Louis Gompertz adds a hand-driven, ratchet mechanism to the front wheel of a Hobby Horse but the innovation, as with Drais' was never really followed up.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan is traditionally credited with a machine in which power was supplied to the back wheel via rods connected to treadle-type pedals. Thomas McCall marketed copies; an 1845 version is in the Dumfries Museum. It is questionable whether significant progress resulted from either.

Alexandre Lefebvre is credited with a rear-drive machine; he took it to America twenty years later and it still exists in the "History San Jose"
museum (the earliest extant bicycle?).

R. W. Thompson invents the pneumatic tire but with no commercial follow-up.

Gavin Dalzell builds a two-wheeled hobbyhorse with a treadle-drive, possibly copied from the Macmillan design.

Willard Sawyer exhibits his four-wheeled, crank-driven vehicle at the Great Exhibition and subsequently becomes established as a Velocipede manufacturer.

J. Townsend Trench documents his purchase of a velocipede from the Michaux family. Possibly the first record of a "production" front wheel, pedal-driven bicycle (but note that it was not presented untill 1895). This style became known as the "Boneshaker". Historians still debate the claim of Pierre Lallement that he had previously invented the first pedal-driven machine.

Lallement, now in the USA, gets the backing of an investor, James Carroll, and their patent application is granted; probably the world's first public record of the pedal-powered two-wheeler.

James Starley products the "Ariel" High Wheeler (aka "Ordinary" or "Penny Farthing"). Later versions had front wheel sizes of upto 5 feet.

W. H. J. Grout patents the radially spoked, nipple adjusted bicycle wheel (unlike prior load-bearing wheels). Some credit Meyer with this design two years previosly.

Friedrich Fischer first mass-produces steel ball bearings, patented by Jules Suriray in 1869.

Browett and Harrison patent an early caliper brake.

James Starley patent a differential gear; probably the first for a bicycle but the principle was not new.

Scott and Phillott patent the first practicable epicyclic change-speed gear fitted into the hub of a front-driving bicycle.

Grout patents a folding High Wheeler, the first "portable" bicycle.

Thomas Humber adapts the block chain for use with his range of bicycles.

John Kemp Starley (James Starley's nephew) markets the revolutionary Safety Bicycle (the "Rover") with a chain/rear-sprocket drive and tangentially-spoked, similar sized wheels. Includes many of the major features of modern bicycles.

The Mannessman brothers are credited with the invention of the process to manufacture seamless steel tubing.

Commercial development of the pneumatic bicycle tire by Dr. John Boyd Dunlop.

Cycles Aluminium becomes one of the earliest manufacturers of an aluminium bicycle.

E. H. Hodgkinson patents a 3-speed Gradient gear, a pre-cursor of the modern derailleur.

William Reilly patents a two-speed hub gear. His later 3-speed version was put into production by Sturmey Archer in 1902.

Alfred M. Reynolds takes out a patent on "butted" steel bicycle tubes.

First major commercialization of the freewheel by Ernst Sachs. William Van Anden had obtained the first freewheel patent in 1869.

The first, easy-to-use derailleur is invented by Paul de Vivie (Velocio) that shifted among four gears at the pedals.

Peugeot markets their production recumbent bicycle. Charles Challand had exhibited his "Horizontal Bicyclette Noemale" in Geneva in 1895.

Bianchi produced a folding bicycle for the Italian Army with telescoping seatstays, a leaf spring at the bottom bracket, a spring fork and large profile pneumatic tires. Bianchi now calls it the first dual suspension mountain bike! There are earlier versions of military folding bicycles.

Tullio Campagnolo intriduces the bicycles hub quick-release.

Charles Mochet designs the Velocar, a recumbent bicycle on which Francois Faure breaks both the mile and kilometer records.

Introduction by Schwinn of the balloon tire and "streamlined" bikes which leads to rugged bikes that can take the abuse of teenage boys and which set a forty-year trend.

Schwinn markets the "Fore-wheel" brake, "Cantilever Frame" and the "Spring Fork". Resulted in what was to be the Grandfather of today's mountain bikes.

A. J. Marcelin petents "Le Petit Bi", a 16-inch wheeled folding bicycle, remarkably similar to the Moulton and Bickerton of later years.

Campagnolo markets the dual-rod "Cambio Corsa" gear shifter (over ten years after the prototype) widely used for atleast a decade.

The Hercules Herailleur is launched; a rear derailleur with indexed shift levers. Marketed for five years.

Introduction of Campagnolo's modern Gran Sport derailleur.

Launch of the Moulton small-wheeled bicycle with separately sprung suspension and custom tires. Competed successfully in time trials and track pursuit events.

Schwinn introduces the Sting-Ray that subsequently helped launch the BMX craze.

The Sun Tour Grand Prix is marketed as the first slant parallelogram derailleur, a design that has held up till the present day.

Sun Tour launch their indexed shift lever, the Five-Speed Click, and a combined freewheel-plus-rear hub, the Unit Hub. Neither of them found a market, and were abandoned. Bayliss Wiley in England has also experimented with unit hubs as far back as 1938.

The aluminium Bickerton portable small-wheeler is developed. Followed by the successful Brompton in 1976 and Dahon in 1980.

The movie On Any Sunday by Bruce Brown debuts. Although it is a motorcycle documentary, a brief scene during the beginning of the movie shows kids on Sting-Ray bikes emulating motocross. This small spark eventually evolves into full-fledged, organized BMX racing by 1974.

Teledyne markets the first titanium bike that was produced in any quantity (Speedwell of England had some Ti production frames as far back as the 1960s, welded by Lamborghini!) Litespeed brought titanium frames to a broader market in the 1980s.

The first carbon-tubed, metal lugged frame appears: the Exxon Graftek. Suffered from frequent frame failure. The technology was later perfected by Look, Trek and others.

Gary Klein displays his welded and heat-treated aluminium frames at the International Bike show. Alan (Italy) and Vitus (France) were producing their lugged aluminium frames arround the same time. Cannondale launch their "Aluminium for the Masses" in 1983.

Fomac Corporation designs the Avatar recumbent. It is one of the many styles that constituted the 1980s renaissance of recumbents which included Lightning Cycle winning the HPV-RAAM relay and Easy Racers breaking the 65 mph barrier.

Specialized introduce the first high-quality foldablr clincher tire (the Turbo) which launches the demise of the tubular.

Introduction of aerodynamic bicycles with a stable construction. Culminated in the American "Super Bike" at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

The specialized Stumpjumper mountain bike is launched nationwide, capitalizing on the Marin Country vogue inspired by Calofornian icons, Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Tom Richey et al. (all of whom also produced earlier mountain bikes).

Moulton launches his second generation of "space-frame" small-wheeled bicycles.

LOOK markets their clipless pedal (following on an earlier track model launched by Cinelli in 1970; the "Death Cleats", no automatic release).

Shimano introduces SIS indexed shifting (learning from their inferior product, the Positron, from 1977).

Kestrel introduces their production non-lugged, carbon fiber frame and Trek market their first lugged carbon frame.

Paul Turner demonstrates a full suspension bicycle with front and rear shocks. Eventually becomes a partner in Rock Shox. Diversified the sport of off-road biking.

Scott USA manufactures the first modern aerobars, originally the brainchild of Boone Lennon. Pete Pensyres had earlier used his own clip-on style bars in setting his RAAM record.

Hanz Scholz designs the Bike Friday "World Tourist". A reasonably compact folding bicycle that matches the performance of conventional touring machines.

Shimano introduces integrated brake/gear levers.

Mavic markets their ZAP electronic shifting. Ceases production in 2001. Possible future follow-up by Campangnolo. Browning Research had invented a prototype electronic system in 1974.

Sachs (SRAM) introduces Power Disc, the first mass-produced hydraulic disc brake system.

Rohloff develops the Speedhub, 14 equally-spaced hub gears which are operated by a twist-grip with no overlapping ratios and a gear range as wide as a 27-speed derailleur system.