Whether a sketch said to have been pencilled by Leonardo da Vinci circa
1493 and depicting two circles and a bar running through it represents the
birth of cycling or not is open to debate. What is clear is that an art
historian from California declared in 1997 that the sketch was "just two
circles with some curved lines" and may have been embellished by a forger
some time after Da Vinci had moved on to give painting lessons to the
angels and saints.
Equally certain is that the earthly Da Vinci dreamt up the monocycle in the
form of the ball bearing and the drive chain. Only several centuries later
would the Italian's component thoughts be put together in an attempt to
form what we now know as a bicycle.
In 1816, a German invented something called the swiftwalker, two-wheeler
made of wood that allowed the rider to steer the front wheel. In the
absence of pedals, however, riders would simply shuffle along on foot, roll
a little, and push off again. The vehicle started a craze and records show
that betting on races using the swiftwalker emerged across Europe in the
early 19th century.
The cycling revolution dawned in 1839, however, when Scottish blacksmith
Kirkpatrick Macmillan added pedals and cranks to a swiftwalker he was
repairing. Having invented the modern cycle, it seemd only fair that
Macmillan was then the winner of the first pedal bicycle "race" in 1842,
after he made a bet with a travelling coachman.
Modern bikes as we know them stemmed from the Scotsman's design. The penny
farthing was one of the most famous early models but its large front wheel
and smaller rear wheel made it difficult to ride. The Rudge Bicyclette
followed, with wheels of the same size, became enormously popular around
the world, and cycling was one of the most eagerly followed of the
inaugural sports of the modern Olympiad in 1896.
