From its introduction in 19th-century Europe, bicycles now number over one billion worldwide, they are the principal means of transportation in many nations, notably China and the Netherlands. They are also a popular form of recreational activities. They have been used in many other fields of human activity, including children's toys, adult fitness, military and police applications, courier services, and cycle sports.
Several innovators contributed to the history of the bicycle , including the velocipede. The documented ancestors of today's modern bicycle were known as pushbikes, Draisines or hobby horses. To use the Draisine, first introduced in Paris by the German Baron Karl von Drais in 1818, the operator sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along with his/her feet while steering the front wheel.
A Scottish blacksmith named Kirkpatrick MacMillan refined this in 1839 by adding a mechanical crank drive to the rear wheel, thus creating the first true "bicycle". In the 1850s and 1860s, Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement took bicycle in a different direction, HE placed the pedals on a large front wheel. These were known as a "penny-farthing", featuring a tubular steel frame on which were mounted wire spoked wheels with solid rubber tires. Being very unstable most folks at the time did not trust this monster.
J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, and Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain drive connecting the pedals to the back wheel. These new models were known as dwarf safeties, or safety bicycles, for their lower seat height and better weight distribution. Starley's "1885 Rover" is known as the first recognizably modern bicycle. Soon, the seat tube was added, creating the double-triangle, diamond frame of the modern bike.
Nearly all modern upright bicycles feature the diamond truss frame, this is made of two triangles the front and rear. The front triangle is the steering section and head tube which houses the bearing for the handle bar assembly. and the Rear section that connects the drive section. they are connected along the base section as the seat tube. The chain assembly main drive gear is mounted at the bottem of the seat tube and the chain is supported via the bottom of the rear triangle. The rear drive wheel is connected at the apex of the rear triangle.
Historically, "girl bikes" had the front section connecting lower on the seat tube to provide for a more dignified way of riding with a skirt.
In the 1890s the bicycle craze led to a movement called "rational dress", which helped liberate women from corsets and ankle-length skirts and other restrictive garments, substituting the then-shocking bloomers.
The history of the bicycle has lead to many things for women in its history. Nineteenth-century feminists and suffragists called it a "freedom machine" for women. Suzan B Anthony stated in 1896: "Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
Sociologists even suggest that bicycles enlarged the gene pool for rural workers, by enabling them to easily reach the next town and increase their courting radius.
types of Bicycles
The utility bicycle is the most widely used form of bicycle in many parts of the world, but in many industrialized nations motor vehicles have replaced bicycles for personal transport in the 20th century and the reduced availability of utility bicycles in some countries has led people to adopt sport bicycles for tasks for which utility bicycles are better suited.A utility bicycle (aka city bicycle or a beater) is one which is designed for a practical purpose, as opposed to "sport bicycles" which are designed for recreation and competition, such as touring bicycles, racing bicycles and mountain bicycles.
Mountain bike usually refers to strong framed sturdy utility bikes. Mountain bikes differ from road racing bicycles in several ways. They have a smaller and stronger frame, knobby, wider and higher profile tires which are mounted on a rim which is stronger than a standard bicycle rim, a larger range of gears to facilitate climbing up steep hills and over obstacles, a wider flat or upwardly-rising handlebar that allows a more upright riding position, and often some form of suspension system for either the front wheel or both wheels. The inherent comfort and flexibility of the modern mountain bike has led to an estimated 80% market share in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and others. Mountain bikes often come with disc brakes, similar to those used in automobiles, rather than rim brakes used on road bikes.
Beach Cruisers are balloon-tired bikes with heavy duty frames and were America’s standard bike from the early 1930s right through the 1950s. Their wide tires and simple mechanicals (usually single speed with coaster brake) are ideally suited to riding on flat sandy beaches, which means that they remained popular through the 1960s and 1970s as " Beach Cruisers "
Beach Cruisers are probably the most utilitarian of them all. Being low cost and comfortable to ride the beach cruisers resemble the early cycles of the 1930's and 40's so it appears that bicycles have come full circle and are once again a piece of human history and tradition
