In 1817, Karl von Drais,
a German baron, invented a horseless carriage that would help him get
around faster. The two-wheeled, pedal-less device was propelled by
pushing your feet against the ground, The machine became known as the
“draisine,” and led to the creation of the modern-day bicycle.
The term “bicycle” was not introduced until the 1860s, when it was coined in France to describe a new kind of two-wheeler with a mechanical drive.
Orville and Wilbur Wright, the brothers who built the first flying airplane, operated a small bike repair shop in Dayton, Ohio. They used their workshop to build the 1903 Wright Flyer.
Fred A. Birchmore, 25,
circled the globe by bicycle in 1935. The entire trip, through Europe,
Asia, and the United States, covered forty thousand miles. He pedaled
about 25,000 miles. The rest was traveled by boat. He wore out seven
sets of tires.
There are over a half billion bicycles in China. Bikes were first brought to China in the late 1800s.
About 100 million bicycles are manufactured worldwide each year.
Over the past 30 years, bicycle delivery
services have developed into an important industry, especially in
cities, where the couriers have earned a reputation for their high speed
and traffic-weaving skills.
Americans use their bicycles for less
than one percent of all urban trips. Europeans bike in cities a lot more
often—in Italy 5 percent of all trips are on bicycle, 30 percent in the
Netherlands, and seven out of eight Dutch people over age 15 have a
bike.
The Tour de France is
one of the most famous bicycle races in the world. Established in 1903,
it is considered to be the biggest test of endurance out of all sports.
Lance Armstrong, an American cyclist, is the only rider to have won
seven titles (1999–2005) after surviving cancer.
Bicycle Moto Cross
(BMX), an extreme style of bicycle track racing, became a sport in the
2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Maris Strombergs, of
Latvia, received the gold medal for Men’s BMX, and Anne-Caroline
Chausson, from France, took home the gold in the first Women’s BMX
Olympic event.
