Early Bicycles

The Sandman

Banned
The title should be self-explanatory: was there any real possibility of the bicycle being invented earlier, and what effects might it have had? Particularly on the military (bicycle infantry would be very useful in an era before cars), but also any other societal effects.
 

Max Sinister

Banned
Theoretically yes... the first version was not much more than two wheels connected and something to sit on (no pedals yet). However, when these "bikes" appeared, people went apeshit crazy, so to say. Yes, in the 19th century. Earlier, they might call the inquisition.
 

Ran Exilis

Well, there's one little detail about the early bikes: they didn't have flexible rubber tires.

Instead, they had wooden or metal tires.

...and let me assure you that riding a bicycle with wooden or metal tires is not exactly nice,
since you'll feel every little bump and pebble in the road.
 
MrP

MrP

Banned
Hm . . . must it be in Europe? Those beautifully made South American roads made to facilitate runners carrying messages could be rather handy, if some enterprising fella made a bicycle. :cool:
 

carlton_bach

There are a number of concerns that would limit an early bicycle. We may think of it as a basic gadget, but by the lights of the nineteenth century, it is an incredibly complex machine. (Not to mention its impact - it has been suggested that the great innovations of the late 19th century, in terms of immediate impact, were the sewing machine and the bicycle).

You can build a basic 'bike' out of just about anything, but it will be a toy, and not a very fun one unless you like being shaken to bits and falling on your head. To build a working bicycle, you need rolled steel or tubing, a bicycle wheel hanging spoke construction (if you think it's easy, try describing how one actually works) and pressurised rubber tyres. Without the first two, the design will be either insanely heavy or flimsy. Without the third, riding will be hazardous to your health, or in the case of a male, your progeny. In addition, the best bicycle constructions are thosae which separate pedals and wheels. The penny-farthing is not bad - a crazy American rode one from San Francisco to New York and then from Liverpool to Calcutta and onwards from Hong Kong to North China and Japan in the 1880s. But you have to be a well-trained, fit individual to use it. Any transmission that produces the familiar two-wheeler of today (or any other, similarly suitable design) needs precision mass-produced interchangeable steel parts.

To this day, the designatipon for a skilled mechanic specialising in meso-level machinery (bigger than watches but smaller than car engines) in German translates as 'Sewing machine and bicycle fitter'. It is pretty demanding technology.
 

The Sandman

Banned
How early could you have rubber tires? And an early penny-farthing would work just as well for these purposes; I expect, after all, that the military would go into them in a big way if you get them a few decades earlier than OTL, and the military should be able to manage the well-trained and fit parts.
 

ninebucks

Banned
POD: In the 8th Century, Mesoamerican priests become interested in the sound of brass instruments, they proclaim that musical instruments produced from metal pipes produce a sound that is highly pleasing to the gods. As such, the articifers of the Mesoamerican states are ordered to concentrate their skills on producing better brass instruments.

13th Century: The idea of curved pipes comes about, and instruments similar to the Old World Tuba and French Horn are developed.

Late 14th Century: An enterprising engineer first develops a four-wheeled, peddle-powered vehicle with rubber-bound wheels. The ruling classes are impressed and decide to patronise the creation.

15th Century: The bicycle is constantly improved during this century, it is cut down to two wheels to increase speed, and the metals are made stronger.

By the time of Spanish contact, the Mesoamericans have a fully realised bicycle, which is traded throughout North America, and which allows them to resist Spanish Imperialism for a few decades longer.

The bicycle is exported back to the Old World, and becomes greatly loved in Southern Europe, but is seen as a frivolous novelty in Northern Europe until the modern day.
 

Dean_the_Young

ninebucks said:
The bicycle is exported back to the Old World, and becomes greatly loved in Southern Europe, but is seen as a frivolous novelty in Northern Europe until the modern day.
Click to expand...

Except in Britain's American colonies, where bicycles played many roles in quickly getting messages from one revolutionary stronghold to another (popularized in Ben Franklin's famous saying "for want of a chain..."), as well as quickly moving troops across the roads. Paul Rever's great ride was on a bicycle when no horse was available (though, unlike the legend he did infact fall and scrape a knee), and Benedict Arnold's attack into Canada through little known bicycle routes made by some Canadian bicyclists resulted in a great patriot victory despite the icy temperatures.

After the Revolution, bicycle mania insured early internal improvements such as lightly paved roads were done throughout the country despite muted objections from the South. When inventive minds created bicycles that could handle rougher terrains with "suspensions", westward expansion exploded. Though horses were still faster and better in fights, bicycles became cheaper to purchase and easier to maintain, and only southern aristocrats, imitating northern European nobles, favored horses for pleasure.




And so on. Should I go on and tell how a bicycle saved the Civil War for the Union? :D
 

arctic warrior

Dean_the_Young said:
And so on. Should I go on and tell how a bicycle saved the Civil War for the Union? :D
Click to expand...

Please do!!!
Also as I remember this was the occasion that made bicycling a decent pastime for the ladies of the establisment. (you know - having been considered frivolous because of the lifting of skits :eek: )
 

Dean_the_Young

arctic warrior said:
Please do!!!
Also as I remember this was the occasion that made bicycling a decent pastime for the ladies of the establisment. (you know - having been considered frivolous because of the lifting of skits :eek: )
Click to expand...

Very well, then. Gather around now. There are a few differnt cases, but here are the ones I remember.

Once upon a time, a Confederate messenger riding a horse, as all Southerners in the bicycle-poor South did, wrapped one of General Lee's critical orders around several cigars and put it in a saddlebag. As any good bicycler knows, bicycle pouches are carefully made in ways so that papers can never get out, while the normal horse pouch, while good for heavier objects, is a bit lacking in this regard. So it was here, and when the pouch opened without the messenger noticing, the order fell to the ground.

Later, when a pair of Union troopers, doing their morning bicycle ride, found the order, they used their speedy contraptions to immediatly get the order up the chain of comand. And though McClellan waited and waited, after so much time had passed, Lincoln, who had heard about the story from some bicycle-equiped moles in the camp, came out and ordered McClellan to act. Though Confederate spies soon had an idea that something had happened, when McClellan did act the Battle of Antietam resulted in a Confederate defeat, turning the tide of Lee's invasion of the North.

Also, historians have accredited the pervaence of bicycles for the natural speed and good health that was famous in the North, where fit men with an appreciation for speedy momement surprised their southern countrymen, who thought that Yankees were just slow and weak clerks and shop owners. High speed Americans became famous around the world, and stories about how General Grant was arrested for speeding on bicycle or how Teddy Roosevelt challenged master bicyclists into a race across length of the Panama Canal have amused Europeans and Asians across the world for generations.

In fact, just as the Germans are known for beer and precision tools, the British for statesmanship and reserve, and the French for culture and food, the bicycle is widely seen as the source for the perception of Americans as both quick and mechanically minded, which served us well in the future.
 

Nova

In a world where Native Americans invented the bicycle, would they get more respect? How would that change things?
 

arctic warrior

Dean_the_Young said:
Very well, then. Gather around now. There are a few differnt cases, but here are the ones I remember.

Once upon a time, a Confederate messenger riding a horse, as all Southerners in the bicycle-poor South did, wrapped one of General Lee's critical orders around several cigars and put it in a saddlebag. As any good bicycler knows, bicycle pouches are carefully made in ways so that papers can never get out, while the normal horse pouch, while good for heavier objects, is a bit lacking in this regard. So it was here, and when the pouch opened without the messenger noticing, the order fell to the ground.

Later, when a pair of Union troopers, doing their morning bicycle ride, found the order, they used their speedy contraptions to immediatly get the order up the chain of comand. And though McClellan waited and waited, after so much time had passed, Lincoln, who had heard about the story from some bicycle-equiped moles in the camp, came out and ordered McClellan to act. Though Confederate spies soon had an idea that something had happened, when McClellan did act the Battle of Antietam resulted in a Confederate defeat, turning the tide of Lee's invasion of the North.

Also, historians have accredited the pervaence of bicycles for the natural speed and good health that was famous in the North, where fit men with an appreciation for speedy momement surprised their southern countrymen, who thought that Yankees were just slow and weak clerks and shop owners. High speed Americans became famous around the world, and stories about how General Grant was arrested for speeding on bicycle or how Teddy Roosevelt challenged master bicyclists into a race across length of the Panama Canal have amused Europeans and Asians across the world for generations.

In fact, just as the Germans are known for beer and precision tools, the British for statesmanship and reserve, and the French for culture and food, the bicycle is widely seen as the source for the perception of Americans as both quick and mechanically minded, which served us well in the future.
Click to expand...

And so it became that every ablebodied yankee each year rode their bicycles in celebration of the victory and to honour the fallen heroes - a special day when all could and later were expected to mount a bicycle!
Shortly this custom gave rise to "Across the North" and later "Across the Union", worlds thoughest bicycle competion. Especially when Alaska was granted statehood and the Start of "Across the Union" was setup in Anchorage and competiteurs had to ride the length of the Pacific Coast of said state.
 

Dean_the_Young

arctic warrior said:
And so it became that every ablebodied yankee each year rode their bicycles in celebration of the victory and to honour the fallen heroes - a special day when all could and later were expected to mount a bicycle!
Shortly this custom gave rise to "Across the North" and later "Across the Union", worlds thoughest bicycle competion. Especially when Alaska was granted statehood and the Start of "Across the Union" was setup in Anchorage and competiteurs had to ride the length of the Pacific Coast of said state.
Click to expand...

*wince* Isn't Alaska's Pacific Coast, when measured exactly, some thousands of miles?
 

Smaug

Why not a Tricycle, and use a rim wrapped with leather? Its not comfortable, but it would give better traction, and stability, and offer better capability to carry loads.
 

rewster

Someone should start a timeline where the bicycle is invented in the Americas. It would probably require rubber from Mesoamerica and metalworking/roadbuilding from South America to somehow get together, through trade I suppose.

As to whether they would get more respect... I think that's almost a given, because in order to invent the bicycle you've got to come up with some ingenious mechanical breakthroughs that are probably either coming from some other fancy inventions or leading to them.
 
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