Training wheels are sometimes used when learning to ride, but a dedicated balance bike teaches independent riding more effectively. Front-mounted baskets, front or rear luggage carriers or racks, and panniers mounted above either or both wheels can be used to carry equipment or cargo. Bicycle suspension refers to the system or systems used to suspend the rider and all or part of the bicycle.
Accessories
In built-up cities around the world, urban planning uses cycling infrastructure like bikeways to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. The bicycle has had a considerable effect on human society, in both the cultural and industrial realms. There are specialized bicycle tools for use both in the shop and at the roadside. The chain and the brake blocks are the components which wear out most quickly, so these need to be checked from time to time, typically every 500 miles (800 km) or so.
The "dandy horse", also called Draisienne or Laufmaschine ("running machine"), was the first human means of transport to use only two wheels in tandem and was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais. The design of the bicycle was an advance on the velocipede, although the words were used with some degree of overlap for a time. The word bicycle first appeared in English print in The Daily News in 1868, to describe "Bysicles and trysicles" on the "Champs Elysées and Bois de Boulogne".
Nearby words
Some US companies, notably in the tech sector, are developing both innovative cycle designs and cycle-friendliness in the workplace. In Copenhagen, a cyclists' organization runs a Cycling Embassy that promotes biking for commuting and sightseeing. There are also cycling-specific multi-tools that combine many of these implements into a single compact device. Some brands of tires are much more puncture-resistant than others, often incorporating one or more layers of Kevlar; the downside of such tires is that they may be heavier and more difficult to fit and remove. A patch kit may be employed to fix the puncture or the tube can be replaced, though the latter solution comes at a greater cost and waste of material. Over the longer term, tires do wear out, after 2,000 to 5,000 miles (3,200 to 8,000 km); a rash of punctures is often the most visible sign of a worn tire.
- They cannot be shifted across a cassette of sprockets, and are used either as single speed or with a hub gear.
- Saddles also vary with rider preference, from the cushioned ones favored by short-distance riders to narrower saddles which allow more room for leg swings.
- Bamboo, a natural composite material with high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness has been used for bicycles since 1894.
- Furthermore, it was considered "unladylike" for women to open their legs to mount and dismount—in more conservative times women who rode bicycles at all were vilified as immoral or immodest.
- Soon, the seat tube was added, which created the modern bike’s double-triangle diamond frame.
By the 1980s, aluminum welding techniques had improved to the point that aluminum tube could safely be used in place of steel. The head tube contains the headset, the set of bearings that allows the fork to turn smoothly for steering and balance. They are also used for entertainment and pleasure in other ways, such as in organised mass rides, artistic cycling and freestyle BMX. Bicycle sports include racing, BMX racing, track racing, criterium, roller racing, sportives and time trials. The next most numerous vehicle, the Honda Super Cub motorcycle, has more than 100 million units made, while most produced car, the Toyota Corolla, has reached 44 million and counting. By the turn of the century, cycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing became widely popular.
Bicycles allowed people to travel for leisure into the country, since bicycles were three times as energy efficient as walking and three to four times as fast. Around the turn of the 20th century, bicycles reduced crowding in inner-city tenements by allowing workers to commute from more spacious dwellings in the suburbs. More specialized bicycle components may require more complex tools, including proprietary tools specific for a given manufacturer.
This steering is usually provided by the rider, but under certain conditions, may be provided spin classes tampa by the bicycle itself. Military uses of bicycles include communications, reconnaissance, troop movement, supply of provisions, and patrol, such as in bicycle infantries. Bicycles are used for transportation, bicycle commuting, and utility cycling. More than 1 billion bicycles have been manufactured worldwide as of the early 21st century. Dérailleur gears and hand-operated Bowden cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years, but were only slowly adopted by casual riders.
Maintenance and repair
The front triangle consists of the head tube, top tube, down tube, and seat tube. Drag can also be reduced by covering the bicycle with an aerodynamic fairing. Drag can be reduced by seating the rider in a more aerodynamically streamlined position. A human traveling on a bicycle at low to medium speeds of around 16–24 km/h (10–15 mph) uses only the power required to walk. The bicycle is the most efficient human-powered means of transportation in terms of energy a person must expend to travel a given distance. The bicycle is extraordinarily efficient in both biological and mechanical terms.
Around 50% of the participants in the Montreal International Journal of Sustainable Transportation survey were subjected to a bicycle theft in their lifetime as active cyclists. The number of bicycles stolen annually is difficult to quantify as a large number of crimes are not reported. Early in its development, as with automobiles, there were restrictions on the operation of bicycles. As of 2009update, 130 million bicycles were sold every year globally and 66% of them were made in China. One of the major reasons for the proliferation of Chinese-made bicycles in foreign markets is the lower cost of labor in China. Despite this shift in production, as nations such as China and India become more wealthy, their own use of bicycles has declined due to the increasing affordability of cars and motorcycles.
Off-road tires are usually between 1.5 and 2.5 inches (38 and 64 mm) wide, and have treads for gripping in muddy conditions or metal studs for ice. Saddles also vary with rider preference, from the cushioned ones favored by short-distance riders to narrower saddles which allow more room for leg swings. A higher gear allows a cyclist to make fewer pedal turns to maintain a given speed, but with more effort per turn of the pedals. They cannot be shifted across a cassette of sprockets, and are used either as single speed or with a hub gear. A dérailleur system normally has two dérailleurs, or mechs, one at the front to select the chainring and another at the back to select the sprocket. Recent versions use bamboo for the primary frame with glued metal connections and parts, priced as exotic models.
Probably the best known and most widely used of these inventions, adopted well beyond cycling, is Charles Bennett's Bike Web, which came to be called the jock strap. Their board tracks were later adapted to early motorcycle and automobile racing. These techniques later enabled skilled metalworkers and mechanics to develop the components used in early automobiles and aircraft. An example of this is the Bicycle Film Festival, a film festival hosted all around the world. Foursquare, whose CEO Dennis Crowley "pedaled to pitch meetings … when he was raising money from venture capitalists" on a two-wheeler, chose a new location for its New York headquarters "based on where biking would be easy".
cycling
The handlebars connect to the stem that connects to the fork that connects to the front wheel, and the whole assembly connects to the bike and rotates about the steering axis via the headset bearings. Different gears and ranges of gears are appropriate for different people and styles of cycling. These are toothed and work much the same as a chain—popular with commuters and long distance cyclists they require little maintenance.
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