Who invented bike pedals

Tipping the scales at an estimated 57lbs about 27kg it was a tricky beast to manoeuvre but Macmillan was soon growing in confidence in its use and gaining speed. The sight of him flying through the countryside aboard his new means of transport earned him the nickname "Daft Pate".

He went as far north as Carronbridge, at the entrance to the Dalveen Pass, and as far south as Holywood. Soon he was able to travel the 14 miles to Dumfries in less than an hour. By 6 June , reports suggest he was ready to undertake the trip to Glasgow. It was only as he approached the south side of Glasgow that problems arose. Newspapers of the time report an unnamed Dumfriesshire man cycling to avoid a crowd and striking a young girl.

The rider was fined five shillings for the offence and many have concluded it must have been Macmillan. Not everyone is completely convinced by this version of events, cited as proof of his inventor's role. Alastair Dodds, in his book Scottish Bicycles and Tricycles, was not persuaded by the evidence. Writing in the late 19th Century, however, James Johnston had no such doubts. Kirkpatrick Macmillan lived from 2 September to 26 January He was a blacksmith credited by many as the inventor of the rear-wheel driven bicycle.

According to the research of his relative James Johnston in the s, Macmillan was the first to invent the pedal-driven bicycle. In a German professor, Baron Karl von Drais, created the first two-wheeled bicycle.

It was made of wood and had two wheels. The front wheel could be turned using the handlebars in order to steer the bike. Early history of the sport Cycling as a sport officially began on May 31, , with a 1,metre 1,yard race between the fountains and the entrance of Saint-Cloud Park near Paris. The winner was James Moore, an year-old expatriate Englishman from Paris. A German baron named Karl von Drais made the first major development when he created a steerable, two-wheeled contraption in At first, bicycles were a relatively expensive hobby, but mass production made the bicycle a practical investment for the working man, who could then ride to his job and back home.

The bicycle introduced thousands to individual and independent transportation, and provided greater flexibility in leisure. BMX is an acronym for Bicycle Motocross. A BMX bike is made for off-road racing and trick riding.

BMX originated in California in the s. Working at his smithy, he completed his new machine in around This first pedal bicycle was propelled by a horizontal reciprocating movement of the rider's feet on the pedals. This movement was transmitted to cranks on the rear wheel by connecting rods; the machine was extremely heavy and the physical effort required to ride it must have been considerable.

Nevertheless, Macmillan quickly mastered the art of riding it on the rough country roads, and was soon accustomed to making the fourteen-mile journey to Dumfries in less than an hour. His next exploit was to ride the 68 miles into Glasgow in June The trip took him two days and he was fined five shillings for causing a slight injury to a small girl who ran across his path. He never thought of patenting his invention or trying to make any money out of it, but others who saw it were not slow to realize its potential, and soon copies began to appear for sale.

Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow copied his machine in and passed on the details to so many people that for more than 50 years he was generally regarded as the inventor of the bicycle.