Introduction to the Bicycle Culture Center

BCC's Bicycles

	Celerifere/1797
	France's Comte de Sivrac is said to have invented the Celerifere (Celeripede in English) with a frame in the form of animals such as horses, birds, and snakes, but the details are obscure. Having no pedals, riders propelled it by pushing their feet against the ground and could only steer by leaning.
	Draisienne (Hobby Horse)/1817
	Designed by Germany's Baron von Drais and introduced to the world in 1818 in Paris. This steerable walking machine is said to be the progenitor of the bicycle. It was later introduced to Great Britain where it came to be called a hobby horse or dandy horse.
	MacMillan Velocipede/1839
	Designed by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith. It had a driving mechanism consisting of a crank and pedals which propelled it by a downward and forward thrust of the foot, enabling people to ride a cycle for the first time without touching their feet to the ground. With a immense weight of 26 kg, it was not widely used.
	Michaux Velocipede/1863
	This machine, powered by pedals and a crank, was designed by Pierre Michaux, a Parisian manufacturer of baby carriages and horse carriages. It was the world's first mass-produced riding machine, and continued to spread around the world until 1870. Also known as a bone shaker, it was well loved by many people.
	Ordinary Bicycle/Circa 1870
	Around this time, the diameter of bicycle front wheels started to get gradually larger and larger. The reason for this was the larger the front wheel, the farther the bicycle travels with each wheel revolution, thereby producing higher speeds. Another name for this model was a penny-farthing because it resembled the English penny and farthing (one-quarter pence) placed next to each other. Ordinary bicycles had straight handlebars and wooden rims and spokes. In Japan, they were called "daruma jitensha" or "ichirinsha." This new form of bicycle required advanced riding technique.
	Safety Bicycle/1885 to 1890
	While the front wheel of the Michaux velocipede was getting larger, research was advancing on rear-wheel driven models using gears and a chain. In 1885, an Englishman by the name of John Kemp Starley created the Rover, a bicycle with equal sized wheels. This was the prototype of the modern-day bicycle. As the name implies, safety bicycles were safer to ride than earlier models. They had a saddle, handlebar grips, and logical placement of the crank axle, making the bicycles easy to ride. A distinguishing feature of the safety bicycle is its cross frame with a tension structure.