First Bicycle Prototype

John Kemp Starley built an earlier model of the cycle in 1870 and subsequently designed a number of safety bicycles. He finally built the Rover model with equal-sized wheels. This bicycle improved the performance of racing bicycles that had reached their maximum speed by 1884.

The saddle, handlebars and crank axle were well balanced and logically placed, and this established the shape of the bicycle as we know it today. Two or three years thereafter, the bicycle's components such as the frame material, tyres, variable speed gears, saddle and chain were rapidly made practical.