More than 10 people have attempted to cross different parts of Niagara Falls, some in barrels, one on a bicycle and even one with a washing machine strapped to his back.

CNN: Daredevil completes walk across Niagara Falls

I've seen it from the factory floor when I was working the graveyard shift and we'd have lunch there on the change of the shifts and I'd be ankle-deep in water at the Murray Ohio Bicycle plant where I was running a machine that was so loud I couldn't hear myself yell if I wanted to.

CNN: Thompson's September 7, 2007, speech in Des Moines, Iowa

In 1892 two brothers opened a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio and soon turned their minds to how a flying machine might work.

ECONOMIST: How Robert Penn found himself the perfect two-wheeler

Enlisting the help of an engineer, Whelan has spent the past 18 months perfecting the machine and has created a highly adaptable device which snaps on around the wheel of the bicycle.

CNN: Virtuous cycles