It's interesting how the bicycle took on the modern shape pretty early (135 years ago), but the general idea of riding on two wheels was apparently counterintuitive historically.
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wrote last edited by [email protected]
It's interesting how the bicycle took on the modern shape pretty early (135 years ago), but the general idea of riding on two wheels was apparently counterintuitive historically.
It makes me wonder if the Romans could have made them. They had decent roads and a bicycle doesn't necessarily need modern material science. They're hugely energy efficient for transporting armies, and don't need food. If demonstrated well, that tech tree could have developed early. We might have had ancient bike-wars.
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It's interesting how the bicycle took on the modern shape pretty early (135 years ago), but the general idea of riding on two wheels was apparently counterintuitive historically.
It makes me wonder if the Romans could have made them. They had decent roads and a bicycle doesn't necessarily need modern material science. They're hugely energy efficient for transporting armies, and don't need food. If demonstrated well, that tech tree could have developed early. We might have had ancient bike-wars.
Early bicycle prototypes would probably not be all that energy efficient tho due to the lack of ball bearings and rubber wheels, and wood is actually kind of heavy. The Romans did know of ball bearings tho, because I think they were used in Nero's insane rotating building and a few other places. Steel was quite a ways off I guess. Ball bearings and chains would probably not last that long and just be very demanding to manufacture altogether. Nothing that a time traveller couldn't solve though.
