Bicycle Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- "Bicycle" may also refer to Bicycle Playing Cards.
No specific time or person can be identified with the invention of the bicycle. Its earliest known forebears were called velocipedes, and included the scooter-like dandy horses of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, and German tax collector Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine on his rounds. A Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick MacMillan, is credited with adding a treadle drive mechanism in 1840, for the first time enabling the rider to lift his feet off the ground. MacMillan is also credited as having the first recorded traffic fine for a cyclist after having knocked somebody down.
In the 1850s and 1860s, Frenchman Ernest Michaux and his pupil Pierre Lalloment placed pedals on a enlarged front wheel. Their creation, aptly called the Boneshaker, featured a heavy steel frame on which were mounted wooden wheels with iron tires. The boneshaker was further refined by James Starley in the 1870's. He mounted the seat more squarely over the pedals, so that the rider could push more firmly, and further enlarged the front wheel to increase the potential speed. This design became known as the Ordinary. British cyclists likened the disparity in size of the two wheels to their coinage, nicknaming it the "penny-farthing". The ordinary was difficult to ride however, and the high seat and poor weight distribution made for dangerous falls.
Starley's nephew, J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson and Shergold, solved this problem by adopting a rear wheel drive layout. Starley's Rover of 1885 is often quoted to be the first recognisably modern bicycle. The safety bicycles soon adopted a diamond-frame, this being formed from 2 triangles and roller chain drive. These bicycles were originally known as the drawf safety, drawf for the size of the wheels, safety for the better wieght distibution and lower seating hieght.
While the Starley frame was much safer, the return to a smaller front wheel made for a bumpy ride. Three subsequent innovations added increased comfort and ushered in the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles. In 1888 Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the pneumatic tire, which soon became universal. Shortly thereafter the rear freewheel was developed, enabling the rider to coast without the pedals spinning out of control. This refinement led to the 1898 invention of coaster brakes. Derailleur gears and hand-powered, cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years, but were slow to be adopted by casual riders. By the turn of the century, bicycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing were soon the rage.
Successful early bicycle manufacturers included Englishman Frank Bowden and German builder Ignaz Schwinn. Bowden started the Raleigh company in Nottingham in the 1890s, and soon was producing some 30,000 bicycles a year. Schwinn emigrated to the United States, where he founded a similarly successful company in Chicago in 1895. Schwinn bicycles soon featured widened tires and spring-cushioned padded seats, sacrificing some efficiency for increased comfort. Facilitated by connections between European nations and their overseas colonies, European-style bicycles were soon available worldwide. With mass production and reduced prices by the mid-20th century bicycles had become the primary means of transportation for millions of people around the globe.
In many western countries the use of bicycles leveled off or declined as motorized forms of transport became affordable and as car-centered policies lead to an increasingly cyclist-hostile road environment. In North America, bicycle sales declined markedly after 1905, to the point where by the 1940s, they had largely been relegated to the role of children's toys. In other parts of the world, such as China, India, and some European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, bicycles remained a mainstay of transportation, their design little altered except for the increasing popularity of hand brakes and the internal hub gears which allowed greater distances and more varied terrain to be covered.
In North America, increasing consciousness of physical fitness and environmental preservation spawned a renaissance of bicycling in the late 1960s. Bicycle sales in the United States boomed, largely in the form of the racing bicycles long used in such events as the hugely popular Tour de France. First these cycles, and then the mountain bikes which followed, virtually eliminated the practical three-speed bicycle from American roads. In response however to consumer dissatisfaction with bicycles made for more targeted audiences, many American recreational cyclists demanded a more practical product. Manufacturers responded with the hybrid bicycle, which offered a more comfortable ride. Meanwhile, designers of these so-called utility bicycles continued to improve their own product, including upgrading the internal hub gearing options to offer upwards of ten speeds.
Main article: Bicycle frame construction
Under the terms of the Vienna convention on Road Traffic, a bicycle is considered to be a vehicle and a person controlling a bicycle is considered to be a driver. The traffic codes of many countries reflect these definitions. As with other vehicles, there are usually legally defined requirements that a bicycle must satisfy before it can be lawfully used on public roads. In many jurisdictions it is an offence to use a bicycle that is not in roadworthy condition and which does not have functioning front and rear brakes. Another widespread legal requirement is that bicycles should have functioning front and rear lights or "lamps". As some generator or "dynamo" driven bicycle lamps only operate while moving, the use of an additional rear reflector is frequently also mandatory. Since a moving bicycle makes very little noise, in many countries bicycles are also required to be fitted with a warning bell for use when approaching pedestrians, equestrians and other bicyclists.
Modern bicycles retain the same diamond frame design, incorporating a pair of contiguous triangles, introduced a century ago. The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame. The handle bars attach atop the headset via a stem. Some mountain bicycles substitute a fork-like system on the rear as well, adding suspension systems for a smooth ride over rough ground. The pedals rotate cranks which fit into the bottom bracket. Attached to the crank is the chainring which drives the chain, which in turn rotates the rear wheel. Within this drive train may be interspersed various gearing systems, described below, which vary the number of rear wheel revolutions produced by each turn of the pedals.
Since cyclists' legs can only produce a limited force and work best at specific speeds, or cadences, a variable gear ratio allows one to maintain an optimum pedaling speed while covering varied terrain. The gear systems are hand-operated, via cables, and are of two types. Internal hub gearing and Derailleurs. Hub gears work by internal planetary or epicyclic gearing, which means that the outer case of the hub gear unit (which is attached to the spokes) is made to turn at a different speed to the rear wheel's axle depending on which gear is selected. Derailleurs which can be placed on both the front chainring and on the rear cluster or cassette, apply strain on the chain by pushing it to either side. The sides of the gear rings catch the chain when it is pushed against them, pulling it up onto their teeth to change gears. Road bicycles have close set multi-step gearing, which allows very fine control of cadence, while three-speed or utility cycles offer a lesser number of more widely spaced "speeds". Mountain bikes may offer an extremely low gear to facilitate climbing slowly on steep hills. Internal hub gearing still predominates in some regions particularly on utility bikes whereas in other regions external derailleur systems predominate.
Three handlebar styles are common. Touring handlebars, the norm in Europe and elsewhere until the 1970s, curve gently back toward the rider, offering a natural grip and comfortable upright position. Racing handlebars are "dropped", offering the cyclist either an aerodynamic "hunched" position or a more upright posture in which the hands grip the brake lever mounts. Mountain bikes feature a crosswise handlebar which helps prevent the rider from pitching over the front in case of sudden deceleration. Seats also vary depending on rider preference, from the cushioned saddles favored by short-distance riders to narrower seats which allow more free leg swings.
Main article: Bicycle brake systems
Bicycle brakes are either rim brakes, in which friction pads are compressed against the wheel rims, or hub brakes, which are contained within the wheel hubs. Hub brakes may be either hand-actuated or pedal-actuated, as in the coaster brakes which were the rule in North America until the 1960s. Hub brakes do not cope well with extended braking, so rim brakes are favoured in countries with hilly terrain. Rim brakes may be operated using a system of rods and levers, or alternatively by using cables to transfer the braking force. The force is applied using pads mounted in calipers which are squeezed onto the wheel rims by pulling the brake handles. The larger tires on mountain bicycles present a braking problem, since they are not accommodated by the usual calipers. This was first solved with a cantilever system using two "half calipers", and then with the safer, more powerful, and better-centered v-brake. In the late 1990s, disc brakes appeared on some off-road bicycles and on tandemss, but are considered impractical on road bicycles, where the additional stopping power and higher weight are less desirable.
Utility bicycles have many features intended to enhance their usefulness and comfort. Chainguards and mudguards, or fenders (U.S.), protect clothes and moving parts from oil and spray. Kick stands help with parking. Front-mounted wicker or steel baskets for holding shopping and other goods are often used. Rear racks or carriers can be used to carry items such as school satchels. Parents sometimes add rear-mounted child seats and/or an auxiliary saddle fitted to the crossbar to transport children.
Materials used in bicycles are similar to those in aircraft, the goal being strength and low weight. Since the late 1930's alloy steels have been used for frame and fork tubes in higher quality machines. Celluloid found application in mudguards, and aluminum alloys are increasingly used in components such as handle bars, seat stems, and brake levers. In the 1980s aluminum alloy frames became popular, and their affordability makes them still common. More expensive carbon fibre and titanium frames are now also available.
In both biological and mechanical terms, the bicycle is extraordinarily efficient. In terms of the number of calories of energy a person must expend to travel a given distance, investigators have calculated it to be the most efficient self-powered means of transportation1. From a mechanical viewpoint, engineers studying the efficiency of the chain drive mechanism have also determined that more than 98% of the energy delivered by the rider into the pedals is transmitted to the wheels, with less than 2% sacrificed to friction2. In terms of the ratio of cargo weight a bicycle can carry to total weight, it is also a most efficient means of cargo transportation.
Accessories are numerous, and include, lights, pump, lock, and additional (pedal or wheel-mounted) reflectors. Technical accessories include solid-state speedometers and odometers for measuring distance. Some accessories show a cultural bias. In North America, virtually all bicyclists wear plastic bicycle helmets for safety. By contrast in some European countries, helmets are viewed as an indicator of inexperience or recklessness.
Many cyclists also carry tool kits, containing at least a patch kit for tires and some wrenches. At one time it was possible to use a single multiple spanner tool to carry out most common bicycle repairs. Increasingly however the trend has been towards more specialised parts requiring more complex tools up to and including proprietary tools specific for a given manufacturer. Some bicycle parts are complex, particularly hub-based gearing, systems and many people prefer to leave all but small repairs and maintenance to professionals. Others prefer to maintain their own bicycles finding it enhances their enjoyment of the hobby of cycling.
For more information on the technical aspects of bicycles, see also:
Bicycle manufacturing proved from the outset to be a training ground for other industries. Building modern bicycle frames led to the development of advanced metalworking techniques, both for the frames themselves and for special components such as ball bearings, washerss, and sprockets. These techniques later enabled skilled metalworkers and mechanics to develop the components used in early automobiles and aircraft. England's William Richard Morris, as well as Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers all got their start as bicycle mechanics.
Perhaps inspired by the military's use of bicycles, many municipalities have put some of their police force on bicycles, which can travel as quickly as cars in busy traffic, sometimes even more quickly, and operate more safely in pedestrian crowds.
Urban bicycle transportation and automobile transportation seem to be mutually antagonistic. Cyclists and motorists have different perceived needs and make different demands on road design. As resources are limited, conflicts do occur -- both in politics and on the streets. Some cities and countries have chosen to give absolute priority to private motorised traffic in their transport policies. This has resulted in land-use patterns and road designs that focus on facilitating motoring, frequently at the direct expense of the safety and convenience of other road users such as cyclists. Examples include extensive one-way street systems, free-right turns, high capacity roundabouts and other free-flow arrangements such as slip roads. Other cities have chosen to adopt more balanced or "sustainable" policies in which account is taken of the competing requirements of various transport modes and where there are active traffic restraint measures designed to limit the impact of private motorised transport. In the former case, cycling has tended to lose its modal share as a form of transport while in the latter case cycling has tended to maintain its modal share. Sometimes, the pendulum swings to an extreme. In Shanghai, a city where bicycles were once the dominant mode of transportation, bicycle travel on city roads was actually banned temporarily in December 2003.
Bicycle paths are often found in cities with an auto-free zone, or with vast park systems, but even such dedicated paths often have to be shared with inline skaters, scooters, skateboarders, and wayward pedestrians. Segregating bicycle and automobile traffic in cities has met with mixed success. At some point the two streams of traffic inevitably intersect, often in a haphazard and congested fashion. Studies have demonstrated that, due to the high incidence of accidents at these sites, such segregated schemes actually increase the number of car-bike collisions7. In this regard, some transportation engineers argue that road bikes belong on the street, and insist that construction of segregated cycle facilities such as cycle paths, or multi-use trails (MUTs), is often a veiled attempt to force bicycles off the roads8.
On a more global level, "Critical Mass" is a worldwide phenomenon of mass bicycle protest rides. Non-hierarchical, with an emphatic lack of formal organization, its participants ride in a highly visible manner to point out and protest the problems of automobile-dominated culture. Critical Mass rides began in 1992 in San Francisco and quickly spread around the world.
Bicycle advocacy groups exist in many cities, providing information for cyclists and lobbying the government to consider the benefits of cycle commuting and the needs of cyclists when planning transportation infrastructure.
By number of riders:
This is an Article on Bicycle. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Bicycle History
Main article: History of the bicycle
These faults were addressed in the the drawf ordinary such as the Singer Xtraordinary and Facile geared ordinary. The drawf ordinary featured a reduced front wheel diameter and a saddle set farther back. Pedaling was accomplished by use of levers or off-set pedals, allowing some gearing between the rider's legs and the front wheel, and thus compensating for speed loss. However, having to both pedal and to steer via the front wheel remained a significant problem.Technical aspects
Legal requirements
Construction and parts
Performance
Typical speeds for bicycles are 16 to 32 km/h (10 to 20 mph). On a fast racing bicycle, a reasonably fit rider can ride at 50 km/h (30 mph) on flat ground for short periods. The highest speed ever attained on the flat, without riding behind a motor paced wind-block, is by Canadian Sam Whittingham, who in 2001 set a 142.51 km/h (80.55 mph) record on his highly aerodynamic recumbent bicycle. This stands as the record for all human-powered vehicles. (Faster speeds can be achieved if air resistance is reduced by motor pacing.)Bicycle physics
A rider stays upright on a bicycle by steering the bicycle so that the point where the wheels touch the ground stays underneath the center of gravity. Once underway, this effort is largely replaced by physical forces generated by the rotation of the wheels which produce a remarkable "self-steering" effect3. The angular momentum of the wheels and the torque applied to them by the ground generates a phenomenon called precession, by which the wheel turns, or trails, toward whichever side to which the bicycle tilts. Like the rider's steering adjustments, this motion automatically returns the contact point of the wheel directly under the center of gravity. These forces, perhaps aided at very high speeds by the gyroscopic effect of the spinning wheels4, are sufficiently strong that a riderless bicycle going down a slope will stay upright by itself. Conversely, a bicycle whose steering fork is locked in a perfectly straight ahead position is virtually impossible to balance.Accessories and repairs
Social and historical aspects
Economic and social implications
evolution of the bicycle had less tangible effects as well, extending early to areas as diverse as fashion and politics. In the 1890s the cycling craze led to a new set of fashions, including bloomers, which helped liberate women from corsets and other restrictive clothing. A British perfumer marketed Cycling Bouquet, which came in a tiny vial designed to fit into a purse small enough for a lady cyclist to carry. The diamond-frame safety bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility, contributing to their emancipation in Western nations. Sociologists suggest that bicycles enlarged the gene pool for rural workers, by enabling them to easily reach the next town and increase their courting radius. In cities, bicycles helped reduce crowding in inner-city tenements by allowing workers to commute from single-family dwellings in the suburbs. They also reduced dependence on horses, and allowed people to travel into the country, since bicycles were three times as energy efficient as walking, and three to four times as fast. In North America, the political organization of bicycle enthusiasts, in such groups as the League of American Wheelmen, led to further changes. Both their model for political organization and the paved roads for which they argued facilitated the growth of the bicycle's rival, the automobile.
In recent years, bicycles are one of many manufactures whose production has largely moved to Asia. Some sixty percent of the world's bicycles are now being made in China. Despite this shift in production, as nations such as China and India become more wealthy, bicycling there is becoming less popular. One of the major reasons for the proliferation of Chinese-made bicycles in foreign markets is the increasing preference of its own citizens for cars and motorcycles5.Bicycles and war
The bicycle is not suited for combat. Unlike the horse, it can not sustain the swing of a sword or the recoil of a gun. It has been used though for "mounted infantry", as a method of transport to the combat zone. Late in the 19th century, the United States Army tested the bicycle's suitability for cross-country troop transport. "Buffalo soldiers" stationed in Montana rode bicycles across roadless landscapes for hundreds of miles with impressive speed.In 20th century wars, armies used bicycles for logistical support. In the Boer War, both sides used them for scouting. In World War I, France and Germany used bicycles as a supplementary way to move troops. In World War II, Germany used them to supplement mechanized transport. In the invasion of Poland, German forces relied on bicycles and horses for follow-up support needed to sustain the blitzkrieg. Later in the war, as German logistics broke down, some ad hoc units used commandeered bicycles in their retreat from the Netherlands.
In its 1937 invasion of China, Japan employed some 50,000 bicycle troops. Early in the Second World War their southern campaign through Malaya en route to capturing Singapore in 1941 was largely dependent on bicycle-riding soldiers. In both efforts bicycles allowed quiet and flexible transport of thousands of troops who were then able to surprise and confuse defenders. Bicycles also made few demands on the Japanese war machine, needing neither trucks, nor ships to transport them, nor precious petroleum. Allied use of the bicycle in World War II was limited, but included supplying folding bicycles to paratroopers and to messengers behind friendly lines. The successful British raid on a German radar installation at Ste. Bruneval, France in 1942 was conducted by airborne Cycle-commandos with the aid of such folding bikes.
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In the Vietnam War, communist forces used bicycles extensively as cargo carriers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Heavily loaded with supplies, these bicycles were seldom rideable. Instead a tender would walk alongside, pushing the bike like a wheelbarrow. With especially bulky cargo, tenders sometimes attached bamboo poles to the bike for tiller-like steering (this method can still be seen practiced in China today). There are some reports of the use of mountain bicycles by U.S. Special Forces as a scouting vehicle in the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and in subsequent battles against the Taliban. The only country to recently maintain a regiment of bicycle troops was Switzerland who disbanded the last unit in 2003.Modal Share: Conflict with automobiles
Bicycle activism
Bicycle enthusiasts often group together, both for specific interests and for more global goals. While in many European and Asian countries bicycles have long been the preferred means of urban commuting, American cyclists have had to fight for space on busy city streets, a process which has been accelerated with the increasing appeal of some urban areas to bicycle-using young adults. In response to bicycle activists, many jurisdictions now provide cyclist-only lanes on roads, as well as bicycle trails, for both commuting and recreational cyclists. Local governments have also responded by providing attachment devices on buses, trains, and subway cars. To reduce theft, many destinations also provide bicycle racks or lockable mini-garages.Types of bicycle
By general construction:
By gearing:
By location or sport:
By means of propulsion:
Other types:
See also
Notes
References
Caunter C. F. The History and Development of Cycles Science Museum London 1972.External links