I need to ask a couple of questions.

Please spread the word on the forum and get a good number of people to reply to these questions, please.


#1) How long has the (common) bicycle been extant in society? When did it originate (how long has it been around)?


#2) How long has the the motorcycle/motor-bike been extant? When did it originate (how long has it been around)?


These are the two questions I need answered. You guys are British (up with Great Britain!!) That's why I am asking here, please help me by replying to this thread. The more the merrier, need replies, please!

You could kick of with wiki;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorbike#History

Why thank you, mule!

So, uhm, the bicycle was... created and introduced during the 1800's... is that it? Uh-huh. Ok.

And the motorcycle/motor-bike at the end of the 1880's (circa 1888)... is that it? Hmm.


Thank you very much, Mule!

Does anyone disagree with these datings?

For example... the bicycle was not extant in the 1400's?? Not really possible to find, say, a woodblock print of.. oh let's say, a Danish woman wearing clogs driving a primitive bike down the road in the 1400?

The bike definitely didn't show up until the 1800's then??

And similarly... one could not have encountered a motor-bike on the road in the 1700's then? Or, for example, you couldn't find a twin-head engine on a motorcycle built in 1888?

Both inventions (bike and motor-bike) are from the 1800's and do not appear earlier in time?


Anyone disagree?

Is this really about bicycles???

Get the feelin yer tryin to go somewhere with this, jtweymo,

...But where?

Ok I'll bite, howz about this:


The earliest bicycle was a wooden scooter-like contraption called a celerifere; it was invented about 1790 by Comte Mede de Sivrac of France. In 1816, Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun, of Germany, invented a model with a steering bar attached to the front wheel, which he called a Draisienne. It has two wheels (of the same size), and the rider sat between the two wheels, but there were no pedals; to move, you had to propel the bicycle forward using your feet (a bit like a scooter). He exhibited his bicycle in Paris on April 6, 1818.

well, there certainly wasn't anything like a motorcycle before the invention of the internal combustion engine...

Uh-huh, okay.

I'm not going anywhere specific but... somewhere along the line you'll probably figure the subject out (eventually).

So, Paris and you guys, I'm not baiting anyone.

The replies so far indicate that the bike goes back no farther than the 1790's, okay, cool. That's cool.

One of you mentioned the combustion engine and so forth. Damned fine point, really.

When was that actually invented or introduced?
Same time period?
I'm guessing that's the answer we'll receive.

Bicycle technology, combustion engine and motor-bike technology... more or less all occurred within 100 years of one another... or even less??

Hmmm.
When was the 'wheel' invented jtweymo ?

Mule:

Seriously? Standard claim or actuality?

Okay, I suppose it's related... the wheel was invented by Homo habilis. it's such a simple structure, and evidenced in nature in several relevant forms, that H. habilis knew, from nature itself, that a "wheel" was useful and possible. Round objects in nature they saw fall to the ground and roll away...

But that's not the standard claim, standard claim says that the wheel wasn't invented until Homo sapien sapien came along, even then, standard claim is that the wheel was developed in the former milliniums of our own early civilization. They point to the earliest known depictions of a wheel found in the surviving artificats of our own ancient socieities. A child's toy believe it or not, a toy wagon, which coincidentally... they claim that it's not evidence of actual usage of the wheel, or for that matter of the wagon... they pointed out that it may only have been a toy or similar artifact.

If you believe, the wheel was invented by us (we ourselves) and only about 2,500-3,500 years ago. This despite that Homo habilis and Homo erectus left behind tools and impliments which he shaped round and in some cases even circular.

But please don't listen to me, I'm full of shit, everyone in the U.S. knows it. I'll tell you all kinds of crazy shit. For example, I might tell ya that the bicycle was actually around by the 1500's and that I've seen woodblock printings from that time period depicting it.

I might even claim to have seen a fine heavy framed motorcycle with a nice twin head engine built in 1887 or thereabouts... even crazier, I might claim that it was pictured in a British motorcycle magazine laying on an end table in a certain social club I frequent.

But I'd be talking crazy talk... wouldn't I?

Everyone knows such a motorcycle would be fully impossible. I can't possibly have seen such a one pictured, and certainly I shouldn't sugguest that it was pictured, with full article on the bike itself, in a British magazine... since obviously you're all British personelle posting to this board... it'd be crazy to sugguest it... wouldn't it?

I'm full of crap, really, everyone over here knows it.

Aw, c'mon, who are we tryin to kid here - I actually think that the bicycle, the combustion engine AND the wheel were probably invented millions of years ago, if not HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS! - and then been RE-INVENTED again and again countless times since, with each new generation of egotists, who believe they are the first!!

Uhh... Paris?

JEEzzzz OK. Actually, yes.

Ok.

You are right...
on the money, matter of fact.

Then again... I'm still handing out those sedatives you gave me...

I don't happen to know the answers to any of these questions, but I'd be willing to say that it'd be possible for you to have a motorcycle from that era. From what I've read on the evolution of the combustion engine, it is certainly possible.

So, what's really the point of this little thread here? I don't really get what your "full of crap and everyone over here knows it" claims are about. I personally have no idea what you mean.