1-157-801 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Rover Safety Bicycle, c1885. The design of the present-day bicycle has remained much the same as the Rover safety bicycle, the first embodiment of the modern vehicle, designed by John Kemp Starley. The Ordinary bicycle was popular from early the 1870s to late 1880s, but was unstable due to its large front wheel and small back wheel. With the availability of better materials and improved technology, a safer design of bicycle was produced, and because it was much lower and more stable than the Ordinary bicycle, it became known as the safety bicycle. This example was the first commercially successful chain-driven safety bicycle, introduced by Starley & Sutton of Coventry in 1885.