History
The dandy horse, or draisienne, invented by Karl von Drais and the first vehicle with two wheels arranged in tandem, was controlled by a bar connected to the front steering mechanism and held by the riders' two hands. The first handlebars were solid bars of steel or wood, depending on the manufacturer. Curved, moustache-shaped, handlebars became popular in the 1880s. Whatton bars were developed in attempt to improve the safety of penny-farthings. Handlebars made of wood, instead of steel, were used on safety bicycles to reduce weight in the 1890s. Although aluminum had been used to make bicycles as early as 1935, it was considered unsafe for handlebars until Cinelli produced them in 1963.
Read more about this topic: Bicycle Handlebar
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)