Bicycles are the noblest of machines. Nicole Adamson, Ravalli Republic, June 20th 2014. "As a vehicle, the bicycle gives us the means to explore the world beyond our driveway. There is no greater thrill as a child than to turn around and realize that your parent has let go the seat and that you might in fact be flying. As a toy the bicycle enhances our childhood play allowing us unsupervised exploration. As a machine, it taps into our inherent fascination with machines and our relationship to them. Simple in design (bicycle design has remained nearly unchanged for more than a century) it reveals itself to us completely: the gears, chains, cogs there for us to see, not hidden behind a façade. Yet the bicycle still fascinates us. What child hasn’t at one time or another dismantled his bicycle in order to discover how it works, and then, either successfully or not, putting it back together with no greater understanding but only a finer appreciation. As a means of travel the bicycle allows us to study more deeply and personally where we are going. The bicycle allows us to both see and feel the contours of a road, the nuances of a slight shift in the wind, the balance of light and shadow as glide from one moment to the next."
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