John Constable, inventor of the modern safety bicycle?

[Ming the Merciless]

sorry - you've lost me - the thing you showed a pic of is not a safety bicycle - a safety bicycle is basically the things we all pedal around on - even, with minor refinements TDF folk - they and we don't pedal around on anything like the object you posted.

Quite simply what I showed you existed in 1820 and matches (as well as any other bike around at the time) what you can see in the painting.

P.S. The safety bike was not originally diamond frame and could have different sized wheels. Derailleur came in 1950.

 

[classic33]

interesting.

what is it?

"Mayan/Aztec carving" depicting an alien on their means of transport.

What's the one on the right doing though?

 

[Poacher]

I wish I knew. It appears to be in a museum in Paris, but that’s all I have.

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/petitesmith/6005392550/

Possibly the Panchavaraswamy temple?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchavarnaswamy_Temple
"There is a stone carving image of a bicycle, a cell phone and an astronaut. "

 

[classic33]

Possibly the Panchavaraswamy temple?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchavarnaswamy_Temple
"There is a stone carving image of a bicycle, a cell phone and an astronaut. "

From the 1920's and different in many ways.

 

[Blue Hills]

From the 1920's and different in many ways.

Sorry classic, you saying the carving is from the 1920s?

 

[newfhouse]

Sorry classic, you saying the carving is from the 1920s?

I think he’s referring to this:
https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/fake-news-bicycle-carving-in-south-indian-temple

 

[MontyVeda]

...

something caught my eye and I looked more closely.

. View attachment 502998

Someone out for a nice spin.

...

whatever it is...

...it looks no more than about 2 foot in height, going by the man in black to the right of it.

I'm currently zero percent convinced that it's someone on a bike.

 

[hoopdriver]

Quite simply what I showed you existed in 1820 and matches (as well as any other bike around at the time) what you can see in the painting.

P.S. The safety bike was not originally diamond frame and could have different sized wheels. Derailleur came in 1950.

Derailleurs were invented around 1910.

 

[Blue Hills]

Perhaps for clarity I should come clean.

I wasn't seriously suggesting that he'd had a vision of the late 1800s safety bicycle.

Just paying tribute to his technique.

When I was a kid/youngster Constable was seen as somewhat chocolateboxy, due to any number of reproductions on biscuit tins.

But I understand that he was rather revolutionary in his time.

And if you look at that pic closely (fighting your way through tourists intent on facefarking their hols) and several of his other paintings you can see that many of his figures are suggested by mere flics of the brush.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Derailleurs were invented around 1910.

Nowt to do with safety bike is key comment

 

[hoopdriver]

Nowt to do with safety bike is key comment

Then why say the derailleur was invented in 1950?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Then why say the derailleur was invented in 1950?

Because that’s what I read. Looking at Wikipedia they reckon 1930. Where do you get 1910 from?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

View attachment 503005

My, that's one hell of a big pencil!

 

[hoopdriver]

A book called The Dancing Chain, which is a history of the derailleur. They were making early versions of proto-derailleur even a bit before 1910. Henri Desgrange was aghast at the idea of having these effete things used in the Tour de France and expressly forbade them for many years. I think 1937 was the first year they were allowed in The Tour