The bicycle has increasingly become, nowadays, an inexpensive and quick way to get around. Easy to park, it takes up much less space than a car, does not consume fuel, and, therefore, does not cause pollution. Avoid traffic stress and keep us fit.
In this article, we retrace some curiosities about the bicycle. We will see when the first real two-wheeler was born. You will discover that there are those who intentionally pedal in a distinct and tasteful way. You will read some aphorisms. Finally, you will find some information on the personal characteristics of the cyclist useful at work and on what motorways are for cyclists.
The First Bicycle was Invented in the Nineteenth Century
From Leonardo da Vinci to the present day
The first attempts at designing a bicycle date back to the multifaceted inspiration of Leonardo da Vinci. In a drawing by him from 1490, contained in the Codex Atlanticus, there is a stylized representation of a structure with two wheels, not too far from the bicycle as it works today. However, it was thanks to the inventiveness of Baron Karl Friedrich von Drais that in 1817 the first usable prototype of a bicycle (called the Draisine or hobby horse) was produced.
Driven thanks to simple steering, without brakes and pedals, the speed was obtained and regulated using the feet. It was, however, thanks to a Scottish farrier, Kirkpatrick MacMillan, that finally the first modern vehicle, equipped with pedals, usable, albeit with various limitations, and definable as a bicycle, was born in 1839. From that moment on the two-wheeled vehicle has undergone progressive improvements over time: rotary pedaling system, wheels increasingly conforming to the motion and comfortable, equipped with air chambers, chain movement transmission, safer brakes.
A BIKE FOR EVERY NEED
The development of this vehicle has been so great that nowadays the variety of bicycles has become very wide: classic, sporty, folding, cargo, recumbent, pedal-assisted, vintage. For every taste and need there is one, therefore, but above all the bicycle, a vehicle that seems so simple has come a long way in the last two centuries!
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Even Pedaling with Elegance is Possible
On the saddle with style
Who said that pedaling is synonymous with not being very elegant or refined? By now in the city, especially if large and with a lot of traffic, the bicycle is increasingly used to move around: why not make a virtue of necessity? Ride with style, with well-finished and beautiful clothing (not in a cyclist’s lycra suit) and on customized bicycles in order to make them and feel them your own, able to reflect a pinch of our subjectivity and considered as objects to be proud of and to show, you can.
The Cycle chic movement was born in Denmark in June 2007 thanks to the initiative of Mikael Colville Andersen who started posting shots of bicycles on the blog of the same name, which was later joined by those of other bicycle enthusiast photographers. A movement that has exactly as its underlying reason the dual purpose of showing that it is beautiful, elegant, and graceful to ride a bicycle and to entice as many people as possible to adopt it as a usual means of travel.
THE ITALIAN CAPITAL OF CYCLE CHIC IS MILAN
Cycle chic then quickly spread throughout Europe in urban contexts as a symbol of this culture and philosophy of life, to be propagated as much as possible by example and by telling it on blog pages, social network pages, and sites. The movement is also widespread in Italy, through the Italian Cycle Chic network and Milan is the most dynamic city in this sense.
Aphorisms About the Bicycle
From Ivan Basso to Albert Einstein
Many thinkers, celebrities, and cycling professionals have expressed brilliant and full of wisdom reflections on the bicycle and its use. Former road cyclist now sports manager, Davide Cassani said: «[The bicycle] makes you feel good, it gives you the possibility to hear, to speak, to see the world from another angle. The bicycle takes you back in time. It makes you a boy again », thus comparing riding a bicycle to an elixir of youth, primarily mental.
Journalist Didier Tronchet also stated: «None of our little daily sufferings can withstand a good pedal stroke. Sadness, bouts of melancholy… we get on the bicycle and from the very first rides we have the impression that a veil is torn ». A healthy ride thus becomes a way to regain deep contact with oneself and chase away the afflictions of the soul.
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Champion Ivan Basso observed: «The bicycle teaches what fatigue is, what it means to go up and down – not only from the mountains but also in fortunes and sorrows – it teaches how to live. Cycling is a long journey in search of oneself ». A thought that says a lot about how important and formative the sport you have chosen to practice is for life.
Finally, even if there are many others, we close with the great physicist Albert Einstein to whom we owe the aphorism: “Life is like riding a bicycle: if you want to stay in balance, you have to move”. An invitation to act without being discouraged when there is a need to cope with the small and large circumstances of life, because only in this way can we find solutions that bring us to balance.
Cyclists and Soft Skills
Sought after by companies
There are companies that love to hire cyclists for the abundant range of their soft skills, or rather those personal characteristics (they are in fact also called people skills ) innate to us that we habitually use in our daily life and that, therefore, we also bring to the workplace. Such as, among many others, the ability to manage time, the ability to collaborate, and flexibility.
Those who habitually use the bicycle, in fact, acquire a more acute sense of time and are therefore inclined to waste less, organize it wisely, and be punctual. The cyclist recognizes himself as part of a group and this helps in all those jobs where team activity, strongly based on interaction, reciprocity, and communication, is essential for the success of tasks and operations.
PLAN AND COPE WITH THE UNEXPECTED
He is able both to plan (just think about the choice of itineraries, to estimate travel times) and to cope with sudden events (unexpected adverse weather conditions, punctures, mechanical parts failures) and this characteristic, his being flexible, helps you to successfully overcome the difficulties and problems that arise daily in offices or departments.
There are Motorways for Bicycles
Straight to the goal
In many European countries, cycle paths and lanes reserved for the transit of two wheels are a widespread and consolidated reality, created specifically to make life easier for cyclists. In some, then, such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany, they have been working for years to design and build real cycling “motorways”. The term “highways” may seem strange, but just like cars, motorways for cyclists, in addition to allowing you to pedal at high speeds, are subject to constant care and maintenance and have specific characteristics.
Wider than a normal cycle path, they are as straight as possible. During the winter the snow is removed and the ice eliminated with suitable means. They are not derived from roads traveled by cars but are intended exclusively for cyclists. A particularly interesting example of a motorway can be found in Germany. At the beginning of this year, the project was started to build a 5-meter wide and 60 kilometers long one between Dortmund and Duisburg.
ATTENTION TO ECOLOGY
An interurban route on the plain, essentially linear and without intersections. Of course, 60 kilometers all by bike are a lot, but they certainly represent a way to connect big cities in an intelligent way (the Germans love cycling very much), ecological and forward-looking.
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