'Boneshaker' bicycle

'Boneshaker' bicycle, made by Andrew Muir, Salford, 1868.

Much like modern ‘balance bikes’ that children learn to ride on today the ‘bone shaker’ was an early bike design that developed into the ‘safety bikes’ we recognise as the familiar bikes on our roads. This is an early example of self-propelled vehicles with two wheels. The first velocipedes emerged from Europe in the early 1800’s. By the 1860’s they were being produced in large numbers and quickly developing their designs. Andrew Muir would build these bikes and even rent them. He published adverts in local newspapers advertising his velocipedes. Known as ‘boneshakers’ because their solid tires made for a bumpy, rattling ride around Manchester’s Victorian cobbled streets. Manchester was well placed to cash in on this early bicycling craze as there were lots of skilled engineers and carriage makers to transfer their knowledge into bicycle making. The next iteration of the ‘boneshaker’ was to add a pedal to the front wheel axel.