Two-wheeled devices for human transportation that require balancing have a long history, with the earliest confirmed example dating to the early 19th century, although the term bicycle itself was coined in France in the 1860s.

Introduction

The early history of cycling has been a subject of controversy. Historians of the sport and the technology have formed the International Cycling History Conference, which has met every year since 1990 in a different country. This assembly of academic and private investigators aims to reconcile the variety of ideas about bicycle history.

Earliest history

The ICHC no longer distinguishes between a "first true" bicycle with pedals and any precursors. It traces the origins of the bicycle to the two-wheeler principle which requires balancing and is the basis of cycling (and motorcycling). When pedal velocipedes arose there was already a 50-year history of such two-wheeled vehicles.

There are several early but unreliable claims for the invention of bicycle-like machines. The Comte de Sivrac is said to have developed a two-wheeler, called a celerifere in 1791, demononstrating it at the Palais-Royal France. The celerifere supposedly had two wheels set on a ridged wooden frame and no steering, directional control being limited to that attainable by leaning. A rider was said to have sat astride the machine and pushed it along using alternate feet. We now know that the celerifere never existed and that it was a mis-interpretation from the well known French cycle historian Louis Baudry de Saunier in 1891. An earlier, and equally unreliable, claim comes from an illustration found in a church window in Stoke Poges, installed in the 16th century, showing an angel on a bicycle like device, and a drawing said to be from 1493 and attributed to Giacomo Caprotti, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci. Hans-Erhard Lessing recently showed this last assertion to be a purposeful fraud.

The first reliable claim for a practically used bicycle is Karl von Drais, a civil servant to the Grand Duke of Baden in Germany. Drais invented his Laufmaschine (running machine) of 1817 that was called draisine by the press and later velocipede. In contrast to the non-existent celerifere, von Drais's machine was steerable. It is said that his interest in finding an alternative to the horse was the starvation and death caused by crop failure in 1816 ("eighteen hundred and froze to death," following the volcanic eruption of Tambora). On his first reported ride from Mannheim on June 12, 1817, he covered eight miles (13 km) in less than an hour. The wooden draisine weighed 48 pounds (22 kg), had brass bushings within the wheel bearings, a rear-wheel brake and 6 inches (152 mm) trail of the front-wheel for a self-centering castor effect. This design sparked a short lived fashion among wealthy dandies and several thousand copies were built and used, primarily in Western Europe and in North America. In Britain, where a D. Johnson introduced the machine as the "pedestrian curricle," the Corinthians of the Regency adopted it, although the poet John Keats referred to it as "the nothing" of the day. Riders wore out their boots surprisingly rapidly, and the fashion ended within a couple of years.

Another early design is said to have come from Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith 1839. He developed a rear wheel drive design using front mounted treadles and connecting rods to a rear crank. He is associated with a the first recorded instance of a cyclist committing a traffic offence, a newspaper reporting in 1842 an accident in which he knocked somebody down and was fined five British shillings in Glasgow. However, the documentary evidence between this treadle-drive machine and MacMillan is thought to be tenuous by some bicycle historians. Several machines of this type were made contemparously (one of which is available in the Science Museum (London)), however, the design did not have long lasting influence, even given Thomas McCall's all steel design of 1869.

Only gradually did the design of bicycles and other self propelling vehicles progress. Mechanics expermented with pedal- or handle-driven three- or four-wheeled designs, but these suffered greater weight and higher rolling resistance. However, Willard Sawyer in Dover successfully manufactured such vehicles and exported them worldwide in the 1850s.

1860s velocipedes

The velocipede had a renaissance in Paris during the late 1860s. A French metalworker attached pedals to the front wheel; at present, the earliest year bicycle historians agree on is 1864. The specific identity of the person who attached cranks is still an open question at International Cycling History Conferences (ICHC). The claims of Ernest Michaux and of Pierre Lallement, and the lesser claims of rear-pedaling Alexandre Lefebvre, have their supporters within the ICHC community.

Pedaling replaced kicking as the way to move the machine forward, but balancing on two wheels became more important. On the new macadam paved boulevards of Paris it was easy riding, although initially still using essential horse coach technology. It was still called "velocipede" in France, but in the United States, the machine was commonly called the "bone-shaker," because its ride was so rough. Later improvments included solid rubber tires and ball bearings. In 1866, Lallement left Paris, crossed the Atlantic, and patented the velocipede, and the number of associated inventions and patents soared in the US. However, the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 destroyed the velocipede market in France, and the "bone-shaker" enjoyed only a brief period of popularity in the United States, which ended by 1870. There is debate among bicycle historians about why it failed in the United States, but one explanation is that American roads were much worse than European roads, and riding the machine on these roads was simply too difficult.

High-wheel bicycles

The high bicycle was logical extention of the boneshaker design, the front wheel enlarging (limited by the inside leg measurement of the rider), the rear wheel shrinking and the frame being made lighter. The Frenchman Eugene Meyer is now regarded as the father of the High Bicycle by the ICHC in place of James Starley. Meyer invented the wire-spoke tension wheel in 1869 and produced a beautiful High Bicycle design until the 1880s.

James Starley in Coventry added the tangent spokes and the mounting step to his famous bicycle named "Ariel." He is regarded as the father of the British cycling industry. Ball bearings, solid tires and hollow section steel frames became standard. Depending on the rider's leg length, the front wheel could now have a diameter up to 60 in (1.5 m). These bicycles were nicknamed " Penny Farthings" in England (a penny representing the front wheel, and a much smaller coin, the farthing, representing the rear wheel). They were fast, but unsafe. The rider was way up in the air and traveling at a great speed. If he hit a bad spot in the road he could easily be thrown over the front wheel and be seriously injured or even killed. "Taking a header," which was not at all uncommon, was no laughing matter. The rider's legs were often caught underneath the handlebars, so falling free of the machine was often not possible. The dangerous nature of these bicycles meant that cycling was the preserve of adventurous young men. The American "Star" bicycle was an Ordinary turned-around to prevent those headers, but now there was the danger of being thrown backwards when riding uphill. Elderly gentlemen preferred, and women had to ride, the more stable tricycles or quadricycles. Queen Victoria owned Starley's "Royal Salvo" tricycle, though there is no evidence she actually rode it.

Although French and English inventors modified the velocipede into the high-wheel bicycle, the French were still recovering from the Franco-Prussian war, so English entrepreneurs put the high-wheeler on the English market, and the machine became very popular there. Coventry, Birmingham and Manchester being the centers of the English bicycle industry. Soon bicycles found their way across the Channel. By 1875 high-wheel bicycles were becoming popular in France, though ridership expanded slowly. In the United States, Bostonians such as Frank Weston and Albert A. Pope started importing bicycles in 1877 and 1878, and Pope started production of high-wheelers in 1878. He gained control of nearly all applicable patents, starting with Lallement's 1866 patent. Pope lowered the royalty (licensing fee) previous patent owners charged, and took his competitors to court over the patents. The courts supported him, and competitors either paid royalties ($10 per bicycle), or he forced them out of business. There seems to have been no patent issue in France, but English bicycles still dominated the French market. By 1884 high-wheelers and tricycles were relatively popular among a small group of upper-middle-class people in all three countries, the largest group being in England.

Safety bicycles

Aside from the obvious safety problems, the high-wheeler suffered from front wheel drive (which dirtied the rider's pants) and limited the top speed. Accordingly, inventors tried a rear wheel chain drive. Although a Henry Lawson invented a rear-chain-drive bicycle in 1879, it still had a huge front wheel and a small rear wheel. Detractors called it "The Crocodile," and it failed in the market. John Kemp Starley, James' nephew, produced the first successful safety bicycle, the "Rover," in 1885 (which he never patented). It featured equally sized wheels and a chain drive to the rear wheel. It was widely imitated, and this "safety" bicycle completely replaced the high-wheeler in North America and Western Europe by 1890. Meanwhile John Boyd Dunlop's re-invention of the pneumatic tire in 1888 had made for a much smoother ride. Safety bicycles had been much less comfortable than high-wheelers, ironically, and frames were often buttressed with complicated spring assemblies; the pneumatic tire made all of these obsolete, and frame designers found a diamond pattern to be the most efficient design.

The combination of the chain drive, the pneumatic tire, and the diamond frame all helped bicycles become very popular among elites and the middle classes in Europe and North America in the middle and late 1890s. Bicycle historians often call this period the "golden age" or "bicycle craze." By the start of the 20th century, bicycling had become an important means of transportation, and in the United States an increasingly popular form of recreation. Bicycling clubs for men and women spread across the U.S. and across European countries. Chicago's immigrant Adolph Schoeninger with his Western Wheel Works became the "Ford of the Bicycle" (ten years before Henry Ford) and by rigorous use of sheet-metal stamping and mass production made his "Crescent" bicycles affordable for working people, and massive exports from the United States lowered prices in Europe.

 

Cycling steadily became more important in Europe over the first half of the twentieth century, but it dropped off dramatically in the United States between 1900 and 1910. Automobiles became the preferred means of transportation. Over the 1920s, bicycles gradually became considered a children's toy, and by 1940 most bicycles in the United States were made for children. In Europe cycling remained an adult activity, and bicycle racing, commuting, and "cyclotouring" were all popular activities.

Bicycles continued to evolve to suit the varied needs of riders. The derailleur developed in France between 1900 and 1910 among cyclotourists, and was improved over time. Interestingly, only in the 1930s did European racing organizations allow racers to use derailleurs; until then they were forced to use a two-speed bicycle. The rear wheel had a cog on either side of the hub. To change gears, the rider had to stop, remove the wheel, flip it around, and remount the wheel. When racers were allowed to use derailleurs, racing times immediately dropped.

At mid-century there were two predominant bicycle styles for recreational cyclists in Europe and North America. Heavyweight bikes featuring balloon tires, pedal driven "coaster" brakes and only one gear, were popular for short trips on mostly flat surfaces. Lightweight cycles, with hand brakes, thinner tires, and a three-speed hub gearing system, developed in England, and first became popular in the United States in the late 1950s. These comfortable, practical bicycles usually offered generator-powered headlamps, safety reflectors, kickstands, and frame-mounted tire pumps.

Racing bikes, mountain bikes and hybrids

In the late 1960s, spurred by Americans' increasing consciousness of the value of exercise, bicycling enjoyed another boom. Sales doubled between 1960 and 1970, and doubled again between 1970 and 1972. Most of the new sales were of racing bikes. These lighter bicycles, long used by serious cyclists and by racers, featured dropped handlebars, five to fifteen speed derailleurs, and a narrower seat, but usually offered none of the extra features, including chain guards and fenders, found on their predecessors. By the 1980s, racing bikes dominated the market in North America, and companies such as Schwinn, which had continued to produce mostly the older styles, went out of business.

Mountain bikes appeared on retailers' shelves in the later 1980s, their popularity spurred by the evolution of mountain biking and other extreme sports. These cycles featured sturdier frames, more complex suspensions, and handlebar grips oriented perpendicular to the axis of the bicycle to enable the operator to resist the forward jolts of a bumpy downhill ride. By 2000, their sales had far outstripped that of racing bicycles, which were by then used only by long-distance road cyclists. Recent years have seen a consumer backlash in North America, as casual cyclists showed dissatisfaction with both the heavy mountain bikes and their more fragile, sometimes uncomfortable racing predecessors. Manufacturers responded with a hybrid, combining the best of the two styles and largely effecting a return to the lightweight cycles of the 1960s, albeit with a larger selection of gears and without the accessories found on earlier models. Through all these years of circular change in American bicycling, the less style-conscious European cyclists have largely stuck with their comfortable lightweight models, featuring practical accessories and dependable rear hub gearing.