William Andrews from Birmingham built very innovative bicycles under the brand name 'Sanspareil'. Famous is their lever-driven safety, built in the years 1880-1889. It had a very distinctive sping, which we also recognise on this ordinary, seen in the Velorama museum.
But this ordinary has more beautiful details. The tngent spoked wheels are very nice, but absolutely unique is the system to adjust spoke tensioning. There is a nipple in the middle of each spoke. Turn the nipple and tension the spokes. Brilliant. Every spoke has two parts, one with left-hand and one with right-hand thread.
You can also look at the ball bearings, or the way the crank is attached to the axle. No standard Bown bearings: everything was designed and built by Andrews. This is really a great bicycle.
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