Safety bicycle (Rover)
Bicicleta de seguridad (Rover)
- Date
- 1885 · confidence high
- Place
- Coventry, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- John Kemp Starley
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A bicycle with near-equal wheels, a diamond frame, steering fork and chain drive to the rear wheel. Starley's Rover (1885) replaced the high-wheel bicycle with a safer, more accessible design, the basis of the modern bicycle.
Harry Lawson patented a chain-driven 'bicyclette' in 1879 and Thomas Humber, James Starley and others had similar designs; the 1885 Rover is the first commercial success.
What it led to
- the mass-market bicycle, also for women, from the 1890s
- the development of the pneumatic tyre and of the car industry from the bicycle workshop
- urban and sport cycling