The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the legs, and comfort, because the large wheel provided greater shock absorption.
Daniel Rudge was a British engineer who built high-end bicycles and velocipedes. Rudge invented the adjustable ball bearing bicycle hub in 1878.
James Starley was an English inventor and father of the bicycle industry. He was one of the most innovative and successful builders of bicycles and tricycles. His inventions include the differential gear and the perfection of the bicycle chain drive.
A velocipede is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.
Vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels arranged consecutively, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817. The term bicycle was coined in France in the 1860s, and the descriptive title "penny farthing", used to describe an "ordinary bicycle", is a 19th-century term.
The French bicycle industry and the history of the bicycle are intertwined. Spanning the last century and a half, the industry has seen two booms, and continues into the 21st century, albeit less dominant today.
This timeline of motorized bicycle history is a summary of the major events in the development and use of motorized bicycles and tricycles, which are defined as pedal cycles with motor assistance but which can be powered by pedals alone.
Pope Manufacturing Company was founded by Albert Augustus Pope around 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts, US and incorporated in Hartford, Connecticut in 1877. Manufacturing of bicycles began in 1878 in Hartford at the Weed Sewing Machine Company factory. Pope manufactured bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. From 1905 to 1913, Pope gradually consolidated manufacturing to the Westfield Mass plant. The main offices remained in Hartford. It ceased automobile production in 1915 and ceased motorcycle production in 1918. The company subsequently underwent a variety of changes in form, name and product lines through the intervening years. To this day, bicycles continue to be sold under the Columbia brand.
Villiers Engineering was a manufacturer of motorcycles and cycle parts, and an engineering company based in Villiers Street, Wolverhampton, England.
The Garrard & Blumfield or Blumfield & Garrard was an English electric car manufacturer from 1894 to 1896. The company is presumed to have been founded by C. R. Garrard and T. W. Blumfield.
Humber is an English brand of bicycle. Thomas Humber made himself a velocipede in 1868. From that time he built a substantial business in manufacturing tricycles and bicycles while continuously improving their design and construction. His products were so well-made and well-designed they were known as "the aristocrat among bicycles".
John Thompson Keen was born on 25 February 1849 at Broadway in the county of Worcestershire, England, and lived in Surbiton, Surrey from the age of five. He gained an international reputation both as a professional sports cyclist and a manufacturer of bicycles.
Le Vélocipède Illustré was a fortnightly illustrated French newspaper which covered cycling, water sports, mechanical arts and sciences, fine arts, and industry. First published in Paris on the 1 April 1869 by Richard Lesclide, it continued publication until 1872.
Thomas Humber was a British engineer and cycle manufacturer who developed and patented a safety bicycle (1884) with a diamond-shaped frame and wheels of similar size. It became a pattern for subsequent machines. Humber made many other improvements to bicycles. About 1868 he founded Humber Cycles, the bicycle manufacturing business at Beeston, Nottinghamshire later owned by Humber & Co Limited.
The Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede was a steam powered velocipede made in France some time from 1867 to 1871, when a small Louis-Guillaume Perreaux commercial steam engine was attached to a Pierre Michaux manufactured iron framed pedal bicycle. It is one of three motorcycles claimed to be the first motorcycle, along with the Roper steam velocipede of 1867 or 1868, and the internal combustion engine Daimler Reitwagen of 1885. Perreaux continued development of his steam cycle, and exhibited a tricycle version by 1884. The only Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede made, on loan from the Musée de l'Île-de-France, Sceaux, was the first machine viewers saw upon entering the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum rotunda in The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition in New York in 1998.
The Roper steam velocipede was a steam-powered velocipede built by inventor Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts, United States sometime from 1867 to 1869. It is one of three machines which have been called the first motorcycle, along with the Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede, also dated 1867–1869, and the 1885 Daimler Reitwagen. Historians disagree over whether the Roper or the Michaux-Perreaux came first. Though the Reitwagen came many years later than the two steam cycles, it is often labeled as the "first motorcycle" because there is doubt by some experts whether a steam cycle should meet the definition of a motorcycle.
Clément Cycles, La Société des Vélocipédes Clément, Clément & Cie was a French bicycle manufacturer that was founded by the industrial entrepreneur Adolphe Clément. From its beginnings as a bicycle repair shop in Bordeaux, through its establishment as a bicycle shop and workshop in Paris to its mass manufacture of a wide range of bicycles from the purpose built, state of the art factory at Levallois-Perret, Paris, the brand always combined advertising and marketing flair with quality products.
The Aberdale Cycle Company was founded in 1919. The company concentrated on high volume, popular bicycles. In the mid-1930s, the company moved to a modern factory in London; they also acquired the Bown Manufacturing Company around the same time. Bown brought experience of building motorcycles and with rising demand for motorised transport after 1945, the company began producing mopeds and light-weight motorcycles at their London plant and in Wales. In 1958, Aberdale were acquired by the British Cycle Corporation, while the Aberdale management went on to found Trusty Manufacturing Co Ltd.
Whippet was a brand of safety bicycle designed by C. M. Linley and manufactured by Linley and Briggs in London. Examples exist from 1885 and 1888. They are notable for their use of springs to suspend the frame. An early external derailleur, that enabled two gear ratios and used a freewheel hub was introduced in the summer of 1894, and was available only on Whippet bicycles.
