great Inventions of Cycling
1890s — the bike rack
The bike rack arrived in the midst of the great bike boom of the late 19th century. Before that, most riders rode pennyfarthings, which were so difficult and dangerous to ride that the difficulty of parking one paled into insignificance beside the difficulty of even getting off one.
Early racks tended to be simple devices for holding the front wheel — wooden ‘ladders’ or the classic metal ‘butterfly’ rack. These had many advantages, albeit mainly to bike shop owners. They guaranteed there would be a constant stream of front wheels in need of unbending, as well as riders who needed a new bike to match the wheel that was the one part of the bike that hadn’t been nicked.
A better solution was the ‘Sheffield’ rack, the familiar U-shaped steel tubing let into a concrete base. You simply lean the bike against the ancient crock of a bike that’s been rusted in place since 2004, and use an extra-long lock to reach the actual rack. These ancient bikes actually perform a useful function — keeping your bike away from the rack’s diamond-based paintworkstripping coating.
More modern still are the multi-level racks found outside some stations now. These are excellent for many reasons, not the least of which is the very high probability that you’ll never manage to remember where you parked your bike.