One of the most clever chess sets on display at the Chessmen Museum is the winner of the 2014 edition of the Chess Game Design Competition. Irmgard Ballast created her chess pieces out of the inner tube of a bike tire. The inner tube was a major improvement to cycling.
We haven´t been riding our bikes for that long really, even though it is a typically Dutch activity and the Netherlands has the highest rate of bicycles per capita in the world. The bicycle itself isn´t a Dutch invention either. The push-bike is the closest thing to a bicycle. Karl von Drais, a German native, developed a wooden push-bike around 1817, which he called the draisine. The push-bike is also called the wooden horse, a replacement of the flesh-and-blood riding animal. Failed harvests trouble Europe in this period in time and the fodder is expensive too. A wooden replacement is a good option, since it is three times as fast as walking. The push-bike isn´t very practical though and apart from the elite, not many people use it.
The push-bike did inspire people and in 1861, Karl and his son Michaux start building a draisine with pedals on the front wheel. This vélocipède is on display at the 1867 Paris World Expo, which increases the demand for the bike substantially. The tires are made of wood and the frame is made of steel, which soon gives the bike its characteristic nickname boneshaker. The vélocipède is expensive and at first it is a toy for the rich. They wear posh riding gear to ride around special driving schools or arenas. It is impossible to ride around the uneven roads on wooden wheels.
Tough cyclists
In the Netherlands we are also impressed with this piece of engineering which is being imported from 1868 onwards. The first bicycle shops open up in Amsterdam and riding schools offer lessons and test rides to those who are contemplating buying their own bike. At that moment, it is mainly young men from wealthy families who take up cycling. It is quite a dangerous activity and mostly meant for the sports lovers who like racing.
The boneshaker is further developed and turns into what we now often think is the first bicycle: the penny-farthing. In order to ride faster, the front wheel is made twice the size of the present-day wheel, while the back wheel is a lot smaller. A little step over the back wheel is there to help the cyclist mount this wobbly monster. Once you are up it´s a bit risky to stop, because there is a bit chance that you will topple over. The young men riding these sports bikes are therefore real daredevils.
Even though the penny-farthing is becoming obsolete, some technical developments are made for the improvement of the bike. The wheels of the penny-farthing, for example, now have iron spokes and the tires are made of massive rubber. A different type of engineering that would be used at a later stage is the driving mechanism of a chain with a cogwheel. This technology is also used in the tricycle, a new type of penny-farthing with two side wheels. This tricycle is especially suitable for women since it is easier to mount and less dangerous to ride. Male cyclists generally steer clear of the tricycle because they don´t consider it manly enough.
Some air for a little kid´s bike
Plenty is going on in bicycle-development-land and manufacturers copy each other´s successful experiments. Prototypes keep getting improved and in 1886, the English Rover makes its debut. It is also called a safety because this bike is a lot safer than a penny-farthing. The safety is the blueprint for the modern bike, including a chain and a tubular frame. This bike still isn´t really comfortable though, because of its massive rubber tires. An invention by Scottish veterinary doctor John Boyd Dunlop brings the necessary change. In 1888, he puts a pneumatic tire on his little boy´s kiddy bike.
Cyclists then try out the first pneumatic tires on the safety bicycles. (The word bicycle starts being used in 1885). The bikes are a lot more comfortable because of the shock absorption from the pneumatic tires, as well as a lot faster. Only, Dunlop wasn´t the first to come up with this idea: it seems that in 1845 a patent had been granted for pneumatic tires, which had been forgotten. Rival companies such as the still famous Michelin, seize their opportunity, which is a very good thing for consumers. Tires become better and cheaper. In the Netherlands the pneumatic tire makes its appearance in 1890: Mr P.W. Scheltema Beduin uses them during a race at the Scheveningen cycling track. Before the race begins, people laugh at him because of his bike´s ugly, fat tires, but they soon stop making fun of him.
Available to the working man
At first, cycling was a pastime only for the elite, but from 1880 onwards the wealthy middle class in the cities take a liking to it as well. Bicycles keep being improved and because of lower production costs more and more people can afford to buy one. At the end of the century the bicycle is slowly incorporating itself in the labour market: in 1897 the police force in Leeuwarden introduces the first official bikes and they are soon followed by other city councils and government organisations such as the postal services, telegraph services and the fire brigade. For many lower ranked civil servants this is their first acquaintance with the bicycle.
Even though a part of the elite and, subsequently, the well-off middle classes protest the loss of their exclusive use of the bike, the liberals can see the advantages: cycling is an important physical and mental exercise that can teach control, independence and self-reliance. These virtues are not only important to the bourgeoisie but even more so for the education of the common folk. Getting labourers to ride a bike will turn them into upstanding citizens.
What´s more, the working man will soon learn that riding a bike under the influence of alcohol is not a good idea, so that´s another bonus. The working class slowly starts to discover the bicycle, not only as a tool for their job but also for leisure. After the turn of the century the number of bikes increases steadily until the bicycle becomes the vital means of transportation and leisure that it is for nearly every Dutchman in the present time.