What is a bicycle?
A: A bicycle is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven,
single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the
other.
What is a bicycle rider called?
A: A cyclist, or bicyclist.
When were bicycles introduced into Europe?
A: In the 19th century
By the early 21st century how many bicycles were there?
A: More than 1 billion
These numbers far exceed the number of what?
A: Cars, both in total and ranked by the number of individual models
produced.
In many regions they are the principal means of what?
A: Transportation.
They also provide a popular form of what?
A: Recreation.
The basic shape and configuration of a typical upright
or "safety bicycle", has changed little since the first what?
A: Chain-driven model.
When was the chain-driven model developed?
A: Around 1885.
The word bicycle first appeared in English print in The
Daily News in 1868, to describe what?
A: "Bysicles and trysicles" on the "Champs Elysées and Bois de Boulogne".
The word was first used in 1847 in a French publication
to describe what?
A: An unidentified two-wheeled vehicle, possibly a carriage.
The "dandy horse", also called Draisienne or
Laufmaschine ("running machine"), was the first human means of transport to
use what?
A: Only two wheels in tandem.
Who was it invented by?
A: The German Baron Karl von Drais.
It is regarded as the first bicycle, but it did not
have what?
A: Pedals.
When did Drais introduce it to the public?
A: In Mannheim in 1817 and in Paris in 1818.
Its rider sat astride a wooden frame supported by two
in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along how?
A: With his or her feet while steering the front wheel.
In the early 1860s, Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre
Lallement took bicycle design in a new direction by adding a what?
A: A mechanical crank drive with pedals on an enlarged front wheel (the
velocipede).
Several inventions followed using rear-wheel drive, the
best known being what?
A: The rod-driven velocipede by Scotsman Thomas McCall in 1869.
In that same year, bicycle wheels with wire spokes were
patented by whom?
A: Eugène Meyer of Paris.
When was Dunlop's pneumatic tire added to the bicycle?
A: In 1888.
Further innovations increased comfort and ushered in
what?
A: A second bicycle craze, the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles.
Bicycles are the most common vehicle of any kind in
what?
A: The world.
What is the most popular bicycle model of any kind in
the world?
A: The Chinese Flying Pigeon, with about 500 million produced.
The bicycle is also used for recreational purposes such
as what?
A: Bicycle touring, mountain biking, physical fitness, and play.
The bicycle is extraordinarily efficient in what?
A: Both biological and mechanical terms.
The bicycle is the most efficient human-powered means
of transportation in terms of what?
A: The energy a person must expend to travel a given distance.