John Kemp Starley / 约翰·坎普·斯塔利

John Kemp Starley appears in No.199 自行车 200年 as the source’s key safety-bicycle figure. His Rover Bicycle / 罗福自行车 is presented as the design that made the modern bicycle form legible: two more similar-sized wheels, chain drive, gearing, and a safer riding posture.

Starley’s importance is that he solved the high-wheel tradeoff inside Bicycle Product Evolution. Earlier designs could gain speed by enlarging the driven front wheel, but that made the product dangerous and socially narrow; the safety bicycle separated speed from wheel height.

Connections

• Rover Bicycle / 罗福自行车 — product associated with Starley’s design.
• Bicycle Product Evolution — modern-form stabilization.
• John Boyd Dunlop / 约翰·博伊德·邓禄普 — pneumatic-tire improvement that further widened usability.