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Do you think that you can build a wooden axle and bearing that stands the weight of a person? It seems to be very hard. The greeks and romans used bronze axles

Do you think that you can build a wooden axle and bearing that stands the weight of a person? It seems to be very hard. The greeks and romans used bronze axles lubricated in lard.

alpaca128 6y ago
...which only supports the point that they had the necessary tech to assemble rudimentary but functional bicycles.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  Such a machine might have been "functional" but be too heavy to be worth it.
  - Ekaros 6y ago
    Even ignoring the weight. I wonder what would have been the efficiency. As I would say that is the main point of bicycle. All of the losses would likely add up and make up something that is rather unpreferable to drive and use. Anyone who have used very poorly maintained bicycle know that it's not fun.
    - alpaca128 6y ago
      The first bicycles didn't even have pedals, were used on rather bad road surfaces but apparently were still fun enough for some people to make multi-day journeys. It was bad but the best you could get without a horse.