A thought:

The invention of the bicycle came at a similar time like engine driven vehicles. Before those became popular, the direct competitor for bicycles (one person transportation) were horses.

There might have literally not been a need to invent a bicycle as horses fulfilled the same purpose and had the advantage that they fared better on the back then nearly non-existent infrastructure.

Also: a single person transportation vehicle was not something a lot of people needed in their lives. You needed something to move stuff, but the demand to move single people daily came into existence with the dawn of big cities.