Why was the penny farthing bicycle invented?

Answer 1

The folding bicycle was invented so that this light-weight and efficient vehicle could be transported without requiring excessive space in which to do so. Airplanes (private) and modest pleasure boats are vehicles onto which a folding bike could fairly easily be loaded, and this happens more than one might think. The wheels are smaller in diameter than a full sized bike, and because the frame will fold in half, the whole unit can be stowed easily without the inconvenience of having to remove the wheels.

Answer 2

Before the invention of the chain drive the rider either had to kick himself along or have the pedals stuck to the wheel axle. Due to the human anatomy a front wheel drive works better than a rear wheel drive. And if the wheel only turn as fast as the pedals you have to make the wheel big to get any speed out of it.

for transport

Same reason anyone invents anything. A person had an idea and managed to turn it into reality.

Because someone saw it as an improvement on the previous version of the bicycle at the time.
Because before they invented the bicycle chain the wheel was driven directly, and only went around as fast as the pedals did. So to get the bike up to speed w/o forcing the rider to crank like crazy the wheel had to be made bigger. With a bigger diameter the circumference also becomes bigger. And with a bigger circumference one rotation will take you further. Before they had chain drives, the only way to get the bike going was by sticking the pedals straight on to the wheel axle. And with that arrangement, the easiest way to get a bit of speed was to make the drive wheel really big.
Before they had chain drives, the only way to get the bike going was by sticking the pedals straight on to the wheel axle. And with that arrangement, the easiest way to get a bit of speed was to make the drive wheel really big.
The penny farthing came about before people started using chains and sprockets to adjust the gear ratios. By making the (front) drive wheel bigger the bikes could get up to a decent speede despite the wheel only rotating as fast as the pedals did. The rear could remain small as it's only there for balance and control.
The penny farthing came about before people started using chains and sprockets to adjust the gear ratios. By making the (front) drive wheel bigger the bikes could get up to a decent speed despite the wheel only rotating as fast as the pedals did. The rear could remain small as it's only there for balance and control.

Answer 3

MTB riding started with a group of people riding regular bikes on logging roads and down fire lanes, and every time the bikes broke and had to be fixed they got more and more modified for the special kind of riding every time that they did.

Eventually someone built a frame from scratch rather than bother with modifying an old one. It became the first purpose built MTB, but it was only one example in a long line of similar looking bikes.

Answer 4

Well, many of the so-called "improvements" are really trade-offs. Bicycles aren't perfect today, and certainly weren't perfect when they were first created.

The very first bicycle was created in 1817. It was not particularly useful except on a well-maintained path, and had no way to power it. The user simply pushed it along with their feet. It had two identical wheels, and looked more like a modern bicycle from a distance.

This was improved upon by a device called the velocipede. It was entirely made of wood, and was therefore significantly shakier and more fragile for it's weight than a modern bike. This took until 1865 to be built. The main improvement here was that it had pedals on the front wheel.

The next improvement came 5 years later, with more advanced Metallurgy, all-metal construction was possible, this also allowed for the wheel to be supported using tension in wire-like spokes, instead of being supported by thick beams. The design of these bikes was tall and not very long, with the front wheel being well over a meter in diameter. The reason that the wheel was so large was to allow for very high speed, but this of course meant very low torque, and as such, steep hills were difficult or impossible to climb.

Another problem with the high-wheel bikes was that a sudden stop, be it by manually slowing with the pedals or by an object in the road, would send the bike and user rolling forward, causing injury to be very common. Additionally, the cost to manufacture such bikes was equivalent to what an average worker made in 6 months, so they were only available to those willing to shell out large amounts of money on one.

Eventually, a bike that used a chain and sprockets, much like a modern bike does, was created. It was safer than the high-wheeled bikes, even the versions that had been attempted to be made safe, and many features seen in modern bikes appeared with it. This became extremely popular, and had profound effects on the world, so much so that by the end of the 19th century, the campaign for better bike roads had led to the roads being suitable for automobiles.

In particular, these improvements were made, not all are used by all bikes today, but they are all important.

Gearbox: Older bikes and some cheap road bikes and kid's bikes have only a single gear ratio. This is cheap and mechanically simple, as well as being light, but it means that torque and speed cannot both be achieved in the same bike. The solution was to create a device which derails the chain and slides it over to another gear. Modern bikes generally have 2-3 options for gears in the front (with larger gears granting more speed and less torque) and 5-8 options for gears in the back. While the first bikes with switchable gears were invented by 1900, it took until the '50s for them to become popular in the United States, and the first 10-speed bikes were popular in the '70s.

Pneumatic tires: pneumatic tires are essentially universal today. They are much much smoother than those on the first modern-looking bikes. These are tires using an inner tube that fills with air, as opposed to solid rubber ones.

Handbrakes: While available for a long time, handbrakes are often the preferred option for adults today, as they allow better control, and don't require backpedaling. This also means that both wheels can be controlled independently for braking.

"Classic" decorations on bikes: These bikes were stylized in the '40s and later to be reminiscent of cars, motorcycles, and even jet aircraft and rockets. They were meant to appeal to children, but weighed as much as 30 kg. Still, the style created in these designs exists even to the present day in some bikes.

Disk brakes: Although an expensive improvement, and one that is not used on all bikes today, these brakes are far superior in their braking power, and don't need the same constant checking and maintenance that conventional brake pads do.

Suspension: Bike suspension is common on bikes that have to deal with rough terrain.

Reflectors: Modern bikes always have retro-reflectors so that they are visible to cars from a distance.

Material improvements: Some bikes today, especially those created since the 2000s, are available in materials that significantly reduce weight without compromising safety. Carbon fiber, Aluminium, various steels and stainless steels, advanced composites, bamboo fiber, and more have been used to varying degrees of success.

Handlebar shapes: Handlebars come in a near-endless variety of shapes nowadays. Road bikes have a compact, looping handlebar that fits in a small space. Some bikes have handlebars that have vertical beams to hold onto, and many have various grip shapes and materials to help enhance grip and comfort.

Tire tread: Some road tires are very smooth and slick and thin, requiring immense pressures, some as high as 120 PSI, in order to maintain their intended performance. These tires are extremely energy efficient, allowing the bike to glide over the road. Other tires are multiple inches wide, have very large knobs and bumps for gripping dirt, sand, and anything else the bike may be on. They usually don't require high pressures, often as little as 40 PSI. They get very good grip but have somewhat reduced rolling efficiency, meaning that the user needs to pedal more.

Accessories: Some bikes have a bell, allowing the rider to notify people around them of their presence. Others have baskets on the handlebars or behind the seat, water-bottle holders attached to the frame, or fenders for stopping water from splashing onto the rider and the frame. Some bikes have been made to hold as much as 550 lb, and are designed to allow large cargo capacities, or even extra seating above the back wheel. Lights and gauge telemetry are also available which allow bikes to work well in the dark and to monitor things like speed in a precise way.

Electric motors: Some bikes have been converted to use an electric motor instead of the rider's legs as a power source. Alternatively, some bikes use a hybrid drive-train which stores the rider's pedaling energy to optimize efficiency. Regenerative brakes have also been toyed with in this respect, allowing the battery to recuperate the energy normally lost in braking.

In-wheel suspension: Bike wheels with slightly springy loops or other mechanisms instead of rigid beams or tension wires have been designed to counter vibration and make the ride smoother.

Fold-able bikes: bikes that fold in the middle to fit into a car have been available for some time, though they almost always use small wheels and make other compromises. Alternatively, some recent concepts allow every component of the bike to be folded, even the wheels. This allows bikes to be carried around in a briefcase.

Non-pneumatic soft tires: Early on, bike tires were made of solid metal, wood, or rubber. These were essentially incompressible and made for a very stiff ride that put stress on both the bike and the rider, but didn't need any maintenance. Modern bike tires, in use since the 1890s, have used pressurized, inflated tires. These are susceptible to pressure loss over time through leaks, air expansion and contraction due to heat, and of course being popped by over-pressurization or penetration by a sharp object. They also get heavy wear when under-pressurized. Non-pneumatic soft tires are stable like hard ones and do not require refilling. They can also be punctured without losing pressure, and can apply pressure dynamically. However, they are much more complex to design, with advanced materials, honeycomb-structures, and more being used to artificially control the pressure curve of the tires, and have yet to see mainstream usage. The other disadvantage is that, unlike pneumatic tires, they cannot generally be easily tuned for higher or lower pressures, so controlling ride comfort vs. performance is not as easy. Essentially, these work a lot like a mattress does, whereas conventional tires are more like an air mattress. Perhaps eventually someone will invent a tire design that works like some newer mattresses with controllable firmness settings.

Seat designs: a variety of different shapes and materials are used for bikes seats. Some are light, some are comfortable, some are cheap and some are durable. Due to reasons that should be obvious, seats are often design with a certain gender of rider in mind.

Aerodynamic improvements: While the rider does account for the vast majority of drag in almost any bike design, the bike can be designed to have the rider in an aerodynamically different position, and subtle improvements can be made to the bike itself to increase aerodynamic performance. At peak performance, cyclists sustain 2-6 W/kg of body mass for hours at a time, and can output 10-25 W/kg of body mass in short bursts. Even at 2 W/kg, a person can maintain speeds of 23 MPH on level smooth ground with no wind. This is easily fast enough that the wind accounts for most of the drag on the bike. At the extreme end, some bikes even have aerodynamic fairings which dramatically improve aerodynamic performance by diverting oncoming air around the rider.

Friction-reduction: As time has gone on, bikes have gotten more efficient at low speeds. Modern chains, sprockets, and freewheelers generate less frictional drag than older versions of those parts.

Not all of these are necessarily pure improvements with no drawbacks, but all have provided advantages to some bikes, and some have provided advantages to all bikes. One thing we can say for sure is that while they may not look very different, bikes have improved significantly since they were first invented, and these improvements have been borne out of a need for safety, performance, portability, longevity, and many other factors. We aren't at the end of this story either. As cities grow more compact, fuel gets more expensive, and inner-city traffic gets worse, pressure on bike designers to make new innovations, and to refine what exists to the cutting edge, is on the rise. Likewise, there is growing demand in developing countries for a cheap, sturdy, reliable, simple bike that can deal with anything nature throws at it.

The future may see new improvements, from ultra-light ultra-fold-able bikes meant to be carried on one's person, to ultra-aerodynamic hybrid-electric bikes meant to be able to reach and maintain highway speeds, to bikes using advanced materials to bridge the gap between road bikes and mountain bikes.

Answer 5

Because kicking yourself along with the feet limited the speed and the usefulness of the bicycle.

Answer 6

because in the world today the bicycle i think was created for transportation

Answer 7

for cheaper and faster transportation