The timing of the invention of the bike is discussed here: https://rootsofprogress.org/why-did-we-wait-so-long-for-the-bicycle https://rootsofprogress.org/why-d

The timing of the invention of the bike is discussed here: https://rootsofprogress.org/why-did-we-wait-so-long-for-the-bicycle https://rootsofprogress.org/why-did-we-wait-so-long-for-the-... He settles on general economic and cultural factors. Experimentation requires there to be enough people with spare time and resources to play around with things with no immediately obvious payback.