Reason is immortal, all else is mortal said Pathagoras, but for a brief span of 59 years, Steve Hed trumped reason with pure creativity.From the earliest days of the second Industrial Revolution, when a chain first drove a cog that turned a sprocket that moved a wheel, the motor age was dawning, but technology doesnt just happen, it happens just, and the catalyst of change was the bicycle, the most noble of inventions. The innovations began to flow in the final years of 19th century. The pneumatic tire was developed for bicycles, and lets not forget that motorcycles began life with pedals. The earliest cars and trucks ran with chains and sprockets; some were steered with handlebars. As late as WW II an American fighter plane used a hand cranked chain and sprocket drive to raise and lower the landing gear. The thing looked like it might have been cannibalized from a `40s Schwinn tank cruiser, and it turns out the company actually made airplane parts in support of the war effort.A Novel Concept, Made in AmericaThe robust DNA of bicycles was the genesis of the mechanized transportation civilization we live today. It is an inescapable fact that the pioneers of the motorized movement, Ford, Champion, Chevrolet, and the Wright brothers to name a few, started their careers as bicycle racers and shop mechanics. The leapfrogging spiral of technology that first drove the bicycle, then the auto industry was fueled by the relentless fire of competition, and examples abound.An appreciation...
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