Drawings from the Latta foldingĪnother early documented invention of a folding bike is by an American, Michael B. Invented a couple of folding tricycles around the same time as his folding bikeĪnd sold those patents to Pope as well. It is not known if the Latta bike was ever marketedīy Pope since no existing examples have yet been found. Pope sold bikes under theĬolumbia brand name. Patent issued to Pierre Lallement in 1866. The Pope Manufacturing Company who bought dozens of bicycle related patentsĭuring the dawn of the bicycle age in America, including the first U.S. So as to require little storage-room and facilitate its transportation." Latta sold this patent to Machine in such a manner that the same can be folded when not required for use, More easily steered than the machines now in use, and also to construct the Invention is to provide a machine that is safe, strong, and serviceable, and An excerpt from the patent reads "The object of this on Septemand it was issued onįebruary 21, 1888. Inventions of a folding bike is by an American inventor, Emmit G. One of the first, if not the first, credibly documented Referred to as a "portable" bicycle rather than a true folding bicycle. William Grout is often given credit for inventing the first folding bike in 1878īut from most accounts, his bicycle (a penny-farthing design pictured below) hadĪ folding front wheel and a frame that disassembled. In England and The Pope Manufacturing Company in the U.S. Them dating from the 1880's from such companies as Bayliss Thomas The folding bicycle, was the folding tricycle since there are a few references to Inventor of the folding bike may never be known with absolute certainty, but
Manner but that's not to say that they aren't necessarily true. Most of these claims can't be documented in a convincing Secondly, thereĪre competing claims from many inventors in different countries vying to be "separable" or "break-away" bikes rather than true folders wherein the frameĬollapses in some manner while actually still staying attached to itself. Historical references to so-called folding bicycles but the descriptions of them sound more like First, there is the issue of whatĮxactly constitutes a "folding" bicycle. Gets a bit murky for a couple of reasons. Which brings us to the folding bike, and this is where These large wheeled bicycles were also called "ordinary bicycles". Wheeled bikes that proceeded it, most notably the penny-farthing (below left). Safety bike was so named because it was safer and easier to use than the large (below right) in 1885 which resembles today's bicycles in form and function. In the years that followed, the English were instrumental in moving bicycle technology forward culminating in the so-called "safety bike" Have what starts to look like a bicycle that we all would recognize.
In 1860, Frenchman Ernest Michaux and his brother PierreĪdded a crank and pedals to the front wheel of their "Velocipede" (below) and we The Draisienne (below) had steering but still no pedals. In 1818, Baron Karl von Drais of Germany showed his "Draisienne" to the world in Paris. There was no steering mechanism or pedals and it was basically a whimsical novelty meant to entertain the idle rich. Was decorated to look like a horse or a lion. It consisted of two wheels connected by a beam and The first of these was probably the "Celerifere" developed by a French count named Mede de Sivrac in 1790. There were a few "pre-bicycles" invented before the appearance of what one However, this sketch was laterĭetermined to be a forgery, though many historical accounts written before thisįorgery was discovered still credit Da Vinci as the inventor of the bicycle. For a while some had claimed that Leonardo Da Vinci invented the bicycle based on a sketch found in his Codex Atlanticus. Here again we have some disputedĬlaims of invention and historians will probably never be able to identify the exact moment of invention. So a very short history lesson on the bicycle is in order. That the folding bike has been around for considerably longer than one might imagine and most claims of being the first areįirst things first though, you can't have a folding bike without the invention of the bicycle Wishful thinking by their marketing department I suppose.
Humorously, a bike manufacturer (who shall remain nameless soĪudaciously claims on their website to have produced the world's first folding bike inġ973. There have been many who have laid claim to the invention of