Pedals

次回、この記事の日本語版を投稿します。

Fender ornaments, badges,  reflectors, grips, guarantee medals, frame top tube covers, chainwheels、revolving bells, spoke bells, raised letter tire treads, black enamel paint and pinstripes, sprung leather saddles, chrome center-line rims, chrome headlamps, and the list goes on and on; you name it, the design and detail of each part on Japanese bicycles from around the 1950s, right down to the tiny fender stay bolts, never ceases to amaze me.  The same holds true for pedals. 　

The design below was, among rubber block pedals, top of the line for high-end bicycles.
Note the four separate rubber blocks with metal pyramid dividers, each block bears the manufacturer's trade mark on all four sides.
 

Another example, Kin (Gold) Pen.
Note the white celluloid spindle sleeve.

One more, from a Hakutsuru bicycle, this time with a black celluloid spindle sleeve, 

 

It makes sense that pedals for high-end bicycles would be a notch above the rest.  However, even some of the standard rubber block pedals with their polished chrome, and ornate trade marks on all four sides were works of art.

Zebra trade mark

Pedals are just one more example of how bicycles from the 1950s or earlier, were over-engineered works of art on two wheels.
Indeed, they just don't make them like they used to (Part 1) and (Part 2).