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This appears to be a front suspension bike, patented in 1891. The seat and cranks are attached solidly to the rear wheel, but if the front wheel hit a bump it would be allowed to raise up against the spring located near the crank. Interesting. Many other early suspension designs are in the Bicycle Technology section of the Patent Pending blog. In the top version of this bike, steering is by handles by the saddle, which is connected to the front wheel by cables. There is no traditional handlebar. I think the inventor was trying to allow the rider to sit upright and not have to lean forward to steer the front wheel. That might really relieve some back strain.
Here is a cool trike, tadpole configuration, built with the horse lover in mind. When one technology is replaced with another, the new technology often mimics the old one, either to be conservative in design, or to appeal to users of the old technology. This trike is very early on the American scene, and might appeal to riders used to horses. It is steered by reins which control the rear wheel, and is propelled by the rider lunging the front legs of the horse up and down, to turn the cranks attached to the front wheels. This patent was used as a reference first to invalidate the Lallament patent, and later was acquired by Colonel Pope as part of his patent portfolio used to obtain royalties from all bike manufacturers.
Thomas B. Jeffery was born in Stoke, Devonshire, England. At the age of eighteen he emmigrated to the United States, and moved to Chicago. Later he worked making models of inventions for submission to the U.S. Patent Office by inventors. With partner R. Phillip Gormully he formed a bicycle company and became the 2nd largest bicycle manufacturing company in the U.S. One of his accomplisments was developing a clincher rim and tire so that pneumatic tires could be used more effectively on bicycles.
The Gormully and Jeffery bicycles included a model called the Rambler. In 1900 Jeffery and Gormully sold their interest in their bicycle company and bought a factory in Kenosha Wisconsin, and began making automobiles. They kept the trademark “Rambler” from their bikes, and their cars were called Ramblers. This is Jeffery’s first automobile. Some of his early designs had a front mounted engine, and a steering wheel, but his first production models conservatively followed the Duryea pattern, and had a tiller and a rear engine.
The Ramblers costs in the $750 to $850 range, and has an 8-hp, 1.6L, 1-cyl. engine mounted
beneath the seat. In the first year of sales the Rambler became the second largest selling car, with 1500 automobiles sold, second only to Oldsmobile.
Here is yet another way to achieve multiple speeds on a bike, by the use of a driveshaft and bevel gears. This one has multiple bevel gears on the drive shaft, and multiple bevel gears on the wheel plate, so it could achieve a wide range of gear ratios.
The earliest bicycles, like Lallement’s bicycle, did not have brakes as such, but back pressure on the pedals provided some braking. Later bikes used a brake pad that pushed against the tire, like the brakes found on wagons of the day. Later bikes used pads that pressed against the rim of the wheel, like the centerpull brake. Another type of brake is the cantilever brake, in which the brake arm is pivotally attached to the bike frame, with the brake pad placed between the pivot (the fulcrum of the lever thus formed) and the end of the brake arm. This type of brake is thus a class two lever. Although this cantilever brake is from 1939, they really became popular when added braking power was needed on bikes that were being made for off road use.
Here is an early (1949) recumbent bike which is similar to many recumbents seen on the road today. An even earlier recumbent was by Jarvis, and the recumbent that set world speed records was by Charles Mochet.
Here is a good way to have multiple speeds on a bike without using a derailleur. This bike has two gears on either side of the front sprocket, and a driveshaft for each of them. One driveshaft would be disengaged while the other was engaged. the driveshafts engage bevel gears on the rear wheel. This might be a little heavy, but should work just fine. 
Other driveshaft drives were patented in 1897 with a transmission and a gear shift knob and in 1891 with a single drive shaft. Alexander Pope also patented a driveshaft bike.
In the late 19th century many bicycle industry pundits thought that drive shafts would be the bicycle power train of the future. The patent below was a way for the bevel gear of a drive shaft bike to engage a selected gear, and to change to another gear for more gearing options. This system might have been in use today had not derailluers been developed to allow a chain to be moved from gear to gear.
Here is a nice design for a two wheeled tandem bike, with each rider’s seat being directly above a wheel. This is from 1891.
Brano Meres of Bratislava Slovakia has a site where he shows some of his creations that look very wonderful. One that jumps out as being a little different is his bamboo framed bicycle. He built this, and has ridden it for a year, with no problems. It sure looks beautiful! More great bicycle stuff at his site, BME.
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