botypo.com, a site about the history of the bicycle, has this: [https://www.bicycleretro.com/2010/09/17/rudge- advance-bike...](https://www.bicycleretro.com/2010/09/17/rudge-advance-bike- history-and-development/) As I understand it, the Rudge had a belt drive which worked with a gearbox, probably because they didn't have gears on their internal gear hub. > It seems like every major invention in bicycle history was just the natural > culmination of prior technical developments They often were. But the thing that makes a bicycle a bicycle is that it transmits human power to the drive wheels using the legs. Even if you accidentally had it drive the wheels using a human powered generator, it would still be a bicycle. (It would just need extra mechanical work to make it go faster.) ~~~ dredmorbius You can tell the difference between a man, and a bicycle, by looking at which has two wheels and which has three. ------ wolfram74 "The first cyclists were probably men but the first commercial products were made for women." ------ runeks I recently bought an e-bike, and while riding it one day I saw myself in a shop window — I looked like a little child standing on a grown man's bike, because the handlebars were so high. Looking down at the handlebars reminded me of climbing onto someone else's bike while on a bus. No wonder I wasn't enjoying it so much; it felt as awkward as taking someone else's bike off the shelf at the hardware store and putting it on my own two feet. ------ cafard When I was in school in the late 50's or early 60's, quite a few bicycles had "no gears" written on the back. And one at least was advertised that way. It seems clear that most of these did have gears, so I'm wondering if there's been some rebranding and re-naming along the way. ------ tobr Great read! It’s interesting that most bicycles now don’t have derailleurs - it seems very likely that they’d be completely unnecessary, because as you say the derailleurs are pretty awful for power transmission in bicycles. But what other solutions were available then? ~~~ bamboozled Not sure I understand this comment, modern designs are all much lighter, have much more gears, use a much simpler rear drive and cost very little, and yet you claim derailleurs would be "useless". ~~~ notatoad Derailleurs have more than one gear. Derailleur gears don't have much in the way of "simple" tooth arrangements. ~~~ bamboozled They are not as complex as chain rings, but are more complex than derailleurs too, but no more complex than modern designs. Derailleurs and chain rings are only "very bad", because they are "meant to be easily serviceable". You can easily replace any chain ring in minutes, and the components of derailleur drivetrains are not any more complicated or difficult to replace than most other things in a bike. You can get a pair of chainrings and cranks for less than $100 USD in most places, but I would not even consider buying something like that to power my house because I don't want to risk having it ruined by someone who doesn't understand bikes well enough to safely use something like that. If I'm riding a bike, or if I've ever had to service a bike, I'm doing it at home on a stand with special tools specifically for that purpose, unless I'm working on someone else's bike. I don't have a workshop, or a garage, or even a shed to work in. I don't even have a work stand with all of the tools I would need to work on my bicycle. For me, derailleurs are "good enough" and I would rather buy a much simpler tool that's still very reliable. ------ jaclaz In Italy (before the advent of the so called Velocix or Bianchina) bicycles usually had one of two solutions: an internal or an external chain ring (and a cassette with a limited number of cogs). I must say that the first solution was considered a bit less safe (if you fell and one wheel detached) and the other one was regarded to be more efficient. ------ dheera Wow, I just had an idea for a business. Take off the cog in a bicycle, and you'll have a very crude bicycle -- no brakes, no tension adjustments, but still enough power to make it fun to ride. You can probably easily sell it for around $100. ~~~ dredmorbius I don't recall ever having seen a modern derailleurless bicycles. Even derailleur-drive bikes have been derailleuring to various degrees, most commonly via an automatic front derailleur. There's a set of gear wheels attached to the frame. A chain attaches the front sprocket to the crank (and the rear to the rear wheel) via a derailleur and chain-tensioning shifter. If you turn the handlebars, the front derailleur moves and you select a gear by moving the derailleur over the appropriate rear sprocket. The simplest example would be a one-speed bike, with a large ratio between the front and rear sprockets -- often 1:1. This effectively makes the bike a geared bike in that it has a single gear ratio from the rider to the pavement/street. A good book on bicycles is Gumby Bikes: [https://www.amazon.com/Gumby-Bikes-Bicycle-Cycling- Handbook/...](https://www.amazon.com/Gumby-Bikes-Bicycle-Cycling- Handbook/dp/B015VYBX0M/) ~~~ dheera My point wasn't as simple as you made it seem. The key point of the idea is that having only a single gear (where the gear ratio is a factor of the strength of the rider's legs), and one-handed operation, will result in a vehicle with only enough power to coast with minimal effort from time to time, so it can be considered "free", which is obviously valuable for some people. It also doesn't require a chain, although you would obviously still need one. The rider can peddle with one leg, or just coast while holding on with one hand. The idea also includes an optional brake and tensioning (in case the rider has too much energy and wants to slow down or climb, to give the bike a sense of braking). The price should be around $100. The bicycle only needs to weigh less than 10 lbs. to be useful. I estimate the market size to be about a million people in the US. It may be a pretty niche niche, but there's a million people that make their living in this niche (which is why I am asking around for those familiar with this niche to talk to). This is also a business idea that I just thought of, so don't take it as anything more than an interesting thought. ~~~ dredmorbius OK. An electric drivetrain (Bafang, Bosch, etc.) will still require electrical power. A manual (pedal-drive, pedaling) bicycle will require energy and exertion. Given the limited power output of human beings, a bicycle will still require some gearing to operate efficiently. If it's sufficiently economical, the gearing will be quite low. Even at a single gear ratio, the power output will be sufficient for occasional transportation on flat, near flat, or unloaded terrain. For a single speed: no real-world application exists except short local trips (the exceptions are cargo bikes and electric scooters). To the question of what an electric drivetrain might be: I've found that Bosch's top electric bikes offer at least half as much power as a moped, but will go up to about 15 km/h. At 40 km/h, which is a bit over the speed limit for most motor vehicles, you're easily going to approach or exceed 200 km/h. As noted by several others, the majority of motor vehicle infractions are committed by small, low-powered vehicles. Bicycles, and the occasional small motorbike, are actually fairly safe drivers. But then, so are most humans. What we do not have is a small, reasonably priced, reliable and fuel efficient electric motor bicycle. I've been _very_ tempted by an ebike in the past year. I've been thinking about trying it again. On the other hand, if you know your way around