Scoundrel Ernest Marples – the first CTC member to become minister of transport (he and his wife toured by bicycle) – officially opened the M1, Britain’s first city-to-city motorway, in November 1959. His ribbon-cutting speech was probably considered twee even […]
Continue ReadingThis weekend sees the annual staging of the Monaco grand Prix, one of motor-racing’s blue riband events. This is organised by the Automobile Club de Monaco. Before it was an automobile club it was a bicycle club, one of many […]
Continue ReadingEarlier today I handed over a copy of my book to the UK’s minister for roads, Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough – and he was on-message straight away as you can see from the quote above. The minister was in […]
Continue ReadingI’ll be giving a history talk in committee room 8 in the House of Commons on 19th November. The talk is invite-only and I have a tiny number of invites. Contact me if you’d be interested in attending. You’d need […]
Continue ReadingCyclists and cycle manufacturers played a major part in the manufacturing, design and sale of the first motor cars in France, America and Germany – and in Great Britain, too: “[A] large number of men who, having made their names […]
Continue ReadingSeventy-five percent of my book is now written. A pesky 25 percent is still brewing. The book’s first chapter goes through the copy-editing mill next week, via a copy-editor with an interesting history of his own (more on that later). […]
Continue ReadingI’ve finished the cycles-begat-automobiles chapter of the book. It’s 65,000 words long. This “chapter” is really a book and I’ll probably flesh it out even further and bring it out as a standalone e-book: pedalling petrolheads will love it. However, […]
Continue ReadingThe very first motor cars – such as Henry Ford’s Quadricycle – didn’t just use bicycle wheels and bicycle chains they also used bicycle lamps and other brass accessories, including bicycle horns. A typical bicycle horn had a rubber bulb […]
Continue ReadingMy (very) forthcoming book has a long, detailed article about the cycling back-stories behind a great many automobile brands, including GMC, Ford, Land Rover and 77 others. I’m including a quote from libertarian American satirist P.J. O’Rourke. He’s not a […]
Continue ReadingColonel John Jacob Astor was an interesting chap. Stinking rich, too. He was one of the wealthiest men of America’s Gilded Age. Educated at Harvard, he thought highly enough of his own literary talents to write a science fiction novel. […]
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