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A French Nobleman designed the first adult bicycle.
His name was Comte de Sivrac.
In 1791 he showed the invention in a park in Paris and many
people were impressed by it. The
top of it was only about 30 inches above the ground.
The rider on the bike sat up on a “wooden horse” and then
they propelled themselves by kicking the ground with their feet.
It was called the Celerifere.
Soon the sport was a very fashionable one in France. The bike was soon renamed to the Velocifere.
You could not steer this bike. Very skilled riders turned it by
lifting the wheel and then turning it in the direction that they wanted
to go. They may have not
known it at the time, but they were doing the first ever wheelies.
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