A treadle bicycle is a
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
powered by a
treadle instead of the more common
crank. Treadles were one of the mechanisms inventors tried in order to position the
pedals away from the drive wheel hub before the development of the
bicycle chain or instead of it. Treadles have also been used to drive
tricycle
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a Human-powered transport, human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) Three-wheeler, three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for pa ...
s and
quadracycles.
History
Treadles were used before the advent of
highwheelers on
Thomas McCall's velocipede, on highwheelers themselves in an attempt to address safety issues, on alternative configurations of highwheelers, and on the first device called a
safety bicycle
A safety bicycle (or simply a safety) is a type of bicycle that became very popular beginning in the late 1880s as an alternative to the penny-farthing (also known as an "ordinary" or "high wheeler") and is now the most common type of bicycle. Ear ...
by British engineer Henry J. Lawson in 1876. Some inventors even combined treadles and chains on the same bicycle.
Gallery
File:Jaray-Rad mit Schwingpedalen - Verkehrszentrum.JPG, A treadle bicycle from 1925
Image:Mccallvelos.jpg, McCall's first (top) and improved velocipede of 1869, later predated to 1839 and attributed to MacMillan
File:1880velocipede.jpg, Velocipede from 1880
File:1888 Geared Facile Bicycle Coventry Transport Museum.jpg, 1888 Geared Facile Bicycle in the Coventry Transport Museum
File:ElliptiGO Miller Hiwy jeh.jpg, A modern ElliptiGO seatless treadle bicycle modeled after elliptical trainers
File:ElliptiGO.jpg, Close-up of the Elliptigo drive chain.
See also
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Outline of cycling
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Types of bicycles
References
{{Human-powered vehicles
Bicycles
Cycle types