Bicycles were invented in france in the 1790 s. The first bikes were made of wood, had a fornt wheel,had a fornt wheel that didn't move from left to right, and didn't have pedals. In 1817, a steerable fornt wheel was developed by Baron Karl von Drais in Germany, and in 1839, the first pedals were introduced by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from Scotland. The first bikes had large front wheels because it was believed that the bigger the front wheel, the faster the bike.