Talking about the history of bicycles, it's truly an interesting evolutionary process, quite different from the bikes we see today.
The earliest ancestor, invented around 1817 by a German named Karl von Drais, was essentially a wooden frame with two wheels and handlebars. How did it move? It had no pedals; riders propelled it by pushing their feet hard against the ground and then gliding forward with momentum. You can imagine it as a balance bike for children today – exactly that feeling. So, at that time, it was also called a "running machine."
About half a century later, in France in the 1860s, someone finally added pedals to it. However, these pedals were peculiar, mounted directly on the front wheel's axle, meaning you pedaled the front wheel to move. This was a huge step forward, as riders no longer had to push off the ground. But imagine: pedaling the front wheel, where steering and power application were combined, made it very awkward to ride. Moreover, the wheels were wooden, covered with an iron band, and the roads were often cobbled, making the ride so bumpy it felt like your bones would shake apart. Hence, it earned the nickname "Boneshaker."
To make the bicycle go faster, people came up with a solution. Since the pedals were directly attached to the front wheel, one rotation of the pedals meant one rotation of the wheel. The only way to achieve higher speeds was to make the front wheel enormous. Thus, in the 1870s, the type of bicycle we often see in old movies appeared: with a huge front wheel, a very small rear wheel, and the rider perched high above. This was known as the "Penny-farthing." While these bikes were fast, their high center of gravity made them extremely dangerous; a fall from one was no laughing matter.
The real revolutionary breakthrough occurred around 1885 when a British man named John Kemp Starley invented the "Safety Bicycle." This bike was essentially the prototype of our modern bicycle, featuring several key innovations:
- Chain Drive: He moved the pedals to the center of the frame and used a chain to connect them to a sprocket that drove the rear wheel. This was a crucial innovation! It meant that wheel size and speed were completely decoupled, eliminating the need for an enormous front wheel.
- Equal-sized Wheels: Thanks to the chain drive, both front and rear wheels could be made the same size. The bike's height was significantly reduced, making it much more stable and safer to ride, as well as easier to mount and dismount.
- Pneumatic Tires: A few years later, John Boyd Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire. This completely revolutionized riding comfort, making the "Boneshaker" a thing of the past.
From the "Safety Bicycle" onwards, the basic structure of the bicycle was established. Subsequent developments primarily focused on optimizing and diversifying this foundation. For example:
- The invention of gears allowed us to easily climb hills and adjust speed.
- Advances in materials, from heavy steel to lightweight aluminum alloys, and then to today's specialized carbon fiber.
- Diversification of types, leading to the evolution of road racing bikes, mountain bikes, BMX bikes, touring bikes, folding bikes, and the increasingly popular electric-assist bicycles, among others, each designed for different purposes.
So, you see, the bicycle evolved from a simple "scooter" to the peculiar "high-wheeler," and then to the familiar form we know today. Each step was aimed at solving problems like "more effort-saving, faster, safer, and more comfortable," making it a truly fascinating "evolutionary history."