The famous Emanicipation Run of 1896, the drive from London to Brighton, now reenacted each year as one of the key events in British motoring history, was organised by a bicycle designer and bicycle company owner. Harry Lawson was the […]
Continue ReadingCycling has many health benefits, “of the rosy, romping, rollicking kind,” said Dr. Victor Neesen in an 1899 ‘how to cycle’ book. However, the good doctor – a gynaecologist – was a stickler for the proper position to be struck […]
Continue ReadingOne of these two photographs was taken in the 1890s; the other is a photograph of Victoria Pendleton posing as an 1890s wearer of ‘rational dress.’
Continue ReadingREG: Cyclists have bled us white, the bastards. They don’t pay road tax, they run red lights. And what have they ever given us in return? XERXES: Pneumatic tyres. REG: What? XERXES: Pneumatic tyres. REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did […]
Continue ReadingI’m writing a book about the US and UK cyclist organisations of the 1880s and 1890s which lobbied for good roads – and got them – before the motorcar came along and stole their thunder. ‘Roads Were Not Built For […]
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Long before there was icanhazcheezburger, cute boys with cats or cashcats.biz, there was a cat-themed advert for a thread company. J&P Coats Sewing Threads is still in existence. In the late 1880s the company advertised its threads with the technological […]
Continue ReadingIn the early years of the 20th Century, Sears Roebuck & Co. sold a device “popular with railroad and telegraph employees, both male and female.” The Harris 20th Century Railroad Attachment promised to make a “regular railroad velocipede out of […]
Continue Reading1. Before starting on a long journey, get a few hours’ sleep. 2. Knickerbockers are the best things to ride in, and thick boots are better than thin ones. 3. Bread and milk is one of the best things to […]
Continue ReadingI’m working on a long and detailed posting on the impact of Sears Roebuck & Co on the bicycle retailers of the late 1890s and through until about 1905. I’ll be featuring one or two of the catalogue scans below. […]
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