COME THE BICYCLES

COME THE BICYCLES

I don’t know if you’ll agree with me, but without the hereunder events, men would still perhaps be riding on horses today just as in the ancient, medieval and wild west times rather than on a bicycle for the latter is unknown yet, and the words “bicycle” and “cyclist” did not exist in the dictionary not as an English words.

In 1791, obviously because of man’s ingenuity out of laziness to walk, gave birth of a dandy-horse. A dandy-horse resembles today’s child’ scooter. It is a two-wheeled wooden thing and I won’t say that it’s a vehicle because it has no engine though it moves.

The inventor or maker of this dandy-horse was unknown, but the rider’s identity was known in history. He was Count de Sivrac. He propelled the dandy-horse or ce’le’ rife’re by straddling with his feet on the ground. The rider or the straddler proudly parked his dandy-horse in a park in Central Paris. The dandy-horse was known later as velocife’re.

In 1817, the dandy-horse or ce’le-rife’re or velocife’re or velocipe’de was improved by a German named Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Baron Dreis von Sauerbronn of Mannheim, Baden. He added a steerable front wheel and called his dandy-horse as draisienne.

In 1839, the dandy-horse could travel a top speed closer to 23 kilometers per hour. Iron rims were attached to the dandy-horse wooden wheels. There was a fork frame and pair of treadles were installed in the front wheel which transmitted foot power to the rear wheel.

Generally, it was considered as the first true bicycle. However, it wasn’t yet popular than  stagecoach and horses.

It was Kirk Patrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from Dumfrieeshire, Scotland, who did the improvements.

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