Axial History

Axial: Relating to an axis, something revolutionary or pivotal.

Obviously bicycles have two major axles in the wheels. These form points around which a wheel rotates, which enables a bicycle to move. But there are axial moments in life and in history. I, GP Wagenfuhr, founder and builder of Axial Bikes, am a scholar interested in those axial or pivotal moments in the history of ideas. Bicycles are themselves axial objects, transforming the way people interact with each other, changing history. Riding an Axial bike will not change history, but it may just transform the way you see riding a bike.

More… “The Axial Age” is a term coined by the philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) to designate a period of time (ca. 700–200 BC) when the way that four major cultures—Persia, India, China, and the Mediterranean—all experienced revolutions in thought. It was during this period that philosophical and religious concepts of being (metaphysics) were developed.

Axial Bikes was founded in 2020 by author and theologian GP Wagenfuhr. Bicycles have long been part of my life and I have worked in the bike industry for a number of years on and off. Thinking is often best done with the hands. Trustworthy philosophers and theologians have dirty hands.