Earliest Possible Bicycle

[Mark-ITSOT]

Or something like a bicycle (a hobby horse?).

What's the earliest that all the technology (sans pneumatic tyres for now) needed to put one together was available?

 

[JTibbs]

Bronze age? Maybe even before.. It's possible to make it entirely from wood and rope.

 

[ArKhan]

FLINTSTONES CAR!!!!!!!!1

 

[Yelnoc]

Bronze age? Maybe even before.. It's possible to make it entirely from wood and rope.

That would be so awesome. Imagine the Akkadian Empire with bikes

 

[Valdemar II]

Or something like a bicycle (a hobby horse?).

What's the earliest that all the technology (sans pneumatic tyres for now) needed to put one together was available?

Around the time it was created, a bicycle in a pre-aluminium and rubber society would be so heavy that it would be useless.

 

[Yelnoc]

Around the time it was created, a bicycle in a pre-aluminium and rubber society would be so heavy that it would be useless.

You could use hollow bamboo reeds for the frame, which would reduce the weight.

 

[Don Lardo]

You could use hollow bamboo reeds for the frame, which would reduce the weight.

And, pray tell, what will you use for the wheels and roads it travels upon?

Valdemar is entirely correct here. What we would recognize as a "bicycle" appeared pretty much as quickly as it could once all the prerequisites were in place. An earlier bicycle would require earlier prerequisites and the development of those would spark profound changes

Hobby horses and straddle cars have been around since the Bronze Age. They never developed beyond niche usages because of their limited capabilities and applications.

 

[SRT]

Bicycles are actually pretty complex machines, requiring a certain degree of precision in their manufacture. Many things originally designed for bicycles were later adapted into cars (for example, ball bearings). They only seem simple to us because most people (at least in America, though this is changing) only use them when they're kids, as a sort of "Jr. Car."

 

[Stephen]

Made from nothing but wood, even the chains. Greased wooden axles work on carts and chariots they can work on bycycles too.

Wooden bicycles, OK scooters also get alot of use in africa.

 

[tormsen]

I love it when that happens on here.

"Impossible!"

"Actually, people have done it OTL..."

 

[the day war broke out]

I love it when that happens on here. "Impossible!" "Actually, people have done it OTL..."

I totally agree. As the song says, "They all laughed at Christopher Colombus ....."

Let's not forgot that Hengist Pod had a wooden bicycle back in first century Roman Britain, albeit with square wheels.

 

[Mackon]

Made from nothing but wood, even the chains. Greased wooden axles work on carts and chariots they can work on bycycles too.

Bad bad things are going to happen to that as soon as it hits a pebble, you'd need someone running ahead with a broom on even good modern roads and it'd rattle itself to pieces on cobble.

 

[Don Lardo]

Made from nothing but wood, even the chains.

Made from modern wood composites with modern machine tools and using modern fasteners.

Greased wooden axles work on carts and chariots they can work on bycycles too.

As has been already pointed out, straddle cars and hobby horses have been around since antiquity. Their usage was always limited by their limited applications and capabilities.

Wooden bicycles, OK scooters also get alot of use in africa.

Did you fail to notice the scavenged hard rubber wheel rims? Or all the other modern bits?

I love it when that happens on here.

I totally agree.

I suppose you both would.