This racing bike of about 1875 was parked - as though it were a perfectly normal thing - at the entrance of the italian restaurant Pepe Rosso in Krakow (#15 of Kupa street) in 2005.

It was a beautiful and well kept example boasting all the great improvements introduced by E. Mayer:

The front wheel with directly attached pedals and a very large diameter (for speed), the ball bearings, a chassis made of light, hollow tubes, the seat mounted on springs, the paddle brake, etc.

A long, long way from the 1818 draisins of baron Carl von Drais ...
 

Krakow, Poland, June 2005