High-Wheel Bicycle, circa 1878

This wood-wheeled bicycle from the 1870s is an example of an early high-wheel ordinary. The ordinary evolved from the velocipede of the late 1860s. Innovators enlarged the velocipede's front wheel, which made traveling great distances quicker. Future improvements such as steel-tube-frame construction, ball bearings, and wire wheels with rubber tires made the high wheeler a popular recreational and sporting vehicle.