The "So, How Long Ago Was The Bicycle Invented?" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Riding a bike on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Had borrowed one of my grandkids bikes for my ride to a site that I had wanted to visit and take a few photos for a story I was writing.  The bike had thin tires as well as a control for changing gears as I rode.  Nothing new to me since I have been riding bikes most of my lifetime.  Wrote before about my first bike with hand brakes when I was about 12 years old.  Forgot which hand controlled the rear brake and when I used the wrong one, I went over the handlebars when I braked to quickly.  Recently read a story about the very first bicycle that was introduced to kids in Germany in 1817.  People lined the side of the road as Karl Drais pushed his contraption along the street for the first time, using his feet to propel it because this first bike had wheels but no pedals.  

The first bike without pedals.

At the time the only transportation, besides walking, was riding the horse.  Can you imagine the look of everyone's eyes when they saw this bicycle going down the street for the first time.  Mr. Drais built his bicycle as a substitute for a horse since two years earlier, Mount Tarrigora, in Indonesia, erupted and the ash cloud dispersed around the world and lowered global temperatures.  Crops failed and in return animals were left without food and died of starvation.  Karl's bike looked very little like the bikes we ride today.  

A later model which has pedals on the front wheel.

It weighed about 50 pounds and featured two wooden wheels attached to a wooden frame.  Those riding would sit on what appeared to be an upholstered leather saddle which was nailed to a frame and steered with a set of wooden handlebars.  There was no multi-level gearshift, no pedals and no brakes.  Then along came the Sears, Roebuck and Co. as well as Montogomery Ward who both began to produce and and sell bicycles after WWI for children after adults got tired of pedaling from place to place.  

An advertisement for Schwinn bicycles.

Then Schwinn and Huffy took up the idea at the end of the 1940s into the '50s.  Mass production followed.  At first, children's bikes slightly mimicked automobiles, but it wasn't long before they started to look like rockets.  

My first Schwinn looked much like this one.

My first Schwinn, which I got in the early 50's from my Aunt Doris as a Christmas gift, had a center section with a button you pushed for the horn and which looked like a rocket with fake chrome streaks through it and chrome fenders.  Even had a headlight, but the rear red light was only a red reflector.  Then in the late 1950s I got my last bike which had thin tires, 10 speeds and a seat so narrow it hurt if I rode it for more than an hour.  

The Dora the Explorer bike.

In the 1990's, Huffy Co. began to make bikes based of popular characters such as Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine.  Today, you can see all sorts of bikes on the roads and sidewalks of neighborhoods all over the world.  Learning to ride that bike was a rite-of-passage into adulthood.  A recent episode of "Sheldon" show him learning to ride a bike.  Brought back memories from when I was a kid as well as teaching my own kids to ride.  I eventually gave up riding when I turned 16 and bought my first car, a 1953 Henry "J".  Still remember it!  Only time I ride a bike anymore is when we travel to Ocean City, New Jersey during the summer with the family.  Still remember how to ride!  Oh...and by the way...if there is a New Jersey, there must have been an Old Jersey...but perhaps that will be another story for another day!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

My 1953 Henry "J" looked like this, only I painted it orange!