Here's a question just out of curiosity.

Barbara_Reed

Barbara_Reed

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What improvement to the bicycle since 1885 has been, in your opinion, the most significant? In particular, what has made cycling more popular, and more enjoyable, as well as more useful as a means of transportation. I'd be interested to hear from all of you on this!
 
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Having looked at the original 1885 Safety Bicycle, I'd say brakes 😁

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Jackware said:
Having looked at the original 1885 Safety Bike, I'd say brakes 😁

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I guess there was no freehub so you could brake (well, try to) with your legs .. until you panic, release and have your legs chopped into tiny pieces by the ever increasing speed of the egg beaters.

Other than that, if you look at the basic design then everything has been evolution rather than revolution and the main evolution has been price :)

Even then it had 29" wheels, rear suspension - two part via the saddle and spung saddle stem - you could even say it had a rear coil - looks a bit like an early ohlins.

I bet if you measured all the way around those bars, they'd be 780 - you just heat them up and bend them out to your desired riding width.

That chainstay is about as short as you could go, there must be about a 10mm gap between crank and the outside of the tyre measured vertically.
 
Jackware said:
And I'm guessing it was fairly lightweight? 🤔
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The weight was perfect .. not too heavy, not too light ..

apparently - no one ever said X/Y/Z was better anyway ....

What's the story with the none consistent spoke pattern ? It hurts my head ! It's like one guy did one side of the wheel and another guy did the other side and they hated each other ?
 
In terms of making cycling popular and a useful form of transportation: Industrialisation. This lead to lower costs, making bikes available to more than the rich few people that could afford hand-made toys.

Why from 1885, by the way? Any significance to that date? Whilst trying to answer that myself, I came across this nice little timeline of bike developments: 58 Milestones from Bicycle History You Must Know
 
Kilham5 said:
The 1885 Safety Bicycle itself.

Everything else is just fluff round the edges.

Since ? 1894 Shozaburo Shimano was born
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Aha! Thank you. Wasn't specifically aware of that.

For anybody else interested, the 1885 safety bicycle was so named as it was the first bike that had wheels of the same size (unlike the penny farthing), meaning that the rider could put their feet "safely" on the ground. More on Wikipedia: Safety bicycle - Wikipedia
 
No doubt there were people that pushed the ‘safety bicycle’ to the top of a hill / mountain / forest in 1885, and then rode down as fast as possible shouting ‘yeeew’ and fist bumping their mates at the end of the ride. It’s just not documented
 
Tubby G said:
No doubt there were people that pushed the ‘safety bicycle’ to the top of a hill / mountain / forest in 1885, and then rode down as fast as possible shouting ‘yeeew’ and fist bumping their mates at the end of the ride. It’s just not documented
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I was that man !
Edit ...sorry thought it said 1985 ..( note to self ..need to wear reading specs !)☺️
 
Bike lock. If someone's nicked it all the innovations in the world won't help.
 
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