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“It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.”

— Susan B. Anthony on bicycles

The 1880s saw bicycle riders shift from sitting directly — and precariously — above the comically giant front wheel of a Victorian penny-farthing to the far safer position between the two normal-sized wheels of a modern bicycle.

The change was enabled by the innovation of chains that transferred pedal power to a bicycle’s rear wheel, leaving the front wheel just for steering. Further innovations like diamond-shaped frames,…

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