Rover 'Safety' Bicycle, 1885

Rover safety bicycle of 1885 (first embodiment of the modern arrangement), with saddle re-made by Brooks in 1961.

In the late 1870s bicycle designers were exploring new designs that would allow the rider to be closer to the ground, and that would therefore be safer. The British inventor John Kemp Starley designed the first successful 'safety' bicycle in 1885. It has all the basic features of standard modern bicycles, including chain drive, which meant that both wheels could be the same size. With the introduction of the safety bicycle cycling became enormously popular, among both men and women.