There are a few objects which are familiar to all of us, and in many cases have also been an important part of our lives, but which we cannot seem to find around us now, if we turn to look: social and technological evolution has substituted them, partially or completely, with more modern and often also more efficient devices... which are, though, just as often less fascinating, because they lack history. Thikn of the straight-bladed razor used by old barbers, or telephone booths... or think of an object that was so important, so extraordinary, that it survived, though in vastly reduced numbers than in the past, even in front of more modern alternatives coming on the scene: think of the humble bicycle



Sure, it's true, as any expert will tell you (as it happened to us, when we asked Doniselli, a company who's been building bicycles for ninety years, to tell us this story) that a modern bicycle is a totally different obecjt than one built even just twenty years ago: greatly lighter and stronger materials, flowing lines designed on scientific principles, delicate, exactingly precise gears... but if we go back, what is the story of this vehicle, what path did the bicycle take to reach us?

The bicycle, it must be said, has both nobility and tragedy in its origin. The inventor of the first model ever was, indeed, a German Baron, Karl von Drais, in 1817, moved by his decision to find an alternative means of locomotion to the horse. The reason? Well, this is where the tragic part of our story comes out: the yaer before, 1816, a combination of low solar activity and a devastating volcanic eruption generated a never-before seen cold wave, which caused terrible devastations in the fields - which translated to massive horse deaths. The model invented by Herr Drais, which he later patented in 1818, and which took from him the popular name of "Draisine", far less serious than his Teutonic "Laufmaschine", "Running Machine", was constructed entirely of wood, weighed more than 40 pounds, and allowed to reach speeds of about 13 km/h, the same as a horse on the trot - but that was one horse who surely didn't risk starving. But one thing requires our attention: this model, just like the more elegantly-lined one later introduced in England my Mr. Denis Johnson, which conquered London's high society so much that it gained the nickname of "Dandy-Horse", completely lacked... pedals! The cyclist sat on the bicycle and pushed himself along with his feet. To see the first bicycle which resembles the models we know, and is thus equipped with pedals, we need to wait until 1860, when in France an enterprising blacksmith connects a pair to the front wheel of a Draisine. Since there was no chain and transmission, every push on the pedals propelled the cycle forward by the length of the front wheel itself: and thus were born the weird bicycles we still see in old pictures, with enormous front wheels and seats suspended dangerously high in the air.

Actually, it is only in the Eighties of 1800 that Mr. John Kemp Starley designs and builds the first real "safety" bicycle, (and though it can probably make us at least smile, falls from earlier bicycle models were always ruinous, when not actually deadly) where the pedals and chain-based system we're familiar with transmits motion to the wheels - and where the wheels themselves start mounting pneumatic tires, instead of solid rubber tires. The vehicle saw an extraordinary triumph, and conquered an enormous market, among men, children, and for the first time, which led feminist leaders to call the bicycle "the freedom machine", women.

And what about today? Nowadays, the bicycle is less and less an everyday vehicle, and more and more an object of leisure, or sports activity. But perhaps this fact can make us like it even more... how about taking it out of our garage for a stroll, this weekend?