Bicycle

A bicycle, or bike, is a pedal-driven land vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. First introduced in 19th-century Europe, it evolved quickly into the familiar current design. With over one billion in the world today, bicycles provide the principal means of transportation in many regions and a popular form of recreation and transport in others.

History

Main article: History of the bicycle

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No single time or person can be identified with the invention of the bicycle. Its earliest known forebears were called velocipedes, and included many types of human powered vehicles. One of these, the scooter-like dandy horse of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, was long cited as the earliest bicycle. Most bicycle historians now believe that these unsteerable hobby-horses probably never existed, but were made up by Louis Baudry de Saunier, a 19th century French bicycle historian.

Related Topics:
Velocipede - Dandy horse - 1790 - Louis Baudry de Saunier

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The most likely originator of the bicycle is German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants. He patented his draisine, a number of which still exist, including one in the Paleis het Loo museum in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. These were pushbikes, powered by the action of the rider's feet pushing against the ground. Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick MacMillan shares creator's credit with von Drais, for adding a treadle drive mechanism, in 1840, enabling the rider to lift his feet off the ground while driving the rear wheel. However, some reports describe MacMillan's vehicle as more of a "quadricycle."

Related Topics:
Baron Karl von Drais - 1816 - Apeldoorn - The Netherlands - Kirkpatrick MacMillan - 1840

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In the 1850s and 1860s, Frenchman Ernest Michaux and his pupil Pierre Lallement took bicycle design in a different direction, placing pedals on an enlarged front wheel. Their creation, which came to be called the "Boneshaker", featured a heavy steel frame on which they mounted wooden wheels with iron tires. Lallement emigrated to America, where he recorded a patent on his bicycle in 1866. The Boneshaker was further refined by James Starley in the 1870s. He mounted the seat more squarely over the pedals, so that the rider could push more firmly, and further enlarged the front wheel to increase the potential for speed. Shod with solid rubber tires, his machine became known as the ordinary. British cyclists likened the disparity in size of the two wheels to their coinage, nicknaming it the penny-farthing. The primitive bicycles of this generation were difficult to ride, and the high seat and poor weight distribution made for dangerous falls.

Related Topics:
1850s - 1860s - 1870s - Penny-farthing

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The subsequent dwarf ordinary addressed some of these faults, by adding some kind of gearing, reducing the front wheel diameter and setting the seat further back with no loss of speed. However, having to both pedal and steer via the front wheel remained a problem. Starley's nephew, J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, and Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain and producing rear-wheel drive. These models were known as dwarf safeties, or safety bicycles, for their lower seat height and better weight distribution. Starley's 1885 Rover is usually described as the first recognisably modern bicycle. Soon the seat tube was added, creating the double-triangle, diamond frame of the modern bike.

Related Topics:
J. K. Starley - 1885

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While the Starley design was much safer, the return to smaller wheels made for a bumpy ride. The next innovations increased comfort and ushered in the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles. In 1888 Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the pneumatic tire, which soon became universal. Shortly thereafter the rear freewheel was developed, enabling the rider to coast without the pedals spinning out of control. This refinement led to the 1898 invention of coaster brakes. Derailleur gears and hand-operated, cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years, but were only slowly adopted by casual riders. By the turn of the century, bicycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing were soon the rage.

Related Topics:
1890s - 1888 - John Boyd Dunlop - Pneumatic tire - Freewheel - 1898 - Derailleur gears - Cable-pull brakes

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Successful early bicycle manufacturers included Englishman Frank Bowden and German builder Ignaz Schwinn. Bowden started the Raleigh company in Nottingham in the 1890s, and soon was producing some 30,000 bicycles a year. Schwinn emigrated to the United States, where he founded his similarly successful company in Chicago in 1895. Schwinn bicycles soon featured widened tires and spring-cushioned, padded seats, sacrificing some efficiency for increased comfort. Facilitated by connections between European nations and their overseas colonies, European-style bicycles were soon available worldwide. By the mid-20th century bicycles had become the primary means of transportation for millions of people around the globe.

Related Topics:
Frank Bowden - Raleigh - 1895 - Schwinn - 20th century

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In many western countries the use of bicycles levelled off or declined, as motorized transportation became affordable and car-centered policies led to an increasingly hostile road environment for bicycles. In North America, bicycle sales declined markedly after 1905, to the point where by the 1940s, they had largely been relegated to the role of children's toys. In other parts of the world however, such as China, India, and European countries such as Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the traditional utility bicycle remained a mainstay of transportation, its design only gradually changing to incorporate hand-operated brakes and internal hub gears allowing up to seven speeds. In the Netherlands, old style bycicles, so-called 'granny bikes', have remained very popular and are again being produced now the original supply is turning to rust. Especially Amsterdam granny bikes are often colourfully painted and/or otherwise decorated.

Related Topics:
1905 - 1940 - China - India - Germany - Denmark - Netherlands - Amsterdam

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In North America, increasing consciousness of physical fitness and environmental preservation spawned a renaissance of bicycling in the late 1960s. Bicycle sales in the United States boomed, largely in the form of the racing bicycles long used in such events as the hugely popular Tour de France. Sales were also helped by a number of technical innovations that were new to the US market, including higher performance steel alloys and gearsets with an increasing number of gears. While 10-speeds were the rage in the 1970s, 12-speed designs were introduced in the 1980s, and today most bikes feature 18 or more speeds. By the 1980s these newer designs had driven the three-speed bicycle from the roads. In the late 1980s the mountain bike became particularly popular, and in the 1990s something of a major fad. These task-specific designs led many American recreational cyclists to demand a more comfortable and practical product. Manufacturers responded with the hybrid bicycle, which restored many of the features long enjoyed by riders of the time-tested European utility bikes.

Related Topics:
1960s - Racing bicycle - Tour de France - Three-speed bicycle - Mountain bike - Hybrid bicycle - Utility bikes

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