Bicycle invented earlier?

Hi all,

I know I know, it might be a silly question but still.

The bicycle strikes me as having been invented quite late in regard to the technology involved. At the heart of it it's two wheels and a chain, all of those having been discovered a long long time ago.

So, if it had been invented earlier, would it have had any influence? In term of warfare, being able to move armies quickly for example, or less reliance on horses for communication... IRL it appeared more or less at the same time as motorised transportation so there was not much of a need.

Am I rambling insanely or not?
 
In my opinion it's probably unlikely to catch on widely until the invention of pneumatic tires, so that the earliest date when they could have been invented might be the limiting factor...
 
In my opinion it's probably unlikely to catch on widely until the invention of pneumatic tires, so that the earliest date when they could have been invented might be the limiting factor...

I agree about bicycles themselves. But could there have been other pre-industrial uses for pedal/chain power (mills, dirigibles, carts, etc)?
 
Actually wartime and developing world uses do show that one can get a workable bicycle tyre with a carcass stuffed with a robust flexible material. Popular items are old rope or dried grass. The pneumatic tyre showed what could be done and inspired the DIY methods and gave cheap carcasses to stuff but a leather/canvas carcass would have been possible far earlier. It was the combination of the chain/crank, pneumatic tyre and cheap high quality steels and wheel rim steam presses/ wire drawing (spokes) that made the bicycle a mass market item IOTL. The tyre was actually the easiest part to invent far earlier. The others require the supporting metal technologies to form far earlier. The chain was certainly known in Roman times (albeit in giant form).

One could, of course, make a very acceptable 17th century or earlier bicycle using OTL technology but not as a mass market transport. Clever design work would allow a small luxury market but each as a handmade one off. My mind conjures up Roman Legions streaking across the hard surfaces of Roman roads reaching trouble spots in days not weeks.
 

Artaxerxes

Banned
One could, of course, make a very acceptable 17th century or earlier bicycle using OTL technology but not as a mass market transport. Clever design work would allow a small luxury market but each as a handmade one off. My mind conjures up Roman Legions streaking across the hard surfaces of Roman roads reaching trouble spots in days not weeks.

Better still, super fast courier post
 
I've always understood bicycles as having been held back by the availability of cheap & high quality steel - when that arrived in the late 19th Century, bicycle technology took off.

But just now, I got to wondering if a bamboo bicycle would be practical...

fasquardon
 
an important thing to remember is that unless its built with top grade materials (including shock absorbers), then bicycles demand rather even roads to not either break apart of be extremely painful to ride on at more than a fresh walking speed. So that might be another gate
 
I've always understood bicycles as having been held back by the availability of cheap & high quality steel - when that arrived in the late 19th Century, bicycle technology took off.

But just now, I got to wondering if a bamboo bicycle would be practical..

As Simreeve noted, it's not really the weight of the bicycle that's the issue, it's the really terrible and bumpy ride. Without good tires or shocks riding for more than a few minutes leaves your rear end black and blue. You can build a working one out of bamboo but it's still going to be too uncomfortable to pass beyond the novelty stage.

I suppose you might be able to make tires out of wicker or birch which might be cheap and flexible enough. It would have issues with durability though.
 
I've always understood bicycles as having been held back by the availability of cheap & high quality steel - when that arrived in the late 19th Century, bicycle technology took off.

But just now, I got to wondering if a bamboo bicycle would be practical...

fasquardon

Bamboo will work ok, ply even better if it can be steamed.
You can even buy a cardboard bike now.
 
For the frame, what about iron or brass? On even roads, it shouldn't be a problem.
There's the problem - a decent quality, extensive road network. An expensive proposition to both build and maintain with effectively only hand tools.

There's a reason canals and later railways were built before good quality roads - why build roads that only slow, horse drawn vehicles can use when you can transport large quantities of goods by water and rail? Rail then being used to quickly transport armies around.
 
exactly my point ... Road quality is at least as important (if not more) as is materials, and while you could certainly replace a certain amount of one for the other, perfectly even roads versus good suspensions as is needed on Mountain bikes, then roads would probably be the first thing around and that would be later than expected. Just try to see modern cycling races such as those in the European Spring Classics with cobbled sectors and how difficult those are on even top-modern cycles. Sure, to a certain extend the speed could be lowered, but that would be just as, if not much more painful for the rider (due to washboarding, not just skipping the tops)
 
The obvious use for bicycles in pre-modern times would be as a cargo vehicle like a hand cart or wheelbarrow, much like they're used by many people today. It would be more compact than a cart and have a greater road surface (hence lower pressure) than a wheelbarrow, so it might have a niche. Then you wouldn't need any kind of suspension or shock absorbing, or particularly good roads.
 
As Simreeve noted, it's not really the weight of the bicycle that's the issue, it's the really terrible and bumpy ride. Without good tires or shocks riding for more than a few minutes leaves your rear end black and blue. You can build a working one out of bamboo but it's still going to be too uncomfortable to pass beyond the novelty stage.

I suppose you might be able to make tires out of wicker or birch which might be cheap and flexible enough. It would have issues with durability though.

I can personnally testify that third world bikes (with a minimal suspension: there are two huge springs under the saddle) run quite well even on (dry) earth trails; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Person_mit_fahrrad_feb07.jpg. These 15kg monsters are also insanely reliable (no dérailleur, the brakes are activated by rods - no cables; I suspect that the tires are also not filled with air - these can last for a lifetime). The main problem would actually be mud, but even these “ghetto” bikes are light enough to carry by hand when needed.

Also, the knowledge for building spring suspensions (leaf springs) has been present for a really long time (I have no idea how long exactly but you find them under horse carriages, so this is at least XVIth century, probably longer) - even if it used to be quite a specialist work.

All being said, the main problem would be the amount of specialised work required for building one. It needs much less raw materials than, say, a cannon, and maintenance is likely to remain quite low. The overall cost is probably comparable to that of building a few muskets.
 
One could, of course, make a very acceptable 17th century or earlier bicycle using OTL technology but not as a mass market transport. Clever design work would allow a small luxury market but each as a handmade one off. My mind conjures up Roman Legions streaking across the hard surfaces of Roman roads reaching trouble spots in days not weeks.

"Praetor, Moesia is under attack! They require reinforcements as quickly as possible!"

"Then we shall come to aid! Soldiers, roll out!"

*ding ding*
 
Spring suspension (as in Leaf springs) needs fairly advanced metallurgical knowledge, which was first available after the dawn of industrialisation, and it was first just around 1800 that they were invented (can't find the exact year but the assorted pages on Wikipedia argees that it was invented by a guy named Obadiah Elliott in England for Stagecoaches, and spread like a wildfire, being used for nearly all kinds of carriages within a decade)

While they might be fairly simple to make they need a surprising amount of core knowledge to get working
 
One of the things I was imagining in the bamboo bike I had in my mind was for the bamboo to be bent in such a way that the frame itself had a bit of spring. Another possibility would be to have wooden or bamboo springs holding the wheels while the frame itself was a bit more rigid.

EDIT: Looked up bamboo bicycles - looks like I'm not the only one who's thought of it. The first ones were built in the late 19th Century and all the sources I found seems to think it is a very good material for bicycle building. Makes me wonder why the first bicycles weren't built with bamboo, maybe the limiting factor is a good enough glue? (Example sources: here, here and here.)

fasquardon
 
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my attempts at visualizing that, says that bamboos ability to bend is either in the wrong direction (it bends from side to side, not up and down) or that it would become something that quite easily could snap if given a sharp bump since it would bend beyond its capability point
 
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