Leonardo da Vinci's Bicycle Maxaltitude Home | Projects Home Long before the first bicycle, Leonardo da Vinci had already drawn a bicycle, complete with chain driven rear wheel, handlebars, and banana seat. Then the drawing got lost on the back of another framed drawing for a couple hundred years, and somebody else got all the credit. In the spring of 1998, I built a model of the first bicycle Leonardo's Drawing of his bicycle. ©