Eric

 =__Bikes__ =

Bikes Today
= = =The Walking Machine = The Walking Machine was invented in 1817 by Baron Von Drais. He invented the bike so he could get around the Royal Gardens faster. The bike has two in-line wheels.The back wheel always stays straight, but the front wheel is steerable and can turn a little side to side. You are probably are wondering where the peddles are, but guess what? There are none. This bike is propelled by your feet pushing off of the ground this makes the bike roll for a short time like a fast walk. The bike was made completely out of wood. Over all The Walking Machine is not made for riding long distance.

=The Velocipede or Bone Shaker = The Velocipede or Bone Shaker was one of next riding machines, and invented in 1865. On this bike there were pedals only on the front wheel. The bike was known as the Velocipede ("fast foot") but it most people called it the Bone Shaker. It is called this because it was only made out of wood. Later the tires were made out of metal. Even with the change on the cobblestone roads the ride was still very uncomfortable. People went to roller rinks for a lot smoother ride.

=The High Wheel Bicycle = In 1870 the first all metal bike came out. Metal was a good material because you could make small parts of the bike and they will not break as easy has wood. Like the Bone Shaker the pedals were on the front wheel. The tires were made of sold rubber. The rubber wheels with the long spokes on the front wheel made the ride very smooth and more enjoyable. The reason the front wheel was so big is because the bigger the wheel the father you could go with one rotation of the pedals. Unlike others before, this bike was not one size fits all. You would buy a bike depending on your leg length, so that you can reach the pedals. This would also make sure the bike is not to big or to small. This was the first bike to be called a bicycle. The bikes were mostly bought by young men. This was common because woman had to wear skirts. Everyone did not have the bike because it would cost the average worker 6 months of pay. The only problem with the bike is that you could fall over very easy. When you ride the bike you sit so high above the center of gravity. If you were riding and the front wheel got caught on a stone or something on the road the bike could rotate on the front axle and flip the bike. The worse part was that the riders legs would get caught under the handle bars and the flip would hurt very bad. If you were not careful you could break a bone.



The High Wheel Tricycle
When the men were hurting themselves on the high bikes the women would ride The High Wheel Tricycle because it was easier to ride with skirts and it was not as dangerous as the High Wheel. The bike was good for around the park. The bike was cheap and it was easy to ride. If I had to pick a bike, I would pick this one because it has brakes. Also, it does not flip over as easy as the other bikes and the other bikes do not have brakes.

Bikes Today
==The bikes today have brakes, gears, and other cool things. Today there are bike races and other bike competitions. like the tour de france and the summer x games. Some of the kinds of bikes are trick bikes, speed bikes, mountain bikes, three wheel bikes, double bikes, and triple bikes. There are bikes made for nice rides around the park or for going on tough rock and soil. ==



Sources: http://www.bicycling.com/channel/0,6609,s1-6-0-0-0,00.html http://www.pedalinghistory.com/PHhistory.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_bicycle