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The penny-farthing or ordinary cycle was not safe, with a "header" accident an ever-present danger. Others had experimented with chain-driven "safety cycles" but the Rover made its mark to the extent that "Rover" (spelled with a W rather than a V) means "bike" in countries such as Poland .
They set about developing bicycles that were safer and easier to use than the prevailing penny farthing or "ordinary" bicycles. They started by manufacturing tricycles, and by 1883 their products were being branded as "Rover". [citation needed] In 1885, Starley made history when he produced the Rover Safety Bicycle.
A penny-farthing in the Škoda Auto Museum, Czech Republic. The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle. [1] It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the wheel.
Experiments with chain-drive had been attempted in 1869 and 1879, but the first well known chain-drive bicycle was the "Rover" produced in 1885 by John Kemp Starley. Very quickly, the penny-farthing passed out of fashion, and multitudes of people all over the world began riding the "safety".
In 1884 he acquired a black-enameled Columbia 50-inch 'Standard' penny-farthing with nickel-plated wheels, built by the Pope Manufacturing Company of Chicago. He packed his handlebar bag with socks, a spare shirt, a raincoat that doubled as tent and bedroll, and a pocket revolver (described as a "bull-dog revolver", perhaps a British Bull Dog revolver) and left San Francisco at 8 o'clock on 22 ...
Meyer was born in Alsace and lived in Paris. He raced his own bicycles in order to promote them and placed 10th in the 1869 Paris-Rouen race. James Moore rode a Meyer high wheeler at the Midland Counties Championship in Wolverhampton in August 1870, and thereby introduced the design to England. [2]
Also known as ‘Happy Jack’, John Keen trained as a carpenter but his passion was the new sport of cycling on high bicycles (penny-farthing) which were newly developed from the velocipede. It has been reported that he began racing as early as 1869 and when a racing track opened in Surbiton he won the first event.
An 1880 penny-farthing (left), and a 1886 Rover safety bicycle (right). The first bicycle to be called a "safety" was designed by the English engineer Harry John Lawson (Henry Lawson) in 1876, [6] although other bicycles which fit the description had been developed earlier, such as by Thomas Humber in 1868. [7]