A fork assembly for use in removably mounting a pair of bicycle fork tubes having longitudinally extending upper and lower brackets on a fork mounting tube of a bicycle frame comprising an inner tube rotatably mounted within the fork mounting tube and a rod extending through the inner tube. The brackets have rearwardly extending slots through which the rod passes to engage the fork assembly. A lower spool on the rod is adapted to engage the under side of the lower bracket and an upper spool on the rod is adapted to engage the under side of the upper bracket. The spools are movable longitudinally with the rod within the inner tube. Spring means within the inner tube yieldingly urges the spools into engagememt with the brackets. Locking means is provided on the upper end of the rod and is movable longitudinally of the rod such that when the locking means is moved longitudinally relative to the rod toward the upper surface of the upper bracket, the fork assembly is locked on the brackets, and when the locking means is moved longitudinally relative to the rod away from the upper bracket, the fork assembly can be removed by moving the rod and the spools longitudinally downwardly against the action of the spring means disengaging the spools from the brackets so that the fork assembly can be removed by transverse movement through the slots.

A parallel beam brake apparatus for dual and triple axle trucks and a single beam brake apparatus for single axle trucks each comprise spaced, pivotably mounted bell crank levers which engage a fluid operable actuator between one pair of arms and engage a pair of push rods with the remaining arms. Improved spherical joints between the arms and the push rods facilitate force tranmsmission without allowing push rod rotation. A unique pivot geometry between the bell crank levers and the brake beams facilitates assembly and improves stress distribution between the levers and the beams. The actuator includes a slack adjustor mechanism in which a spiral power spring unwinds to drive a lead screw and take up slack or is wound by the rotating, translating lead screw to add slack.

A bicycle is described which has a frame at least consisting of a forward frame part with a steering device for a front wheel and a rearward frame part with a rear wheel, the connection between the forward and the rearward frame part consisting at least of a turning knuckle which can be swivelled about a transverse axis of the bicycle. The transverse axis is congruent with a bottom bracket bearing axis. The steering device consists at least of a fork carrying the front wheel and consisting of two fork tubes and a fork bridge, of a handle bar and of a steering tube connecting the handle bar and the fork bridge. The fork bridge is designed such that an offset between the longitudinal axes of the fork tubes and the longitudinal axis of the steering tube exists in the longitudinal direction of the bicycle in a position of the steering device for straight-ahead riding. This has the effect that, at an angle of lock of the steering device of ninety degrees, a distance exists between the fork tubes and a bicycle center plane which permits the swivelling-along of the rear wheel during the swivelling of the rearward frame part about the transverse axis, without any contact with the fork tubes.