This is an advert for bicycle insurance contained on a cyclists’ map of New York State, from 1895. The “bike” is in inverted commas because bike is the relatively new word for bicycle. Most bicyclists of the day rode “wheels”, […]
Continue ReadingOakley, the sportshade-to-softwear brand, was started in 1975 by Jim Jannard. He made handlebar grips for MX motorbikes. Five years later he created a pair of goggles which he called the O-frame. In 1984 the company’s fortunes were transformed by […]
Continue ReadingInflator. Check. Spare tube. Check. Pistol. Check. Bicycle magazines of the 1890s carried adverts for guns “designed especially for cyclists.” Sears Roebuck sold mail-order “bicycle rifles”. Round-the-world bicycle tourists carried guns for obvious reasons, ditto for members of the City […]
Continue ReadingOn September 20th, 1893, the Duryea Brothers road-tested the first gasoline-powered American-built automobile. Most people assume it was early cars such as these – and later ones from the likes of Ford and Buick – which paved America. In fact, […]
Continue ReadingThe twelfth census of the United States was taken on June 1st, 1900, and the published version was a mammoth tome. A full 16 pages of this tub-thumper of a publication were devoted to bicycles and bicycling; just five pages […]
Continue ReadingThis is a puzzle. In more ways than one. It was published in a puzzle-book from 1914 but the dress and the subject matter don’t ring true for such a date. The League of American Wheelmen had morphed into the […]
Continue ReadingThis is a line-drawing of the world’s “first header”, a forward fall from a bicycle. It’s also a line-drawing of the probable creator of the world’s first pedal-operated bicycle. The rider is Frenchman Pierre Lallement. The location is Birmingham, close […]
Continue ReadingNetherlands schmetherlands, the country with the best riding conditions for cyclists used to be America. Difficult to imagine, but in the 1890s a number of American cities could boast the world’s best bicycle-infrastructure. Part paid for by pushy, influential cyclists, […]
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 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 […]
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