?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5717300&forum_id=2Elisa#48886000)

https://insider.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/safety-bicycle.jpg

Step-through bikes have ALWAYS been better than top tubes. The only reason to add a top tube is to save weight, otherwise they suck. They never should have been called "girl's bikes"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5717300&forum_id=2Elisa#48886010)

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Technological limitations:

The Romans lacked the advanced manufacturing techniques needed to create the intricate parts of a bicycle, especially the chain, which requires precision in the dimensions of its rollers, pins, and plates. They also didn't have the materials like lightweight metals like aluminum or steel, which would have been essential for a durable frame.

Pre-industrial transportation:

Roman society was already well-equipped with horses and carriages for transportation, particularly for the elite. These modes of transport were faster and more practical for longer distances, making a bicycle seem unnecessary.

Lack of a strong middle class:

The bicycle's invention and widespread adoption coincided with the rise of a middle class that needed a more affordable and accessible means of transportation. In Roman society, the primary modes of transport were either horses for the wealthy or walking for the general population.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5717300&forum_id=2Elisa#48886125)

A sketch from around 1500 AD is attributed to Gian Giacomo Caprotti, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, but it was described by Hans-Erhard Lessing in 1998 as a purposeful fraud, a description now generally accepted.[1][2][3] However, the authenticity of the bicycle sketch is still vigorously maintained by followers of Augusto Marinoni, a lexicographer and philologist, who was entrusted by the Commissione Vinciana of Rome with the transcription of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus.[4][5]

Later, and equally unverified, is the contention that a certain "Comte de Sivrac" developed a célérifère in 1792, demonstrating it at the Palais-Royal in France. The célérifère supposedly had two wheels set on a rigid wooden frame and no steering, directional control being limited to that attainable by leaning.[6] A rider was said to have sat astride the machine and pushed it along using alternate feet. It is now thought that the two-wheeled célérifère never existed (though there were four-wheelers) and it was instead a misinterpretation by the well-known French journalist Louis Baudry de Saunier in 1891.[7][8]

In Japan, a pedal-powered tricycle called '陸舟奔車 (Rikushu-honsha)' was described in '新製陸舟奔車之記 (Records of a Newly Made Rikushu-honsha)' (owned by the Hikone Public Library, Hikone, Japan), written in 1732 by 平石久平次時光 (Hiraishi Kuheiji Tokimitsu) (1696-1771), a retainer of the Hikone domain.[9][10] However, it was not further developed, and the practical use of bicycles in Japan did not occur until modern bicycles were imported from Europe.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5717300&forum_id=2Elisa#48886154)