Description:Portrait of a man with a bicycle in the Woodseaves area.
The Pennyfarthing was introduced in 1871, by which time some form of bicycling had been around for seventy years. Bicycles reached the height of their popularity in the late nineteenth century, when the safety bicycle, like the one we know today, were introduced in 1884.
This safety bicycle has pneumatic tyres, which first appeared in 1889. Note that there is only one brake on the front which works on a lever and rod system, the rod pressing down onto the top of the wheel to stop the machine.
Photographer: Harry Osbourne of Woodseaves.