GETTY^ IMAGES20 SMITHSONIAN.COM | December 2019prologue
TECHNOLOGYning over cyclists , or spitting tobacco at them. Pe-
destrians got in fi stfi ghts with cyclists who collided
with them, or even pushed them into the path of
oncoming trolley cars. “With park guards unfriend-
ly, and policemen openly hostile,” the New York Sun
noted, cyclists had plenty of opposition. New York’s
city council banned bikes from public parks; in retal-
iation, the founder of the country’s biggest bicycle
fi rm encouraged three cyclists to deliberately break
the law so he could mount a court challenge.
Initially, doctors fretted that cycling would cause
health problems, such as “bicycle face,” a rictus sup-
posedly caused by holding your mouth in grimace
and your eyes wide open. “Once fi xed upon the coun-
tenance, it can never be removed,” a journalist sober-
ly warned. Or beware “kyphosis bicyclistarum,” a per-
manent hunching of the back, acquired from bending
over the handlebars to go faster. Soon, though, these
quack diagnoses faded; it was obvious that cycling
improved health. Indeed, doctors advised cycling to
help exercise the increasingly sedentary, desk-bound
offi ce workers of the new industrial economy.ANOTHER BIG SOCIAL CHANGE the bicycle wrought
was in the lives of middle-class American women.
In the Victorian period up until then, geographically
speaking, “their lives were very circumscribed—they
were supposed to stay home and take care of the fam-
ily,” notes Margaret Guroff , author of The Mechanical
Horse: How the Bicycle Reshaped American Life. Trav-
eling far under their own steam wasn’t easy for young
middle-class women, given that they wore heavy pet-
ticoats and corsets.
Riding a bicycle felt like a burst of independence.
“Finally you could go where you wanted, on your
own,” Macy says. “When you were riding a cycle your
mother didn’t know where you were!” Young women
could meet potential paramours on the road, instead
of having their parents size them up in their living
room. Soon women were 30 percent of all cyclists,
using the newfangled technology to visit friends and
travel the countryside. It was empowering. “Cycling
is fast bringing about this change of feelings regard-
ing women and her capabilities,” the Minneapolis
Tribune wrote. “A woman awheel is an independent
creature, free to go where she will.”
It even changed clothing. Feminists had long
promoted the “rational dress” movement, arguing
that women should be allowed to wear “bloomers,”
blousy pants; but it had never caught on. Bicycles,
though, made the prospect of wearing “bifurcat-
ed raiment” newly practical. Skirts got caught inof people died riding penny farthings,” notes Mi-
chael Hutchinson, a bike racer and author of Re:Cy-
clists, a history of cycling.
The bicycle didn’t truly reach the mainstream until
engineers began selling the “safety” bike in the 1890s.
With infl atable tires, it off ered a gentler, less bone-shak-
ing ride, and the chain propelling the back wheel left
the front free for steering. Now this was something
anyone could ride—and anyone did, as dozens of bike
fi rms fl ooded the market. The bicycle craze was born.
“People were buying a new bike every year, they
wanted to have the latest model—it was like the
iPhone today,” says Robert Turpin, a historian at
Lees-McRae College and author of First Taste of Free-
dom, a study of early bicycle marketing. Bicycle ads
fl ourished and Americans devoured bicycling maga-
zines. “There were daily bicycling print publications,”
marvels Sue Macy, author of Wheels of Change.
Cyclists took to city parks, or fl ed crowded urban
areas. Some challenged themselves to ride 100 miles
in a day. Clubs formed for outings and races, and
long-disused roadhouses were rehabilitated to ser-
vice cyclists on long journeys. “Everything is bicy-
cle,” as the author Stephen Crane quipped.
To many, cycling embodied the very spirit of
American freedom and equality. “As a social revolu-
tioniser it has never had an equal,” Scientifi c Ameri-
can observed in 1896. “It has put the human race on
wheels, and has thus changed many of the most or-
dinary processes and methods of social life. It is the
great leveller.” By 1900, there were more than 1.25
million cyclists in the United States.
Confl ict ensued. Horses, in particular, would bolt
or panic at the approach of a madly pedaling cyclist.
Some livery drivers fought back by deliberately run-Invented in 1817,
the “dandy
horse” had no
pedals or brakes.
It required riders
to use their
feet to propel it
along or skid
to a stop.