The history of bicycles goes back about two hundred years.
(1)The first bicycle was made around 1820. It had a handle and two wheels but did not have pedals. So people had to kick the ground with their feet to move forward. People were very interested in bicycles, and they soon became very popular. People wanted to ride faster, so they tried to make better bicycles.
About sixty years passed, and bicycles changed very much. There were three differences between the bicycles in the 1880s and those in the 1820s. The front wheel got much larger than the back wheel. The pedals were on the front wheel, so people had to sit over the front wheel. This kind of bicycle was called an “ordinary bicycle.”
This “ordinary bicycle” became very popular because it could go ( 3 ). However, it had a problem. The seat was set very high, so the bicycle was not stable*. It was difficult and dangerous to ride the “ordinary bicycle.” Then a new kind of bicycle called (4)a “safety bicycle” was invented. The front wheel of this bicycle was as large as the back one, and the pedals were not at the front. “Safety bicycles” became more popular than “ordinary bicycles.”
Bicycles were introduced into Japan around 1870. At first, some people working at the post offices used them. After that, bicycles became popular, and more and more people began to use them. But they were not for children. Smaller bicycles for children have been popular since about 1960. Today almost all children have a bicycle. Bicycles are getting better, and now there is even a bicycle with a computer.
