More Cycling Fun Facts

​Learning about bicycles is half the fun of riding. These fun facts may help tip the scales in favor of finally getting back in the saddle! 

• 328 Years – Frenchman, De Sivrac built the first bicycle type vehicle in 1690 known as the ‘hobbyhorse’ it did not have pedals. Later, a Scottish blacksmith named Kirkpatrick Macmillan added pedals and is credited with the fist bicycle.
• Feminism – social reformer and feminist Susan B. Anthony once said that the invention of the modern bicycle “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world” and called it the “freedom machine.”
• Roads are for bikes – paved roads became mainstream not because of automobiles, but because of bicycles. While cars could go across cobblestones fairly well, bicycles had a more difficult time.
• Air Filled – manufacturers were utilizing air filled tires on bicycles before they were being used on motor vehicles. 
• Olympic Games – cycling was one of the nine original modern Olympic sports which started in 1896. 
• Racing – in the early 20th century, 6-day long bicycle races were quite popular. The winner would be whoever rode the greatest distance. Riders would get very little sleep and hallucinate on the track.
• Money – before Babe Ruth joined the Yankees in 1920, cyclists were the highest paid professional athletes. 
• United Parcel Service – UPS was founded by two teenagers, James E. Casey and Claude Ryan, with one bicycle and a borrowed one-hundred dollars.
• One Billion – there are approximately one billion bicycles in the world, which are twice as many as cars showing just how many people are reducing their carbon footprint.

Check out February 2017 Chatter Archives for our original ‘Cycling Fun Facts’ article.