Bicycle Manufacturing Process
Bicycle
Background
Bicycles are one of the world's most popular modes of transportation, with some 800 million bicycles outnumbering cars by two to one. Bicycles are also the most energy-efficient vehicle—a cyclist burns about 35 calories per mile (22 calories per km), while an automobile burns 1,860 calories per mile (1,156 calories per km). Bicycles are used not only for transportation, but for fitness, competition, and touring as well. They come in myriad shapes and styles, including racing bikes, all-terrain bikes, and stationary bicycles, as well as unicycles, tricycles, and tandems.
History
As far back as 1490, Leonardo da Vinci had envisioned a machine remarkably similar to the modern bicycle. Unfortunately, da Vinci did not attempt to build the vehicle, nor were his sketches discovered until the 1960s. In the late 1700s a Frenchman named Comte de Sivrac invented the Celerifere, a crude wooden hobby horse made of two wheels and joined by a beam. The rider would sit atop the beam and propel the contraption by pushing his or her feet against the ground.
In 1816 the German Baron Karl von Drais devised a steerable hobby horse, and within a few years, hobby-horse riding was a fashionable pastime in Europe. Riders also discovered that they could ride the device with their feet off the ground without losing their balance. And so, in 1840, a Scottish black-smith named Kirkpatrick Macmillan made a two-wheel device that was operated by a treadle. Two years later he traveled as many as 40 miles (64 km) at a stretch during a record 140-mile (225 km) round trip to Glasgow. A couple decades later, a Frenchman, Ernest Michaux, designed a hobby horse that utilized cranks and rotating pedals connected to the front axle. The Velocipede, made with wooden wheels and an iron frame and tires, won the nickname of the "boneshaker."
The 1860s proved to be an important decade for bicycle improvements with the inventions of ball-bearing hubs, metal-spoked wheels, solid
Background
Bicycles are one of the world's most popular modes of transportation, with some 800 million bicycles outnumbering cars by two to one. Bicycles are also the most energy-efficient vehicle—a cyclist burns about 35 calories per mile (22 calories per km), while an automobile burns 1,860 calories per mile (1,156 calories per km). Bicycles are used not only for transportation, but for fitness, competition, and touring as well. They come in myriad shapes and styles, including racing bikes, all-terrain bikes, and stationary bicycles, as well as unicycles, tricycles, and tandems.
History
As far back as 1490, Leonardo da Vinci had envisioned a machine remarkably similar to the modern bicycle. Unfortunately, da Vinci did not attempt to build the vehicle, nor were his sketches discovered until the 1960s. In the late 1700s a Frenchman named Comte de Sivrac invented the Celerifere, a crude wooden hobby horse made of two wheels and joined by a beam. The rider would sit atop the beam and propel the contraption by pushing his or her feet against the ground.
In 1816 the German Baron Karl von Drais devised a steerable hobby horse, and within a few years, hobby-horse riding was a fashionable pastime in Europe. Riders also discovered that they could ride the device with their feet off the ground without losing their balance. And so, in 1840, a Scottish black-smith named Kirkpatrick Macmillan made a two-wheel device that was operated by a treadle. Two years later he traveled as many as 40 miles (64 km) at a stretch during a record 140-mile (225 km) round trip to Glasgow. A couple decades later, a Frenchman, Ernest Michaux, designed a hobby horse that utilized cranks and rotating pedals connected to the front axle. The Velocipede, made with wooden wheels and an iron frame and tires, won the nickname of the "boneshaker."
The 1860s proved to be an important decade for bicycle improvements with the inventions of ball-bearing hubs, metal-spoked wheels, solid