this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2023
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I spent all day reading about early suspensions on carriages and cars - it wasn't until the 16th century that they figured out you could make the ride smoother by suspending the body of a carriage with leather straps (as opposed to having it be attached directly to the frame), and it wasn't until the 19th that they figured out that you could make it even smoother with a leaf spring suspension. Leaf springs themselves actually date back to ancient times and can be made of metal or wood depending on what's available, so it's just a matter of applying them to a new purpose.
Depending on how far you get sent back, there's also a lot of very simple improvements you can make to wheels that were technologically possible for a long time before people thought to do it. Make wheels lighter by making them out of thin planks instead of an entire slice of tree trunk, stronger by reinforcing the rim with a metal band, more maneuverable by separating the axle into two sections. Inflatable tires are much harder, but people would use a solid band of rubber or cork around the outside of the wheel to accomplish the same thing before pneumatic tires were figured out.
If you're doing either of those things, then you're a stone's throw away from inventing a bicycle. Just a thought.
broke: doing communism with time travel
bespoke: ancient bicycle
@7bicycles
I'd argue it's in the sense of da vincis first helicopter in that it's like a fun novelty thing that wouldn't get realized much, much later as anything but.
It's sort of a pareto principle thing where 80% of a bicycle is pretty easy to manufacture out of whatever you have lying around and the 20% get nigh impossible without fairly advanced metallurgy I think.
A Balance bike or something like Karl Draisine's dandy horse is feasible much earlier than it was invented, sure, but that was and would always be a rich people toy since it has very little use other than going zoom zoom for fun.
Sure, frame, wheels and such, sorted, someone just needed to put it together in like bicycle shape or thereabouts.
Drivetrains get pretty complicated though, unless you penny-farthing it you're gonna need a chain of some sort or it's just gonna be a novelty again. Sure you could do like leather band around wooden sprockets or some shit but you're gonna be replacing these so often and they'd require so much craftsmanship you're back to rich people toy. Without ball bearings and such it's also gonna be a such a slog to ride it's going to be pointless.
Once metallurgy is there, though, you could kickstart the fuck out of modern bicycle design by just "inventing" it and a load of other shit that was entirely doable way earlier. People were fucking around for a while there.