In the proving zone: it works for some people, not yet for most, and no balance is tipping. Of the six balances: 3 holding, 3 not assessed. Position 40 of 100. If the balances not assessed are tipping, it leaves the proving zone and sits as high as 60.
- Biological degradation Holding Does this tool damage the living world, or the body, faster than either can recover? Holding: the tool does not cause this problem.
- Radical monopoly Holding Can people still meet the need another way, without this tool? Holding: the tool does not cause this problem.
- Overprogramming Not assessed Does using this tool require training or certification that people cannot give each other? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
- Polarization Not assessed Does this tool move power or advantage to a few, at others’ cost? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
- Obsolescence Holding Does this tool force people to replace what still works? Holding: the tool does not cause this problem.
- Frustration Not assessed Does this tool give back less than it takes, counting everything it takes? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
What it does
Once upon a time, what it did was move one rider faster than walking, by pedals attached directly to the front wheel. It was the first bicycle with pedals; its makers called it a velocipede, and riders named it for the uncomfortable ride.
Where it stops
At the edge of smooth ground and the endurance limit of a strong rider. A stiff wrought-iron frame on wooden wheels with iron tires made it heavy and harsh, so it served the fit on good surfaces and few others.
How easily you can stop using it
Nothing depended on it. Riders could walk, as they always had, and when the craze passed, they did.
What is scored
- The unit: The pedal velocipede of the late 1860s had cranks on the front wheel, a stiff wrought-iron frame, and wooden wheels with iron tires, as made by the Michaux company in Paris from 1867 and copied in Britain and America. Left out: the draisine before it, which had no pedals, and the high wheeler after it, which we’ve considered separately.
- The job it is tested against: Moving one rider faster than walking. It did this for some: riders strong enough for its weight, on ground smooth enough for its tires.
- Where and when: France, Britain and the United States, about 1867 to 1870. Three of the six balances are assessed.
The boneshaker was the first bicycle with pedals. Consequently, it is in Counterfoil’s catalogue as the first stage of the bicycle’s lineage, and as a first test of Counterfoil’s proving zone: a tool that worked for some people and harmed no one, but did not yet work for most. Its position, 40, is the opening threshold for the proving zone we adopted on 14 October 2026. Following Illich and many others, we place the modern bicycle, at 50, as the practically realizable ideal and benchmark for convivial technology.
The first craze
Pedals came to commercial velocipedes around 1867, and the word “bicycle” was coined about then.1 The Michaux company built the type from 1867 to 1869, through the first bicycle craze.2 It reached Harvard in the winter of 1868–69, in a craze that ran across the United States.3
Those fit for it could ride it far. On 17 February 1869, Rowley B. Turner, John Mayall Junior and Charles Spencer rode from London to Brighton in a day, with a reporter from The Times following in a carriage as far as Crawley.4
Why it sits in the proving zone
It worked for some. Herlihy calls the American machine a “70-pound contraption,”5 and its iron tires on wooden wheels gave it its name. It served riders with the strength for its weight on ground smooth enough for its tires, and few others.
Three balances hold. It ran on human strength (and food for the calories to burn), so it did no harm to the living world. No one needed it to get about. Walking and horses were untouched, so there was no radical monopoly. And it forced no one to replace anything that still worked.
Overprogramming, polarization, and frustration are not yet assessed: how riders learned, who could buy one, and what it cost them still have to be gathered from Herlihy’s Bicycle: The History.
How it was superseded
The boneshaker fell out of favour after the summer of 1869.6 In America it was judged impractical and disappeared amid public dissatisfaction and patent disputes.7 From 1870 the high wheeler replaced it, at about half its weight.
- John H. Lienhard, “The High-Wheeler,” The Engines of Our Ingenuity, no. 2034, University of Houston, accessed October 14, 2026, https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/2034. ↩︎
- “Bone-shaker,” Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, accessed October 14, 2026, https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bone-shaker. ↩︎
- David V. Herlihy, “Highwheel Harvard,” Harvard Magazine, November 2004, https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2004/11/highwheel-harvard-html. ↩︎
- “Bone-shaker.” ↩︎
- Herlihy, “Highwheel Harvard.” ↩︎
- “Bone-shaker.” ↩︎
- Herlihy, “Highwheel Harvard.” ↩︎
Sources
- “Bone-shaker.” Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History. Accessed October 14, 2026. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Bone-shaker.
- Herlihy, David V. Bicycle: The History. Yale University Press, 2004.
- Herlihy, David V. “Highwheel Harvard.” Harvard Magazine, November 2004. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2004/11/highwheel-harvard-html.
- Lienhard, John H. “The High-Wheeler.” The Engines of Our Ingenuity, no. 2034. Accessed October 14, 2026. https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/2034.