Small Wheel Bicycle - History

History

An early proponent of small-wheeled adult bicycles was Paul De Vivie, better known by his pen name "Velocio". His approach was to use a balloon-width tire of about 2.25" (57mm) on a 20" (500mm) rim, giving a wheel of approximately 24" (600mm) in diameter.

The man credited with being the father of modern small-wheel bicycles is Alex Moulton who pioneered the field with his F-framed Moulton Bicycle in 1962. His original small-wheeled design notably featured full suspension. Raleigh introduced the RSW-16 as a direct competitor, but it lacked the suspension of the Moulton, and compensated for this by using very wide 2-inch "balloon" tires. The RSW-16 "Compact" was a folding version. In 1968 Raleigh introduced the Raleigh Twenty which later went on to become one of Raleigh's biggest sellers. A large number of European manufacturers made U-frame small-wheeled and folding bicycles in the 1970s.

Read more about this topic:  Small Wheel Bicycle

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    False history gets made all day, any day,
    the truth of the new is never on the news
    False history gets written every day
    ...
    the lesbian archaeologist watches herself
    sifting her own life out from the shards she’s piecing,
    asking the clay all questions but her own.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)