Given the recent catastrophic floods, it seems self indulgent to write about riding my bike. Many people, homes, businesses have been incredibly affected by the water. Most of the trails in the area have been washed out or are in real need of repair. So that being said, while the pieces are being picked up, please enjoy this velocipede family tree in lieu of a regular post.

Like a visiting a museum to remind yourself how we are descended from an intrepid fish-creature that dragged itself onto the shore from a primeval sea, it can be similarly enlightening to revisit our cycling ancestors. In many ways, the bicycle design that we ride today is little changed from the first bicycle-ancestors to crawl out of the proverbial primordial sea. And, just like those early fish-creatures (tetrapods), the ancestors of the modern bicycle took on some surprising forms.

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