The first mechanically propelled two-wheel vehicle is…

The first mechanically propelled two-wheel vehicle is believed by some to have been built by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839.

A nephew will later claim that his uncle developed a rear-wheel drive design using mid-mounted treadles connected by rods to a rear crank, similar to the transmission of a steam locomotive.

Proponents associate him with the first recorded instance of a bicycling traffic offense, when a Glasgow newspaper reported in 1842 an accident in which an anonymous "gentleman from Dumfries-shire... bestride a velocipede... of ingenious design" knocked over a pedestrian in the Gorbals and was fined five British shillings.

However, the evidence connecting this with Macmillan is weak, since it is unlikely that the artisan Macmillan would have been termed a gentleman, nor is the report clear on how many wheels the vehicle had.

The evidence is unclear, and may have been faked by his son.

A similar machine was said to have been produced by Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow, circa 1845.

There is no record of Dalzell ever having laid claim to inventing the machine.

It is believed that he copied the idea having recogniszd the potential to help him with his local drapery business and there is some evidence that he used the contraption to take his wares into the rural community around his home

A replica still exists today in the Glasgow Museum of Transport.

The exhibit holds the honor of being the oldest bike in existence today.

The first documented producer of rod-driven two-wheelers, treadle bicycles, was Thomas McCall, of Kilmarnock in 1869.

The design was inspired by the French front-crank velocipede of the Lallement/Michaux type.