| From bicycle history to motorcycle:
New things such as ball bearings, reducing friction between moving parts, conveyor methods of assembly, steel pipes, two and three-speed wheel hubs, foot brakes and transmission shift mechanisms, chain drives appeared in the following decade. Sprocket chain transmission began appearing on turn of the century. It consisted of pinion gear, connected with levers and slave, located on rear wheel hub. Connected with chain, they made-up transmission. For the first time, such transmission on bicycles was made hard. It was required to rotate the pedal on at every covered meter even when descending the mountain. Idling made it possible not to move your legs even if additional efforts are not needed during the movement. By replacing the drive or driven gear, it was possible to adjust the gearing ratio, which opened the paths to change speeds. Further, companies started manufacturing rear wheel hub in such a way that it was possible to fit sprockets - gears of various sizes on the rear wheel hubs. Because of this, it became possible to turn the rear wheel and replace the transmission. First speed selector was developed in 1930s, which, however, did not provide sufficient reliability (chain was too tight or on the contrary, came off). Later, this unit was redesigned and then modern parallel type speed selector appeared. Drive gear was manufactured of two or even three disk. Special selector allows to shift the chain from one disk to another while on move. As a result, modern cyclist has 21 - 27 speeds at disposal if top three drives and seven - nine slave drives are fitted. For the last 30 years, components and parts of bicycle have been greatly improved. Many parts, such as handle, steering column, steering tubes, rims, pedals, gears, bushes, brakes are now being manufactured from light metal. Flexible bicycle tires (or tubes) have become lighter thanks to considerable improvement of road surfaces. Development of safe bicycle and its unusual popularity in 1890s resulted in many social changes, particularly, changes in women's fashion - women trousers appeared for cycling and in women's freedom - cycling in the men's company has become common without the supervision of parents and relatives. Many of the innovations, introduced for the first time by bicycle designers, have contributed to the development of automotive industry. Moreover, many of the first designers of cars and motorcycles themselves were first bicycle designers, for instance G. Daimler in Germany, B. Harley and A. Davidson of USA. In addition, enthusiasts of bicycle transport demanded better roads, by uniting into a League of American Cyclists in 1880, which became the world's largest sports association in 1890. Motorization of transport facilities led to decrease in popularity of bicycle during the period from 1900 to 1920. In 1960s, various companies started manufacturing bicycles with small wheels, folding frames, bicycles of unusual design (tandem - bicycle with long frame for two riders) and tricycle.
Currently, bicycle industry is not keeping silent. We will witness appearance of new types of bicycles - beach bicycle winter bicycles, "rasta bikes" velo bicycles World famous car manufacturers (BMW, MERCEDES-BENZ, PEUGEOT, VOLKSWAGEN) started manufacturing bicycles under their own respective brands.
Six basic types of bicycles are available: racing - road and track, as well as touring, mountain, hybrid mountain and tourist, road and special bicycles. Main components and parts of bicycle are frame, wheels, seat, steering handle and pedals with chain drive, designed in accordance with its area of application. |
This Friday we continue our freaking experiment with provided source images.
