Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Washington Post article - history of bicycles

Article in Kids' Post about the history of bicycles which is linked to a short item that there will be historic "ordinary" bikes being ridden on the Mall this Saturday.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

First "safety" bicycle

First Safety Bicycle

There were bicycles with wheels of approximately the same size before this - the main innovation of this bicycle was the use of chain drive to power the rear wheel rather than direct use of the front wheel with pedals on the front wheel's hub.

From the book published in 1945 (but in the public domain), Fifty years of Schwinn-built bicycles.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Cycling for Health and Pleasure

How to mount a bicycle as understood 115 years ago - I had never seen this approach. From the rear of the bike? Really?

Cycling - 1895 how to get on

Then there is this overly complex (given that it is intuitive) explanation of how to pedal a bike.

In the early days, even for a general audience there was detailed explanation of the mathematics of gearing -nowadays we probably err the other direction with too little.

There is the inevitable guidance on attire, for women in particular.

Cycling - 1895 womens attire

All from Cycling for Health and Pleasure, published in 1895.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Rider by Tim Krabbé

Krabbé's "The Rider" was only published in English (in the US, anyway) about 25 years after it was originally published in Dutch. This mostly a minute-by-minute tracking of a bike racer's thoughts, beginning to end, during a one-day bike racing event. At around 150 pages, you can fly through it but it is better to take one's time and enjoy it.