The History of the Bicycle

The 'Leonardo bicycle' sketch (myth) (Claimed c. 1490s; announced 1974; called a forgery 1997)

The sketch sits on folio 133v of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus in Milan. It shows a two-wheeler with a chain drive, which would put the bicycle almost 400 years ahead of schedule. The Leonardo scholar Augusto Marinoni announced it in 1974, after the codex had been restored, and argued it was a pupil's copy of a lost Leonardo original. Few historians bought it even then, because the drawing is crude. The Museo Galileo in Florence states that it was not drawn by Leonardo and that expert opinion leans strongly toward doubting it.

• The art historian Carlo Pedretti said he examined the same page in 1961 and saw no bicycle, only two circles with some curved lines through them.
• In 1997 Hans-Erhard Lessing, a retired curator of the museum of technology in Mannheim, suggested the drawing was added by one of the monks who restored Leonardo's manuscripts in the 1960s.
• Lessing's case was that a few circles and lines showing through from the other side of the page had been filled in to make a bicycle.

Sources: Deseret News, 16 Oct 1997: 'Leonardo's bike sketch termed a forgery' (report of Lessing's claim); Museo Galileo, Florence: 'Leonardo's Bicycle?' (Cycling through Time exhibition); Wikipedia: History of the bicycle

Karl Drais's running machine (1817) (12 June 1817)

Karl Drais's Laufmaschine ('running machine') was the first two-wheeler you could steer and balance, and every bicycle descends from it. The rider straddled a wooden frame and kicked along the road, coasting between strides. On 12 June 1817 Drais rode it from Mannheim to the Schwetzinger Relaishaus, a coaching inn about 7 km away, and back in a little under an hour. That is roughly 15 km/h on Baden's best road.

How it was made: Drais, a Baden forester with paid leave to invent, had built four-wheeled human-powered carriages in 1813 and 1814 before he settled on two wheels in line. A popular theory, first put forward by his biographer Hans-Erhard Lessing at a cycling-history conference in 2000, says the 1815 Tambora eruption and the 'year without a summer' killed so many horses that Drais went looking for a substitute. Other historians dispute this: Jost Pietsch argues the evidence was misread and points to Drais's own statement that the idea came from ice-skating.

Where it is now: Copies spread across Europe and to America, but without strong patents Drais earned little from them. He gave up his noble title in the turmoil of 1848-49 and died penniless in Karlsruhe on 10 December 1851. A machine from his estate survives in the Stadtmuseum Karlsruhe.

• The first report of the Mannheim ride appeared about six weeks later in the Badwochenblatt of Baden-Baden, and historians think Drais probably wrote it himself.
• The Karlsruhe museum's running machine was first painted in Baden's yellow and red and was repainted in the German black, red and gold after 1848.
• Germany's 2017 coin for the machine's 200th birthday shows a smoking volcano behind the rider, a nod to the Tambora theory that Pietsch calls unproven.

Try it yourself: A kids' balance bike: the 1817 running machine, shrunk to toddler size (balance bike for toddlers on Amazon)

Sources: Stadtmuseum Karlsruhe (museum-digital): Draisine/Laufmaschine from the estate of Karl von Drais; Jost Pietsch, 'An Investigation of Tambora Hypotheses I & III', International Cycling History Conference proceedings; Walter Metzler, 'Die erste Bergfahrt der Fahrradgeschichte', Badische Heimat 2017 (Badische Landesbibliothek); Wikipedia: Karl Drais

The dandy-horse craze (1818-1819) (1818-1820)

Drais's machine crossed to Britain, where the London coachmaker Denis Johnson patented an improved version in December 1818 as the 'pedestrian curricle'. It was lighter, used more metal and was soon nicknamed the dandy horse or hobby. Johnson opened a riding school, sold a model for ladies and turned the thing into a fashion. Cartoonists loved it. The craze peaked in the summer of 1819 and faded soon after.

• A coloured aquatint by Henry Alken, published on 17 April 1819 and now in the Science Museum Group collection, shows Johnson's riding school at 377 Strand and 40 Brewer Street, Golden Square.
• Riders on pavements clashed with pedestrians, and cities from Milan to New York banned the machines from footpaths.
• A US patent for a velocipede went to W. K. Clarkson on 26 June 1819, but no machine is known and the drawings were lost in a fire in 1836.

Try it yourself: David Herlihy's Bicycle: The History, the standard account from the hobby-horse on (Bicycle The History David Herlihy book on Amazon)

Sources: Science Museum Group: Johnson's Pedestrian Hobbyhorse Riding School (aquatint, 1819); Cycling UK: 'Draisienne 1817-2017: 200 years of cycling innovation'; Wikipedia: Dandy horse

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (disputed claim, 1839) (Claimed 1839)

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812-1878) was a blacksmith from near Thornhill in Dumfriesshire. He is often credited with building, around 1839, a wooden two-wheeler driven by treadles and rods to the rear wheel, which would make it the first bicycle you could ride with your feet off the ground. No machine of his survives and he never patented anything. The story was assembled in the 1890s by James Johnston, a corn trader and tricyclist. Historians including David Herlihy and Nicholas Oddy argue that the evidence does not hold up.

How they rose: According to the Johnston account, Macmillan saw a hobby-horse and built an improved one with a steerable front wheel and a treadle-driven rear wheel. The key evidence is an 1842 Glasgow newspaper report of a 'gentleman from Dumfries-shire' on a velocipede who knocked over a child and was fined five shillings. Johnston identified the rider as Macmillan.

How they died: Macmillan died in 1878. A plaque at his old smithy, put up in 1939, reads 'He builded better than he knew.' At a 2024 cycling-history conference Oddy called the claim 'fundamentally mistaken'.

• The Science Museum's 'MacMillan-type' bicycle dates from about 1873, and the museum says copies like it may have been built by Thomas McCall.
• Sceptics argue the 'Macmillan' design is a composite of two velocipedes McCall built in 1869, and that McCall built a replica for the 1896 Stanley Show.
• Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow built a very similar machine around 1846 and was long thought to be the inventor himself.

Sources: Science Museum Group: MacMillan-type Bicycle, c. 1873 (object 1907-16); Nicholas Oddy, 'MacMillan Revisited', International Cycling History Conference 2024 (Glasgow School of Art RADAR); Undiscovered Scotland: Scottish Cycle Museum feature; Wikipedia: Kirkpatrick Macmillan

Lallement's pedal bicycle patent (1866) (20 November 1866)

US Patent 59,915, granted on 20 November 1866, describes 'two wheels, the one directly in front of the other', with treadles on the front wheel and steering arms for balance. Its inventor was Pierre Lallement of Paris, then living in New Haven. He had demonstrated his machine on the roads of Ansonia and New Haven, financed by James Carroll. The historian David Herlihy argued in 1993 that Lallement, not the Michaux family, deserves credit for adding pedals to the hobby-horse. The question is still debated.

• Lallement arrived in the United States in July 1865 and filed his application in April 1866, when he was 22.
• Unable to find an American manufacturer, he sold the rights to Calvin Witty and returned to Paris. Albert Pope later bought the patent and built Columbia bicycles in Hartford.
• Lallement died in Boston in 1891, and a 3.5-mile stretch of Boston's bike network is now named the Pierre Lallement Bike Path.

Sources: Google Patents: US 59,915, Improvement in Velocipedes (Pierre Lallement, 1866); ConnecticutHistory.org: 'Pierre Lallement and the Modern-Day Pedal Bicycle'; Wikipedia: Pierre Lallement

The Michaux velocipede, or 'boneshaker' (1860s) (1867-1870)

In Paris the Michaux workshop put cranks and pedals on the front axle of a hobby-horse and sold the result as a vélocipède. The Science Museum dates the Michaux design to 1861; historians argue over that date and over whether Pierre Lallement got there first. In 1868 Pierre Michaux and the Olivier brothers formed Michaux et Cie, the first company to mass-produce pedal velocipedes. Makers called them velocipedes; riders, shaken by iron tyres on rough roads, called them boneshakers. The fad ran hot in France, Britain and America in 1868-69.

How it was made: Pierre Michaux was a Paris carriage-maker. His first machines had a serpentine frame of two cast-iron pieces bolted together. The Oliviers pushed for the stronger diagonal wrought-iron frame that rivals were already using.

Where it is now: The partnership broke up in 1869, the first velocipede craze collapsed, and Michaux's firm faded. Pierre Michaux died in 1883. By 1870 the high-wheeler was taking over.

• The Science Museum's boneshaker was built in 1869 by Killingworth Hedges at the Erith Iron Works in Kent, a year after the design reached Britain. Its wooden wheels are 36 inches at the front and 30 at the back.
• Its brake is a wooden spoon on the rear wheel, applied by a cord when the rider twists the handlebar.
• 'Velocipede' comes from Latin for 'swift of foot'.

Sources: Science Museum Group: 'Boneshaker' bicycle, 1869 (object 1900-35); Lane Motor Museum: Poncet Velocipede 'Boneshaker', 1869; Wikipedia: Pierre Michaux

The Ariel high-wheeler (1870) (Patented 1870)

James Starley and William Hillman left the Coventry Machinists Company and patented the Ariel in 1870. It was the first British bicycle made entirely of metal in quantity, with wire-spoked wheels pulled into tension so they were lighter and stronger than wooden ones. Pedals still drove the front wheel directly, so a bigger wheel meant more ground per turn, and front wheels grew to 60 inches. These were simply 'bicycles' or 'ordinaries' at the time. The high-wheeler ruled the road for about fifteen years.

How it was made: Starley was a foreman at a Coventry sewing-machine company. The Ariel sold for about £8. In 1874 Starley added tangent spoking, which carries pedalling and braking forces to the rim better and is still how wheels are laced.

Where it is now: The Rover safety bicycle of 1885 and the pneumatic tyre made the high-wheeler obsolete. Ordinaries were still made into the early 1890s and raced on tracks for years after. Enthusiasts still ride them, including at annual races in Evandale, Tasmania.

• The first recorded use of 'penny-farthing' in print dates from 1891, after the big wheels had become rare. It compared the wheels to the large penny and small farthing coins.
• Riders sat almost over the front axle, so a sudden stop could pitch them headfirst over the bars; they were advised to go downhill with their legs over the handlebars so they would land on their feet.
• The Science Museum's 'Ariel' weighs 18 kg and survives without its pedals, tyres or saddle.

Try it yourself: A classic brass bicycle bell, the one accessory the high-wheel era handed down unchanged (classic brass bicycle bell on Amazon)

Sources: Science Museum Group: 'Ariel' Bicycle, 1870 (object 1925-666); Beamish Museum, Transport Objects in Focus No. 4 (Part 2): high bicycles; Wikipedia: Penny-farthing

Thomas Stevens rides around the world (1884-1886) (April 1884 - December 1886)

Thomas Stevens was the first person to ride a bicycle around the world, on a black Columbia 'Standard' high-wheeler with a 50-inch front wheel. He crossed the United States first, leaving San Francisco on 22 April 1884 and reaching Boston that August. The world ride proper ran from Liverpool on 4 May 1885 to Yokohama on 17 December 1886, through Europe, Persia, India, China and Japan. His itinerary gives the distance actually ridden as about 13,500 miles.

How they rose: Born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, Stevens went to America in 1871, aged about 16, with a half-brother, and worked on railways and in mines. After his ride across the United States, Outing magazine made him a special correspondent and sent him to Liverpool to carry on around the world.

How they died: He wrote Around the World on a Bicycle (1887), set off in January 1889 on the New York World's search for Henry Morton Stanley in Africa, and later managed the Garrick Theatre in London. He died in London in 1935, aged 80.

• Stevens was arrested when he entered Afghanistan in 1886 and escorted back to Persia, so he had to find another way east.
• He called India's Grand Trunk Road 'an unbroken highway of marvellous perfection' from Peshawar to Calcutta.
• His book runs to two volumes and about 1,000 pages, and both are free on Project Gutenberg.

Try it yourself: Stevens's own account of the ride, still in print (Around the World on a Bicycle Thomas Stevens book on Amazon)

Sources: Project Gutenberg: Thomas Stevens, Around the World on a Bicycle, Vol. I (1887); Scroll.in: 'A land of colours: India through the eyes of the first cyclist to circumnavigate the world' (2022); Wikipedia: Thomas Stevens (cyclist)

Starley's Rover safety bicycle (1885) (1885)

John Kemp Starley's Rover of 1885 was the first commercially successful 'safety' bicycle. A chain drive to the rear wheel meant the front wheel no longer had to be huge, so both wheels could be the same size and the rider sat low enough to put a foot down. Cycling magazine later said the Rover had 'set the pattern to the world'. Within a few years it had swept the high-wheeler aside. The safety bicycle was popular with both men and women, and it is the ancestor of nearly every bicycle sold today.

How it was made: In 1877 he set up Starley & Sutton in Coventry with William Sutton, first making tricycles, which were sold under the Rover name by 1883.

Where it is now: Starley died suddenly in Coventry in 1901, aged 45. Soon afterwards his company began building motorcycles and then cars, and the Rover name lived on in the motor industry.

• The Science Museum's 1885 Rover still has its solid rubber tyres; air-filled tyres did not arrive until Dunlop's patent three years later.
• Its saddle was re-made by Brooks of Birmingham in 1961.
• The Rover ended the high bicycle's reign of about fifteen years; makers fought back with lower 'Rational' high-wheelers, but the ordinary was out of production by 1892.

Try it yourself: Brooks B17 leather saddle: the firm that re-made the Science Museum Rover's saddle still makes this classic (Brooks B17 leather saddle on Amazon)

Sources: Science Museum Group: Rover 'Safety' Bicycle, 1885 (object 1901-6); Beamish Museum, Transport Objects in Focus No. 4 (Part 2): the end of the high bicycle; Wikipedia: John Kemp Starley

Dunlop's pneumatic tyre (1888) (Patented 7 December 1888)

John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish vet working in Belfast, made the first practical pneumatic tyre in 1887-88 for his son Johnnie's tricycle. He tested an inflated rubber tube on a wooden disc against one of Johnnie's solid wheels in his Belfast yard, and the air tyre rolled far better. His patent was granted on 7 December 1888. Air tyres smoothed out the small wheels of the new safety bicycle and helped set off the 1890s boom.

How it was made: In May 1889 the cyclist Willie Hume won all four races at the Queen's College sports in Belfast on Dunlop tyres. Among those he beat were sons of Harvey du Cros, president of the Irish Cyclists' Association; du Cros went into business with Dunlop, and the Dunlop company was born.

Where it is now: In 1890 Dunlop's patent rights fell when an earlier pneumatic-tyre patent by Robert William Thomson came to light. Dunlop sold his rights for modest sums and never made a fortune. He died in Dublin in 1921; the Dunlop brand lives on, with no link to his family.

• Thomson had patented an air-filled tyre for horse carriages in the 1840s and tested it in Hyde Park in 1847; rubber was too dear and roads too poor for it to catch on.
• Dunlop's US patent, No. 435,995 of 9 September 1890, describes an inner tube under an outer rubber cover, reinforced with canvas.
• In 1910 Dunlop gave his prototype tyre, made of Arbroath sailcloth and India rubber, to what is now National Museums Scotland.

Try it yourself: Schwalbe Marathon Plus, a modern puncture-resistant descendant of Dunlop's air tyre (Schwalbe Marathon Plus bike tire on Amazon)

Sources: Google Patents: US 435,995, Wheel Tire for Cycles (J. B. Dunlop, 1890); National Museums Scotland: 'The Dunlop tyre: Air apparent'; Wikipedia: John Boyd Dunlop

Raleigh of Nottingham (from 1888) (1888-today)

Raleigh grew from a small cycle shop that Richard Woodhead and Paul Angois opened on Raleigh Street, Nottingham, in 1885. In 1888 the lawyer and cyclist Frank Bowden became its backer, and in 1889 it was incorporated. Grace's Guide says it was the world's largest bicycle maker by 1896; Wikipedia puts that title at 1913.

How it began: In 1887 the workshop was making about three high-wheelers a week. By 1914 Raleigh expected to build 65,000 machines a year, and an extension in 1922 raised capacity to 100,000 cycles.

How it ended: Tube Investments took over in 1960 to form TI-Raleigh, and the Chopper revived its fortunes from 1969. Frame building in Britain ended in 1999 and assembly by 2003. The Dutch group Accell bought Raleigh in 2012; in August 2026 Accell itself went into insolvency proceedings, and the brand's future depends on who buys the group.

• The Science Museum's 1901 Raleigh used light pressed-steel joints instead of heavy iron castings, a method the museum calls a prototype for most later bicycles.
• During the Second World War the Nottingham works made fuzes, and bicycle output fell to about 5% of peacetime capacity.
• Grace's Guide records 'one million cycles produced' at Raleigh in 1951.

Try it yourself: A Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub, the gear that rode on Raleigh's 1901 all-steel bicycle (Sturmey-Archer 3 speed hub on Amazon)

Sources: Science Museum Group: Raleigh All-Steel Bicycle, 1901 (object 1952-79); Grace's Guide to British Industrial History: Raleigh Cycle Co; Wikipedia: Raleigh Bicycle Company; BikeRadar: Owner of Raleigh and Lapierre files for insolvency (6 August 2026)

The 1890s bicycle craze (c. 1890-1900)

With the safety bicycle and the pneumatic tyre together, cycling became a mass craze in the 1890s. By 1895 more than 300 American manufacturers were making about 1.2 million bicycles a year, according to The Henry Ford. Sales even grew through the depression of the mid-1890s. Cyclists pushed for better roads and drew some of the first road maps, and bicycles let young women travel without a chaperone. Then oversupply and price cuts broke many firms, and by 1899 several dozen had merged into the American Bicycle Company.

• In 1880s Minnesota a high-wheeler cost about $100 to $150, roughly half a year's wages; by 1898 Minneapolis shops were advertising basic safeties for $30.
• Puck magazine's issue of 24 March 1897 carried a cartoon of a novice woman rider concentrating hard on her bicycle, on a page that also held advertisements for bicycles and accessories.
• A bicycle railroad opened in Mount Holly, New Jersey, in 1892 and drew about 3,000 riders in its first week.

Try it yourself: David Herlihy's Bicycle: The History, with the best account of the 1890s boom (Bicycle The History David Herlihy book on Amazon)

Sources: Library of Virginia, Document Bank: Bicycle cartoon and advertisements, Puck, 24 March 1897; MNopedia (Minnesota Historical Society): 'Bicycling Craze, 1890s'; The Henry Ford: Wright Cycle Company (curator Matt Anderson); Wikipedia: Bike boom

The Wright Cycle Company, Dayton (1892-1908) (1892-1908)

Wilbur and Orville Wright went into the bicycle business in Dayton, Ohio, at the end of 1892, at the height of the boom. They sold and repaired machines from makers such as Coventry and Warwick, offered time payments and took trade-ins. From 1896 they built bicycles to order under their own Van Cleve and St. Clair names. The shop's profits and skills funded their gliders, their wind tunnel and the 1903 Flyer, and they took no outside money.

How it began: The brothers rented a storefront at 1005 West Third Street in December 1892 and, after several moves, settled at 1127 West Third Street in 1897, the sixth and last home of the business.

How it ended: The brothers wound the business down around 1908 to concentrate on aviation, as the boom faded and cars took over. In 1937 Henry Ford moved the 1127 West Third Street building to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, where it stands today.

• The Van Cleve, named after Wright family ancestors, had coaster brakes of the brothers' own design. They built about 300 bicycles between 1896 and 1900.
• According to The Henry Ford, Wilbur hit on wing-warping in 1899 while twisting an empty bicycle-tube box in the shop.
• Charlie Taylor, hired to fix bicycles and soon trusted to run the shop, designed and built the engine for the 1903 Flyer in about six weeks.

Try it yourself: A kids' bike with a coaster brake, the back-pedal brake the Wrights fitted to their Van Cleves (kids bike with coaster brake on Amazon)

Sources: The Henry Ford: Van Cleve Bicycle, made by the Wright brothers c. 1896 (object 37.316.1); The Henry Ford: Wright Cycle Company (curator Matt Anderson); National Park Service Historical Handbook 34: Wright Brothers National Memorial; Wikipedia: Wright Cycle Company; Wikipedia: Charlie Taylor (mechanic)

Annie Londonderry, around the world by bicycle (1894-1895) (June 1894 - September 1895)

Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a Latvian-born Jewish immigrant in Boston, left the city on 25 June 1894 to go around the world on a bicycle. She rode as 'Annie Londonderry' because the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company paid her $100 to carry its placard and its name. She crossed oceans by steamship and rode through France and across the American West. She was back in Boston in September 1895 and is remembered as the first woman to cycle around the world, though much of the distance was by ship.

How they rose: She was a married mother of three who sold newspaper advertising. The trip was said to settle a wager between two wealthy Bostonians, $20,000 against $10,000, that no woman could do it in 15 months; her great-nephew Peter Zheutlin and others think she made the bet up for publicity.

How they died: She moved her family to New York, wrote for the New York World and never cycled again. She died in New York in 1947 and is buried beside her husband Max under the words 'Beloved Mother'.

• She started on a 42-pound Columbia and switched in Chicago to a lighter men's Sterling, changing her skirts for bloomers on the way.
• London's Globe reported in October 1895 that she had been robbed in France and shot in the arm watching a battle in the Sino-Japanese War; historians think the war wound was invented.
• She told reporters she had studied medicine, held a Harvard degree and was an orphaned heiress; none of it was true.

Try it yourself: Her great-nephew's book on the ride and the legend she built around it (Around the World on Two Wheels Peter Zheutlin on Amazon)

Sources: The Globe (London), October 1895, as quoted in Caroline Roope, 'Mistress of spin', Discover Your Ancestors / TheGenealogist; Western Reserve Historical Society, Then & Now blog: 'Inventing Annie' (2022); Wikipedia: Annie Londonderry

Ogden Bolton Jr.'s electrical bicycle patent (1895) (Granted 31 December 1895)

US Patent 552,271, 'Electrical Bicycle', was filed by Ogden Bolton Jr. of Canton, Ohio, on 19 September 1895 and granted on New Year's Eve. It describes a motor built into the wheel hub: a revolving armature carried by the wheel around a field magnet fixed to a hollow axle, sealed against 'moisture and dirt'. A battery hung from the frame, and a rheostat on the handlebar set the speed. It is usually cited as the first US patent for a battery-powered bicycle and the ancestor of today's hub-motor e-bikes.

How it was made: Little is known about Bolton himself beyond his home town of Canton, Ohio. His patent opens with the words 'My invention relates to an improvement in electric bicycles'.

Where it is now: There is no record that Bolton's bicycle went into production. Heavy lead batteries and short range held electric bicycles back for most of the next century, until lighter batteries and motors arrived in the 1990s.

• The patent gives its motor's design load as 'one hundred amperes at ten volts', which works out to about a kilowatt.
• The motor has six brushes, arranged as three alternating sets wired in parallel.
• The patent never mentions pedals or cranks, so in modern terms it is closer to an electric moped than an assisted bicycle.

Try it yourself: A rear-hub-motor e-bike: Bolton's 1895 layout, with lithium batteries (rear hub motor electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: Google Patents: US 552,271, Electrical Bicycle (Ogden Bolton Jr., 1895); GreenCars: 'History of the e-Bike' (Jeff Moore); Wikipedia: Electric bicycle

Susan B. Anthony on the bicycle (1896) (2 February 1896)

On 2 February 1896 the New York Sunday World printed Nellie Bly's long interview with Susan B. Anthony, under the headline 'Champion of Her Sex'. Anthony, then 75, said: 'I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.' She added that it gave a woman 'a feeling of freedom and self-reliance'. The line became the motto of women's cycling history.

• The quotation is often misremembered as 'the bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world'; the printed wording is 'it has done more to emancipate women'.
• In the same interview Anthony said bloomers were 'the proper thing for wheeling', because skirts and lace could catch in the wheel.
• The interview ran on page 10 of the Sunday edition. The same paper had printed Annie Londonderry's account of her round-the-world ride in October 1895.

Sources: Teach It CT (CT Humanities): transcribed excerpt of 'Champion of Her Sex', New York Sunday World, 2 Feb 1896, p. 10; Library of Virginia, Uncommonwealth blog: 'A Bicycle Search For You' (2015); League of American Bicyclists: 'March is Women's (Bike) History Month!' (2013); Wikipedia: Annie Londonderry

Hosea Libbey's electric bicycle patent (1897) (Granted 28 December 1897)

US Patent 596,272, 'Electric Bicycle', was filed by Hosea W. Libbey of Boston on 8 November 1895 and granted on 28 December 1897. It describes a double electric motor on a central shaft, driving the rear wheel through cranks and connecting rods, and a controller worked by a small wheel in front of the seat. Modern histories often call it the first mid-drive e-bike, with the motor at the crank. The patent itself describes the motor working the rear wheel through rods, so treat 'mid-drive' as a loose comparison.

How it was made: Libbey's battery was a double cell with a central partition, built to an earlier patent of his own (No. 586,689). It was fed diluted sulphuric acid through a flexible tube from a saddle-shaped tank.

Where it is now: Like Bolton's machine, Libbey's design left no known production run. Its main legacy is as an early marker in e-bike histories.

• The rear wheel has a 'duplex tread', which the patent says gives the machine 'three points of rest', so it could stay upright when stopped.
• The patent was filed less than two months after Bolton's, but took over two years to be granted.
• The patent also allows for the motor to turn the wheel by means other than cranks and rods, leaving the drive layout open.

Try it yourself: A mid-drive e-bike, the layout some e-bike histories trace back to Libbey's 1897 patent (mid drive electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: Google Patents: US 596,272, Electric Bicycle (Hosea W. Libbey, 1897); GreenCars: 'History of the e-Bike' (Jeff Moore); Wikipedia: Electric bicycle

The first Tour de France (1903) (1-19 July 1903)

The Tour de France was a newspaper stunt. L'Auto, edited by Henri Desgrange, needed a boost against its rivals, and its cycling writer Géo Lefèvre proposed a race around France late in 1902. L'Auto announced it on 19 January 1903. Sixty riders left the Réveil-Matin inn at Montgeron, outside Paris, at 3:16 pm on 1 July, for six stages and 2,428 km. Maurice Garin won by almost three hours and took home 6,075 francs.

• A week before the start only 15 riders had entered, so Desgrange moved the race to 1-19 July, cut the entry fee to 10 francs and promised daily expenses to the first 50 riders.
• The first stage, Paris to Lyon, was 467 km and ran through the night. Garin won it by about a minute from Hippolyte Pagie.
• The last classified rider, Arsène Millocheau, finished almost 65 hours behind Garin.

Try it yourself: A classic steel road bike, the shape the Tour made famous (steel road bike drop handlebars on Amazon)

Sources: L'Auto, front page of 1 July 1903 (scan from Gallica, BnF, on Wikimedia Commons); Encyclopaedia Universalis: '1903, 1er Tour de France: la course'; Wikipedia: 1903 Tour de France

Cyclist soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918) (1914-1918)

Bicycle troops served on many fronts in the First World War. A man on a bicycle could cover more ground than a marching infantryman, so cyclists scouted, carried messages, laid cable and directed traffic. Britain formed an Army Cyclist Corps under Army Order 477 of 7 November 1914, and Australian and New Zealand troops served in Anzac cyclist battalions. Trench warfare made them nearly useless for long stretches. They came back into their own for reconnaissance when the front moved again in 1918.

• Private John Parr, a 17-year-old reconnaissance cyclist of the Middlesex Regiment, was killed near Mons on 21 August 1914 and is believed to be the first British soldier killed in the war. His gravestone gives his age as 20.
• Australian cyclists rode BSA bicycles issued in England, carried their .303 rifles clipped to the down tube or slung on their backs, and had no water-bottle holders.
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists 862 men of the Army Cyclist Corps who died in the war.

Sources: Australian War Memorial: photograph P01802.001, 1st Anzac Cyclists Battalion, Henencourt, 12 May 1917; Australian War Memorial: 'The Bicycle in Warfare'; The Gazette: 'War on two wheels: British army cyclists 1914-1918' (Chris Baker); Royal British Legion: 'Remembering the First and Last'; Wikipedia: Army Cyclist Corps

Tullio Campagnolo and the quick-release (1927-1930) (Legend 1927; patent 1930)

In the 1920s a racer who wanted a different gear had to stop and undo his rear wheel. The story told about Tullio Campagnolo is that on 11 November 1927, on the Croce d'Aune pass in the Dolomites, his hands were too numb to loosen the wing nuts and he lost the race. He patented a cam-lever quick-release in 1930 and set up his workshop in Vicenza in 1933. Treat the race-day details as company lore: the accounts that repeat them cite no race report from 1927.

How they rose: Campagnolo was born in Vicenza in 1901 and raced bicycles. His quick-release led to the Cambio Corsa, a sliding-hub gear changed by back-pedalling and patented in 1933, and later to rod-operated gears such as the Paris-Roubaix.

How they died: In 1949 he showed the Gran Sport, a cable-operated parallelogram rear derailleur that set the pattern for racing gears. He died in 1983, and the firm he founded still makes racing components.

• A British patent, GB 669,693, filed by T. Campagnolo in 1949, describes a single rod that both freed the rear axle and moved the chain to another sprocket.
• Campagnolo's French patent FR 899,402, filed in 1943 on an Italian application of that April, covers a device for guiding the chain and rear wheel during gear changes.
• Derailleur collectors date Campagnolo's rod-operated Paris-Roubaix gear to 1949, the year the British patent was filed.

Try it yourself: Campagnolo quick-release skewers, the part the company was founded on (Campagnolo quick release skewer set on Amazon)

Sources: Google Patents: GB 669,693, Cycle change speed gear (T. Campagnolo, filed 1949); Google Patents: FR 899,402 (Tullio Campagnolo, filed 1943); Disraeli Gears derailleur collection: 'Campagnolo - the Heath Robinson stuff'; Wikipedia: Tullio Campagnolo

Schwinn's balloon-tyre bicycles (1933) (1933-1934)

Schwinn, founded in Chicago in 1895 by Ignaz Schwinn with backing from Adolph Arnold, launched the B-10E Motorbike in 1933, a youth bicycle styled like a motorcycle. In 1934 it was renamed the Aerocycle and fitted with wide balloon tyres made by the American Rubber Company. Fat tyres and motorcycle styling became the look of the American kids' bike, and today's beach cruisers still copy it.

How it was made: Schwinn had already sold motorcycle-styled children's bikes with tanks and headlights. A surviving early-1930s Schwinn Century 'Motobike', a model made from about 1928 to 1932, rolls on 28-inch wheels with 1 1/2-inch tyres; from 1933 Schwinn moved to 26-inch wheels with balloon tyres.

Where it is now: Schwinn filed for bankruptcy in 1992 and again in 2001, when it was sold at auction to Pacific Cycle. Pacific Cycle has been owned by the Dutch group Pon since 2021.

• Schwinn was not first with balloon tyres: according to Leon Dixon of the National Bicycle History Archive of America, Sears and Montgomery Ward sold balloon-tyre bicycles in 1932.
• The Motobike's toy fuel tank opens by flipping a catch underneath, a detail its owner says still amuses spectators at steam rallies and shows.
• According to Hudson's timeline, Schwinn added a front brake it called the 'Fore-wheel' brake in 1938.

Try it yourself: A Schwinn beach cruiser: balloon tyres and swept-back bars, straight from the 1930s (Schwinn beach cruiser bike on Amazon)

Sources: Online Bicycle Museum: surviving 1930 Schwinn Century 'Motobike'; William Hudson, 'Bicycle History' timeline with corrections by Leon Dixon (jimlangley.net); Wikipedia: Schwinn Bicycle Company

Bicycles in the Second World War (1939-1945) (1939-1945)

The Second World War was a war of trucks and tanks, but bicycles still mattered. Japan's advance down the Malay Peninsula to Singapore relied heavily on troops riding bicycles, many taken from civilians after landing. Finland's Jäger brigades and Germany's Volksgrenadier divisions had bicycle units. In 1941 the War Office asked BSA to design a folding bicycle for troops going into action by parachute, and the result was the BSA Airborne.

• The BSA Airborne weighed 9.5 kg and folded in half with two large thumbscrews; in practice the bikes were usually dropped in groups of three and collected after landing.
• The Science Museum says more than 60,000 were made, about half of all British military bicycles of the war, and that they were only required to last 50 miles.
• Wartime Dunlop 'War Grade' tyres on these bikes carried a V for Victory logo.

Sources: Science Museum Group: B.S.A. folding bicycle, c. 1942 (object 1981-148); Online Bicycle Museum: 1942 BSA Airborne Paratrooper Bicycle (1st pattern); Wikipedia: Bicycle infantry

The Schwinn Sting-Ray and the wheelie-bike craze (1963) (June 1963)

In 1962 children in California were customising bicycles like chopper motorcycles, with high-rise handlebars and long 'banana' seats. Schwinn's designer Al Fritz heard about it, and in June 1963 the company launched the Sting-Ray with a Persons 'Solo Polo' banana seat and ape-hanger bars. Sales started slowly and then took off. Raleigh answered at the end of the decade with the Chopper. Kids racing Sting-Rays on dirt in California are often credited with starting BMX, though the historian Leon Dixon calls that a myth.

How it was made: Schwinn did not invent the type: Leon Dixon notes that the Huffy Penguin came first, and Schwinn's own first version was officially a '1963 1/2' model.

Where it is now: The high-rise craze faded in the late 1970s as BMX bikes took over. Schwinn's Scrambler of 1975 evolved into a BMX design in the late 1970s, and Raleigh's Chopper Mk2 stayed in production until 1984.

• Kids riding Sting-Rays off-road open On Any Sunday, the 1971 motorcycle documentary often credited with spreading BMX across America.
• The Science Museum's 1978 Raleigh Chopper Mk2 is the safety-revised model, with fixed handlebars, a shorter seat and a warning that only one person should sit on it.
• The Science Museum says the Chopper's American-motorcycle look owed part of its success to the film Easy Rider (1969).

Try it yourself: A banana-seat kids' bike with high-rise bars, the Sting-Ray look still on sale (kids bike banana seat high rise handlebars on Amazon)

Sources: Science Museum Group: 'Chopper' Mk2 bicycle, 1978 (object 1978-278); William Hudson, 'Bicycle History' timeline with corrections by Leon Dixon (jimlangley.net); Wikipedia: Schwinn Sting-Ray

BMX is born in Southern California (1970s) (1970–1977)

BMX, short for bicycle motocross, began in the early 1970s when Southern California children raced their small-wheeled bikes on dirt tracks in imitation of motorcycle racers. Bruce Brown's 1971 motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday opens with kids riding bicycles on a dirt track, and that scene is credited with spreading the craze nationwide. A Long Beach teenager, Scot Breithaupt, started racing on 14 November 1970, aged 13, on a Long Beach field later dubbed the Bicycle United Motocross Society, sometimes called the sport's first sanctioning body. National bodies followed: the National Bicycle League in 1974 and the American Bicycle Association in 1977.

• Writing in the summer of 1979, CoEvolution Quarterly described the 20-inch motocross bike for kids as a product that began selling in California and caught on nationwide within two years.
• Breithaupt turned his racing into a company, Scot Enterprises, which became SE Racing; he died in 2015, aged 57, in a vacant lot in Indio, California, after years of addiction and homelessness.
• The sport branched out fast: in April 1980 Bicycle Motocross Action magazine named Tinker Juarez its first 'King of the Skateparks', and BMX racing became an Olympic medal sport at Beijing in 2008.

Try it yourself: The SE PK Ripper, a reissue of the race bike from Breithaupt's company, named for racer Perry Kramer (SE Bikes PK Ripper BMX bike on Amazon)

Sources: CoEvolution Quarterly, Summer 1979 (Internet Archive scan); FISE: Top 20 BMX legends of all time; Wikipedia: BMX; Wikipedia: Scot Breithaupt

The American bike boom (1971–1974) (1971–1974)

In the early 1970s American adults took up the bicycle in huge numbers. Cheap ten-speed derailleur bikes, baby boomers reaching adulthood, and new worry about pollution all pushed sales up; by 1972 they had doubled to about 14 million. In June 1971 Time reported shops running about 200 percent ahead of the year before, and Schwinn had its whole 1971 output booked by May. The 1973 oil crisis is often given the credit, but sales had already peaked when it struck in October 1973, and the boom ended with warehouses full of unsold bikes.

• Time reported in 1971 that nearly half of US bicycle production was aimed at adults, for the first time since the 1890s.
• During the 1971 parts shortage Schwinn air-freighted brake parts from Switzerland to keep its assembly lines running, because most hand brakes and gears were made overseas.
• When the pandemic boom hit in 2020, an industry consultant told the Associated Press it was the biggest two-month US sales spike since the 1970s oil crisis.

Try it yourself: A steel drop-bar road bike, today's version of the ten-speed that set off the boom (steel frame road bike drop bar on Amazon)

Sources: Time: "Industry: They Like Bikes" (14 June 1971); Associated Press via Bangor Daily News: Coronavirus fuels bicycle boom not seen since the 1970s (2020); Wikipedia: Bike boom

Brompton Bicycle (1976) (1976–today)

Andrew Ritchie began designing a folding bicycle in 1975 in his South Kensington flat, and named it after the Brompton Oratory, the church he could see from his window. The company dates its founding to 1976. Ritchie filed his patent in 1979: the rear wheel sits in a hinged rear frame that swings under the bike, the main frame hinges, and the handlebars fold down. Full-time production began in 1988, and the firm has made about 50,000 bikes a year in west London, with roughly three-quarters exported.

How it began: Ritchie's father had invested in the Bickerton, an earlier folding bike, and Ritchie thought he could do better. He built the first batches himself, funded by about 100 friends who paid for bikes in advance; the first were delivered in 1980.

How it ended: Brompton still hand-brazes its frames at its Greenford headquarters in west London. A move to a new factory near Ashford, Kent, announced in 2022, was on hold in January 2026 after sales fell. The design has changed little since Ritchie's patent.

• By the early 1980s Ritchie had sold about 500 bikes, each assembled by hand.
• Folded, a Brompton measures about 56 by 55 by 25 centimetres; the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York holds a 2016 example in its collection.
• In 2007 the chief executive, Will Butler-Adams, led a management buyout of the company.

Try it yourself: The Brompton C Line, the current version of Ritchie's 1970s folding design (Brompton C Line folding bike on Amazon)

Sources: Google Patents: EP0026800A1, Folding bicycle (A. W. Ritchie, filed 1979); Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: Into the Fold; BikeRadar: Brompton, handmade in Britain; Wikipedia: Brompton Bicycle; road.cc: Brompton's new factory remains on hold (27 January 2026)

The Repack downhill race (1976–1984) (21 October 1976 – 1984)

Repack was a downhill time trial on a dirt road west of Fairfax in Marin County, California, dropping about 1,300 feet in about 2.1 miles. Riders started two minutes apart from a ridge on Pine Mountain and were timed with a Navy chronometer. The first race, on 21 October 1976, had ten entrants; Alan Bonds won because he was the only one who did not crash. Twenty-two races were run from 1976 to 1979 and two more in 1983 and 1984, before county land and water managers ended it. Gary Fisher set the fastest time, 4:22, and Joe Breeze the second fastest, 4:24.

• The name came from the coaster brakes on the riders' old Schwinn cruisers: the descent boiled the grease away, so the hubs had to be repacked after a run or two.
• The fastest woman was Wende Cragg in 5:27, and the results list a fastest dog, Ariel, who belonged to Alan Bonds.
• Specialized founder Mike Sinyard rode Repack in 1983, and Myles Rockwell raced it in 1984 at the age of 12.

Sources: Evening Magazine: "Klunking" (1979 broadcast, YouTube); Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame: Repack history; Local News Matters: How a wild downhill race in 1970s Marin County launched mountain biking (2020); Wikipedia: Repack (mountain bike race)

Joe Breeze's Breezer No. 1 (1977) (1977)

Until 1977 Marin County riders made do with heavy 1930s and 1940s Schwinn frames. Joe Breeze, a local frame builder, made a new frame from straight-gauge chrome-moly aircraft tubing, with a pair of extra tubes running from the head tube to the rear dropouts, a layout borrowed from tandems. Breezer No. 1 won Repack race No. 15 in the autumn of 1977 in 4:25. Breeze built nine more by June 1978, and these ten Series 1 bikes are widely regarded as the first modern mountain bikes.

How it was made: Breeze, born in 1953, grew up in Mill Valley at the foot of Mount Tamalpais and raced Repack from its first season. He took the lessons of the clunkers' broken frames and designed a bike meant for the job.

Where it is now: Breezer No. 1 was shown at the Oakland Museum from 1985 to 2011 and entered the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2012. Breeze sold the Breezer brand to Advanced Sports International in 2008 and is curator of the Marin Museum of Bicycling.

• Breeze rode 19 of the 24 Repack races and won 10 of them, more wins than anyone.
• The 1978 Series 1 bike Breeze built for Otis Guy cost $750, ready to ride, with a spare tube, tools, a water bottle and a pump.
• In 1979 a crew from the TV show Evening Magazine filmed the Repack scene; the segment, called 'Klunking', survives online.

Try it yourself: A steel hardtail mountain bike, the direct descendant of Breeze's chrome-moly frame (steel hardtail mountain bike on Amazon)

Sources: Evening Magazine: "Klunking" (1979 broadcast, YouTube); The Radavist: 1978 Breezer Series I; Local News Matters: How a wild downhill race in 1970s Marin County launched mountain biking (2020); Wikipedia: Joe Breeze

The Schwinn Klunker 5 and the clunker craze (1978) (1978–1979)

Marin County's off-road riders built their clunkers from 1930s Schwinn balloon-tyre cruisers fitted with coaster brakes. In September 1978 Schwinn itself took its heavy-frame cruiser, added a Shimano Positron five-speed derailleur, a rear drum brake and front side-pull brakes, and called it the Klunker 5. CoEvolution Quarterly reported in 1979 that the first 3,000 sold out in about ten days, and that Schwinn sold 4,900 in the first four months of 1979, all but about a thousand of them in California. It cost $172.95, against $245 for shop-built versions and up to $1,000 for custom bikes.

How it was made: The craze grew out of the clunkers ridden on Mount Tamalpais and at Repack, where riders discovered that old cruiser frames survived abuse that broke lighter bikes.

Where it is now: The Klunker 5 was soon overtaken by purpose-built mountain bikes; the Specialized Stumpjumper reached shops in 1981.

• The 1979 reviewer warned that the Klunker 5's front fork was not tubular and could break under heavy riding.
• He also fitted his own bike with a 20-inch seat post, which he said anyone over six feet tall would need.
• The same CoEvolution review predicted that the clunker would follow the kids' 20-inch motocross bike, which had started in California and gone national within two years.

Try it yourself: A modern Schwinn cruiser, the frame style the first clunkers were built from (Schwinn beach cruiser bike on Amazon)

Sources: CoEvolution Quarterly, Summer 1979: "The Schwinn Klunker-5" (Internet Archive scan); Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame: Repack history; Wikipedia: Repack (mountain bike race)

Specialized Stumpjumper (1981) (1981)

Specialized, a California parts importer, began selling the Stumpjumper in 1981, based on the custom Marin bikes of Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly. It was built in Japan, had no suspension and weighed just under 30 pounds. A complete bike cost $750 and a frame $395. About 500 were imported over the following year, and the Lane Motor Museum, which holds a 1982 example, credits it as the first mass-produced mountain bike.

How it was made: Tim Neenan designed and built the frame for Specialized's founder Mike Sinyard. When traditional parts makers showed no interest in mountain bikes, Japanese firms such as SunTour, Shimano and Dia-Compe stepped in.

Where it is now: The Stumpjumper name is still on sale more than four decades later, and an original is on display at the Smithsonian. Specialized marked the 25th anniversary with a limited Stumpjumper Classic reissue at $1,300.

• The 1982 model had 15 speeds, cantilever brakes, knobby 26-inch tyres and wide 'bull moose' handlebars.
• Gear Patrol describes it as the first mass-produced, affordably priced mountain bike, the one that opened the sport to thousands of new riders.
• The Lane Motor Museum's 1982 example weighs 13.6 kg, about 30 pounds.

Try it yourself: A 29-inch hardtail mountain bike, the everyday trail bike the Stumpjumper made possible (29 inch hardtail mountain bike on Amazon)

Sources: Lane Motor Museum: Specialized Stumpjumper (1982), object record; Gear Patrol: How does a 43-year-old mountain bike nicknamed Stumpy resonate to this day?; Wikipedia: Specialized Stumpjumper

Shimano Index System, SIS (1984) (1984–1985)

Before indexing, a rider moved a friction lever and listened for the chain to settle on the right sprocket. Shimano's SIS, launched on the Dura-Ace 7400 group, put a detent in the lever so that each click moved the derailleur exactly one sprocket. It only worked as a matched system of levers, derailleurs, sprockets, chain and cables, which pushed buyers toward complete Shimano groups. Sheldon Brown's model timeline dates its introduction to 1984 as a six-speed down-tube system; other histories give 1985, the year Shimano promoted it widely.

How it was made: Shimano's 1985 Dura-Ace brochure sold it as 'Responsive SIS Shifting', arguing that the components, not the rider, should do the precise work.

Where it is now: Indexing won. SunTour, the Japanese rival that invented the slant-parallelogram derailleur in 1964, answered only in 1987 with AccuShift, its own indexed system; its share of the US market fell to about five percent by 1993.

• SunTour had sold an indexed system, Five-Speed Click, as early as 1969, but riders ignored it.
• Shimano's Dura-Ace line went from six-speed SIS in 1984 to eight-speed by 1989, according to Sheldon Brown's model timeline.
• SunTour's owner, Mori Industries, decided to leave the bicycle-component business at the end of 1994; the name survives as SR Suntour.

Try it yourself: A Shimano Deore rear derailleur, modern indexed shifting from the company that made it standard (Shimano Deore rear derailleur on Amazon)

Sources: Shimano Dura-Ace 7400 brochure, 1985 (transcribed at Equus Bicycle); Sheldon Brown: Shimano Dura-Ace compatibility and history; Wikipedia: SunTour

Kestrel 4000 carbon-fibre frame (1986) (1986)

Kestrel was founded in 1986 by a group of former Trek employees, and its 4000 road bike came out the same year. The Lane Motor Museum describes it as the first commercially available bicycle frame made completely of aerodynamic carbon-fibre tubing, and the first frame designed with finite element analysis, a computer method that predicts how a structure reacts to forces. A New Zealand dealer's history credits the design to Brent Trimble. In 1987 Trimble filed a US patent for moulding hollow frames from resin-soaked fibre pressed against a mould by an inflatable bladder, noting that the entire frame could be one piece.

How it was made: Kestrel came out of aerospace-materials know-how: bladder-moulded monocoque carbon structures, rather than tubes joined with metal lugs.

Where it is now: The brand passed to Advanced Sports International around 2007 or 2008 and to BikeCo after a 2019 bankruptcy; by 2025 it had no bikes on sale and appeared defunct.

• Trimble's patent, US 4,902,458, was filed in November 1987 and granted in February 1990.
• The 1986 Kestrel 4000 in the Lane Motor Museum weighs 9.5 kg, about 21 pounds, complete.
• Because mainly wealthy and professional riders could afford one, the 4000 earned the nickname 'the dentist's bike'.

Try it yourself: A carbon-fibre road bike, the all-carbon frame the Kestrel 4000 put on sale in 1986 (carbon fiber road bike on Amazon)

Sources: Lane Motor Museum: Kestrel 4000 (1986), object record; Google Patents: US4902458A, Method of molding composite bicycle frames (B. J. Trimble); Forza Bikes: 1988 Kestrel 4000; Wikipedia: Kestrel USA

LeMond wins the Tour by eight seconds (1989) (23 July 1989)

The 1989 Tour de France ended with a 24.5 km time trial from Versailles to the Champs-Élysées. Greg LeMond started it 50 seconds behind Laurent Fignon. LeMond rode with clip-on aero bars, a teardrop helmet and a rear disc wheel; Fignon used ordinary handlebars and rode bareheaded. LeMond covered the course in 26:57, an average of 54.545 km/h and the fastest time trial ridden in the Tour up to then, while Fignon finished 58 seconds slower. The final margin, eight seconds, is still the smallest in the race's history.

• LeMond had nearly bled to death two years earlier, after being hit by about 60 shotgun pellets in a 1987 turkey-hunting accident.
• A November 1989 Bicycling magazine article, using wind-tunnel data, estimated the aero bars may have been worth about a minute to LeMond.
• Fignon had a saddle sore from stage 19 that kept him awake the night before and spoiled his warm-up.

Try it yourself: Clip-on aero bars, the gadget that helped LeMond win the closest Tour in history (clip-on aero bars road bike on Amazon)

Sources: Christian Science Monitor: "Winning the Race" (27 July 1989); BikeRaceInfo: 1989 Tour de France; Wikipedia: 1989 Tour de France

Yamaha PAS, the first mass-produced pedelec (1993) (1993)

Yamaha unveiled the PAS (Power Assist System) in July 1993 and began selling it that November in Kanagawa, Shizuoka and Hyogo prefectures, then nationwide from April 1994. The motor measured the rider's pedal force and added power in proportion, which Yamaha likened to someone pushing your back. Japanese officials agreed in 1993 to classify it as a bicycle, so riders needed no licence or helmet. The first model, the PA26-A, weighed 31 kg, had a 235 W DC brush motor and a three-speed hub, went about 20 km per charge, and cost ¥134,000.

How it was made: Yamaha had tried motorised bicycles before: a 25 cc petrol-engine prototype in 1973 and a 35 cc engine on a mountain bike in 1982. A working Power Assist System prototype followed in 1989.

Where it is now: Yamaha went on to become a major maker of e-bike drive units: its millionth unit came in 2008 and its five-millionth in 2019. It began supplying European bike brands in 2013.

• Yamaha had sold about 30,000 PAS bikes by mid-1994 and about 200,000 by mid-1997.
• To win the bicycle classification, Yamaha argued to Japanese officials that the PAS was an extension of the ordinary bicycle that would save energy and cut exhaust emissions.
• The first PAS battery was fixed to the bike; a detachable battery, a nickel-cadmium pack, arrived with the PAS C in 1995.

Try it yourself: A torque-sensor pedal-assist e-bike, which adds power in proportion to your push, as the PAS did (torque sensor pedal assist electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: Yamaha Motor Communication Plaza: PAS PA26-A (1993), collection record; Yamaha Motor: Technology history, the Power Assist System; Yamaha Motor: 30 years of the Yamaha e-bike; Wikipedia: Electric bicycle

China's e-bike explosion (1998–2019) (1998–2019)

In under a decade China moved from pedal bicycles and petrol scooters to electric two-wheelers, mostly cheap bikes with lead-acid batteries. Researchers at UC Davis traced sales from about 40,000 in 1998 to about 10 million in 2005, and credited technical, economic and political causes, showing how timely regulation can shift the purchases of millions of people. Annual sales passed 21 million in 2008, and by early 2010 an estimated 120 million e-bikes were on Chinese roads. In 2018 the government issued a new national standard, GB 17761-2018, in force from 15 April 2019, which capped the motor at 400 W.

• The 2019 standard requires every Chinese e-bike to sound a warning tone once it reaches 15 km/h, between 55 and 62 decibels, with a bicycle-bell sound recommended.
• A 2007 UC Berkeley working paper found the worst environmental harm was not tailpipes but lead lost during battery production, manufacturing and recycling.
• The standard also requires the owner's manual to warn that people under 16 must not ride an e-bike on the road, and that e-bikes in bicycle lanes should keep below 15 km/h.

Try it yourself: A 20-inch folding e-bike, the compact city machine China's boom made cheap (20 inch folding electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: GB 17761-2018, Safety technical specification for electric bicycle (English translation); Weinert, Ma & Cherry: The Transition to Electric Bikes in China (UC Davis ITS, 2006); Cherry, Weinert & Ma: The Environmental Impacts of Electric Bikes in Chinese Cities (2007); Wikipedia: Electric bicycle

Europe defines the pedelec: 250 W, 25 km/h (2002) (18 March 2002)

Directive 2002/24/EC, adopted on 18 March 2002, set type-approval rules for two- and three-wheeled motor vehicles. Article 1 left out cycles with pedal assistance whose auxiliary electric motor has a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW, with output progressively reduced and cut off at 25 km/h, or sooner if the cyclist stops pedalling. That exemption kept the pedelec outside the motor-vehicle type-approval system, treated like a bicycle. Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 replaced the directive from 1 January 2016 and kept the same test: 250 W or less, no help without pedalling, and none above 25 km/h. The European standard EN 15194, published in 2009, covers the safety of these bikes.

• The same exemption list in the 2002 directive also covered vehicles with a top speed of 6 km/h or less and vehicles for people with disabilities.
• The limit is on continuous rated power, written in the 2002 text as '0,25 kW', not on peak power.
• By 2023 the bicycle industry body CONEBI counted about 5.1 million e-bikes sold in the EU and UK, against about 11.7 million ordinary bicycles.

Sources: Directive 2002/24/EC as adopted (legislation.gov.uk); Regulation (EU) No 168/2013, Article 2 (legislation.gov.uk); CONEBI: Industry and market reports; Wikipedia: Electric bicycle laws

US low-speed electric bicycle law, H.R. 727 (2002) (4 December 2002)

Public Law 107-319, passed as H.R. 727 and approved on 4 December 2002, amended the Consumer Product Safety Act to cover low-speed electric bicycles. It defines one as a two- or three-wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts (1 horsepower), whose top speed on a paved level surface, on the motor alone with a 170-pound rider, is under 20 mph. Such bikes fall under the Consumer Product Safety Commission's bicycle rules and are not motor vehicles for federal vehicle-safety standards. The law also says it supersedes any state law on these bikes that is more stringent than the federal requirements.

• The speed test in the statute specifies a 170-pound rider on a paved, level surface with the motor doing all the work.
• Three-wheeled machines count, so long as the pedals are fully operable.
• Federal land agencies such as the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management later wrote rules for e-bikes on their lands that keep the under-750 W, fully operable pedals test and add the three-class system.

Sources: GovInfo: Public Law 107-319 (H.R. 727), 4 December 2002; PeopleForBikes: Federal e-bike rulemaking; Wikipedia: Electric bicycle laws

Rad Power Bikes (2007) (2007–today)

Rad Power Bikes, founded by Mike Radenbaugh in Seattle, sold e-bikes direct to consumers online rather than through bike shops. In 2021 it raised $150 million in February and another $154 million in October, in a round led by Fidelity, and said it had more than 350,000 riders, over 620 staff and the lead in North American e-bike sales. TIME named it to its first TIME100 Most Influential Companies list in 2021. Its models included the RadRover, RadWagon, RadRunner and RadCity.

How it began: Radenbaugh started the company in 2007 and ran it as chief executive until 2022, building the business on online sales and bikes designed in Seattle.

How it ended: On 24 November 2025 the Consumer Product Safety Commission told owners to stop using certain Rad batteries, citing 31 fire reports; Rad refused a recall, saying it could not afford to replace them all. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 15 December 2025, and Florida-based Life EV completed its purchase of the brand and assets, reported at about $13.2 million, in March 2026.

• The CPSC said some of the fires started when the battery was not charging and the bike was not in use, including in storage; reported property damage totalled about $734,500.
• Rad told regulators that replacing every affected battery regardless of condition would immediately put it out of business.
• Rad left the European market in 2023 after four rounds of layoffs.

Sources: CPSC: Warning on batteries for e-bikes from Rad Power Bikes (24 November 2025); Electrek: Rad Power Bikes lands giant $154M investment (2021); TechCrunch: Life EV officially owns Rad Power Bikes now (2026); Wikipedia: Rad Power Bikes

Bosch eBike Systems (2009) (2009–today)

Bosch eBike Systems began in 2009 as a start-up inside the Bosch Group, drawing on its cordless power-tool batteries and on the motors, electronics and sensors it made for cars. Its first drive system was shown at the Eurobike trade fair in 2010 and went into production in February 2011. The Active Line and Performance Line motors followed in 2013, the Nyon connected display in 2014, the Performance Line CX for e-mountain bikes in 2015, and an e-bike anti-lock braking system in 2018. Bosch describes itself as one of the leading makers of e-bike drives in the premium segment.

How it began: Bosch opened subsidiaries in North America and Asia in 2014 and entered Japan, the pedelec's birthplace, in 2017.

How it ended: On 1 January 2020 the e-bike business was made an independent division, no longer part of Bosch's automotive electronics arm. Its motors are fitted by more than 70 bike brands.

• Bosch eBike ABS, launched in 2018, brought anti-lock braking from cars to bicycles.
• In 2017 Bosch bought the smartphone-integration start-up COBI.Bike and launched the PowerTube 500 battery, which hides inside the frame.
• Bosch was among the companies funding the industry e-bike committee behind the US campaign for three e-bike classes.

Try it yourself: A mid-drive e-bike, the motor-at-the-cranks layout Bosch made the premium standard (mid drive electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: Bosch press release: 10 years of Bosch eBike Systems (18 June 2019); BikeBiz: Bosch eBike Systems celebrates ten years; Cycling Industry News: 10 years, Bosch celebrates e-bike ride from start-up to leading light; Bicycle Retailer: 22 states adopt three-class e-bike system (2019)

VanMoof (2009–2023) (2009–2023)

VanMoof was started in Amsterdam by the brothers Taco and Ties Carlier and became known for sleek, custom-designed e-bikes that depended on the company's phone app. It raised more than $100 million from venture investors and sold in about 32 countries; the S3 and X3 of 2020 won a Red Dot design award. The trustees' reports show the Dutch business in serious trouble from early 2022, with parts shortages, two delayed new models and technical problems with two existing ones. The Amsterdam District Court granted a suspension of payments on 12 and 13 July 2023 and declared the three Dutch companies bankrupt on 17 July 2023.

How it began: The company began with ordinary bicycles; its first model was a design sold in 2009 through the New York brand Areaware. It later switched entirely to e-bikes.

How it ended: Lavoie, the e-scooter arm of McLaren Applied, bought the business out of bankruptcy in August 2023, and the VanMoof brand continues under new ownership. Debts at the time of the bankruptcy were about €143.8 million.

• Because VanMoof bikes depended on the company's app, rival Belgian maker Cowboy built its own app to help VanMoof owners unlock their bikes.
• According to the trustees, the two Dutch operating companies employed 398 people, and another 298 worked for VanMoof entities abroad.
• The trustees' report records that VanMoof B.V. was incorporated in 2005, earlier than the 2009 founding date the brand usually gives.

Sources: Trustees' third public bankruptcy report, VanMoof (English translation, March 2024); TechCrunch: VanMoof goes VanPoof (18 July 2023); European Consumer Centre Netherlands: Dutch e-bike brand VanMoof declared bankrupt; Wikipedia: VanMoof

Specialized Turbo, the 28 mph e-bike (2012–2013) (2012–2013)

Specialized engineers in Switzerland began work on the Turbo in 2009, and the bike was revealed on 28 March 2012 and tested in European markets before reaching US dealers in April 2013. It used a rear hub motor rated at 250 W, though reviewers thought its real output was higher, and gave pedal assistance up to 27.9 mph, about 45 km/h, the speed class Europeans call an S-pedelec. It recaptured energy through regenerative braking.

How it was made: Specialized, founded in 1974 by Mike Sinyard and based in Morgan Hill, California, had made its name with the 1981 Stumpjumper. Its engineers spent about three years on the Turbo before the public reveal.

Where it is now: The same 28 mph assist limit later became the ceiling of California's Class 3 in 2015. Its price fell from $7,255 quoted in 2012 to $5,900 at the US launch.

• Engadget called the $5,900 US price 'eye-watering' when the bike arrived in April 2013.
• The complete bike weighed about 47.5 pounds, and its removable battery about 7.5 pounds.
• Its battery recharged in about two and a half hours and gave around an hour of assist at top speed.

Try it yourself: An e-bike helmet certified to NTA 8776, the Dutch standard written for fast pedelecs (NTA 8776 e-bike helmet on Amazon)

Sources: Engadget: Specialized Turbo e-bike reaches the US (29 April 2013); Electric Bike Review: 2013 Specialized Turbo; Wikipedia: Specialized Bicycle Components

California AB 1096 creates e-bike Classes 1, 2 and 3 (2015) (7 October 2015)

Assembly Bill 1096, by Assemblymember Chiu, was signed on 7 October 2015 as Chapter 568. Before it, California law treated e-bikes under its motorized bicycle and moped rules. The act defined an electric bicycle as one with fully operable pedals and a motor of less than 750 watts, in three classes. Class 1 gives pedal assistance only, cutting out at 20 mph; Class 2 can be driven by the motor alone, with no help above 20 mph; Class 3 gives pedal assistance only, up to 28 mph, and must have a speedometer. Riders need no driver's licence, registration or insurance, but nobody under 16 may ride a Class 3 bike, Class 3 riders must wear helmets, and Class 3 bikes are kept off bike paths unless a local ordinance allows them.

• From 1 January 2017 every e-bike sold in California needed a permanent label giving its class, top assisted speed and motor wattage, printed in Arial type of at least 9 points.
• The act made it illegal to modify an e-bike to change its speed unless the owner also replaces the class label.
• California's three-class model spread fast: 11 states used it at the start of 2019 and 22 by June 2019.

Sources: California Legislature: AB 1096, enrolled bill text (passed September 2015); California Legislature: AB 1096 chaptered version, 7 October 2015; PeopleForBikes: 22 states now follow the three-class e-bike system (2019); Bicycle Retailer: 22 states adopt three-class e-bike system (2019)

The pandemic bike boom (2020) (2020–2021)

When lockdowns emptied trains and gyms, people around the world turned to bicycles. NPD Group data reported by the Associated Press showed US sales of adult leisure bikes tripling in April 2020 and overall bike sales doubling, just as Chinese factories, which make about 90 percent of America's bikes, were restarting. US sales of bikes, parts and accessories topped $1 billion in a single month for the first time that April, and e-bike sales rose about 190 percent year on year in June. European governments joined in: Italy offered a 'bici bonus' of up to 500 euros, covering as much as 60 percent of a bike's price.

• VanMoof's sales in Britain rose 184 percent in February to April 2020, and Belgian maker Cowboy's sales tripled from January to April.
• Trek spent much of 2020 working through a backlog, yet shipped more bikes than in any year of its history.
• A study of 14 bike-friendly cities found the rise came mostly from recreation and exercise, while daily trips to work and school fell, and that all 14 expanded their bikeways, usually with protected lanes.

Try it yourself: A Class 1 pedal-assist commuter e-bike, the kind lockdown riders went looking for (Class 1 commuter electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: Associated Press via Bangor Daily News: Coronavirus fuels bicycle boom not seen since the 1970s (15 June 2020); BizTimes Milwaukee: Biking boom, industry experiences sales surge during pandemic (2021); Buehler & Pucher: Cycling through the COVID-19 pandemic (Sustainability, 2022)

New York's lithium battery fires and the certified-only law (2023) (20 March 2023)

As delivery workers and commuters adopted cheap e-bikes and scooters, lithium-ion battery fires in New York City climbed from 44 in 2020 to 220 in 2022, according to the mayor's office, killing 10 people and injuring 226 over 2021 and 2022. On 20 March 2023 Mayor Eric Adams signed five bills, including Intro. 663-A, which bars the sale of e-bikes, e-scooters and batteries that do not meet recognised safety standards, in practice third-party certification such as UL's. The city's plan added outdoor charging pilots at public housing, a fire marshal task force, and charging hubs for delivery workers. The sales restrictions took effect on 16 September 2023.

• By 3 July 2023 the fire department had counted 13 battery-fire deaths that year, against 6 in all of 2022 and 4 in 2021.
• Of 114 battery fires the department investigated in early 2023, 80 were in homes, offices and other buildings.
• One of the five bills, Intro. 749-A, required safety information to be published in the city's ten most common languages.

Sources: NYC Mayor's Office: Plan to combat lithium-ion battery fires (20 March 2023); TechCrunch: Everything you need to know about e-bike battery fires (2023); Wikipedia: Electric bicycle laws; NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection: new enforcement powers on uncertified batteries (9 October 2024)

UL 2849, the e-bike electrical standard (Required in New York City from 2023)

UL 2849 is UL's Standard for Electrical Systems for eBikes. Instead of judging a battery on its own, it examines the combined electrical drive train, battery and charger, looking for the risk of electric shock while charging, other electrocution hazards, and fire. It covers ordinary sit-down e-bikes and pedal-assist pedelecs. After New York's battery-fire deaths, from 16 September 2023 the city required e-bikes sold there to be certified to UL 2849 by an accredited testing laboratory, and their batteries to UL 2271, which made the mark something buyers could look for in the listing.

• UL 2849 does not judge how well a rider can control the bike; it is purely an electrical and fire-safety standard.
• Safety advocates told buyers to look for the letters UL inside a circle on the bike, battery and charger.
• Experts warned in 2023 that New York's ban on uncertified batteries would be hard to enforce.

Try it yourself: An e-bike whose whole electrical system is certified to UL 2849; check the listing names the standard (UL 2849 certified electric bike on Amazon)

Sources: UL Solutions: E-bike certification testing to UL 2849; TechCrunch: Everything you need to know about e-bike battery fires (2023); Wikipedia: Electric bicycle laws; NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection: new enforcement powers on uncertified batteries (9 October 2024)

E-bikes outsell ordinary bikes in Germany (2023) (2023)

In 2023, for the first time, e-bikes outsold bikes without a motor, according to the industry association ZIV. Of about 4.0 million bikes sold, 2.1 million were electric and 1.9 million were not, down from 2.4 million conventional bikes the year before. The average e-bike sold for about €2,950, and by the end of 2023 some 11 million e-bikes were on German roads. The lead held: in 2025 Germans bought about 3.8 million bikes, and e-bikes made up 52.7 percent of them.

• Electric mountain bikes, not city bikes, were the biggest single type, at 39 percent of German e-bike sales in 2023.
• Germans bought about 189,000 electric cargo bikes in 2023, up 14.5 percent, against only 46,250 cargo bikes without a motor.
• Across the EU and UK the ordinary bicycle still led in 2023, with about 11.7 million sold against 5.1 million e-bikes.

Try it yourself: An electric cargo bike, a type whose German sales grew about 14.5 percent in 2023 (electric cargo bike on Amazon)

Sources: ZIV: Market data for bicycles and e-bikes 2023, the figures in detail; ZIV: Market data of the bicycle industry 2025 (March 2026); CONEBI: Industry and market reports; Wikipedia: Electric bicycle

Paris, where bikes overtook cars (2024) (April 2024)

In April 2024 the Institut Paris Région published a mobility survey in which 3,337 residents of the Paris region, aged 16 to 80, carried GPS trackers between October 2022 and April 2023. Inside the city, 11.2 percent of trips were made by bike and 4.3 percent by car; walking accounted for 53.5 percent and public transport for 30 percent. Even across Paris and its inner suburbs, bikes led cars, 14 percent to 11.8 percent. The city had spent heavily on bike lanes and removed car parking as part of its climate goals.

How it began: Paris's shift followed years of new cycle lanes and lost parking spaces. An earlier regional survey, by a different method, had put cycling at about 3 percent of Paris trips in 2010.

What became of it: The city has committed about €250 million to a cycling plan running to 2026. In the outer suburbs the car still dominates, with about 61 percent of trips.

• By the city's own bike counters, the rue de Rivoli was among the seven busiest cycle lanes in Paris on 16 April 2024.
• The survey tracked people with GPS devices and travel journals rather than relying on memory alone.
• For trips between Paris and the outer suburbs, public transport carried 77 percent of journeys.

Try it yourself: A heavy-duty U-lock or chain lock rated for e-bikes, the first thing a city rider needs (heavy duty e-bike lock on Amazon)

Sources: Ville de Paris: Le vélo surpasse la voiture à Paris et en petite couronne (2024); Euronews: Cycling is now more popular than driving in the centre of Paris (12 April 2024); The Local France: Bikes overtake cars as means of transport in Paris (2024)