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The concept of "bicycle", a vehicle with two wheels, the one after the other, moved by legs force is more ancient than we can imagine; the first drawing of a bicycle appears in a drawing of the Atlantic Code by Leonardo da Vinci discovered by Prof. Augusto Marinoni in the 1960's, during the restoring works of this code and, maybe, it doesn't belong to Leonardo, but to one of his pupils.

In any case, this drawing dates back to 1490.

This idea didn't have applications until 1791, when an eccentric French noble, the EARL MEDE DE SIVRAC, projected and built a simple device that he called "velociphere".
It was a wood rigid structure made by two axes joining two wheels, also these made of wood.
it was presented at the gardens of Palais Royal and soon become a luxury toy for rich people, with strange shapes, like crocodiles, lions or snakes.

In 1816, an officer of the Prussian Army, the Baron KARL CHRISTIAN LUDWIG DRAIS, presented a "velociphere" with a steer on the fore wheel, independent from the rest of the structure, that was called "draisienne", because Drais patented it in Paris, where his representant, opened a workshop and a school to learn its use.

In 1861, the young ENREST MICHAUX, working in his father workshop, mounted on a draisine the first pair of pedals, fixing them to the fore wheel pivot.
Tis idea was a success and his wirkshop then, worked to modify the draisines already in circulation and also building its own bicycles, increasing much the fore wheel diameter (to more than 1 metre) to cover more distance with every pedal turn.

His activity had an economic failure, but it was the first attempt of a large scale production.
Since this period, the "draisine" begun to be called "bicycle"

In 1865-67, the first full tires appear, around the wheel-rim made of wood and also the first frames built with iron tubes.

In 1869, the first bicycles competitions begun to spread in many European towns and on March 6th, the first international meeting took place in London.
In Paris the "Velodrome Buffalo" become famous and it was frequented also by the painter Toulouse Lautrec, who left many images of the bicycle races and some advertising manifestos for the first bicycles building companies.

Before the end of the XIX century, the problem of the transmission was definitively resolved with the pedals fixed to a toothed wheel that transmitted the movement to the pinion of the rear wheel by means of a steel chain.
So, to cover a higher distance with a pedal turn, it wasn't necessary

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