Wright Cycle Company

The Wright Cycle Company (formerly Wright Cycle Exchange) owned and operated five bicycle shops where Orville and Wilbur Wright designed and built Van Cleve and St. Claire bicycles from 1892 to 1909. They invented self-oiling hubss and initiated the practice of machining the crankarm and pedal on the left side of the bike with left-hand threads to prevent the pedal from coming unscrewed while cycling. They also repaired bicycles and ran a printing shop on the second-floor in their brick building at 22 S. Williams St., Dayton, Ohio, which remains preserved as a museum.

The Wrights fitted a third bicycle wheel horizontally above the front wheel of one of their St. Claire bicycles and used this as an test platform to study airfoil design. They used the profits from Wright Cycle Company to finance their aviation experiments.

The bicycle shop where they built their first airplane, the Wright Flyer was moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan by Henry Ford.

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