History of the bicycle

A sketch from around 1500 AD is attributed to Gian Giacomo Caprotti, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, but it was described by Hans-Erhard Lessing in 1998 as a purposeful fraud, a description now generally accepted.

[1][2][3] However, the authenticity of the bicycle sketch is still vigorously maintained by followers of Augusto Marinoni, a lexicographer and philologist, who was entrusted by the Commissione Vinciana of Rome with the transcription of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus.

The first verifiable claim for a practically used bicycle belongs to German Baron Karl von Drais Sauerbronn, a civil servant to the Grand Duke of Baden in Germany.

Karl von Drais patented this design in 1818, which was the first commercially successful two-wheeled, steerable, human-propelled machine, commonly called a velocipede, and nicknamed hobby-horse or dandy horse.

This design was welcomed by mechanically minded men daring to balance, and several thousand copies were built and used, primarily in Western Europe and in North America.

[citation needed] The intervening decades of the 1820s–1850s witnessed many developments concerning human-powered vehicles often using technologies similar to the draisine, even if the idea of a workable two-wheel design, requiring the rider to balance, had been dismissed.

A nephew later claimed that his uncle developed a rear-wheel-drive design using mid-mounted treadles connected by rods to a rear crank, similar to the transmission of a steam locomotive.

Proponents associate him with the first recorded instance of a bicycling traffic offense, when a Glasgow newspaper reported in 1842 an accident in which an anonymous "gentleman from Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" knocked over a pedestrian in the Gorbals and was fined five shillings.

It is believed that he copied the idea having recognized the potential to help him with his local drapery business and there is some evidence that he used the contraption to take his wares into the rural community around his home.

After years of living all over Europe, he left London to go back to his native town of Schweinfurt, Bavaria, when his first son died at a young age.

Its early history is complex and has been shrouded in some mystery, not least because of conflicting patent claims: all that has been stated for sure is that a French metalworker attached pedals to the front wheel; at present, the earliest year bicycle historians agree on is 1864.

Lallement's patent drawing shows a machine which looks exactly like Johnson's draisine, but with the pedals and rotary cranks attached to the front wheel hub, and a thin piece of iron over the top of the frame to act as a spring supporting the seat, for a slightly more comfortable ride.

Even in a relatively small city such as Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, there were five velocipede rinks, and riding schools began opening in many major urban centers.

Ball bearings, solid rubber tires and hollow-section steel frames became standard, reducing weight and making the ride much smoother.

If he hit a bad spot in the road he could easily be thrown over the front wheel and be seriously injured (two broken wrists were common, in attempts to break a fall)[39] or even killed.

Pope also introduced mechanization and mass production (later copied and adopted by Ford and General Motors),[43] vertically integrated,[44] (also later copied and adopted by Ford), advertised aggressively[45] (as much as ten percent of all advertising in U.S. periodicals in 1898 was by bicycle makers),[46] promoted the Good Roads Movement (which had the side benefit of acting as advertising, and of improving sales by providing more places to ride),[47] and litigated on behalf of cyclists[47] (It would, however, be Western Wheel Works of Chicago which would drastically reduce production costs by introducing stamping to the production process in place of machining, significantly reducing costs, and thus prices.

)[48] In addition, bicycle makers adopted the annual model change[49] (later derided as planned obsolescence, and usually credited to General Motors), which proved very successful.

Meanwhile, John Dunlop's reinvention of the pneumatic bicycle tire in 1888 had made for a much smoother ride on paved streets; the previous type were quite smooth-riding, when used on the dirt roads common at the time.

This resulted in a downward spiral of market saturation, over-supply and intense price competition, eventually leading to the collapse of many manufacturers as the bicycle bubble burst.

Though they originally came with front spoon-brakes, technological advancements meant that later models were equipped with the much-improved coaster brakes or rod-actuated rim or drum-brakes.

[59]Though the ladies' version of the roadster largely fell out of fashion in England and many other Western nations as the 20th century progressed, it remains popular in the Netherlands; this is why some people refer to bicycles of this design as Dutch bikes.

[60] From the early 20th century until after World War II, the roadster constituted most adult bicycles sold in the United Kingdom and in many parts of the British Empire.

A bicycle was regarded as one of the three "must-haves" of every citizen, alongside a sewing machine and watch – essential items in life that also offered a hint of wealth.

Heavyweight cruiser bicycles, preferred by the typical (hobby) cyclist,[66] featuring balloon tires, pedal-driven "coaster" brakes and only one gear, were popular for their durability, comfort, streamlined appearance, and a significant array of accessories (lights, bells, springer forks, speedometers, etc.).

Lighter cycles, with hand brakes, narrower tires, and a three-speed hub gearing system, often imported from England, first became popular in the United States in the late 1950s.

While the English racer was no racing bike, it was faster and better for climbing hills than the cruiser, thanks to its lighter weight, tall wheels, narrow tires, and internally geared rear hubs.

In Britain, the utility roadster declined noticeably in popularity during the early 1970s, as a boom in recreational cycling caused manufacturers to concentrate on lightweight (10.4–13.6 kg or 23–30 lb), affordable derailleur sport bikes, actually slightly-modified versions of the racing bicycle of the era.

It was an immediate success, and examples flew off retailers' shelves during the 1980s, their popularity spurred by the novelty of all-terrain cycling and the increasing desire of urban dwellers to escape their surroundings via mountain biking and other extreme sports.

[23][75][76] This stagnation finally started to reverse with the formation of the International Human Powered Vehicle Association which holds races for "banned" classes of bicycle.

[75] Sam Whittingham set a human powered speed record of 132 km/h (82 mph) on level ground in a faired recumbent streamliner in 2009 at Battle Mountain.