BICYCLE HISTORY

The bicycle, bike, or cycle, is a pedal-driven, human-powered vehicle with two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. First introduced in 19th-century Europe, bicycles now number approximately one billion worldwide, providing the principal means of transportation in many regions. They also provide a popular form of recreation, and have been adapted for use in many other fields of human activity, including children's toys, adult fitness, military and police applications, courier services, and cycle sports. The basic shape and configuration of a typical bicycle has hardly changed since the first chain-driven model was developed around 1885, although many important details have been improved, especially since the advent of modern materials and computer-aided design. These have allowed for a proliferation of specialized designs for particular types of cycling. The bicycle has had a considerable effect on human society, in both the cultural and industrial realms. In its early years, bicycle construction drew on pre-existing technologies; more recently, bicycle technology has, in turn, contributed ideas in both old and new areas.

Bicycle History:
Vehicles for human transport that have two-wheels and require balancing by the rider, dates back to the early 19th century. The term bicycle was coined in France in the 1860s. Knowledge of the bicycle's history has languished during the period of its chief rival, the automobile. One of the relatively recent efforts to improve that historical record is the annual International Cycling History Conference (ICHC), the first of which took place in Glasgow, Scotland in 1990. Its annual proceedings appear under the title "Cycle History". National clubs of collectors and amateur historians are The Veteran Cycle Club (UK) with journal The Boneshaker, The Wheelmen (USA) with journal of same name, and Historische Fahrräder e.V. (Germany) with journal Der Knochenschüttler. Some ICHC members no longer distinguish between a "first true" bicycle with pedals and any precursors. The bicycle developed from the two-wheeler principle which requires balancing and is the basis of cycling. 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. A Comte de Sivrac was said to have developed a two-wheeler, called a célérifère in 1791, demonstrating it at the Palais-Royal in France. The célérifère supposedly had two wheels set on a rigid wooden frame and no steering, directional control being limited to that attainable by leaning. A rider was said to have to sit astride the machine and pushed it along using alternate feet. We now know that a 2-wheeled célérifère never existed besides the 4-wheeled ones and that it was a misinterpretation by the well known French journalist Louis Baudry de Saunier in 1891. Earlier, and equally unreliable, claims come 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 from a scribble 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. However, the authenticity of the bicycle sketch is still vigorously maintained by the Italian cultural bureaucracy still believing the misled Prof. Augusto Marinoni, a lexicographer, who was entrusted by the Commissione Vinciana of Rome with the transcription of da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus. The first reliable claim for a practically-used bicycle belongs to German Baron Karl von Drais, a civil servant to the Grand Duke of Baden in Germany. Drais invented his Laufmaschine (German for "running machine") of 1817 that was called Draisine (English) or draisienne (French) by the press. Karl von Drais patented this design in 1818 which was the first commercially successful two-wheeled, steerable, human-propelled machine commonly called a velocipede, nick-named hobby-horse or dandy horse. It was initially manufactured in Germany and France. It was constructed almost entirely of wood. Hans-Erhard Lessing found from circumstantial evidence that Drais' interest in finding an alternative to the horse was the starvation and death of horses 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 13 km (eight miles) in less than an hour. The wooden draisine weighed 22 kg (48 pounds), had brass bushings within the wheel bearings, a rear-wheel brake and 152 mm (6 inches) of trail of the front-wheel for a self-centering castor effect. This design was welcomed by mechanically minded men daring to balance and several thousand copies were built and used, primarily in Western Europe and in North America. Its popularity rapidly faded when, partly due to increasing numbers of accidents some city authorities began to prohibit its use. However in 1866 Paris a Chinese visitor named Bin Chun could still observe foot-pushed velocipedes. Shortly after, the concept was picked up by a number of British cartwrights; the most notable being Denis Johnson of London. We can assume a name change occurred when Johnson patented his vehicle and named it pedestrian curricle or velocipede, but the public preferred nick-names like hobbyhorse, after the children’s toy or, worse still, dandyhorse, after the foppish men who often rode them. Johnson's machine was an improvement on Drais's, being notably more elegant: his wooden frame had a serpentine shape instead of Drais's straight one, which allowed the use of larger wheels without raising the seat higher. During the summer of 1819 the "hobby-horse", thanks in part to Johnson's marketing skills and better patent protection, became the craze and fashion in London society. The dandies, the Corinthians of the Regency, adopted it, therefore 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 the year, after riders on sideways were fined two pounds. Nevertheless, the velocipede provided the basis for further developments: in fact, it was a French draisine which some historians believe inspired Pierre Lallement in 1863 to add rotary cranks and pedals to the front-wheel hub, to create the first pedal-operated "bicycle" as we today understand the word - according to David Herlihy's book. McCall's first (top) and improved velocipede of 1869 - later predated to 1839 and attributed to MacMillanThough technically not part of 2-wheel "bicycle" history, the intervening decades of the 1820s-1850s witnessed many developments concerning human-powered vehicles often using technologies similar to the draisine, even if the idea of a workable 2-wheel design, requiring the rider to balance, had been dismissed. These new machines had three wheels (tricycles) or four (quadricycles) and came in a very wide variety of designs, using pedals, treadles and hand-cranks, but these designs often suffered from high weight and high rolling resistance. However, Willard Sawyer in Dover successfully manufactured a range of treadle operated 4 wheel vehicles and exported them worldwide in the 1850s. The first mechanically-propelled 2-wheel vehicle was believed to have been built by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839. A nephew later claimed that his uncle developed a rear-wheel drive design using mid mounted treadles connected by rods to a rear crank, similar to the transmission of a steam locomotive. Proponents associate him with the first recorded instance of a bicycling traffic offence, when a Glasgow newspaper reported in 1842 an accident in which an anonymous "gentleman from Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" knocked over a pedestrian in the Gorbals and was fined five British shillings. However, the evidence connecting this with MacMillan isn't even circumstantial, since the artisan MacMillan wouldn't have been termed a gentleman. A similar machine was said to have been produced by Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow . The first documented producer of rod-driven 2-wheelers was Thomas McCall, of Kilmarnock in 1869. The design could not compete with the front-crank velocipede of the Lallement/Michaux type, however, despite McCall's all steel version of 1869. The first really popular and commercially successful design was a French one (an example of the style is held in the Museum of Science and Technology (Ottawa)). Initially developed around 1863, it sparked a fashionable craze briefly during 1868-70. Its design was simpler than the Macmillan bicycle, it used rotary cranks and pedals mounted to the front wheel hub. Pedaling made it easier for riders to propel the machine at speed, but the rotational speed limitation arising from stability and comfort concerns would lead to the large front wheel of the "penny farthing". It was difficult to pedal the wheel that was used for steering. The use of metal frames reduced the weight and provided sleeker, more elegant designs, and also allowed mass-production. Different braking mechanisms were used depending on the manufacturer. In England, the velocipede earned the name of "bone-shaker" because of its rigid frame and iron banded wheels that resulted in a "bone-shaking experience for riders." The velocipede's renaissance began in Paris during the late 1860s. Its early history is complex and has been shrouded in some mystery, not least because of conflicting patent claims: all that has be stated for sure is that a French metalworker attached pedals to the front wheel; at present, the earliest year bicycle historians agree on is 1864. The 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. Lallement's patent drawing shows a machine which looks exactly like Johnson's draisine, but with the pedals and rotary cranks attached to the front wheel hub, and a thin piece of iron over the top of the frame to act as a spring supporting the seat, for a slightly more comfortable ride. The wealthy Olivier brothers Aimé and René were students in Paris at the time of Lallement's invention, and these shrewd young entrepreneurs recognized the potential profitability of producing and selling Lallement's machine. Together with their friend Georges de la Bouglise, they formed a partnership with blacksmith Pierre Michaux, who had been producing parts for the carriage trade: Michaux et Cie ("Michaux and company"), in 1864, avoiding use of the Olivier family name and staying behind the scenes, lest the venture prove to be a failure. This was the first company which mass-produced bicycles, beginning in 1867, replacing Lallement's wooden frame with one made of two pieces of cast iron bolted together -- otherwise, the early Michaux machines look exactly like Lallement's patent drawing. Together with a mechanic named Gabert in his hometown of Lyon, Aimé Olivier created a diagonal single-piece frame made of wrought iron which was much stronger, and as the first bicycle craze took hold, many other blacksmiths began forming companies to make bicycles using the new design. Velocipedes were expensive, and when customers soon began to complain about the Michaux serpentine cast-iron frames breaking, the Oliviers realized by 1868 that they needed to replace that design with the diagonal one which their competitors were already using, and the Michaux company continued to dominate the industry in its first years. On the new macadam paved boulevards of Paris it was easy riding, although initially still using what was essentially 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 improvements included solid rubber tires and ball bearings. Lallement had left Paris in July 1865, crossed the Atlantic, settled in Connecticut and patented the velocipede, and the number of associated inventions and patents soared in the US. The popularity of the machine grew on both sides of the Atlantic and by 1868-69 the velocipede craze was strong in rural areas as well. Even in a realtively small city such as Halifax, Canada, there were five velocipede rinks, and riding schools began to opening throughout many major urban centres. Essentially, the velocipede was a stepping stone that created a market for bicycles that led to the development of more advanced and efficient machines. 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 road surfaces were much worse than European ones, and riding the machine on these roads was simply too difficult. Certainly another factor was that Calvin Witty had purchased Lallement's patent, and his royalty demands soon crippled the industry. The UK was the only place where the bicycle never fell completely out of favor. The high bicycle was the logical extension of the boneshaker design, the front wheel enlarging to enable higher speeds (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 classic high bicycle design until the 1880s. A penny-farthing or ordinary bicycle photographed in the koda museum in the Czech RepublicJames 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 rubber tires and hollow-section steel frames became standard, reducing weight and making the ride much smoother. Depending on the rider's leg length, the front wheel could now have a diameter up to 60 in (1.5 m). This type of bicycle was known as the "ordinary", and was later nicknamed "Penny-farthing" in England (a penny representing the front wheel, and a coin smaller in size and value, the farthing, representing the rear wheel). They were fast, but unsafe. The rider was high 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" (also known as "coming a cropper"), 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 high-wheeler turned around to prevent those headers, with the large wheel in the rear, 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, Oxford, Birmingham and Manchester being the centers of the English bicycle industry. Soon bicycles found their way across the English 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 his "Columbia" high-wheelers in 1878, and 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. Their use also spread to the rest of the world, chiefly because of the extent of the British Empire. The development of the safety bicycle was arguably the most important change in the history of the bicycle. It shifted their use and public perception from being a dangerous toy for sporting young men to being an everyday transport tool for men -- and, crucially, women -- of all ages. Aside from the obvious safety problems, the high-wheeler's direct front wheel drive limited its top speed. Accordingly, inventors tried a rear wheel chain drive. Although a Henry Lawson invented a rear-chain-drive bicycle in 1879 with his "bicyclette", it still had a huge front wheel and a small rear wheel. Detractors called it "The Crocodile", and it failed in the market. Bicycle in Plymouth at the start of the 20th centuryJohn Kemp Starley, James's nephew, produced the first successful "safety bicycle", the "Rover," in 1885, which he never patented. It featured a steerable front wheel that had significant castor, 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 reinvention of the pneumatic tire in 1888 had made for a much smoother ride. As with the original velocipede, safety bicycles had been much less comfortable than high-wheelers precisely because of the smaller wheel size, and frames were often buttressed with complicated Bicycle suspension spring assemblies. The pneumatic tire made all of these obsolete, and frame designers found a diamond pattern to be the strongest and most efficient design. The chain drive improved comfort and speed, as the drive was transferred to the non-steering rear wheels and allowed for a much more smooth and relaxed and injury free pedalling. (earlier designs that required pedalling the steering front wheel were difficult to pedal while turning, due to the misalignment between leg and the plane the pedal rotates in ). Because stability was improved, the gyrscopic forces were reduced, and pedalling was easier, the rider did not have so much difficulty to turn a corner. The pneumatic tire, and the diamond frame improved rider comfort but do not form a crucial design or safety feature. A hard rubber tyre on a bicycle is just as ridable but is bone jarring. The frame design allows for a lighter weight, and more simple construction and maintenance, and hence lower price. With four key aspects ( steerability, safety, comfort and speed ) improved over the penny farthing, bicycles become very popular among elites and the middle classes in Europe and North America in the middle and late 1890s. It was the first bicycle that was suitable for women, and as such the "freedom machine" (as American feminist Susan B. Anthony called it) was taken up by women in large numbers. 1890s Hotchkiss Bicycle RailroadBicycle historians often call this period the "golden age" or "bicycle craze." By the start of the 20th century, cycling 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. The Panic of 1893 wiped out most American manufacturers by further lowering prices, further increasing the range of consumers. 1897 ad, showing unskirted garment for women's bicycle ridingThe impact of the bicycle on female emancipation should not be underestimated. The diamond-frame safety bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility, contributing to their larger participation in the lives of Western nations. As bicycles became safer and cheaper, more women had access to the personal freedom they embodied, and so the bicycle came to symbolise the New Woman of the late nineteenth century, especially in Britain and the United States. Feminists and suffragists recognised its transformative power. Susan B. Anthony said: "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." In 1895 Frances Willard, the tightly-laced president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, wrote a book called How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, in which she praised the bicycle she learned to ride late in life, and which she named "Gladys", for its "gladdening effect" on her health and political optimism. Willard used a cycling metaphor to urge other suffragists to action, proclaiming, "I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum." The backlash against the New (bicycling) Woman was demonstrated when the male undergraduates of Cambridge University chose to show their opposition to the admission of women as full members of the university by hanging a woman in effigy in the main town square -- tellingly, a woman on a bicycle. This was as late as 1897. The safety bicycle was only relatively safe, and clearly women could not cycle in the then-current fashions for voluminous and restrictive dress. The bicycle craze fed into a movement for so-called rational dress, which helped liberate women from corsets and ankle-length skirts and other encumbering garments, substituting the then-shocking bloomers. In the Netherlands, bicycles are made available for use in national parks 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 children's toys, 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. See bicycle gearing. At mid-century there were two predominant bicycle styles for recreational cyclists in North America. Heavyweight cruiser bicycles featuring balloon tires, pedal-driven "coaster" brakes and only one gear, were popular for their durability, comfort, streamline appearance, and a significant array of accessories (lights, bells, springer forks, speedometers, etc.). Lighter cycles, with hand brakes, thinner tires, and a three-speed hub gearing system, often imported from England, 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. In the early 1980s, Swedish company Itera invented a new type of bicycle, called the Itera plastic bicycle, made entirely out of plastics. The plastic bicycle was however a commercial failure.


Buy at AllPosters.com


Bicycle Law:
The 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of the United Nations considers a bicycle to be a vehicle, and a person controlling a bicycle is considered a driver. The traffic codes of many countries reflect these definitions and demand that a bicycle satisfy certain legal requirements, sometimes even including licensing, before it can be used on public roads. In many jurisdictions it is an offence to use a bicycle that is not in roadworthy condition. In most places when ridden after dark, bicycles must have functioning front and rear lights, or "lamps". As some generator or dynamo-driven lamps only operate while moving, rear reflectors are frequently also mandatory. Since a moving bicycle makes little noise, some countries insist that bicycles have a warning bell for use when approaching pedestrians, equestrians and other bicyclists.

Standards:
A number of formal and industry standards exist for bicycle components, to help make spare parts exchangeable:

ISO 5775 Bicycle tire and rim designations:
ISO 8090 Cycles Terminology (same as BS 6102-4):
ISO 4210 Cycles Safety requirements for bicycles:


Bicycle frame:
Modern upright bicycles feature the diamond frame, a truss, consisting of two triangles: the front triangle and the rear triangle. The front triangle consists of the head tube, top tube, down tube and seat tube. The head tube contains the headset, the set of bearings that allows the fork to turn smoothly for steering and balance. The top tube connects the tube to the seat tube at the top, and the down tube connects the head tube to the bottom bracket. The rear triangle consists of the seat tube and paired chain stays and seat stays. The chain stays run parallel to the chain, connecting the bottom bracket to the rear dropouts. The seat stays connect the top of the seat tube (at or near the same point as the top tube) to the rear dropouts. Historically, women's bicycle frames had a top tube that connected in the middle of the seat tube instead of the top, resulting in a lower standover height at the expense of compromised structural integrity, since this places a strong bending load in the seat tube, and bicycle frame members are typically weak in bending. This design, referred to as a step-through frame, purportedly allows the rider to mount and dismount in a dignified way while wearing a skirt or dress. While some women's bicycles continue to use this frame style, there is also a variation, the mixte, which splits the top tube into two small top tubes that bypass the seat tube and connect to the rear dropouts. The ease of stepping through is also appreciated by those with limited flexibility or other joint problems. Because of its persistent image as a "women's" bicycle, step-through frames are not common for larger builds. Historically, materials used in bicycles have followed a similar pattern as in aircraft, the goal being high strength and low weight. Since the late 1930s alloy steels have been used for frame and fork tubes in higher quality machines. Celluloid found application in mudguards, and aluminium alloys are increasingly used in components such as handlebars, seat post, and brake levers. In the 1980s aluminium alloy frames became popular, and their affordability now makes them common. More expensive carbon fiber and titanium frames are now also available, as well as advanced steel alloys.

Meet Single Girls and Guys for Dating!

Drivetrain:
The drivetrain begins with pedals which rotate the crank arms, which are held in axis by the bottom bracket. Attached to one crank arm may be one or more chainrings or sprockets which drive the chain, which in turn rotates the rear wheel via the rear sprockets (cassette or freewheel). A gearing system is used to vary the number of rear wheel revolutions produced by each turn of the pedals. Since cyclists' legs are most efficient over a narrow range of cadences, a variable gear ratio is helpful to maintain an optimum pedalling speed while covering varied terrain. When the bicycle chain shifts to a larger rear sprocket, or to a smaller front sprocket (a lower gear) every turn of the pedal leads to fewer rotations in the freewheel (and hence the rear wheel). This allows the force required to move the same distance to be distributed over more pedal cycles, reducing fatigue when riding uphill, with a heavy load, or against strong winds. The reverse process allows the cyclist to make fewer pedal cycles to maintain a higher speed, but with more effort per cycle. Road bicycles have close set multi-step gearing, which allows fine control of cadence, while utility bicycles offer fewer, more widely spaced speeds. Mountain bikes, touring bikes and many entry-level racing bicycles offer an extremely low gear to facilitate climbing slowly on steep hills. Single-speed bicycles have only one gear combination.

Steering and seating:
The handlebars turn the fork and the front wheel via the stem, which rotates within the headset. Three styles of handlebar are common. Upright handlebars, the norm in Europe and elsewhere until the 1970s, curve gently back toward the rider, offering a natural grip and comfortable upright position. Drop handlebars are "dropped", offering the cyclist either an aerodynamic "crouched" position or a more upright posture in which the hands grip the brake lever mounts. Mountain bikes feature a straight handlebar which can provide better low-speed handling due to the wider nature of the bars. Saddles also vary with rider preference, from the cushioned ones favoured by short-distance riders to narrower saddles which allow more room for leg swings. Comfort depends on riding position. With comfort bikes and hybrids the cyclist sits high over the seat, their weight directed down onto the saddle, such that a wider and more cushioned saddle is preferable. For racing bikes where the rider is bent over, weight is more evenly distributed between the handlebars and saddle, and the hips are flexed, and a narrower and harder saddle is more efficient. Differing saddle designs exist for male and female cyclists, accommodating the genders' differing anatomy, although bikes typically are sold with saddles most appropriate for males. A recumbent bicycle has a reclined chair-like seat that some riders find more comfortable than a saddle, especially riders who suffer from certain types of seat, back, neck, shoulder, or wrist pain. Recumbent bicycles may have either under-seat or over-seat steering.


Buy at AllPosters.com


Bicycle brake systems:
Modern bicycle brakes are either rim brakes, in which friction pads are compressed against the wheel rims, internal hub brakes, in which the friction pads are contained within the wheel hubs, or disc brakes. Disc brakes are common on off-road bicycles, tandems and recumbent bicycles, but are considered impractical on road bicycles, which rarely encounter conditions where the advantages of discs are significant. Hub drum brakes do not cope well with extended braking, so rim or disc brakes are favoured in hilly terrain. With hand-operated brakes, force is applied to brake levers mounted on the handlebars and transmitted via Bowden cables or hydraulic lines to the friction pads. A rear hub brake may be either hand-operated or pedal-actuated, as in the back pedal coaster brakes which were popular in North America until the 1960s, and are still common in children's bicycles. Track bicycles do not have brakes. Brakes are not required for riding on a track because all riders ride in the same direction around a track which does not necessitate sharp deceleration. Track riders are still able to slow down because all track bicycles are fixed-gear, meaning that there is no freewheel. Without a freewheel, coasting is impossible, so when the rear wheel is moving, the crank is moving. To slow down one may apply resistance to the pedals. While it is illegal in most jurisdictions to cycle on roads without brakes, a fixed-gear bike without brakes can be slowed by skidding the rear wheel. This involves unweighting the rear wheel and applying a backwards force to the pedals, causing the rear wheel to lock up and slide along the road. Most track bike frames and forks do not have holes for mounting brakes, although with their increasing popularity among some road cyclists, some manufacturers have designed their track frames to enable the fitting of brakes.

Bicycle suspension:
Bicycle suspension refers to the system or systems used to suspend the rider and all or part of the bicycle in order to protect them from the roughness of the terrain over which they travel. Bicycle suspension are used primarily on mountain bicycles, but are also common on hybrid bicycles, and can even be found on some road bicycles as they can help deal with problematic vibration.

Accessories and repairs:
Some components, which are often optional accessories on sports bicycles, are standard features on utility bicycles to enhance their usefulness and comfort. Mudguards (or fenders) protect the cyclist and moving parts from spray when riding through wet areas and chainguards protect clothes from oil on the chain. Kick stands keep a bicycle upright when parked. Front-mounted baskets for carrying goods are often used. Luggage carriers and panniers can be used to carry equipment or cargo. Parents sometimes add rear-mounted child seats and/or an auxiliary saddle fitted to the crossbar to transport children. Touring bicycle equipped with head lamp, pump, rear rack, fenders/mud-guards, and numerous saddle-bags.Toe-clips and toestraps and clipless pedals help to keep the foot planted firmly in the proper position on the pedals, and enable the cyclist to pull as well as push the pedals. Technical accessories include cyclocomputers for measuring speed and distance. Other accessories include lights, reflectors, tire pump, security lock, mirror, and bell. Bicycle helmets may help reduce injury in the event of a collision or accident, and a certified helmet is legally required for some riders in some jurisdictions. Helmets are classified as an accessory or an item of clothing by others. Many cyclists carry tool kits. At the least this will include a tire patch kit (these contain tube-patching material, an adhesive, a block of French chalk and a metal grater to reduce the chalk to powder) and/or a spare tube, tire levers, and hex wrenches. More specialised parts now require more complex tools, including proprietary tools specific for a given manufacturer. Some bicycle parts, particularly hub-based gearing systems, are complex, and many prefer to leave maintenance and repairs to professional bicycle mechanics. Others maintain their own bicycles, enhancing their enjoyment of the hobby of cycling. In some areas it is possible to purchase road-side assistance from companies such as the Better World Club.


Buy at AllPosters.com


Bicycle performance:
In both biological and mechanical terms, the bicycle is extraordinarily efficient. In terms of the amount of energy a person must expend to travel a given distance, investigators have calculated it to be the most efficient self-powered means of transportation. From a mechanical viewpoint, up to 99% of the energy delivered by the rider into the pedals is transmitted to the wheels, although the use of gearing mechanisms may reduce this by 10-15%. In terms of the ratio of cargo weight a bicycle can carry to total weight, it is also a most efficient means of cargo transportation. A human being travelling on a bicycle at low to medium speeds of around 10-15 mph (15-25 km/h), using only the energy required to walk, is the most energy-efficient means of transport generally available. Air drag, which is proportional to the square of speed, requires dramatically higher power outputs as speeds increase. A bicycle which places the rider in a seated position, supine position or, more rarely, prone position, and which may be covered in an aerodynamic fairing to achieve very low air drag, is referred to as a recumbent bicycle or human powered vehicle. On an upright bicycle, the rider's body creates about 75% of the total drag of the bicycle/rider combination. In addition, the carbon dioxide generated in the production and transportation of the food required by the bicyclist, per mile traveled, is less than 1/10th that generated by energy efficient cars.

Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics:
A bicycle stays upright by being steered so as to keep its centre of gravity over its wheels. This steering is usually provided by the rider, but under certain conditions may be provided by the bicycle itself. A bicycle must lean in order to turn. This lean is induced by a method known as countersteering, which can be performed by the rider turning the handlebars directly with the hands or indirectly by leaning the bicycle. Short-wheelbase or tall bicycles, when braking, can generate enough stopping force at the front wheel in order to flip longitudinally. This action, especially if performed on purpose, is known as a stoppie, endo or front wheelie.


Buy at AllPosters.com


Economic implications:
Bicycle manufacturing proved to be a training ground for other industries and led to the development of advanced metalworking techniques, both for the frames themselves and for special components such as ball bearings, washers, and sprockets. These techniques later enabled skilled metalworkers and mechanics to develop the components used in early automobiles and aircraft. J. K. Starley's company became the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. in the late 1890s, and then the Rover auto maker. The Morris Motor Company (in Oxford) and koda also began in the bicycle business, as did the Wright Brothers. In general, U.S. and European cycle manufacturers used to assemble cycles from their own frames and components made by other companies, although very large companies (such as Raleigh) used to make almost every part of a bicycle (including bottom brackets, axles, etc.) In recent years, those bicycle makers have greatly changed their methods of production. Now, almost none of them produce their own frames. Many newer or smaller companies only design and market their products; the actual production is done by Asian companies. For example, some sixty percent of the world's bicycles are now being made in China. Despite this shift in production, as nations such as China and India become more wealthy, their own use of bicycles has declined due to the increasing affordability of cars and motorcycles. One of the major reasons for the proliferation of Chinese-made bicycles in foreign markets is the lower cost of labour in China.

Social implications:
In cities, bicycles helped reduce crowding in inner-city tenements by allowing workers to commute from more spacious dwellings in the suburbs. They also reduced dependence on horses, with all the knock-on effects this brought to society. Bicycles allowed people to travel for leisure into the country, since bicycles were three times as energy efficient as walking, and three to four times as fast. Cycling has many health benefits and does not directly contribute to global warming or environmental pollution

Community bicycles:
Several European cities have implemented successful schemes that use bicycles as a way of public transport. Users can take a bicycle at a parking station, use it for a limited amount of time, and then return it to the same, or a different, station. Examples of such schemes are Bicing in Barcelona, Vélo'v in Lyon and Vélib' in Paris.

Bicycle types:
Bicycles can be categorized in different ways: e.g. by function, by number of riders, by general construction, by gearing or by means of propulsion. The common types include utility bicycles, mountain bicycles, racing bicycles, touring bicycles, cruiser bicycles, and BMX bicycles. Less common types include tandems, recumbents, lowriders, tall bikes, fixed gear, and folding models. Unicycles, tricycles and quadracycles are not strictly bicycles, as they have respectively one, three and four wheels, but are often referred to informally as "bikes".

How To Fix Bicycle Wheel Buckle

Bicycle Manufacturers

Bicycle Types

Bicycle Slang

Paralumun New Age Village