The first bicycle didn’t have pedals because nobody had thought to add them yet. Karl Drais, a German inventor, built his Laufmaschine, or “running machine,” in 1817. It was a wooden frame with two inline wheels and a steerable front wheel, and you powered it by pushing your feet against the ground, like a kid on a balance bike. On his first public ride near Mannheim in June 1817, Drais covered about 13 kilometers in roughly an hour, which beat walking by a wide margin.
People called it the draisine or the “dandy horse,” and it had a short craze before fading out, partly because riders kept crashing into pedestrians on sidewalks and some cities banned it. Pedals didn’t show up until the 1860s, when Pierre Michaux’s velocipede mounted them on the front wheel. The chain-driven “safety bicycle” we’d recognize today came even later, in the 1880s. So for roughly 50 years, riding a bike meant running first.
Original video credit: mrtini
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3 Comments
the original name was the laufmaschine which is german for running machine, and drais covered about 13 kilometers in an hour on the first public ride near mannheim. it actually got banned in some european cities because riders kept slamming into pedestrians on sidewalks. when pedals finally showed up in the 1860s, pierre michaux mounted them right onto the front wheel of his velocipede. the chain-driven safety bicycle we use today didnt come along until the 1880s, so for roughly 50 years a bike literally meant running first. is it just me or is it kinda wild that something we use every day took two whole generations to get pedals? 🚲
That’s incredibly interesting!
Flintstones-ass invention