Two-Wheeled History

This illustration shows inventor Karl Drais aboard his Laufmaschine. Although it is considered the first means of transport to make use of two wheels, it was propelled Flintstone-like with your feet and legs.

In honor of National Bike Month, here is a brief look at the history of the bicycle.

Almost 200 years after the fact, we can only speculate about what drove Karl Drais to invent the first bicycle in 1817.

Drais’ invention was sort of the Flintstone version of what we know as a bicycle. For a start it’s all wood, including the tires. And like a Flintstone vehicle, you propel Drais’ machine with your feet and legs. There are no pedals or any sort of drive train to turn the wheels. Drais appropriately dubbed it the Laufmaschine (running machine), although it came to be known popularly as a “hobby horse.” Drais blew people’s minds by traveling 60 kilometers (37-some miles) in four hours astride his Laufmaschine. He even had a line of accessories, including a sail for those windy days.

It wasn’t until 1866 that someone thought about adding a drive train, but it was connected to the larger front wheel. A French baby carriage maker, Pierre Lallement, is usually given credit for being the first to add pedals to the front wheel; he was granted a U.S. patent for his invention in 1866. This early bike was known as the Velocipede (fast foot), but was known popularly as The Boneshaker. It, too, had wooden wheels.

One of Drais’ Laufmaschines, made from cherry tree wood, is on display at the Kurpfalzisches Museum in Heidelberg, Germany.

The first metal bicycle with solid rubber tires appeared in 1870. It featured a giant front wheel (the idea being that the larger the wheel, the farther you would travel with one rotation). This was the first time the word “bicycle” was used. Various permutations of the high-wheeled bicycle were made until the 1890s when something similar to the bikes we know today were being produced, with wheels of the same size, chains and sprockets, and pneumatic tires.

The modern design increased the popularity of bicycling that enthusiastic bikers formed the League of American Wheelman, now known as the League of American Bicyclists, sponsors of National Bike Month.