3 ms·

The real answer is "ball bearings". (The medieval wheel was powered by extreme amounts of lubrication.)

• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• labster 3y ago
  Access to rubber from the tropics also seems relevant.
  • tokai 3y ago
    Rubber is also not needed. Leather and springs will do the job. https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/WW1-Germasn-Bicycle-Victoria-Springwheel-091.jpg https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05...
• tokai 3y ago
  Ball bearings were invented after the bicycle. Belive it or not, but people on a budget would still get bikes without bearings up until the interwar period.
  • otabdeveloper4 3y ago
    Every pre-modern wagon had a big old bucket of grease hung at the side of it. It was needed to keep the axle continuously lubricated. (Sayings about wheels and grease are preserved to this day.) Theoretically, a two-wheeled transportation contraption could have been made, but having to carry the grease with you would make it pointless.
    • tokai 3y ago
      Same sayings about grease and bikes existed as well. Its not theoretically, bikes with plain bearings were made and ridden.