In 1884, Mark Twain wrote
“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it--if you live.”
In an unpublished essay titled “Taming the Bicycle,” Twain details his daring efforts to learn to ride a large-wheeled “penny-farthing” bicycle invented by James Starley in 1871 (Levinson).
To Twain’s
likely relief, Starley's nephew, John Kemp Starley, invented the first
“safety” bicycle called The Rover a year later (“Icons of
Invention”). His creation of a better balanced and chain driven bicycle
propelled the product to become one of the most popular consumer goods of the
next century.
Through the
Gilded Age, public perception of the bicycle went from that of a dangerous play
toy for rich daredevil men to a popular, practical device for the working class
that everyone could use.
Bicycles were
expensive at first and not available to everyone. Robert Smith, author of A Social History of the Bicycle, estimates
that “any of the nearly two-thousand men employed in cycle plants in 1890 would
have had to work nearly half a year at the prevailing wage to purchase one of
the machines he helped assemble” (Smith 26).
Perhaps they
were better off waiting. Early bike enthusiasts bought bikes before innovations
like the invention of the pneumatic tire and the subsequent inventions of
brakes and gears made the hobby safer. After possibly the scariest beta tests
in history, bicycle prices began to drop in 1893, as a result of public
pressure and overproduction on the part of the manufacturers (25).
Bikes
became a popular form of recreation and a practical machine, stimulating many
business innovations of the era. Bicycles provided an energy efficient
alternative to horses and brought rapid individual transit before the mass
production of affordable cars. The innovations in mass production--including mechanization, vertical integration, and aggressive advertising—would all
become ideas that the automobile industry adopted soon. Many automobile makers
began their training in bicycle plants.
The bicycle
became a major consumer good. Major bicycle manufacturers spent between $4
million to $9 million a year to advertise bikes in newspapers designed to
market the “identity” of a cyclist (Furness 17).
Though early models of the
bicycle were marketed towards the upper class (costing around $100 to $150),
the bicycle had become affordable to working people by the turn of the 20th
century (Smith 17).
In 1895, suffragist Frances Willard wrote in her book, A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle:
Tens of thousands who could never afford to own, feed and stable a horse, had by this bright invention enjoyed the swiftness of motion which is perhaps the most fascinating feature of material life (Willard 11).The president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union emphasized how important the bicycle had been in reviving her health and political optimism, using a bike as a metaphor for politics of action, stating "I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum"(“A Whole Philosophy of Life”).
Though the
bicycle created some friction with the horse and buggy industry, it expanded
possibilities for cities. Cycling created demand for suitable roads to provide
ambulances, policemen, postmen, and other bicycle-savvy solutions to problems. The League of American Wheelmen lobbied for paved roads with the financial
assistance of Columbia bike manufacturer, Albert Augustus Pope. They created
pamphlets and magazines such as “The Gospel of Good Roads” and Outing, propagandizing the need to
legalize biking, to build roads, and to implement safety features (Furness 18).
Businesses
such as farmers, hotels, and inns benefited from tourism created by bikes
journeying into rural areas (Smith 54). The bike boom brought about change by
connecting communities closer together not only through building roads but also
by emergence of amateur social cycling clubs and professional bicycle races
(“Bicycling” 46). Bicycle culture created industries for accessories and uniforms
associated with cycling clubs. The social benefit of the bike would soon quiet
complaints from even the bicycle's harshest critics.
At the onset
of the bicycle craze, physicians’ accused the bicycle of producing “chronic
disease” while priests condemned it as “diabolical devices of the demon of
darkness” (Smith 1). Cycling soon proved to not only to be beneficial for
strengthening the lungs, improving circulation and building muscle tone but it
also changed America's conception of moral propriety and social rules (67). The
bicycle was touted as an alternative exercise for women to horse riding in 1890
(Tyng 61). Not only did the bike provide for good exercise but also many people
argued that it also encouraged temperance because it deterred men from drinking
so they could control their bicycle.
Though
originally marketed to men, women began to use bicycles and it changed their
fashion choices from clothing like the restrictive corset to more comfortable
clothing such as bloomers. Though some would criticize bicycle fashion as a
moral decay, most would welcome “rational dress” as a “reform that had been
long demanded by common sense” (Smith 109). Susan B. Anthony affirmed the progress the bicycle had brought about for women, stating in a New York Sunday World interview on February 2, 1896:
Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel...the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood (Bly 10).
While the
bicycle enabled greater freedom for the working class and for women, the
bicycle's freedom on the roads became somewhat of a liability given its unique
status.
Many people considered bicyclists menaces on the road. Taxi cab drivers and “teamsters” (previously used as a term for horse-and-buggy drivers rather than truck drivers) tried to have cycling defined as a “hazardous occupation” (Smith 198). Bicycles would be given the same rights as other vehicles in 1897 along with the restrictions and responsibilities that those laws imposed (197).
Many people considered bicyclists menaces on the road. Taxi cab drivers and “teamsters” (previously used as a term for horse-and-buggy drivers rather than truck drivers) tried to have cycling defined as a “hazardous occupation” (Smith 198). Bicycles would be given the same rights as other vehicles in 1897 along with the restrictions and responsibilities that those laws imposed (197).
George Bernard
Shaw would joke over three decades later, “newspapers are unable seemingly to
discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization”
(Moyers 3). Sensationalist accidents and ensuing social stigma marginalized the
cycling. Despite having literally paved the road for the possibility of other
vehicles, the bicycle presence began to decrease as roads became more heavily
populated.
The
bicycle remains a fixture of American culture with approximately 16 million
bikes being sold in the United States every year (“Facts and Figures”).
Approximately 66% of the 130 million bicycles sold globally are made in China
(Panday). However, its role in broader society has changed dramatically. The
bicycle is still viewed as a luxury item of conspicuous yet pragmatic
consumption. A bicycle provides still fulfills superfluous fashion goals of
Gilded Age status seekers. Consumer marketing has changed from materialism to
an identity of ideals. The bicycle still serves as a symbol of self-reliance to
its current enthusiasts, while also representing an environmental and safer
alternative to the automobile.
While cyclists
relish in their hobby, the majority of society today looks upon them in a
different light. Today, less than one percent of all commuters use bicycles to
commute to work (Furness 30). Motorists consider bicycles a nuisance and an
obstacle in the way of their road. Society still reveres bicycles as a form of
recreation and exercise today, but mostly as a childhood right of passage. The
motorist-cyclist reveals that many people may no longer view cycling as a legitimate
adult form of transportation.
Zach Furness highlights in One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobiles how society perceives bicycles as a “childish” device. Furness cites an example of this trope in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Steve Carell's character, Andy Stitzer, rides a bike to work. Andy Stitzer's coworkers, friends, and girlfriend consider his bike evidence of his childish inability to grow up, his virginity (Furness 111). Ultimately, his girlfriend buys him a bike, embracing his quirkiness but the damage is done; Stitzer’s bicycle is a silly remnant of his childhood to be tossed away, losing his innocence after he brutally wrecks in the road.
Zach Furness highlights in One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobiles how society perceives bicycles as a “childish” device. Furness cites an example of this trope in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Steve Carell's character, Andy Stitzer, rides a bike to work. Andy Stitzer's coworkers, friends, and girlfriend consider his bike evidence of his childish inability to grow up, his virginity (Furness 111). Ultimately, his girlfriend buys him a bike, embracing his quirkiness but the damage is done; Stitzer’s bicycle is a silly remnant of his childhood to be tossed away, losing his innocence after he brutally wrecks in the road.
Just as
bicyclists brushed off criticisms from detractors in the Gilded Age, bicyclists
today reject the judgments from those that deem bicycling unworthy of their
status on the streets. They have embraced their antagonistic role in the road
while also asserting that they can abide by the “grown up” rules designed to
ensure their safety. Bicyclists have successfully petitioned government to
build bike lanes in many cities. Nevertheless, bicycles face a danger
especially in urban areas. In 2009, 630 pedalcyclist deaths accounted for 2
percent of all traffic fatalities during the year. Seventy percent of those
deaths occurred in urban areas (“Bicyclists and Other Cyclists”). When Mark
Twain warned that you would enjoy a bicycle “if you live” he was commenting on
the dangerous design of the penny-farthing he rode; today, after all the
possible safety innovations created for and required of bicycles to legally
ride, the external threat of the automobile poses the greatest threat to
cyclists’ lives.
Many
bicyclists consider themselves activists with a duty to highlight the
injustices that car culture perpetuates. Cyclists have begun to use their
bicycles as a method of protest. One example of this kind of protest is the
recent series of naked bike rides that have occurred all across the country to
promote awareness of how cars pose a threat to their safety, both on the road
and environmentally. These naked protests share the spirit of disregarding
dominant concepts of social propriety as their predecessors in the bicycle
craze, while emphasizing the idea of positive body image that can be achieved
through cycling.
Through
bicycle activism, the bike has a chance to represent more than just sentiments
about road safety, healthy lifestyle, and fashion; the bicycle has become a
physical manifestation of individual power that accepts individual
responsibility. At the same time, the egalitarian nature of bicycle culture
welcomes both the amateur and the professional. Although the bicycle was
designed for the individual, the roads bicyclists demanded demonstrate the
possibility of collective effort in producing social benefits and bridging
social connections.
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“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."
-Ernest Hemingway
"'A Whole Philosophy of Life' : Wisdom from the greatest book ever written about learning to ride." Bicycling. Nov. 2006: Gale Biography In Context. Web. 28 Sep. 2011.
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"Facts and Figures.” League of American Bicyclists. 2011. Web. 28 Sep. 2011. <http://www.bikeleague.org/media/facts/#americans>
Furness, Zach. One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobiles. Temple University Press. Philadelphia, PA. 2010. Print.
“Icons of Invention: Rover safety bicycle, 1885.” Making The Modern World. 2004. Web. 28 Sep. 2011. http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/icons_of_invention/technology/1880-1939/IC.025/>
Levinson, Cythia. “The Amazing Bicycle Tamer.” Cobblestone. Peterborough. May/June 2009; 30, 5; Web. 28 Sep. 2011.
Moyers, Bill. "Big Odds and Small Acts of Rebellion." Vital Speeches of the Day. 77.1 (2011): 3-10. Military & Government Collection. EBSCO. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.
Panday, Amit. “The Business of Bicycles.” Dare. Web. <http://www.dare.co.in/opportunities/manufacturing/the-business-of-bicycles.htm>
Smith, Robert A. A Social History of the Bicycle. American Heritage Press. 1972. Print.
Tyng, Emma Moffet. “Exercise For Women.” Harper's Bazaar (1867-1912); Aug 9, 1890; 23, 32; American Periodicals Series Online. Web. 28 Sep. 2011.
Willard, Franics E. A Wheel Within A Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle. Woman's Temperance Publishing Association. Chicago, IL.1895. Web. 28 Sep. 2011. <http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=CUAfAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA11>
