The History of Bicycles #2

The engineering concept most similar to bikes we use nowadays was a "Safety Bicycle" which was created in 1885. Over the next 100 years lots of inventions were embedded into bicycles. Some of them were good, some were bad and same were very weird. Nonetheless, thanks to them we can now use the technology which makes riding safer and more convenient. Below I have put together the list of most valuable and the weirdest inventions that came to the bike world.

Pneumatic tires - first invented and applied in 1888 by a Scottish veterinarian named Goodyear. Before that bikes had hard-rubber tires. Air-filled tires made riding smother and more comfortable.


The first derailleur - mechanism which moved chain from one sprocket to another to change gears was called "The Gradient" which was devised in the UK in 1896. Interestingly the cyclists didn't like and approve of it. They saw it as an unfair dilution of real human power. The gear mechanisms were not allowed in big races like the Tour de France until 1937.

Cycles Hirondelle Retro-Direct - was made in 1925 in France. This bicycle had a very complicated chain movement. It had two opposite direction freewheels system. Which allowed to use 2 gears without a derailleur mechanism. The gears were engaged by changing the pedalling direction. With pedalling backswords the bigger sprocket freewheel was engaged which gave a slower gear. With pedalling foreword the smaller sprocket freewheel was engaged for a faster ride. But with pedalling backwards we use completely different muscles so it was not as easy as we think it was.The invention was clever but shortly afterwords the derailleurs came to mass-produce and become a standard

Book "Cyclepedia A Tour Of Iconic Bicycle Designs" Michael Embacher