A BUMPY RIDE

You know how to ride a bike. Just hop on and start pedaling. But what if your bike didn't have pedals or even brakes? The first bicyclists were in for

1818 A German forest ranger named Karl von Drais wanted a faster way to roam around the woods. His contraption, called a draisienne (he named it after himself, of course), didn't have pedals. You pushed off with your feet instead. Special schools sprung up to teach people how to ride these "hobbyhorses," but only the rich could afford them, and the roads, meant for real horses, were too rough for comfortable riding.

1821 The hobbyhorse needed more oomph, but people didn't believe you could balance on two wheels without your feet touching the ground. One solution was a hobbyhorse with a handlebar you pulled to make the front wheel spin faster. These awkward machines weren't a hit with anyone but mailmen, who used them for deliveries.

1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith, built the first real bicycle, with foot pedals that turned the back wheel. The pedal-powered bike reached top speeds of 14 miles per hour, but it was hard to steer. Macmillan caused the first bike wreck when he plowed into a crowd of people and knocked down a small child.

1861 A French carriage maker named Pierre Michaux souped up an old hobbyhorse with foot pedals on the front wheel. Finally, a bicycle that took off big time. It was even used in carousels at fairs. But with its metal tires, the ride wasn't smooth, and the machines earned the nickname "boneshakers."

1881 Ordinaries were popular with adventurous young men, but older men and women wanted a ride that was more dignified. They stuck to quadricycles and tricycles. Queen Victoria of England bought two trikes. They didn't have brakes, but who needs brakes when you're only going four miles per hour?

1885 In a quest to make two-wheelers safer, along came the Rover. This so-called safety bicycle worked a lot like the one you ride today. Pedals turned the rear wheel through a chain and cogs. Because the bike used several cogs of different sizes, wheels didn't need to be big to take you far. The new bicycles were faster and less expensive, but with their solid rubber tires, they could still make your bones rattle over rough roads.

1889 To give his son a more comfortable ride, John Boyd Dunlop wrapped a garden hose around the wheels of his tricycle. Water-filled hoses didn't work very well, but air-filled hoses were a success, and the modern tire was born.

1908 Bicycles had ruled the road for barely 20 years when Henry Ford came out with the Model T, the first affordable automobile. By 1920, cars were using the roads that had been improved for cyclists, and bicycles were considered kids' stuff.

1896 Safety bicycles sparked a two-wheeled revolution. Everyone wanted one. Cycling clubs lobbied for better roads, and women, who enjoyed new freedom of movement on their bikes, traded in long skirts for puffy pants known as bloomers. Soon doctors were warning of the effects of too much riding. The strain of balancing, for instance, might cause "bicycle face."

The future? Today in the U.S., we get around mostly by car, but bikes are still the most popular vehicles on earth, and lots of people are trying to build a better bike. Who knows? A hundred years from now, maybe one of these new designs will be all the rage, and bikes will own the road again.

Copyright Carus Publishing Company Feb 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved