Tag: history
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The Derailleur Project 2015 Wall Calendar
A few years ago, I briefly mentioned in a post a website that has since become one of my favorites. Taking its name from the 1967 Cream album, Disraeli Gears chronicles in photographs the history of the rear derailleur, a component that, according to the site, “defines the ‘groupset’ and in turn, defines the bike.”…
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“Design Behind the Bike” videos from The Open University
I mentioned The Open University’s “Design Behind the Bike” videos on Twitter last week, but the five part series is quite interesting and really deserves a post of it’s own. You can watch the first video in the series, History, in the frame above. Links to the other videos can be found here: Aesthetics (2/5)…
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A birthday tribute to JK Starley
In keeping with the theme of my post from earlier this week, I want to mention another old design that has influenced the bicycle we know today. Actually though, to say that John Kemp Starley’s mid 1880’s Rover safety bike merely influenced all of those that came after it would be a gross understatement. Unlike…
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Two bike designers ahead of their times
I first saw the news on Bike Biz that engineer and inventor Dr. Alex Moulton passed away this week at the age of 92. For any of you who aren’t familiar with his work, Dr. Moulton pioneered the small wheel bicycle in the early 1960s with the launch of his first full suspension bicycles. He…
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Archibald Sharp’s classic ‘Bicycles and Tricycles’
I have mentioned Archibald Sharp’s 1896 book Bicycles and Tricycles: An Elementary Treatise on Their Design and Construction on this blog several times before (here is one post that comes to mind). I personally have a pretty big collection of books about bicycles, but Sharp’s classic stands out as my single favorite. When it was…
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Way ahead of his time
If you have any interest in mountain bikes, you should know the name John Finley Scott. Though he is not as well known as some of the other pioneers of the sport, J.F. Scott really was the first person to create a purpose built mountain bike. He built the “Woodsie” bike that you see pictured…
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Old bike patents
A few months ago, I linked to Bob Shaver’s Patent Pending blog in one of my posts. For those of you who missed it, the bicycle technology section of Bob’s site is definitely worth a second mention. Yesterday, Treehugger wrote about the blog and featured the above pictured full suspension bike from 1890 as well…