Art and Culture, Articles, Industrial Design

The bicycle is the most efficient human-powered vehicle created in terms of the energy required to cover a given distance – propelling a bicycle at 15 km/h takes the same amount of effort as walking. With a few modifications, it also performs admirably hauling cargo. For this reason, it has been the focus of continual innovation in design, materials, and technology since its inception.

Considering how long the wheel has been around and how long people have been working with metal, I was amazed at how relatively recently the bicycle was invented, having been around in its fully-recognizable form for less than 200 years.

At first it was little more than a sort of adult hobby horse – in the first half of the 1800s, two-wheeled wooden contraptions called ‘draisines’ or ‘velocipedes’ were propelled with one’s feet while sitting on them.

Several people took this design and iterated on it with varying degrees of success. Some of the earliest drive trains included a treadle and rod system not unlike steam locomotives of the time.

The first bicycle design that caught on emerged in France in the 1860s. Called the ‘Boneshaker’ in the US, it still had a long way to go where comfort and ease of use were concerned. Technological advancements like ball bearings, chain drives, rubber tires, and much later, pneumatic tires, were still a way off. But it had pedals.

It was popular enough to spur a boom in France, the UK, and the US, opening the door for the development of more advanced bike technology and arguably acting as one of the first forces behind paving road surfaces.

To reach higher speeds (and who doesn’t want to reach higher speeds?), the front wheel of the bicycle was increased dramatically, resulting in the iconic ‘penny-farthing’ or high-wheeled bike. The height of the rider paired with the new speeds attainable and the less-than-optimal road conditions of the 1870s made the penny-farthing fantastically unsafe. Many preferred tricycles or quadricycles.

The next generation of bicycles gave us the one we’d recognize as a direct ancestor of today’s bikes. With two closer-to-equally-sized wheels, a pedal and chain drive, and pneumatic tires, this was a far safer machine to operate and proved very popular with the middle and upper classes, notably among women, for whom it was the first form of freedom of transportation.

Later it actually became known as the ’safety bicycle.’ It was this model that manufacturers copied to supply the market well into the 20th century.

Development didn’t stop there. Frame modifications and innovations like the derailleur, suspension, and more responsive brakes, have helped to evolve the once-standard bike for a multitude of different purposes that include:

Though the traditional diamond frame has been the norm, developments like tandem bikes, folding bikes, and recumbent bikes have pushed the capabilities, speed and accessibility of cycling to new levels and a wider audience.

For example, recumbent, as well as consistently setting speed records (which got them banned from participating in racing events with regular bikes in 1934) can also be adapted to be hand-pedaled, extending cycling possibilities to those who don’t have the use of their legs.The bike may well be one of the most versatile machines ever invented. It has had such far-reaching influence on our lives that I’ll be looking at some of those aspects in detail in future entries. Stay tuned!