The Bike Boom
August, 1971
In contrast to the sleek machines shown on these pages, one of the most famous early bicycles--a wooden hobbyhorse developed by Baron Karl von Drais in 1816--was awkward, heavy and without pedals. The cyclist propelled it by shuffling his feet along the ground--no easy rider he. Foot pedals were devised some 20 years later and the bicycle's popularity really started rolling. In 1878, a penny-farthing--that immortalized model with the enormous front wheel--carried a price as high as its rider, ar...
