s a detail I’m missing, or if they just work far better than I would have expected. Especially derailleurs—pulling laterally on the chain, a tiny amount, makes it move from one gear to another, even if the gears are very different sizes? (I suddenly wonder if the slow mo guys have done an episode on derailleurs.)
I wouldn’t be able to tell you how stability works, either.
I reckon I understand a fixie with stabiliser wheels well enough, though.
There are small grooves or bumps (depending on the design) on the sides of the gears that help lift the chain onto the next gear.