Racing and Engineering

The History of the Bicycle

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Racing and Engineering

After the basic layout settled in the 1890s (The History of the Bicycle 5), the twentieth century added little to the frame but a great deal to racing, gearing, materials and new types of bike. This chapter covers the great races, the gear systems, the new materials and the new kinds of bicycle that grew out of leisure and youth culture. Names, dates and figures are flagged for checking.

Racing

  • Early road races. Organised road races date from the 1860s and 1870s, with the long Paris to Rouen race often cited as an early example in 1869 (check).
  • Track racing. Velodromes (banked tracks) were built in many cities, and track cycling was among the sports of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 (check).
  • The Tour de France. First held in 1903, promoted by a sports newspaper to boost its sales (check the paper and the year). It is now a three-week race for professional teams, held each July, and its winner wears the yellow jersey, a colour usually said to come from the paper's yellow pages (check).
  • Other races. The Giro d'Italia (from 1909) and the Vuelta a España (from 1935) form with the Tour the three "Grand Tours" (check the dates).
  • Britain. British racing included time trials, which started partly because mass-start road racing was discouraged by the police and by public opinion in the 1890s (check), and later track and road success at the Olympics (check).

Gears, Frames and Materials

Hub gears

Gears enclosed in the rear hub, such as the Sturmey-Archer three-speed, developed in Nottingham in the early 1900s (check).

Derailleurs

Mechanisms that move the chain across sprockets of different sizes, which became standard on racing and sports bikes from the mid-twentieth century (check dates).

Materials

Steel tubes first, then aluminium and titanium, and carbon fibre from the late twentieth century (check).

Brakes and wheels

Rim brakes, then disc brakes; wheels and tyres changed with new rims and tubeless tyres (check).

New Kinds of Bicycle

  • BMX. Small, tough bikes for dirt-track racing and stunts, which grew from American children's riding in the 1970s and became an Olympic event in 2008 (check).
  • Mountain bikes. Heavy balloon-tyred bikes were modified in California in the 1970s for riding down fire roads, and developed into purpose-built machines with suspension and wide gears (check who and when, as several people claim a part).
  • Folding bikes. Designed to be carried on trains and stored indoors, with the Brompton, made in London from the 1970s, a well-known example (check).
  • Cargo and recumbent bikes. Specialist designs for loads or for a laid-back riding position (check).
Rules shape machines A recurring theme in racing is that governing bodies set rules on what is allowed, for example on the shape of a bike or on the riding position, so a record can depend on the rules of the time (check the examples). Comparing records across eras needs care.
A British comparison Scottish riders have a strong record in track cycling, including Olympic medals from Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow and the Meadowbank track in Edinburgh are local landmarks (check the details and the current state of each).
Check the details Race founding dates, gear inventors and the origin of mountain bikes and BMX are often claimed by more than one person or place. Verify before quoting.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe how the Tour de France began and why it was started.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Compare hub gears and derailleur gears, and say when each is a better choice.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Explain why the origin of the mountain bike is hard to attribute to one person.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Tour de France: from 1903, started by a newspaper (check)
  • Grand Tours: France, Italy, Spain (check)
  • Gears: hub gears and derailleurs
  • Materials: steel, aluminium, titanium, carbon fibre
  • New types: BMX, mountain bikes, folding bikes