At the Saulkrasti Bicycle Museum, the history of the bicycle can be traced through its changing shape as well as its dates. Latvia's tourism portal says the collection began in 1977. It includes a high-wheel Simplex made in the Netherlands in 1886 and early designs with inflatable tyres. These machines make visible how much the riding experience changed as bicycles moved away from the enormous front wheel.
The story also has a Latvian chapter. The display includes a safety bicycle made at A. Leitner's factory, described as Latvia's first bicycle factory. Beyond the bicycles themselves, the museum holds a collection of more than 800 bicycle badges from around the world. A small mark on a frame offers another way into the past, revealing the maker, craft and visual taste of its time.
One especially unusual object is a wooden bicycle built as a single example in 1940 at the VEF sports aircraft workshop. Aviation engineer Kārlis Irbītis designed it using materials intended for aircraft. It connects two worlds of engineering and shows that bicycle development is more than a history of speed or gears. It is also a history of materials and inventive people.