You spin me round!
The new temporary exhibition doesn't cease to surprise, while showing you the fascinating path that the bicycle constructors rode through for the last 200 years. Have you ever seen a bike that you brake using your back? Do you think you can get on a penny-farthing which has a 2 m diameter front wheel? Change the gear in an impressively huge bicycle drive and see how riding uphill was dealt with before the invention of gears.
Try and synchronise a duet ride on our 'Two riders' – if you manage, you will hear a harmonic melody, but if you don't do well enough... your ears might get hurt! Discover the 'Flying cigar' and find out where its unlikely name came from! Or maybe you're interested in how people used to beat speed records?
Science, technology, society
Of course, we will also touch on scientific, technological, and societal issues. You will get to see how double-wheelers are built, and even use special glasses to examine the frame stress. You will get acquainted with the photoelasticity phenomenon, and learn how it's used in research and testing of bicycle constructions. You will also see bikes made of less typical materials, like cardboard, bamboo, magnesium alloy, or PCV.
The exhibition was created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the first bicycle patent from 1817. It will give you a broad and many-sided look at this universal vehicle that has been with us for two hundred years, and arguably one of the best inventions in history. Without it, Marie Curie's honeymoon would have looked very different... Bicycles have changed societies, and we do have a special bond with them. Behind each bicycle, there's a person and their story.
Temporary exhibitions partner
Honorary patronage
