

The Victorian Inventor of the Wheelie - drjohnson
http://theappendix.net/blog/2014/4/the-inventor-of-the-wheelie

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mikestew
The Star bicycle [0] was around in the 1880s, a bicycle with the small wheel
in the front so as to make it more difficult to go over the front (a common
problem). It's difficult, due to the ratcheting pedal mechanism, but it can be
wheelied. The Eagle [1], which used conventional pedals (well, conventional
compared to the state-of-the-art at that time), can easily wheelie. In fact,
my experience has been that one needs to be a little careful not to fall off
the back. (Source: member of The Wheelmen [2], an antique bicycle club, since
a kid. Have ridden both Eagles and Stars, as well as other death-traps of the
day.)

Point being, there were bicycles before the "safety" that could be wheelied
and probably were (I'm confident there's a picture somewhere, period or
modern, but a quick search didn't find anything). So I'm skeptical that Canary
was the first to ride a bicycle on its back wheel.

Now, that's not to say that Canary wasn't an impressive rider. I've put
thousands of miles on bicycles from that era, and not only are they difficult
to ride well, they're so dangerous that there's no way they could be sold
today (EDIT: come to think of it, everyone I know that has put any serious
miles on highwheelers has been seriously hurt at some point, including myself.
The 1886 Columbia I currently own I bought from my uncle after it nearly
killed him.). Riding down the Capital steps on a highwheeler? Not on my most
bold and daring of days. The pictures from the article demonstrate that the
man knew his way around a highwheeler. But I doubt he was the first person to
ever raise the front of wheel of a bicycle.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Star_Bicycle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Star_Bicycle)
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Bicycle_Manufacturing_Com...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Bicycle_Manufacturing_Company)
[2] [http://www.thewheelmen.org/](http://www.thewheelmen.org/)

