Facts About Modern Bicycle

The third revolutionary development in bicycle technology was the introduction of the safety bicycle. The actual inventor is contested by historians, although one early maker was Englishman Harry J. Lawson, who introduced several safety bicycles between 1876 and 1879 with the rear wheel driven by a chain mechanism. But the first bicycle with all the attributes of modern bicycle design was the second version of the Rover Safety, invented by James K. Starley, of Coventry, England, in 1886. It had two 30-inch (0.78-meter) wheels, their hubs 41 inches (1 meter) apart, with the pedals and sprocket mounted between the wheels below the saddle, which was 40 inches (1 meter) high.

Starley's safety bicycle attracted the attention of young German machinist Ignaz Schwinn, who produced high-wheel parts for bicycle factories in Frankfurt. Eventually Schwinn was hired by Kleyer and designed the first safety bicycles sold in Germany. In 1891 Schwinn sought his fortune in Chicago, where he worked for several different bicycle manufacturers before joining with Adolf Arnold in 1895 to found Arnold, Schwinn and Company, one of the most influential bicycle companies in the United States.

The final major technical advance was the invention around 1888 of the air-filled pneumatic tires by Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop, which minimized the still uncomfortably rough vibration and shock of solid rubber tires. Bicycles equipped with pneumatic tires performed so much better in races than others that by 1889 they were in great demand. Dunlop's main competitor was the French rubber manufacturer Michelin.

Thus by 1890 the bicycle had achieved all the essential elements of today's upright bicycle: diamond-shaped frame; foot pedals; rear-wheel chain-driven transmission; two equal-sized, lightweight, tensioned wheels; and pneumatic tires. All those characteristics made it both an efficient and a comfortable machine and paved the way for the greatest bicycle craze of all, the bicycle boom of the 1890s.

Bicycle technology in the 20th and the early 21st century has been dedicated to making the vehicle ever stronger, lighter weight, more efficient, more durable, and more reliable. Bicycles of the 19th century were heavy, sometimes topping 70 pounds (30 kg) because of their iron frames and wheel rims. Even in the 1950s and 1960s, bicycles with carbon-steel frames and rims commonly weighed 40 to 50 pounds (20 to 25 kg).

By the early 21st century, the advent of aluminum-alloy and chrome-molybdenum steel alloy had reduced the weight of the average bicycle to under 30 pounds (15 kg), while the use of carbon-fiber epoxy composites and exotic metals such as titanium alloys had reduced the weight of some specialty lightweight racing bicycles to under 20 pounds (9 kg). Meanwhile the technology of essential bicycle components kept pace. Most notable was the development of variable gearing and the external "derailleur" for shifting gears.