Pub. 6 2016 Issue 1

20 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY invented the bicycle. The modelers at the museum have even built a full-scale replica. In 1816, a German Baron named Karl von Drais built a hobby horse that could be steered. It looked a lot like today’s bikes, but didn’t have pedals. He presented it to the world in 1817. European riders made it fashionable, and soon others were trying to improve on it. Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith, came up with a device that was powered by a treadle in 1840 and used it on a 140-mile round trip to Glasgow. He was able to go 40 miles at a stretch along the way. Ernest Michaux made a hobby-horse machine in the 1860s, called the Velocipede. It had a wooden frame, iron frame, iron tires, and a system of cranks and rotating pedals that were connected to the front axles. Its nickname gives some idea about the quality of the ride: people called it the boneshaker. Inventors were busy making modifications during the 1860s. James Stanley came up with a version he called the Ordinary, or Penny Farthing, in 1866. The wheels were not the same size (the front was huge and the back was small), the machine weighed 70 pounds, and the cost was $300. Accounting for inflation, $300 in 1866 would be worth $4,545.45 today. John Kemp Starley, an Englishman, built the Rover Safety in 1885. It was safer than the Ordinary. It had solid-rubber wheels that were the same size, a rear wheel driven by a chain, and a frame shaped like a diamond. John Boyd Dunlop came up with pneumatic tires that absorbed shock with air-filled inner tubes. Early bikes did have braking mechanisms, but it wasn’t until 1898 that Harry P. Townsend and James S. Copeland made separate patent applications for a coaster brake, which improved safety. Another U.S. patent was filed by William Robinson in 1899. Freewheeling meant wheels could spin even if the rider wasn’t pedaling, another obvious improvement. By the 1890s, the basic bike structure had been established and bikes themselves had become a popular item. Around this time, more attention was given to the materials used in bikes. Steel alloys were strong enough to make frame tubing thinner, and that in turn meant bikes that were lighter and faster on the road. The invention of derailleur gears meant a rider could stay on the bike without the need for taking off the wheel and adjusting it to a different mode when switching from an uphill ride to a downhill ride. Bike popularity declined after the end of World War II, and picked up again during the 1970s when gas prices and availability were adversely affected by a 1973 oil embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). Two men from California, Charlie Kelly and Gary Fisher, invented the mountain bike by combining wide tires with a lightweight racing-bike frame. By the 1990s, people were more interested in buying mountain bikes than racing bikes. Soon after, hybrid bikes began to appear. Bike frames are constructed in a diamond shape that makes the bicycle strong and rigid. People initially built bicycle frames out of steel or alloy steel because it was strong. The goal was always to come up with new alloys that were stronger, lighter, more rigid, and more durable. In the 1970s, people discovered alloy steels that could be mechanically welded into light, inexpensive frames. It is still possible to buy hand-brazed bike frames, but they are more expensive because it takes more time to hand-braze a frame than to weld it with a machine. In the 1980s, aluminum frames became popular specifically because of their light weight, despite the fact that aluminum fatigues in a three-to-five-year time span. Steel and titanium were the two strongest metals used because their life expectancy is in decades instead of years. A bike’s tubes can be seamed or seamless, but seamless tubes are considered to be better. To make a seamless tube, manufacturers pierce solid blocks of steel and draw them into tubes during several different stages. To make the tubes stronger and lighter, manufacturers sometimes change the thickness of the tube’s walls. The joints need thick walls because that is where the stress is, while BIKE EVOLUTION continued from page 19 It is still possible to buy hand-brazed bike frames , but they are more expensive because it takes more time to hand- braze a frame than to weld it with a machine.