The bicycles strike back. . .

Painted Bricks: Bicycle Path, Casper Wyoming:

Invasion directions for the Corporal of Bicycles?  I know what it means. . . but for all the world it looks like an insignia for Corporal of Bicycles.

I posted this on one of our companion blogs here awhile back.  This is, of course, a symbol painted in the road to mark a bicycle lane. And in this case, the lane is the entire side of the road.

I used to ride a bicycle to work quite a bit during the summer.  Indeed, starting in the late spring and carrying on to late fall.  For whatever reason, I did it only once this year.  I meant to do it more, but I was too lazy or something.  I probably could benefit more from riding now than I used to as well.  Not that I'm getting large or anything, but being in my mid 50s, I could use the exercise.

Anyhow, this isn't the most friendly place in the world for bicyclist, although there are a lot of us here.  When I used to ride a bike a lot I always had to be pretty careful as automobiles definitely rule the road here.  Up until just recently there haven't been any real bike lanes

Well, that changed downtown just the year before last.  We have real bike lanes down there now.  And now there's a bike path that runs quite a ways along one of the county highways. And to add to that, now this is a designated bicycle route, and it's a pretty major road.

It appears that the bicycles are staging a real primary mode of transportation comeback. . .

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Related threads:

Bike to Work Week in Bike Month

Lex Anteinternet: Riding Bicycles

Riding Bicycles

On Riding A Bicycle

The high tech alternative to horses. . . . the bicycle

Bike to Work Week in Bike Month

Bike Month Dates and Events

National Bike Month includes an ever-expanding diversity of events in communities nationwide — but the biggest day of the month is Bike to Work Day. In 2017, Bike to Work Week will be May 15-19, with Bike to Work Day on May 19.

I'd forgotten that May was Bike Month.

I did recall that there's always a Bike To Work Week.  Unfortunately, it's always in May, which means that it comes here in a month that's still slugging it out with winter.  Indeed, snow is predicted for later this week. . . just after I took the side panels off of the Jeep, of course.

I often do bike to work, but rarely in May.  The weather just doesn't accommodate it here.  So this week, I won't be biking to work, and will even miss bike to work day, May 19.  Of course, my schedule isn't allowing for it this week either.

Which is part of the problem in the task of restoring the bicycle to its former status that once rivaled the automobile.

 

Related Threads:

Riding Bicycles: 

Our big thread on this topic.

Bicycle Delivery Boy, aged 13, Oklahoma City.

A photograph.

The bicycle messenger

Another photograph.

Western Union Messenger No. 38. March 14, 1917

Yep, a photograph.

Mid Week at Work: Delivering the mail in Washington D.C., 1919.

Another photograph yet again.

On Riding A Bicycle

Commentary on riding a bike.

The high tech alternative to horses. . . . the bicycle

A look at the topic from a different prospective.

Lex Anteinternet: Riding Bicycles

Shoot, yesterday I missed this:

Bike to School Day

Join the Celebration on May 10!

Thousands of students, families, community partners, and elected officials around the country will celebrate the benefits of biking and walking to school during National Bike to School Day.

I only became aware of it due to this:

It’s Bike to School Day!

“SCHOOL CHILDREN, WERE FORCED TO USE THEIR BICYCLES ON FIELD TRIPS DURING THE FUEL CRISIS IN THE WINTER OF 1974. THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH GASOLINE FOR SCHOOL BUSES TO BE USED FOR EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, EVEN DURING DARK AND RAINY WEATHER, 2/1974″
Falconer, David, Photographer.  Series: DOCUMERICA: The Environmental Protection Agency’s Program to Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern, 1972 - 1977. Record Group 412: Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1944 - 2006

Source: catalog.archives.gov

I don't recall anything like that happening myself, but then in 1974 I was only eleven years old. Given local distances, this sort of thing almost certainly did not occur here, however.

So in belated honor of the day, I'm linking in an old post on bikes as transportation:

Lex Anteinternet: Riding Bicycles:

 Catholic Priest riding a bicycle in South Dakota, 1944.

As well as our prior commentary on biking in general:

On Riding A Bicycle

Most summers I ride my bicycle to work quite a bit.  I do that as it forces me to get a bit of exercise, it saves on the use of diesel fuel, and because I just like doing it. This year, however, I got around to that for the first time today.  I didn't get a chance earlier as it seems the City of Casper and the State of Wyoming has determined to rip up every street I might conceivable wish to ride on this summer, simultaneously.  On my way here today, for example, I went through two construction zones.

I have to say, yesterday, May 10, was a pretty nice day here, but it didn't start out very warm and early on the weather looked a bit threatening.  It cleared up, however.  Still, for here, this time of year can be a bit dicey for riding a bike to school.  Having said that, I walked to school my entire school career, all of it. Seems like that's a rarity now.

Bicycle Delivery Boy, aged 13, Oklahoma City.

$5.00/week.  On this day, in 1917.  Again, note the surprisingly high standard of dress.

The bicycle messenger

Manley Creasson, age 13 or 14.  $15.00 every two weeks.  Oklahoma City, on this day, in 1917.

Western Union Messenger No. 38. March 14, 1917

Fourteen years old.

The Telegraph

Recently I posted this item on Communications during the Punitive Expedition:  The Punitive Expedition and technology. A 20th Century Expedition. Part Two. Radios and Telegraph.

One of the things that this really brought into the forefront of my mind was the state of communications in general in the decades leading up to the Punitive Expedition of 1916, and it relates on top of it, in a synchronicitous fashion the topic I also posted about in More Medieval than Modern?  Indeed, the history of the telegraph argues really powerfully for what George F. Will wrote about in the column that entry references.

Prior to the telegraph, no news traveled any faster than a horse or boat.

None.

On continental landmasses, this made the postal service extremely important and most nations had extremely developed post offices.  The British post office delivered mail all day long in urban areas, so that a letter posted in the morning wold tend to arrive midday, and a reply letter could be there by evening.  In nations with larger masses the post office was a critical governmental entity.  There's a real reason that the drafters of the Constitution provided for the head of the U.S. Post Office to be in the cabinet and there's a real reason that delivering the mail was one of the few duties that the Federal Government was actually charged with.  The mail needed to get through.

But it was carried by a postal rider.  That rider trotted, and indeed he probably "posted the trot", which game him some speed, but it was still horse speed.

In wet areas quite a bit of news went by boat or ship.  For that matter, anything going from North America to Europe, or vice versa, went by ship.  Sailing ship at that.  We wouldn't consider it fast, but the people of the pre telegraph age would have considered that to be what it was.

This only came to an end, and a dramatic and sudden end, with the telegraph and railroad.  And oddly enough, those two changes came at the same time, and were complementary to each other.  Indeed, it was the railroads that first really exploited telegraphs.

The telegraph, or more properly the electrical telegraph was first thought of in the late 18th Century as the properties of electrical transmission started to become known.  The first working telegraph was constructed by an English experimenter in 1816, an experiment that actually used eight miles of wire but which failed to gain much attention.  Various experiments by various individuals followed such that by the 1830s there were a fair number of individuals experimenting with similar concepts.  One such individual was Samuel Morse, whose code was adopted for telegraph transmissions.  By the late 1840s telegraph lines were going up everywhere.

By 1861 a telegraph line had been stretched across the vast expanse of the American West such that telegraph transmission from the Atlantic end of the United States to the Pacific could be achieved rapidly for the first time, replacing the Pony Express mail service, used only for mail that required rapid delivery, in short order.  What formerly took about ten days now took, as a practical matter, hours.

Transcontinental telegraph line.

Three years prior, in 1858 an even more amazing feat was accomplished when the Transatlantic submarine cable was put in. The thought of what was involved, and that it worked, is astounding.  Ships remained partially in the age of sale, and partially in the age of steam, at the time.  And that, in 1858, a cable could be stretched that vast distance, and work, is amazing, seeming to be more of our own age than of that of the Pre Civil War world. 

That it was a monumental achievement was known at the time and could hardly be missed.    The impact on time caused by the cable was massive. What had taken days to achieve in terms of communications could now take place, when it needed to, in hours.

Other submarine cables would soon follow all over the globe, although it would take until 1902-1903 to stretch the vaster distance of the Atlantic and reach significant points therein.  Still, by 1902 Canadians could telegraph to New Zealand and Americans to Hawaii.  The world, in terms of communications, had been connected.

So, by the last couple of decades of the 19th Century, there wasn't a significant region of the Untied States that couldn't be reached by telegraph. That doesn't mean that there was a telegraph office in every town by any means, but telegraphs were extremely widespread.  And if railroad reached a town, telegraph certainly did.  So, in a fairly short expanse of time, news which had once taken days or weeks to travel anywhere now could get there within hours.  A person in New York could send a message to a person in Sacramento.  And nations could exchange information nearly instantly.  The impact of this change was immense.  We think of the second half of the 19th Century, if we think about it at all, as being in an era of slow communications. But it wasn't.  It's part of our own age of rapid communications.  Just not quite as rapid as our own in many ways, but rapid still.

Of course, part of the reason we don't' think about telegraphs is that we don't use them. They've fallen away.

In the late 19th and early 20th Century they were a huge part of the culture in some ways, conveying good and bad news.  They were fairly institutionalized in fashion. Messages went from one telegraph office to another, with the sender usually paying a charged based upon the number of words in a telegram.  On the receiving office, while in some instances a person took the telegram at the telegraph office, usually a runner employed by the telegraph office delivered the message to the address of the recipient.

Western Union telegram delivery personnel, 1943.  Note the man on the right is wearing leggings, something we typically associate with soldiers of that era but which were also worn by people to who rode horses, motorcycles or bicycles.  That individual was probably a bicycle deliveryman for the Western Union telegraph company.

 

By the 20th Century, people were using telegrams to send fairly routine, but important, communications.  Often just to let family know where they were and that they were well.

Marine drafting telegram to his parents, early 1940s.  This Marine had just returned from duty in Cuba.  The telegraph is being sent from a booth owned by the Postal Telegraph Company, one of the major American telegraph companies up until 1943, when it merged with the most famous of telegraph companies, Western Union.

And they were also used by "wire services" to convey important new, about which we will have a subsequent post.

United Press dispatch of a news item to its subscribing news services.

 And they also conveyed tragic news, often officially.

Woman and child receive news of serviceman's death in this war time poster. The U.S. Army and the British Army in fact gave notice to families of soldiers who were killed, wounded or captured in this fashion during World War One and World War Two.

Now, you couldn't send a telegram even for sport.

And no wonder.  Telegrams have become a victim of other forms of rapid communication.  The ended in the United Kingdom, which was really responsible for their creation, in 1982.  Western Union in the US managed to carry on until 2006, which is frankly really amazing.  In India, which had less advanced communications, they carried on until 2013.  By they're gone now.  In an age of Internet communication, texts, and mass use of cell phones, they have no place.  

But they had been revolutionary.

Mid Week at Work: Delivering the mail in Washington D.C., 1919.

Automotive Transportation III: Motorcyles

I started this series last summer, I think.  I started this entry on motorcycles months ago, and I'm only just finishing it now.  That probably reflects the degree of my knowledge on motorcycle, or perhaps where I place them in the story of transportation.

Racing motorcycle, 1914.

Which isn't to say that I despise motorcycles or something.  I don't. And indeed, when I was young I used to occasionally find them fascinating enough that I thought of buying one, and I did know quite a bit about certain ones.  I was fascinated with Harley Davidson's in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in an era when they were still a motorcycle that was associated only with hard core motorcyclists (now they've become sort of the default bike for hard core motorcycle fans and men in their late Middle Age for some reason).  I also once had quite a fascination with BMW motorcycles, and even knew a little about Triumph motorcycles.  I still find Harleys and offroad/street combo BMWs very interesting, but I've gotten over really wanting to buy a BMW or a Harley Sportster.  And that's a good thing.  Motorcycles are really dangerous.

Anyhow, while motorcycle fans would no doubt dispute it, no means of engined transportation has changed less than the motorcycle.  This doesn't mean that they haven't changed at all, they most certainly have, but if you look at a motorcycle from a century ago, it's obviously changed less than the automobile, or about anything else.

Motorcycles were an easy transition from the Safety Bicycle, and even now there's a class of two wheeled vehicle that's a cross between the two. When the internal combustion engine came on, motorizing the safety bike was an obvious thing to do.  Commercial motorcycles arrived as early as cars, and were offered commercially in the late 19th Century.  Royal Enfield, which still makes a motorcycle, albeit in India rather than the UK where it originated, started making motorcycles out of its bicycle shop in 1901.  Triumph had one a year later.  American bicycle racers formed the Indian Motorcycle Company in 1901.  Two years later Indian's big competitor, Harley Davidson, was founded by William S. Harley and Arthur Davidson who operated out of a back shop of a friend.  As with automobiles, there were a lot of early manufacturers, which is particularly not surprising with motorcycles, as they were easy to make.

Motorcycles were also comparatively cheap to make and they were fast (and dangerous).  They therefore had, right from the onset, all of the attributes they do now.  They were cheaper than cars (or could be), they were very versatile and could go anywhere. They were fast.  And they were dangerous.  They appealed to many of the same people to whom they appeal now, and many of the same things we associate with them now, even racing, existed from nearly the onset.

They did, however, have a wider appeal in certain quarters than they do now.  This was the case for a variety of reasons, with a significant one being that cars were enormously expensive prior to Henry Ford depressing the price. Even Ford, however, didn't depress the price of cars uniformly and globally, so in some regions of the globe the motorcycle, in spite of its one passenger, open air, two wheeled disadvantages, became competitive with cars.  This was particularly the case in Europe, which caused there to be a lot of early manufacturers of motorcycles in  Europe.

 U.S. Army Harley Davidson's during the Punitive Expedition.

The fascination with motorcycles lead quite quickly to their consideration as a service vehicle, and even before World War One various armies began to experiment with them in this capacity and police forces adopted them as an alternative to horses and cars.  World War One saw widespread use of motorcycles, and while we don't think of the Great War in this fashion, World War One may really be the high point of the military motorcycle, as the vehicle was sufficiently fully developed to offer any advantage then that it would later, which was not true of the automobile. At any rate, all sorts of use, and experimentation, with military motorcycles was seen during World War One.

U.S. Army motorcycle with sidecar in  France, World War One.

 

Harvard Military Motorcycle Club

And of course the use of motorcycles by police came fully on in this era, and thereafter, as well.

 Motorcycle policeman, 1923.

Motorcycle policeman, 1932.

Just as with cars, motorcycles took a hit during the Great Depression, although that is somewhat surprising given that they were cheaper than cars. Also following World War One, and into the 1920s and 1930s, the American motorcycle began to take on a family form that it retains to this day, in so far as big street bikes are concerned.  Harley introduced its teardrop shape gas tank in 1925, and it's retained the look ever since.  Big V Twin engines became a feature of American bikes, with Harley introducing its 45 cubic inch V twin in 1929, where as other options were explored elsewhere. BMW, for example, introduced its legendary horizontal opposed twin engine bike in 1923.  BMW also introduced dampered forks in 1935, a true advance in the motorcycle which oddly wasn't copied in bicycles for decades.

 

 1922 Harley Davidson with sidecar.  Note that in 1922 Harley s had not yet acquired the archetypical appearance that they would shortly have.

World War Two once again saw a lot of motorcycle use, although its somewhat misunderstood.  The U.S. Army did use motorcycles, for example, as did the British, but it was really the European armies that were transportation challenged that made large scale use of them. The Germans, for example, were heavy users of motorcycles, but they were also heavy uses of horses.  The Soviets used a lot of them too, and in both armies they were really an alternative to horses or, in the German case, bicycles.  The Germans used motorcycles, really, as they didn't have the production capacity to make something like the Jeep in sufficient numbers.

 

German, or perhaps East German, motorcycle and side car of the type used by the Germans during World War Two.  This design is unusual in that the sidecar had a powered axle.  This motorcycle was a hugely successful design and not only saw civilian application, but it was copied by the Soviets who made a basically identical version.  The same motorcycle was made in East Germany in a former BMW plant, under the BMW name, after the Soviets relinquished control of the plant.  A lawsuit ultimately caused the East German BMW to become EMW.

 Military Harley Davidson on display at the Pacific Aviation Museum in Oahu.  This type was widely used by the US Army during the war, but motorcycles have never seen the same extent of use in the U.S. armed forces that they have in other armies.

American motorcycles being used by the Australian army, 1943.  Its not immediately clear to me if these are Harley's or Indians.

Following World War Two when civilian production resumed, some interesting things began to happen. For one thing, and for the first time really, motorcycles in the US became associated with gangs. This was actually a direct byproduct of World War Two, as the early motorcycle gangs were made up of restless returning servicemen.  Indeed, the initial early appearance of the gangs reflected this, as surplus Army Air Corps flying jackets were pressed into service as motorcycle jackets.  The creation of the gangs proved to be enduring, and of course they are still with us.

Following the war, Harley Davidson dominated the American market for some time.  Indian ran into financial trouble immediately post war, and in 1950 it quit offering bikes.  Harley had the entire field to itself for a long time, in terms of American production.  It wasn't without competition, but the competition that did exist simply didn't offer a motorcycle that was really comparable.  Triumphs, for example, were imported into the US, but they weren't a heavy bike like the Harley Davidson.

 

Triumph cafe racer, probably of 1970s vintage.  Harley Davidson also made a cafe racer, but you very rarely see them.

In the early 60s, however, a revolution in motorcycles occurred when Honda began offering their really light and really cheap motorcycle in the US.  A global standard, and aimed at the bottom dollar, the Honda really took off in the US as it was so affordable.  Purely a town bike, the bike inspired an immediate follow8ing and even an enduring popular song by a band named after the company and which was covered by the Beach Boys.

I'm gonna wake you up early
Cause I'm gonna take a ride with you
We're going down to the Honda shop
I'll tell you what we're gonna do
Put on a ragged sweatshirt
I'll take you anywhere you want me to

First gear (Honda Honda) it's alright (faster faster)
Second gear (little Honda Honda) I lean right (faster faster)
Third gear (Honda Honda) hang on tight (faster faster)
Faster it's alright.

The song pretty much nailed the Honda's appeal.

It's not a big motorcycle
Just a groovy little motorbike
It's more fun that a barrel of monkeys
That two wheel bike
We'll ride on out of the town
To any place I know you like

The Honda was the Anti-Harley, and its appeal was huge.  Soon thereafter the Honda was joined by other cheap Japanese motorcycles, and Harley found itself competing in the American market with motorcycles that were originally aimed at an impoverished Asian market.  Harley took a pounding and by the 1970s it was in serious financial trouble.

At about the same time, the Japanese strongly entered the field with the "dirt bike", a type of motorcycle designed just for off road use. Hugely popular, Harley's attempt to enter the field failed, even though a Spanish manufacturer, Bultaco, was successful at the time.  The dirt bike gave rise to the Enduro, a type of dual use bike.  In recent years, BMW and Triumph has expanded this concept into a new type of motorcycle that can be used for absolutely everything.

 All purpose BMW. Street, touring, off road, it does it all.

Just as with automobiles, the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers were not content to allow Harley to dominate the big vehicle market and by the 1970s Honda had introduce a really large touring bike. The Super Glide found itself competing with the Golden Wing, and it still does today.  

Since the 1970s, Harley has gotten back on its feet, and in doing so it operated to attempt to shed itself of an outlaw image that it had never courted.  It now not only makes its classic cruisers and street bikes, but it competes with the Japanese under the name Buell with their style of motorcycle. The really cheap motorcycle era has ended, save for Royal Enfield which really produces for the Indian market but which imports into the United States.  All of the major players since 1950 are still around and some new ones are as well, so Harely, which is doing well, now competes once again against some American manufacturers.

Technologically, motorcycles  bear a striking resemblance to the original product, although there have been advances in the engines and a belt  has replaced the chain, and there have been other changes as well. Still, they very closely resemble the original products.

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Postscript

But wait, you didn't touch on motor scooters!  Aren't they motorcycles?

Modern motor scooter

I think they are, but as sort of a distinct category of the bike, apparently a lot of people don't.  At least in my state, you need a special license to operate a motorcycle, but not a motor scooter.  I have no idea why that's the case, but it is.  Somehow the authorities must not regard them as being as dangerous, although I'm sure they are or at least darned near are.

The scooter is a low powered motorcycle with a unique platform. They're just made for local transportation, not "over the road", as it were.  They date back to the teens, at least, and have a long history we really don't think of much.  

Cushman, a company that specialized in low powered vehicles, introduced a scooter into the American market in 1936.  It went on to produce one, the Model 53, that was designed for use by U.S. airborne troops during World War Two, although the extent to which they were used is something that I have no idea of.  Other Cushman scooters were purchased by the Army for local use in the United States.

Behind this military bicycle, a Cushman scooter is visilbe.

Another Cushman motor scooter, this one also showing World War Two colors for the U.S. Army.

It was really after World War Two, however, when we start to really think of scooters.  This is partially due, at least, to the introduction of the Vespa after World War Two. Somehow, a major reconsideration of the Italian culture in the US occurred in the 1950s, and the Italians went from being considered backwards and destitute to being the coolest thing ever.  This must have been a very odd experience for Italians, who went from being treated as cowardly peasants to the global standard setters for style in less than a generation, and who found that they were suddenly admired on everything, and this included their vehicles.  Vespas, a light scooter, were regarded as very cool.

Not too surprisingly, the Vespa craze died off, but it's revived in recent years and the popularity of scooters with it.  Now, once again, scooters are very common.  A while back on  a trip to Denver they were literally everywhere, although I'd personally live in fear of driving one in that big city.

While mentioning scooters, I probably ought to conclude with the other species in this genus, and there are  few.  Minibikes are one. These are simply miniature motorcycles that were designed for children.  These tiny motorcycles were hugely popular in the 1970s, but they've passed by the wayside now, and even though they still exist, they aren't as common as they once were, and I'm glad. They always struck me as really dangerous.

"Trikes", motorized three wheeled vehicles are also closely associated with motorcycles, probably because they were often originally built from one.  They're offered commercially now and you see variants of them around.  They're a vehicle I know very little about, other than that they've been around for quite awhile and are popular to some degree with those to whom motorcycles appeal, but who don't want a two wheeled vehicle.

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Related threads:

Automotive Transportation I:  Trucks and Lorries.

Automotive Transportation II:  Cars.

Air Transportation.

Horsepower

Riding Bicycles.

Rail Transportation

The Rise and Decline of the SUV

Water Transportation

Walking

Riding Bicycles

 Catholic Priest riding a bicycle in South Dakota, 1944.

Just recently I posted an item on walking.  In that I noted that walking was the default norm for humans in terms of mobility, and the only way we got around for millennia.  I also noted in that animal transportation is about 20,000 years old, give or take 5,000 years, but that, at least for the period of history which contains the history of our own country, walking was still the norm for most of that period in the western world.  Most people didn't own horses, as they lived in cities or towns.

While I've addressed it elsewhere, in the Revolution in Rural Transportation thread, what I should also explore just bit, just as we did with walking, is what became a common means of transportation, but the view of which has evolved in the past century.  This means of transportation was the first real alternative for most people to walking on a daily basis.

And it wasn't the car.

It was the bicycle.

I don't propose to offer a history of the bicycle here.  I'm not going to go back to the first bicycles and take us forward over time, but we should note that the bike really came on after the American Civil War.  There were early predecessors to the bike that existed prior to that time, but it was in the 1860s that the first practical bicycles first came on in the 1860s, for the most part.  The first bikes were what are now sometimes inaccurately called velocipedes, but what were called penny farthings at the time, those being bikes that work a lot like tricycles still do, in that they had no chains and rather a big wheel was simply pedaled.   As they lacked a chain, and hence a gear, the speed at which they could be operated was essentially determined by the size of the front wheel, leading to some of the rather odd looking big wheel bicycles of that era.

Penny farthings on starting line of race.

Penny farthings present certain obvious difficulties to the rider, but none the less they were extremely popular.  None the less,t he problems of mounting and dismounting, combined with regulating the amount of gearing, more or less, via the bit wheel lead the mechanically minded to work on bicycle designs, which lead to the Safety Bicycle. These were soon bicycles driven by a gear and chain, basically the predecessor of the type of bicycle we have have today, but with a single gear.  They were marketed on their safe features, for the simple reason that they really were considerably safer, and easier to use, than the penny farthing. They appeared in the 1880s.

 

Penny farthing left, Safety Bicycle right.

Bicycles took society in the western world by storm.  Indeed, there was a bicycle "craze", and its no wonder.  Bicycles offered to town dwellers what nothing else did, an alternative to walking you could keep in your house and that you didn't have to feed when you weren't using it. They were relatively cheap and easy to maintain as well. Suddenly, people could cut the time it took to travel a reasonable distance in less than half, easily.  Indeed, I know that is to be true, as when I walk to work it takes me over an hour get there, while it takes me less than half an hour to ride my bike.  The craze started in the 1860s, but the Safety Bicycle came on just in time to really accelerate it, and it continued on in to the 1890s.  The craze saw its expression in song in 1892 with "Bicycle Built For Two", a song popular enough that it's still at least somewhat recalled today.

There is a flower
Within my heart,
Daisy, Daisy!
Planted one day
By a glancing dart,
Planted by Daisy Bell!
Whether she loves me
Or loves me not,
Sometimes it's hard to tell;
Yet I am longing to share the lot -
Of beautiful Daisy Bell!

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer do!
I'm half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle made for two.

We will go 'tandem'
As man and wife,
Daisy, Daisy!
'Peddling' away
Down the road of life,
I and my Daisy Bell!
When the road's dark
We can both despise
P'licemen and 'lamps' as well;
There are 'bright lights’
In the dazzling eyes
Of beautiful Daisy Bell!

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer do!
I'm half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won't be a stylish marriage,
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle made for two.

I will stand by you
In 'weal' or woe,
["weal" means prosperity] Daisy, Daisy!
You'll be the bell(e)
Which I'll ring you know!
Sweet little Daisy Bell!
You'll take the 'lead'
In each 'trip' we take,
Then if I don't do well,
I will permit you to
Use the brake,
My beautiful Daisy Bell!

And bikes came on into use not only for private citizens, but in official and commerce use as well.  Bicycle deliveries became common for groceries.  Bicycle messengers came into business use, and of course still exist.  Police departments in big cities, which retained mounted patrols, introduced bicycle mounted patrols.  And nearly every western army introduced bicycle infantry, including the U.S. Army, although our experimentation with it was brief.

 U.S. bicycle troops, which existed only exceedingly briefly.  Given the role of the U.S. Army at the time, bicycle troops made next to not sense in comparison to cavalry.

French bicycle troops, World War One.

German bicycle troops during World War One. The Germans also used a lot of bicycles in a patrol role during World War Two, where they basically filed the same role that motorcycles and horses did in other formations.  Bikes increased in importance during World War Two as Germany retreated, as its road system was very extensive and good, thereby reducing the need to rely on horses.

But the ascendancy of the bicycle was itself also brief.  Lasting from the late 1860s until the 1910s or so, the peak of the bicycle era saw the birth of the automobile. At first bikes held on, as cars were extremely expensive and beyond the means of many.  And, indeed, bikes have continued to hang on in those areas where automobiles remain beyond the reach of city dwellers, such as in much of Asia.  But in North America, Henry Ford took the step that would end the ascendancy of the bicycle in 1903, by introducing his Model T, the first care to be purposely made to be affordable by the average man.  After that, year by hear the automobile cut into the domain of the bicycle and the horse.  It didn't displace either immediately, but it began to crowd both out in some roles fairly quickly.

In North America, some bike use as transportation lingered on into the 1940s, and the Army encouraged bicycle use for awhile on base in the United States to conserve fuel. But, by and large, bikes were on their way out by the 1920s, as adult commuter vehicles. In Europe this was less true, as automobiles remained expensive for the average European until after World War Two.  At the same time, bikes went out as police vehicles as cars came in, although the horse managed to continue on.  Military use of bicycles continued, but by World War Two they were very much on the way out with the more mechanized armies, such as the British (which were a significantly more mechanized army by the start of the war than generally imagined).  Some armies, particularly the Germans and Japanese, still relied on large numbers of bicycles, and did throughout the war, but other armies had nearly completely eliminated them by the end of the war.  Only the Swiss retained bicycle troops into the 21st Century in Europe, making bicycle troops much less common than horse mounted troops now, which themselves are not common.

 

British military bicycle, World War Two.

So, by the 1950s, bikes were mostly the transportation of children and almost regarded as a toy.  The exception seemed to be the people who "toured" with bikes, and college students. Schwinn, which was the major American bicycle manufacturer, didn't call its ten speed bicycle the "Varsity" for nothing.

But for some, they never went away, and they retained them in the old use. And for a few others, sporting bicycles retained a major fascination.

Then, in the 1970s, something began to happen. Sporting bikes began to grow in appeal and even though bicycle racing was a minor sport by any definition it was sufficiently popular that two popular moves, Breaking Away and American Flyers came out about the sport in 1979 and 1985.  In the 1980s high grade racing bikes began to show up in fairly common adult use.  Mountain Bikes, a brand new type of bike made for rugged use, appeared at this time and opened up the trails to bikes in a way that only rugged Swiss bicycle troops had been able to endure before.  And mountain bikes proved so popular that they soon displaced touring bikes nearly entirely and became the bike of choice for thousands of urban and suburban bicyclist.

Now, bikes have sort of regained their intellectual hold as a means of transportation for everyday use, although they aren't anywhere nearly extensively used as they once were.  Cities and towns are accommodating them, however, and in some localities free bicycles are available for use by those in urban areas.

On Riding A Bicycle

Most summers I ride my bicycle to work quite a bit.  I do that as it forces me to get a bit of exercise, it saves on the use of diesel fuel, and because I just like doing it. This year, however, I got around to that for the first time today.  I didn't get a chance earlier as it seems the City of Casper and the State of Wyoming has determined to rip up every street I might conceivable wish to ride on this summer, simultaneously.  On my way here today, for example, I went through two construction zones.

 

British Army bicycle, World War Two.

I have noticed more intrepid bicyclists riding through the highway construction zone near my house, so not all have been deterred.  In watching them, and in riding this morning, I've been reminded by some of the odd behavior bicyclists exhibit, and which motorist also exhibit in regards to them.  Only a minority of each exhibit these traits, but still, its interesting.

The dangerous motorist exceptions.

One thing that riding a bicycle causes you to encounter are the dangerous motorist, of which there are two types. The Super Courteous Motorist, and the Super Aggressive Motorist.  This morning, I encountered the Super Courteous Motorist.

People of this type, when encountering a bicycle stopped at an intersection, will choose to yield their right of way even it means getting everyone killed in the process.

That's what I encountered this morning.  I was stopped on a quiet residential street I take that intersects a very heavily traveled street. All I have to do is what a car, or a pedestrian, would do, which is wait for a break in traffic.  It's not a long wait.  Still, some motorist came to a screeching halt on the busy street nearly causing a fast moving car behind her to nearly plow right into her rear end.  She simply parked there in the street, with cars whipping around here, expecting me to proceed out into traffic.  I'm not going to do that, as she's the only party yielding and the same rules of the road that apply to cars, apply to me.  Finally, I had to get her moving again by repeatedly waiving her on, while other motorist went right around her.  I suspect she was probably insulted by my refusal to bike out into heavy traffic to validate her courtesy.  Still, it's not a very thoughtful action in the true sense. She was very nearly injured by the fact that a car behind her had to avoid crashing into her, and I would have been injured had I taken her offer up.

The opposite of this is the person who seemingly takes personal exception to somebody riding a bike.  They're not going to yield an inch, not even to give you a little more room when you are already over the fog line.  Doggone it, if they can't be bothered to ride, you can't either, even if it means blasting by you when they know they're close.

The arrogant bicyclist exception.

Just as there's a Super Aggressive Motorist, there's the super aggressive bicyclist.  These people know they have the same legal rights as automobiles, and they're going to use them. They ride in the travel lane no matter what.

The problem here is that bikes are actually not all that easy to see, and if a motorist doesn't see them, it's bad for the bicyclist.  Some bikers just won't acknowledge that for some odd reason.  As an example of this, the other day on my way to work I fell behind a bicyclist who absolutely refused to yield to vehicles.  We were in a 40 mph zone at the time, and he was riding fast, but not all that fast. Still, I slowed down and simply rode behind him. When the road divided and became two lanes, he kept it up. At that point the speed limit drops to 30 mph, but most people keep on going 40 mph.  I dropped my speed, and a person pulled out to pass me but did notice him.

What's the point of that.  If you get hit by a car, you're doomed. Wake up.

The funky bicyclist.

It's been a feature of American life since the late 1970s that anything the boomers take up comes with a new set of clothing no matter how long people have undertaken the activity.  So it is with bicycling.

Bikes first entered the American scene in numbers in the 1890s, where they were really the vehicle that really liberated people from what they cold do on foot in the cities.  Bikes have been around ever since, but it wasn't until the 1990s that people thought they had to dress like they were in the Tour de France to ride a bike.

If you look at photos from any era prior to that, you'll find a lot of people dressed in every day clothing riding bikes.  Men in suits, students in their day clothes, even soldiers in their uniforms.  Now people seem to think they have to wear a jersey and tight shorts.

Well, being a contrarian, I'm having none of it.  I've ridden a bike to work in the summer for 25 years and I wear my office clothes doing that.  Some days that means a tie.  I'm not going to ride in the Tour de France but I'm just as much of a bicyclist in the traditional sense as those guys.  I can wear what I want, and frankly a lot of people who don't race bikes (I get it for bicycle racers) could dress a little more normally as well.

Welcome To Alaska, Where Winter Is Cold And Bikes Are Fat : NPR

Welcome To Alaska, Where Winter Is Cold And Bikes Are Fat : NPR

Hmmm. . . .maybe as the snow just won't quit this year, I ought to invest in one of these.

Did see these for rent last year in Jackson. They're pretty neat.

The high tech alternative to horses. . . . the bicycle

It's strange to think of it now, but at the turn of the prior century it wasn't the automobile that was seen as the modern alternative to the horse, but the bicycle.

Bicycles were all the rage.  They took cities by storm as average people saw them as a cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, alternative to walking, or in some cases riding, that didn't require any feed.  Their advance was so extensive that they were even adopted by Armies, with even the U.S. Army trying them out in the West.  Indeed, probably to the surprise of most modern Americans, some European armies, including the German Army, continued to use bicycles for some troops up to and through World War Two.  The Swiss Army still has bicycle using units, and the U.S. Army has very recently experimented with a bike that can fold up into a small portable size.

The early bikes compared very favorably with the automobile too. They were not a great deal slower and they were much, much, cheaper to own.  And they were much quicker than walking, which is actually how most town and city people got around.  Contrary to the popular imagination, while there were thousands of horses in the cities, most average city and town dwellers did not ride, and did not own a horse. They walked.  Bikes, therefore, looked pretty good.

All things being equal, a visionary of 1900 would have had every reason to look forward and see a future with lots of bicycles, a few automobiles, and fewer horses.

We've linked in a couple of interesting blog sites this morning dealing with the U.S. Army and bicycles.  The Army's experimentation with bikes didn't last long, that go around, but it shows how in vogue they were.