Learn how to draw a bike, the classic type with a frame that is strong and sturdy without any frills. They have a timeless appeal, no matter how fancy modern bicycles get.

Have you ever wondered how long bicycles have been around? A pretty long time! A baron in Germany named Karl von Drais created the first steerable, two-wheeled contraption in 1817. Known sometimes as the “velocipede,” “hobby-horse,” and “running machine,” this early invention made him widely considered as the father of the bicycle.

Although bicycles are not that complicated, if you had to draw one from memory, it might become trickier than you think. Remembering what connects to what, and where, can become difficult if you don’t have one in front of you. Or a least a photo of a real bike.

This tutorial walks a beginner artist through the drawing of a simple bicycle, one with sturdy wheels, fenders and handlebars. It could certainly be customized with racing stripes and bright colors, but for those that would just like to learn how to draw a bike, it’s ready to go.

Getting Started with Drawing Guides

The best way to get students off to a good start to any drawing lesson is to show them how to use guides as a reference point.

You may have noticed that all of the tutorials on this site have a dashed line running through the center of each step, both in the horizontal and vertical direction. If students make their own centered lines on their own paper, before drawing, they will have an easy reference to follow.

For instance, as seen in Step 1 below, the two circles for the wheels are centered in the two halves of the paper, and extend just a bit above the center horizontal line. It’s important to get these two shapes to scale and in place to make the rest of the bike shapes come together.

Drawing skills are all about getting the size and placement of lines on paper, so having some visual reference point to get started, will always help anyone learn how to be a little more accurate.

So does that mean students need to get out a ruler to draw a big fat line down the center of their paper before they start? Goodness no, please don’t! That will most likely be hard to erase and distract from any finished art. No, simply fold the sheet of paper in half both ways, make a crease, and unfold. The beauty is that by the time the drawing is done and colored in, the creases will disappear.

And now, on to our bicycle drawing project.