@TheEdVerse Does the Forgotten Realms have bicycles?
— ElvenWizardKing (@KingLorathorn) May 20, 2020
Yes, but not by that name, and not the 2-wheelers most real-world moderns are used to (they require smooth pavement). Think of wide tricycles with rear cargo beds and soft, squashy-fat-tires (no air), and you have a Realms bicycle, which is known as a “Gondroller.”#Realmslore Genuine Gondrollers (made and sold by temples of Gond) are rare and expensive. After seeing one, most folks find a smith and fabricate their own knock-offs. Axles, wheels, and tires remain difficult to make, and relatively smooth trails are STILL required, so even these are rare.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020
Your response is very appreciated and very illuminating. I didn’t consider the Gond tie in. The church of Gond is secretly pondering how to create a network of SMOOTH trackways. Even most city cobbles are too bumpy, and everything in winter-frost regions HEAVES.#Realmslore
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020
With luck, the project won’t be co-opted by some silly trust fund pseudo-scientist. I mean… just saying.
Of course if it was, thwarting said cad might be a fun adventure. Thwarting cads is a noble cause for not enough adventurers yet. ;}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 20, 2020
“Think of wide tricycles with rear cargo beds and soft, squashy-fat-tires (no air)”
Hang on there, Ed! It sounds like you’re describing the kind of tires that the earliest automobiles used. But those tires, and indeed most tires in general, require not only rubber, but specifically vulcanized rubber! Are you suggesting they have that (or an equivalent) in the Realms?
I would think if they had bicycles, they’d be akin to our own earliest attempts such as velocipedes and dandy horses – which themselves substantially predate vulcanized rubber! They used wheels made of wood, metal, or both – much like wagon wheels in construction – and they certainly didn’t require paved surfaces!
You can easily find old footage of people riding wholly wooden dandy-horses on unpaved dirt roads, with no great difficulty.
And while rigid wheels on cobblestones certainly give a rougher ride, the technology for shock absorption has existed for centuries, and nearly every carriage drawn by a horse used such. If the folks in Gond could come up with a 19th century invention like the bicycle, they could certainly adapt existing shock absorption technology for it.