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Maplestory Jump Shot Advanced Guide

This is a relatively simple trick that is hard to master, but it is easy with a good keyboard. There are 3 kinds of jump shots, forward jump shots, back jump shots, and stationary jump shots. While in practice, there is little to no reason to do a jump shot, it is necessary when fighting some bosses as you avoid getting hit entirely. For example, jump shooting against a Yeti will prevent earthquake damage and back jump shooting against Jr. Balrog will take you outside of his range of fire.

Stationary jump shots are the easiest. gold Just hit shoot and jump at the same time. Some keyboards won’t allow you to do this unfortunately, but the majority of keyboards will allow you to do it if the buttons are on different rows and columns. For example, if your attack button is on S and your jump button is on D.

Forward jump shots are the next easiest. While walking forward, do a jump shot.

Back jump shots are the hardest, and most people cannot do them consistently. Basically, while walking forward, jump, hit back, and shoot at the same time. runescape goldAgain, some keyboards simply don’t allow this as they only allow one button to be hit at once. Additionally, this is not possible to do with snowshoes because you have to do this while you are “sliding”. Go to El Nath to practice, slide forward, jump back and shoot all at once to see the effect. Snowshoes, prevent back shooting from working because snowshoes stop ALL sliding, note that even when you are not in El nath you still slide VERY minimally making back shooting possible and snowshoes prevent back shooting because snowshoes prevent ALL sliding.

Usfine Crazy Christmas Promotion of 2011 Has Launched!

Christmas is around the corner! To celebrate this biggest festival, Usfine has launched a lot of promotions. For example, Xmas Auctions, Free Gifts, Coupons and a lot of other Prizes! For the details, please read and enjoy the following details:

Promotion Time: 2011/12/10 to 2011/12/31 (PST)

Promotion Xmas VouchersIf your single order reaches the following amount before Dec 31st, you will get a Voucher.Buying $50+, getting a $2 Voucher Buying $80+, getting a $5 VoucherBuying $100+, getting a $7 VoucherBuying $200+, getting a $15 VoucherBuying $300+, getting a $20 VoucherPlease send an email to channel@ to claim your Voucher once you are qualified to get one.

We are still thinking to add more type of Promotions for Xmas, and we will add new promotions here once we have got the new idea, so please check the update time by time. If you have any idea of the Xmas Promotion, do not forget to tell us at channel@, we will reward you 50M RS Gold once your idea is used by us!

E! True Zx Games Story: Boulder Dash

Boulder Dash, released in 1984, is in no way balderdash. Please do not take the “we do not like pun” high horse here as in terms of this article it has to do with the history of invention.

Here is couple of quick facts about the Boulder Dash story:
Peter Liepa, who is credited as the game creator, studied Physics just like Douglas Smith.Unlike Lode Runner’s creator, Peter did not become quick- and super-rich.
So, here is the story?
Game Inventors: Peter Liepa, Chris GrayOccupation at the time of invention: Peter Liepa ? unemployed; Chris Gray ? unknownLocation at the time of invention: Canada.
The game concept and its realization seem to be simple (at least in terms of modern technologies). However Boulder Dash’s cookbook is composed of one man’s versatile interests and another man’s idea.

Fascination with animation

Born in 1953 in Ottawa, as a kid Peter aspired to be an animator or special effects designer on the one side, and a particle physicist on the other. He had to drop the latter as he found it too practical and fuzzy and thought there was vague future for particle Physics. The incentive for animation, on the other hand, lived with Peter until there was the right time to let it out.

Fascination with computers

When in high school, Peter was sent to the National Research Council of Canada for a week as part of an internship program. He had to work in a physics lab, Peter’s supervisor had a shiny new Wang Calculator and it arrested the young intern’s attention. In the same week all interns were taken on a tour of the Council’s computer center. Amazed by what he saw, Peter asked to spend the rest of his internship time there. At the computer center there was an interactive terminal, which in those days was something similar to Teletype or IBM Selectric hooked up to a central mainframe. Peter quickly learned to program it, but after the end of week’s internship there was no opportunity to study computers for a long time. In those days, the concept of personal computers was unimaginable.

Peter started off in Physics in university, but soon switched to math. His summer jobs were in computer programming, and he spent a lot of time playing early things like Conway?s Game of Life, which printed results on paper and had not digital screen whatsoever.

Fascination with human nature

After graduating in math, Peter drifted around studying subjects like human memory and perception. He received a master’s degree in Control Theory. Both Control Theory and knowledge of human nature are another key points in what was later to become the cult game.

Another man’s idea

When Peter was in his late twenties, he visited a friend of his, who was deeply into electronic toys and had a large screen TV and an Atari 400. Peter spent several evenings playing games, and then had a �I can do this� flash. He went out and bought an Atari 800 to start writing games. But rather than just starting to write a game, Peter thought it would be prudent to contact a local game publisher to see what sort of game might be in demand.

The publisher put Peter in touch with Chris Gray, who had submitted a game in Basic, but did not have the skills to convert it into machine language. The game was similar to an arcade game called The Pit, but after examining it more, Peter found that the game had very few game play variations ? too much of it was predetermined.

The development

Not satisfied with Chris’ game algorithm, Peter started playing with basic elements of dirt, rocks and jewels and within a couple of days had built the basic �physics engine� of what was to become Boulder Dash. He realized that using a random number generator one could generate random caves, and that by controlling the density of rocks and jewels one could get some interesting game play. The game play fascinated not only from a puzzle standpoint, but it also appealed to various emotional drives ? the obvious psychotic ones like greed (collecting jewels), destructiveness (dislodging rocks and killing fireflies) and the neurotic ones like cleaning all the dirt out of a cave.

Chris and Peter lived quite far apart, so that their meetings were infrequent and involved a long drive. It turned out quite quickly that their design goals and methods were fairly incompatible. Peter was developing a game quite different from Chris’ original, and did so just about completely on his own. Peter designed all of the elements, physics, caves, the game play, the graphics, the music, and the title. Chris helped out with a few odds and ends ? he suggested, for example, how to make the graphics for the game title by composing big letters out of the Atari character graphics. In the end, there was a lot of debate as to how exactly Chris should be credited and what his share of royalties should be.

The working title of the game for a long time was Cavern Raider, and several other variants like Cavern Crystals. Eventually Peter came up with the name Boulder Dash, which is a takeoff on the word balderdash. Coincidentally, a board game named Balderdash was also published in 1986.

The game’s main character ? Rockford.

Originally, in the early physics engine stage, Rockford was just a static shape similar to a cross. When one moved the shape, it dug through the earth and absorbed jewels. In fact, the graphics were very simple, and elements were all single characters in a 24�40 character display. There was no scrolling in the early versions of the game. It was Chris who suggested that the digging shape should be a �man�, and together they came up with a simple human shape. When Peter showed an early version of the game to a potential publisher, they pointed out the �the man� was way too small and needed to be a more recognizable character. But it was not possible to make �the man� more prominent without making everything larger as well. So this was where the hard work began of converting the game from one that ran on a 24�40 character display to one that scrolled over a much larger region.

Now that the game elements were bigger, Peter was able to add much more detail, including making �the man� more recognizable. He built a character editor to work out the pixels and the animation. It was at this point that the Rockford character took shape. Rockford was not supposed to be any particular kind of human or animal, he just evolved in the pixel editor. Since Peter used to be interested in animation, he worked out the character to make Rockford blink his eyes and tap his feet. This was an innovation that added a lot of depth to the character.

The result

Overall, it took Peter about 6 months to finish the first version of Boulder Dash with no more than 2 hours of actual work per day.

Even though Boulder Dash was finished in half a year, it took another six months to find a publisher and work out a publication agreement. By this time Peter was already full time employed at a company that developed word processing software.

And so, the rest is history ? Boulder Dash was eventually published by First Star in 1984 and was an instant bestseller.

Having survived for over two decades on the market, the game is still here to fascinate us. You are always welcome play our remake of Boulder Dash, which is as close to the original as possible and needs no emulators to run.

Where is Chris Gray now?

We have no idea.

Where is Peter Liepa now?

Peter works in software development at a company named Alias, which produces 3D software for design and entertainment.

How To Level Fast In Wow – Secret Tips That You Won’t Find Anywhere Else!

How To Level Fast In Wow Tip #1: Get a level 1 bank character.

Make a level 1 character and bring him to the closest Auction House City. This will help greatly with leveling your main character. Let me explain why: You’ll mail everything your main character doesn’t need to the bank char so you don’t waste precious leveling time in the auction house, trying to sell your things. Instead, use that time to do quests. Go to Capital Cities every 2 levels to acquire new skills. The bank character should handle everything else there.

How To Level Fast In Wow Tip #1: Get two gathering professions.

World of Warcraft has three gathering professions: Mining, Herbalism and Skinning. I suggest going with Mining and Herbalism, even if you cannot track them both at the same time. Put “Track Mining” on mousewheelup and “Track Herbalism” on mousewheeldown then switch as often as you want. Herbs and Veins are almost everywhere, but skinnable creatures not. Wasting time to find, kill and skin creatures (to raise your skill) slows down your leveling speed considerably. As usual, send all your ores/herbs to your bank character and watch the money pile up.

How To Level Fast In Wow Tip #1: Get a PvE / Grinding Spec.

When leveling you should ignore pvp, healing or tanking specs. Stick to a ‘kill fast with close to no downtime’ build. Rogues should go combat, warriors arms, priests shadow, warlocks demonology or affliction, hunters beastmastery and so on. It’s annoying and slow to level as a protection warrior or as a holy priest. Use ‘s talent calculator to plan your talents in advance: the best on the market, in my opinion.

How To Level Fast In Wow Tip #1: Instances, Battlegrounds – DON’T.

Ignore the following when leveling: hard group quests, instances with newbie team-mates, battlegrounds, engaging in pvp warfare against griefers and teams of enemy combatants!

They will slow down your leveling time considerably. Stick to one-man quests which involve killing, looting, collecting; ignore quests which send you across the continent or to the other continent!

Try to group quests in the same area. Don’t run like a crow who just got struck in the head with the hammer, running all over the map for 1 quest then running some more for another quest. Try to keep quests organized!

Enable the auto-loot option (hit escape -> options menu).

Get some cash early on from selling copper ore and linen cloth to get buy netherweave cloth. Ask a friendly tailor on the chat channel to fashion 2-3 netherweave bags for you so you won’t have trouble with bag space.

I managed to get 400g at level 20. It’s possible. Send everything to the bank character, sell everything on AH, disenchant every low-level bind on equip item etc.

There’s more to say but pfft, the space here is limited. I learned all these tips the hard way (going from Thousand Needles, Shimmering Flats to Stranglethorn Vale and back wasn’t a nice experience, I tell you – all this for a lowbie goblin quest).

Fantasy Dress Up Games

You would be hard pressed to find a teenage or preteen girl who did not love some element of fantasy. Myths, legends and pure fantasy elements come out to play online and in the midst of reality style games and other fantasy experiences are dress up games. There are huge number of fantasy styled dress up games that girls can enjoy. In fact, some of your best information about fantasy might come directly from and online game just like these as you will be able to see and experience the dolls and their elements as you create them.

Playing Fantasy Dress Up Games

Playing the fantasy dress up games is easy enough. Start with a doll base. In the case of the fantasy dolls, however, you will be looking at fantasy creatures, some very abstract rather than traditional models or fashion plates. Once you have a doll base, select clothing from the available collection to make her look the way you envision her. Think of a story and background to your doll as you play so that you can dress her and give her the proper accessories she might need. When the doll is finished, you can share her with others or just enjoy her yourself by printing her out or saving her in a folder with many other fantasy creations.

Princess Fantasy Games ? One of the most popular of the dress up games is a princess game. We have always loved princesses with their sparkling tiaras and large flowing gowns. Dress up games that feature princesses are the perfect means to creating a princess of your own. Start with the girl and design a dress and look a fairy godmother would be proud of.

Fairy Fantasy Games ? Little fairies spiriting away through the woods and fields make you think of bright colors and natural elements. Design your own fairy in these dress up games. You fairy can be dressed in any fashion and, best of all, you can find the best wings for her. Selecting the wings and the shimmering dresses for fairies makes this fantasy dress up game easily one of the most enjoyable.

Elf Fantasy Games ? If pointed ears and magical languages are attractive to you, you will love the elf fantasy games. In these games, the doll base looks almost human with the exception of the upturned features and, of course, those romantic pointed ears. Make an Elvin warrior or an Elvin princess. Either way, you will be creating something beautiful.

Pixie Fantasy Games ? With the popularity of the pixies for younger children, they have caught on for older children as well. According to fantasy lore, however, pixies did not have wings. There were more nature spirits who could play tricks on unsuspecting travelers and such. While not vicious or cruel, the pixies were feared among ancient travelers as they might steer them off the road into a bog or the likes.

A Guide To Barrel Horse Race Saddle Care And Barrel Horse Exercises

Barrel racing, one of the most popular forms of rodeo event involves horses with superb muscular built as well as professional riders. The sport calls for teamwork and requires combined efforts of both the horse and the rider. It is a clear demonstration of the horse?s athletic ability and the fine horsemanship skills of the rider. You can play virtual barrel horse race games and various other horse racing games like Trainer Tournaments, Betting Tournaments and Jockey Tournaments on online gaming portals.

Of the numerous, different types of horseback riding saddles available in the market; barrel horse race saddle is also one of them. They are a bit different from Western saddles in the sense that their seat is relatively deeper. This helps the rider to maintain balance while making hard turns and also while racing fast. The horn is also taller and upright, which in turn helps the rider to hold onto firmly when turning fast.

A barrel horse race saddle is designed for maximum stability as well as durability. It not only offers a secure ride but also the liberty to run a horse at top speed. All these factors mean more comfort for both the rider and the horse. A typical barrel racing saddle has in-skirt rigging. This enables close contact between the rider and the horse.

In order to keep the barrel horse fit and in top shape, it is essential that he undergoes an appropriate workout regime of barrel horse exercises on a regular basis. Some very common barrel horse exercises for the mind and body include exercises such as spirals, fence arc, figure eights, backing, rollbacks, reverse rollbacks and serpentines. Besides this, caring for your saddles is also very important. Regularly clean and condition the saddle and always keep it dry.

In the beginning, barrel racing events were developed specially for women. While husbands were busy roping or riding bulls, the wives participated in the barrel race. Although the exact date and precise details regarding the developments of barrel racing are not known, it is deemed that the first ever barrel racing competition was held in Texas.

Barrel horse race saddles are exclusively meant for competitions and use during training. These saddles are lightweight, allowing maximum flexibility to the horse so that he can move in tight turns and take long strides. You can find pictures, descriptions as well as online horse racing games featuring barrel horse race saddles on the internet.

A Few Notes A Novice Online Poker Player Should Remember

Many people are getting hooked to on-line activities such as on-line games, forex, stock markets, and games which you would normally find in casinos like roulette, blackjack and one of the old time favorites ?poker. If you are becoming one of those who would like to explore the joy of playing poker via the Internet, then there is a thing or two you should learn. The first question that you may ask is ?where can one enjoy playing this game? The answer is quite simple ? find yourself a good online poker room.

To play poker online, you may choose the existing 200 + poker rooms that are readily available via the internet. Once you get yourself logged in, then you will find yourself enjoying this game with 50, 000 other people. The number may even increase especially if you wish to crash in during the peak hours of the day.

Finding one is also just as easy as your fingers can find one for you. In many poker-related websites, you can also be presented a number of rooms and all you have to do is choose and then play.

Playing poker online serves a good training ground for those who want to eventually play in real-life casinos. You would normally see tipping in non-virtual poker games. Tipping may happen when the player wins one hand in the B & M card room. Sometimes, servers also get the luck as they; too, can get tipped when serving liquors and food during the game. One of the beauties of virtual poker game is that you are not required to give anybody a tip. Your winnings are all yours and you don?t have to share the, you also need not to spend a few dollars on travelling and hotel. You can win big even if you are just in your room wearing your favorite swear pants.

Another sweet advantage is that you can make use of your time wisely as it is not consumed with the dealer card shuffles. This basically mean more hand play for you and you get to finish one get immediately since you can also be subjected to time pressure. For the novice players, to play poker online is highly recommended since you can further increase your skills, gain full knowledge of this game, and best of all, you can also establish your bankroll simultaneously. Now, that sounds really appealing!

Ps3, The New Boy In The Hood!

Although it hasn?t reached the hi-tech store shelves yet, the brand new bad boy in the hood of cutting edge video gaming consoles is slowly approaching. Scheduled for release at 17 November 2K6, the highly anticipated gaming console made its last appearance at the 2006 E3. Coming from a key pioneer in hi tech electronics, the PS3 promises to define what the next generation of gaming consoles is going to be like.

Let?s start with some food for the tech freaks. The all new PS3 features the innovative, never-seen-before Cell processor; we are talking about the result of the cooperation between 3 giants in the field of hi-tech electronics: IBM, Sony and Toshiba! The Cell processor features an astounding number of 7 (!) cores and it clocks at 3.2 GHz. Not impressed? Well, be informed that the new PS3 will also feature a new graphics card designed by NVIDIA and SCEI, clocked at 550 MHz! Still not impressed? How about Blu-Ray? Yes, yes Blu-Ray! PS3 also comes equipped with a Blu-Ray drive (up to 54GB of storage) witch in addition to the 1080p resolution that the PS3 delivers will help you enjoy the maximum out of HD movies.

Regarding other aspects of the internal architecture, the PS3 is equipped with 256MB of XDR Main RAM @ 3.2GHz as well 256MB VRAM @700MHz and your ears will be pleased with the sound produced by Dolby 5.1ch speakers ( with cell-base processing).

One thing that gamers will always wonder when a new console is arriving is ?Will I be able to play the games I already have?? Well, in the Case of PS3 the answer is a definite YES. You can play your PS2/PS1 games at no extra cost. Apart from that, the PS3 will accept any CD, DVD, (and of course) Blu-Ray that you throw in it!

Judging by the Videos/ Images of games that will come for the PS3, one can easily say that PS3 will bring a whole new era to the gaming industry. The gaming world has never before witnessed such lifelike graphics and such a vivid gameplay. Let?s just hope that when the time has come, we will have the necessary 500+ bucks in order to get our hands on this amazing toy!

Smart Gamers Backup Xbox 360 Games For Safety

Most ardent gamers agree that the Xbox 360 gaming system from Microsoft is one of the best ever produced. Not only does it have all the bells and whistles that one could hope for in a gaming system, it has a spectacular library of super cool games. Naturally, gamers who own PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii systems will feel the same about their gaming systems.

Let’s face it, no matter which system you’ve purchased, you’ve also undoubtedly spent a goodly sum buying games, downloads, and movies to play on your system. It’s pointless to debate which console is better, when you’re debating among devotees of the different games. There are some things about the Xbox 360 that do require some discussion, specifically the fact that the Xbox 360 is a closed system, possibly for a good reason.

All gaming systems are standardized to prohibit a few things from happening, such as changing the DVD drive, adding additional RAM, upgrading the processor, and installing upgrades or other third party firmware. Not being able to do these things means you cannot optimize the operation of the Xbox 360 system, yet these restrictions help to ensure that the Xbox 360 console will work well and efficiently for several years.

One disadvantage that is quite obvious to all Xbox 360 game owners is the inability to make backup Xbox 360 games. Gamers pay good money for the new releases of games. Unfortunately, these games are stored on very fragile media – disks. Any computer guru will try to impress upon all users the importance of backing up your important files. Xbox 360 games may be specialized, nonetheless they are important valuable files and prudent owners wish to backup Xbox 360 games to protect their investment in case of loss or damage. Although the Xbox 360 system design will not allow you to make backup copies, some clever computer software developers have come up with some workaround applications called game copying software programs.

There are few, if any, experienced gamers who have not heard about game copying software programs. Microsoft has integrated encryption into their Xbox 360 games to prevent the backing up of Xbox 360 games. While their software gurus have been busy preventing copying, other gurus have been focusing their energies into making it quite simple to backup Xbox 360 games.

The result of their efforts are available at a number of websites on the Internet; sites dedicated to handling Xbox 360 modifications, providing game copying software for downloading, and even offering games and movies for downloading. The secret to being successful in making backup copies is to select the best game copying software program available without getting ripped off.

Do your research. Check the gamers’ blogs. Ask your fellow gamers what they would recommend. Once you’ve found the best value for a game copying software program, you will be in a position to make backup copies of your valuable Xbox 360 games. You paid good money for these games. It’s prudent to make backup Xbox 360 games to protect yourself from damage or loss.

World Of Warcraft Gold Making Guide: Cross Faction Trading – Horde

I decided share one hell of a secret with you. First off I need to let you know this one has a bit of a catch now. It takes 2 accounts. This isn’t much of a problem, tons of people have more than one WoW player in their house now, or a trusted friend they play with.

This technique is Cross Faction Auction House Trading.

I am sure you know that the AH is your key to making tons of gold. No matter how much you are farming mobs and getting rare drops, it all depends on how well you can manipulate the AH. It comes down to Supply & Demand.

What a lot of people may not really think about is that there is a huge difference in S&D between Horde and Alliance. Prices that are sky high for stuff on Alliance AHs may be rock bottom on Horde AHs. This is the case on every server, but the particular items will be different on different servers.

Setting Up Your Pipeline:

Make low level alts to do all of your buying and selling.

You need 4 alts in total, 2 Alliance and 2 Horde. One Alliance toon sits in Stormwind, one Horde toon goes to the Undercity, and you need one alt of each faction at the Neutral AH in Booty Bay.

You can choose a different combo of cities if you prefer, but this is the one that I feel is the easiest to get going. Stormwind and Undercity also have more convenient access to some of the Limited Supply Items I have told you about already.

Be careful setting this up on PVE and RP servers. Even though you are allowed to create both Horde and Alliance toons, you won’t be able to purchase your own auctions w/o a second account.

This won’t be an issue on PVP since you can’t make both Alliance and Horde toons on the same account and server.

For the main AHs, you don’t even need to level your alts up at all. For Horde, make an Ogre or Troll and run them north to Orgrimmar, then fly to the Undercity. On Alliance, make a Human and run it west to Stormwind.

You can level them up a few levels if you want, just to get a few silver on there and have a bit stronger character to make the run faster… but this is up to you.

The Neutral AH is a bit tougher, since you have to go through some kind of dangerous areas. This is why I recommend Booty Bay as opposed to some of the other cities.

For the Horde:
Create your toon, Troll/Ogre, and then run a short way south from the starting point. Then head south/southwest into the little flatland patch you see on your map, towards the western coast of Durotar. Head SW across the flat area and up the “Hidden Path” you find at the south-west corner (past a Lazy Peon). Keep following the path out to the coast, jump in the water and start swimming west. A Slimeshell Makrura will probably kill you right away. This is good though. When you release after dying, you will be at the Ratchet graveyard in the Barrens. Accept a rez from the Spirit Healer and run down to the dock in Ratchet, NW from the graveyard. Take the boat to Booty Bay.

The Booty Bay AH is right at the Bank which is at the far opposite end of the wharf (south) from the boat landing. You will find Auctioneer O’reely standing on a crate between the bank and the mailbox.

Toys And Games: Bicycles Through The Centuries

I still recall the day I got my very first outdoor toy. I was five years old and it was a sweltering hot Christmas day in Waenhuiskrans (a little town along the southern coast of South Africa). My fathered wheeled the bicycle into the living room where we were opening our other toys and games and I immediately fell head over heels in love. It was a little BMX with luminescent pink and yellow streamers ? right up my alley. Peddling around the courtyard to shouted encouragement from my parents, I couldn?t have been happier.

The bicycle as we know it today did not exist 200 years ago. Looking back at the inventions of the time they seem little more that vintage toys. Necessity, in this case, once again proved to be the mother of invention. Baron van Drais invented the ?Walking Machine? in 1817. A lumbering wooden contraption, it was only practical for use on well-maintained pathways. It boasted two wheels of the same size, the front one being steerable, and was propelled along by straddling it and pushing against the ground ? resulting in a sort of gliding motion.

Its design was so underwhelming that the next variation upon the theme only came about in 1865. The Velocipede (?Fast Foot?) also had same-sized wheels but included a peddling mechanism on the front wheel. Its wheels were made of metal and this combination of wood and metal on the cobbled walkways of the time gave rise to its colloquial name – the Boneshaker.

The Penny-farthing / High Wheel had its heyday during the 1880?s. The peddling apparatus was still mounted directly on the front wheel, but the wheel had grown in size quite a bit once makers realized that the distance you can travel with a single rotation of the pedals become greater the larger you make the wheel. By this time metal technology had also gotten to a point where there were metals strong enough to facilitate the making of small, light parts. The bicycle?s high centre of gravity made it difficult to handle though and ladies and their corsetry were restricted to the High Wheel Tricycle ? a bulky rendition of the children?s toy.
Further along we meet up with the Hard Tired Safety ? a return to the original same-size wheel design that included a nifty new chain and sprocket that made gear ratios possible. The hard tires made for a very awkward ride though, and an enterprising veterinarian of the time strove to give his young son a smoother ride. Mr. Dunlop (sound familiar?) succeeded most well and along came the first Pneumatic-Tired Safety Bicycle. Far from being a simple children?s toy, these bicycles gained immense popularity amongst the ladies by the turn of the century. The bicycle craze killed the bustle and the corset,instituted “common-sense dressing” for women and increased their mobility measurably. Susan B Anthony, figure head of the Suffragette movement in America stated during a New York World interview that “the bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.” Great stuff!

The rest is history. The basic configuration of a typical bicycle has changed little since the first chain-driven model was developed. Details have been fine-tuned and new design technology plus improved materials have made all sorts of exciting things possible, but in essence the look of the bicycle has stayed pretty much the same.

Bicycles are used the world over as an affordable, eco-friendly means of transport. It is a popular children?s toy, a healthy form of recreation and even gets used by the military and police. Next time you hop on your bicycle to pop down to the shops or set out for a brisk mountain biking adventure take a moment to think about all the cycling pioneers that went before us. Then strap on your helmet, look both ways and remember your hand signals ? Safety First.