John Kemp Starley, creator of the bicycle that “set the fashion to the world” [roadswerenotbuiltforcars.com]

JK Starley is generally considered the creator of the modern bicycle. According to the editor of The Cyclist, a contemporary magazine, Starley’s Rover Safety bicycle “set the fashion to the world,” leading to a global boom in bicycle ownership.

Commenting in 1931, bicycle collector H. W. Bartleet wrote: “J.K. Starley…lived to see his Rover bicycle copied by the whole cycle trade, and a great industry was thus created.”

Starley’s Rover bikes were so called because their riders were free to rove. The name for bicycle in Poland is rower, based on the word Rover. 14th December is JK Starley’s birthday and the Bicycle Association led the global celebrations by leaving flowers and a card on Starley’s grave in the London Road cemetery in Coventry. 

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