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Bicycles: Machines that changed the course of history

The word bicycle is from the Latin, bis, twice and the Greek, Kyclos, circle.  This fashionable mode of transport was denounced by a Baltimore preacher in 1896 as a “diabolical device of the demon of darkness”.  His reason for condemnation was not on the perfectly justifiable grounds that the word is an ugly Latin-Greek hybrid (etymological purist would only ride a dicycle) but simply because too many of his parishioners were lured away from church on pleasant Sunday afternoons by the temptation of a bike ride.  Perhaps because they are aware of the potential corrupting danger to moral standards, British Columbia has imposed a 10 mph limit for tricycles.

There are many books in the engineering library on bicycles here are a few of them:  Build your own electric bicyle; The bicycling guide to complete bicycle maintenance & repair : for road & mountain bikesCyclepedia : a century of iconic bicycle design; Fifty machines that changed the course of history.

As winter turns to spring happy cycling!