Timeline: Cycles

See also the History of the Cycle

1817 Baron Karl Drais de Sauerbrunn made the first "dandy horse", a velocifere with steerable front wheel

1819 Denis Johnson patented a velocipede with larger wheels that Drais's dandy horse; often called a "hobby horse"

1836 Gavin Dalzell builds a bicycle

1839 Kirkpatrick MacMillan builds a mechanically-propelled 2-wheel vehicle

1840s Willard Sawyer producing four-wheel velocipedes

1862 Smith and Mackenzie produce a Velocipede

c1863 Pierre Michaux and/or his son Ernest in France produce a velocipede with cranks and pedals on the front wheel. By 1865 Michaux's firm produced 400 machines in the year. Pierre Michaux formed a partnership with the Olivier brothers as Michaux et Cie.

1866 Pierre Lallement files a patent in America

1868 March. Liverpool Velocipede Club is operational

1868 James Moore wins the first ever cycle race

1868 Arthur Matthew Markham wins the first bicycle race held in England

1868 G. Alsing imports a bicycle from Paris and demonstrates it in Glasgow

1868 Rowley B. Turner imports a velocipede and soon after was producing them at the Coventry Machinists Co

1868 Thomas Humber starts producing his first velocipede

1869 Charles Spencer imports a velocipede from Paris

1869 Thomas McCall produces a rod-driven, all steel 2-wheeler

1869 Eugene Meyer invented the wire-spoke tension wheel used on an "ordinary" cycle.

1869 Peyton and Peyton advertise a two-wheeler of Bourne's Patent with rear-wheel drive by treadles.

1869 Velocipede Exhibition held at Crystal Palace

1869 Cycling races held at Crystal Palace.

1870 James Starley in Coventry patented the ribbon wheel

1870 James Starley and William Hillman produced the Ariel "ordinary" cycle; and later added tangent spokes and a mounting step.

1871 W. H. J. Grout introduced hollow front forks.

1875 Singer and Co formed in Coventry

1875 Haynes and Jefferis producing the Ariel cycle

1876 Centaur Cycle Co formed in Coventry

1876 Hillman and Herbert formed in Coventry

1876 Speedwell Bicycle Club founded in London

1877 Humber, Marriott and Cooper formed in Beeston

1878 John Beale patents the Facile cycle which used levers to drive the front wheel and thereby reducing its diameter to 44 inches.

1878 Tangent and Coventry Tricycle Co of Coventry introduced the No. 7 Coventry Rotary Tricycle,

1878 Starley and Sutton Co formed

1878 Bicycle Union formed

1878 Bicycle Touring Club formed

1878 First Stanley Cycle Show held

c1880 George Davies (of Alderley Edge) designs the first successful free-wheel

1881 BSA commence production in Birmingham with the cycle designed by Edward Carl Fredrich Otto

1883 Quadrant Cycle Co formed in Birmingham

1883 Bicycle Touring Club becomes the Cyclists' Touring Club

1884 Crypto Cycle Co producing cycles

1884 Kangaroo Cycle first produced. Using a pair of chains it could use a 36-inch front wheel but effectively gear to 54-inch

1885 John Kemp Starley produced the first successful "safety bicycle", having a low profile with chain drive to the rear wheel. The Rover featured near-equal size wheels and a chain drive to the rear wheel.

1885 Bonnick Cycle Co formed in Coventry

1887 John Boyd Dunlop produces the pneumatic tyre which gave a smoother ride, important on the smaller wheel "safeties".

1887 Raleigh Cycle Co formed in Nottingham

1891 Premier Cycle Co formed to purchase Hillman, Herbert and Cooper

1894 Rudge-Whitworth formed in Coventry from the combination of the Rudge Cycle Co and the Whitworth Cycle Co

1896 Rover Cycle Co formed from J. K. Starley and Co formerly Starley and Sutton Co

1896 Bonnick Cycle Co becomes the Riley Cycle Co

1897 Dursley Pedersen Cycle Co formed

1901 Sturmey-Archer three-speed gear appears

1910 Hercules Cycles formed in Birmingham

1943 Raleigh Cycle Co acquires Rudge-Whitworth

1957 Raleigh Cycle Co acquires BSA Bicycles

See Also

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