Bicycling

BICYCLING

BICYCLING. Primitive, bicycle-like machines appeared in early nineteenth-century Europe. Draisines, celefires, celeripedes, and velocipedes preceded the development in England of bicycles, known as penny farthings or ordinaries, with large front wheels attached to small rear wheels by backbones. Colonel Albert A. Pope saw them exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Intrigued, he imported English bicycles before creating in 1878 the Pope Manufacturing Company. In the mid-1880s the introduction of the "safety" bicycle, with smaller, similar-sized wheels connected by a diamond

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frame and with pneumatic tires, expanded the popularity of bicycling to women and older men. By the mid-1890s, 2.5 million American men, women, and children rode. Four hundred American manufacturers produced some 2 million bicycles in 1897. Major cities had riding schools, and newspapers devoted weekly columns to bicycling news, which covered both the sporting and the touring aspects of this new phenomenon. Numerous manuals appeared with information on choosing a bicycle, learning to ride, maintenance, and tips for tourists.

Thomas Stevens became the first person to ride across North America when he rode and walked his high wheeler from San Francisco to Boston in 1884. Sponsored by one of America's leading sporting magazines, Outing, he became the first person to ride around the world, completing his circuit in San Francisco in January 1887. He inspired several other Americans, one of whom was murdered in the Middle East, to follow in his wheel tracks. Magazines and newspapers sponsored others who rode around the perimeter of the United States, through each state and its capital, and around the world. While the majority who rode were men, the bicycle had a significant impact on women as well.

The bicycle provided individual freedom and mobility, giving young men and women a newfound opportunity to be alone. They could now court individuals from other towns and villages without having a chaperone along. Because women's dresses went down to their feet with petticoats and yards of material, it was difficult for them to ride. The bicycle encouraged women to change to a skirt to the knees with modified bloomers covering the rest of their legs. By encouraging the rational dress movement, the bicycle allowed women greater mobility and freedom to engage in other activities. Despite early articles that claimed bicycling was unhealthy and immoral for women, physicians soon supported this form of exercise.

Bicycles worked best on good roads, but few roads were paved. Consequently the League of American Wheel-men, founded in 1880, began a "good roads movement" that continued with the automobile. As more people traveled further and further, road signs appeared, as did inns and other establishments for the aid of the bicycle traveler.

In addition, bicycle racing became popular in the United States, and people collected trading cards of the some six hundred professional racers. In 1899 one of them, Charles M. Murphy, became the first to ride a bicycle one mile in less than one minute. Another standout was Major Taylor, one of the most successful bicycle racers and an African American. Velodromes saw all kinds of races, from sprints to the grueling six-day races that drew sell-out crowds, but by the 1930s bicycle racing in the United States was coming to an end.

With the development of the automobile, the bicycle's place in the United States was relegated to that of a child's toy. While adults continued to ride bicycles, most gave them up when they became old enough to drive. The 1960s, however, saw a resurgence of interest in bicycles, with increasing numbers of baby boomers riding. Bicycle clubs began sponsoring tours for their members and the general public, and the League of American Wheelmen (now the League of American Bicyclists), which had been languishing for decades, experienced rising membership. Bicycling, which began as a mimeographed newsletter, quickly expanded into a widely read magazine. In the 1970s another bicycle organization, Bikecentennial (now Adventure Cycling), developed cross-country routes for bicyclists. The U.S. Cycling Federation continued to certify races, mostly at the local level. Only a few, the Tour Dupont, Boston-Montreal-Boston (based on Paris-Brest-Paris), and the Race across America (RAAM), achieved any sort of national attention.

Mountain bicycles developed in the 1980s and quickly became the most popular style, forcing bicycle manufacturers to scale back dramatically their production of road bicycles. Furthering interest in bicycling, Greg LeMond became the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986. He won again in 1989 and 1990, becoming one of only a handful of riders to win the tour three times. In 1999 Lance Armstrong became the first to win the Tour de France as a member of an American team. He won again in 2000, 2001, and 2002.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harmond, Richard. "Progress and Flight: An Interpretation of the American Bicycle Craze of the 1890's." Journal of Social History 5 (winter 1971–1972): 235–257.

Nye, Peter. Hearts of Lions. New York: Norton, 1988.

Ritchie, Andrew. King of the Road: An Illustrated History of Cycling. London: Wildwood House, 1975.

Smith, Robert A. A Social History of the Bicycle, Its Early Life and Times in America. New York: American Heritage Press, 1972.

Stevens, Thomas. Around the World on a Bicycle. Volume 2: From Teheran to Yokohama. New York: Scribner, 1988.

Tobin, Gary Allan. "The Bicycle Boom of the 1890's: The Development of Private Transportation and the Birth of the Modern Tourist." Journal of Popular Culture 7, no. 4 (spring 1974): 838–847.

Duncan R. Jamieson

See also Recreation ; Roads ; Sports .