https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=TheHecsterexplain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-06-06T15:46:27ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1673:_Timeline_of_Bicycle_Design&diff=1188661673: Timeline of Bicycle Design2016-04-27T13:23:44Z<p>TheHecster: UPdated pat of the transcript.</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1673<br />
| date = 27 April, 2016<br />
| title = Timeline of Bicycle Design<br />
| image = timeline of bicycle design.png<br />
| titletext = I'll be honest--the 1950s were a rough time for cycling.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
Randall created a 200 year history for bicycles. But the only model that actually looks like a real model is the 1875 model which seem to be a depiction of a handlebar-less {{w|Penny-farthing}}, which was popular in the 1870's up until the 1880's when the {{w|Safety bicycle}} took over. However, some of the other examples of "bikes" shown in the image at the top of the {{w|Velocipede}} Wikipedia page seems to be close to some of the other of Randall's bikes...<br />
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The 1925 model is reminiscent of a {{w|fractal}}; {{w|Benoit Mandelbrot}} was born just before 1925, in October 1924.<br />
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This comic is possibly also a reference to [https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/~rlawson/cycleweb.html The Science of Cycology], a cognitive psychology project run by Rebecca Lawson at the University of Liverpool that asked study participants to draw a bicycle from memory. The error rate was high, supporting a hypothesis that humans over-estimate their ability to explain how things work. <br />
Gianluca Gimini made a similar project, [http://www.gianlucagimini.it/prototypes/velocipedia.html Velocipedia]. Gimini asked people to draw free hand sketches of bicycles and rendered the results as real bikes.<br />
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The randomness of the designs reminds me of the strange designs produced by the genetic evolution AI in the game BoxCar2D.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
The comic shows 14 "bicycles", though many are very strange. The 1810 bicycle has Ponytail hanging onto what seems to be a unicycle with no seat and a long shaft. The shaft is bending quite violently, giving the impression that Ponytail is using it like a pole vault.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}<br />
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