In the early 0s Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement took bicycle design in a new direction by adding a mechanical crank drive with pedals on an enlarged front wheel. Several why-not-the-rear-wheel inventions followed the best known being the rod-driven velocipede by Scotsman Thomas McCall in . The French creation wrought of iron and wood developed into the penny-farthing more formally an ordinary bicycle featuring a tubular steel frame on which were mounted wire spoked wheels with solid rubber tires. These bicycles were not however for the faint hearted due to the very high seat and poor weight distribution.
The subsequent dwarf ordinary addressed some of these faults by reducing the front wheel diameter and setting the seat further back necessitating the addition of gearing effected in a variety of ways to attain sufficient speed. However having to both pedal and steer via the front wheel remained a problem. Starleys nephew J. K. Starley J. H. Lawson and Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain drive connecting the pedals held with the frame to the back wheel. These models were known as dwarf safeties or safety bicycles for their lower seat height and better weight distribution. StarleysRover is usually described as the first recognizably modern bicycle. Soon the seat tube was added creating the double-triangle diamond frame of the modern bike.
New innovations increased comfort and ushered in a second bicycle craze the 0s Golden Age of Bicycles. InScotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the pneumatic tire which soon became universal. Soon after the rear freewheel was developed enabling the rider to coast. This refinement led to theinvention of coaster brakes. Derailleur gears and hand-operated cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years but were only slowly adopted by casual riders. By the turn of the century cycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic and touring and racing were soon extremely popular.
Bicycles and horse buggies were the two mainstays of private transportation just prior to the automobile and the grading of smooth roads in the late th century was stimulated by the wide use of these devices.
