The History of Bicycles #1

Bicycles have been around us for two hundred years. Some sources say that even Leonardo da Vinci sketched a primitive version of a bike in 1493. Bicycles have evolved a lot during that time. Below I have put together the most important and interesting facts about the beginning of bikes.

The first bicycle - was called "The Celerifere" and had no steering, no pedals and was all made of wood, it was created by a French engineer in 1790. "The Draisienne" - similar bike but upgraded with front wheel steering was created 30 years later by a German Baron. To use those bicycles you had to seat on them and propel them by your feet hence the English name "push bike". Nowadays kids learn to keep balance on similar bikes.

       ⟸ The Celerifere 













                           The Draisienne ⟹














Adding pedals was a huge improvement - 20 years after "The Draisienne" a Scottish blacksmith added first pedal set-up. It was a giant step forward because you could ride more effectively and for longer distance. Macmillan who created this bike rode 70 miles to visit his family.

 "The Boneshaker" - created in 1866 had steering, saddle and cranks with pedals which propelled the front wheel. But riding on it was a little difficult because it's wheels were made of metal so on cobblestone roads you can imagine how uncomfortable it was, that's why it was called "The Boneshaker".

                                                    "The Boneshaker"

"High Wheeler"- before "Safety Bicycle" was created in 1885 which had a technical concept similar to what we ride nowadays, bikes had big front wheels. Why? Because the bigger wheel you had the longer distance you could ride on one revolution of cranks. So people wanted as big a wheel as was available to the length of their legs.

It's all for today, I will continue the history of bicycles in my next posts.



http://www.ibike.org/library/history-timeline.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/bikes-an-illustrated-history-365776