Short answers, pulled from the story.
Karl von Drais introduced the first bicycle in 1817 as a wooden contraption known as the dandy horse or Laufmaschine. This machine had no pedals, no chain, and no engine, requiring the rider to push off the ground with their feet to move forward.
J.K. Starley introduced the safety bicycle in 1885, which solved previous problems by introducing a chain drive that connected the pedals to the rear wheel. This innovation created the diamond frame that remains the standard design for bicycles over a century later.
The safety bicycle gave women unprecedented mobility and contributed to their emancipation in Western nations during the 1890s. Susan B. Anthony declared in 1896 that the bicycle had done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world, helping liberate them from corsets and ankle-length skirts.
The Rover Cycle Company Ltd. became the Rover Company when it started making cars in the late 1890s, and Morris Motors Limited and Škoda also began in the bicycle business. The Wright brothers ran the Wright Cycle Company which designed, manufactured, and sold bicycles during the bike boom of the 1890s.
The Chinese Flying Pigeon is the most numerous model of any kind of vehicle, whether human-powered or motor vehicle, with numbers exceeding 500 million. The bicycle is the most common vehicle of any kind in the world and the most efficient human-powered means of transportation.
Electric bicycles became popular in the 21st century, and the global bicycle market was $61 billion in 2011 with 130 million bicycles being sold every year globally. By 2025, the global market size had increased to an estimated $116 billion.