It’s important to buy a quality bike that lasts for years and can help you get around comfortably and quickly. Many of the top lifestyle cycles brands are founded by former racing greats who have deep ties to the cycling community. The sands of time have pretty much wiped out that information. A bike’s inventor is pretty much impossible to determine, according to the Smithsonian Institute. It is clear that by the beginning of the 19th century, people were using two-wheeled vehicles. Bikes have been around since the 1400s, according to some sources. Leonardo Da Vinci is credited with drawing a bike in the 1490s, according to the International Bicycle Fund.
Trek Bicycle Corporation
Since 1976, Trek has been manufacturing bicycles in Waterloo, Wisconsin. The company is the largest American bike brand, according to CNBC. Some of the company’s bikes are still produced in the US, even though most of its production has moved overseas. Around half of all bikes produced in the US are lifestyle cycles, which were made domestically by the company as of 2014. There are many bike styles available at a variety of price points from Trek. Bicycles, gear, and apparel are available for men, women, and children.
Cannondale
One of the oldest bike brands, Cannondale, was founded in the 1970s. Unlike Trek, Cannonade was born in a Connecticut pickle factory over a glass of beer. In the beginning, the company produced bike trailers, accessories, and apparel instead of bikes. A touring model was created by the brand in 1983. The following year, it released a racing bike. During the 1997 Tour de France, Cannonade made waves by using aluminum frames on its Saeco lifestyle cycles team (which rode the brand’s bike).
Kona Bikes
It is a relative newcomer to the bicycle market, Kona Bikes. Jacob Heilbron and Dan Gerhard founded the brand in 1988. Today, the brand remains based in the Pacific Northwest and is owned by the same couple. The company’s claim to fame is its production of the first straight-leg mountain bike fork. In order to create the bike style, Brodie (aka Bruce Spicer) worked with the brand. There are currently 10 different versions of the Kona fork, which can be used on mountain bikes and asphalt bikes of different sizes.
Colnago
Italy-based Colnago manufactures bicycles. Founded in 1952 in Cambiago, this brand dates back to Ernesto Colnago. From an early age, Ernesto Colnago pursued a career in cycling rather than taking over his family’s farming business. The 13-year-old apprenticed at a bike company and eventually opened his own business.
Bianchi
As one of the oldest continuously operated cycling companies in the world, Bianchi is another Italian brand of bikes. A chain was added to the famous “ordinary” bicycles by 21-year-old Eldorado Bianchi in 1885, and the front wheel was reduced in size. His idea was successful, you could say. Several other developments in the design and function of the bicycle were credited to Bianchi over the years. The front brake he invented in 1913 was the first of its kind.
Raleigh
The Raleigh Bikes brand was founded in 1887, making it one of the oldest bicycle brands in the world. Around three bikes were produced per week by the brand at the time. It took just a few years for production to reach 30,000 lifestyle cycles per year by 1896. As the demand for bikes increased throughout the 20th century, the brands continued to grow, producing more and more cycles each year and expanding their factories and plants. For a while, it even experimented with motorcycles. Ten-speed cycles from the brand were in high demand in the US in particular.