The History of the Bicycle — How Two Wheels Changed the World

It began as a wooden horse you pushed along with your feet. Within a century, it had freed women, helped invent the aeroplane, and filled the streets of the world. This documentary follows the bicycle's extraordinary two-hundred-year journey: from Karl Drais and his Laufmaschine of 1817, born of a volcanic winter and a horse-feed crisis, through the Parisian boneshaker of the 1860s, to the towering, dangerous penny-farthing of the 1870s. Watch John Kemp Starley's Rover safety bicycle of 1885 fix the design we still ride today, and John Boyd Dunlop's pneumatic tyre of 1888 make it comfortable, sparking the great 1890s boom that Susan B. Anthony praised as a machine of emancipation. Then see how bicycle shops funded the Wright brothers' first flight, how the Tour de France began in 1903 as a newspaper stunt, and how the humble bicycle became the workhorse of China, India, and Africa. From California's Mount Tamalpais, where mountain bikes and BMX were born in the 1970s, to today's e-bikes, bike-share docks, and the cycling cities of Amsterdam and Copenhagen — this is the complete history of the bicycle. 00:00 Welcome to History Lens 00:05 Karl Drais and the Wooden Draisine — 1817 01:11 The Boneshaker — Pedals Arrive in Paris 02:02 The Penny-Farthing — Speed and Danger 02:54 The Safety Bicycle — Starley's Rover, 1885 03:43 Dunlop's Pneumatic Tyre — Comfort at Last 04:35 The 1890s Boom — The Freedom Machine 05:27 Bicycle Shops Build Flight and Cars 06:14 The Tour de France Begins — 1903 07:06 The Workhorse of Asia, Africa and War 07:58 Mountain Bikes and BMX — California, 1970s 08:51 E-Bikes and the Cycling Cities of Today #history #bicycle #documentary #historyofthebicycle Subscribe to History Lens for more fascinating documentaries about the hidden histories behind everyday things!