A Bike For All Reasons

Man invented the wheel an awfully long time ago, so why did it take him so long to invent the Bicycle? The word Bicycle comes from a mash-up of a Latin and a Greek word, which is interesting because I didn’t know the ancient civilisations had bikes. But then having said that, somebody may have designed one, but decided that the roads were so awful, it would be difficult riding it. No change there then!

We, who have been brought up with transport of all descriptions and being available to anyone who cares to pay for it, must find it difficult to imagine the lack of it. Transport for ordinary people had been the same for centuries. A horse or donkey if you were lucky, a cart or wagon if you were even luckier, and a carriage with a driver and footman if you were wealthy. But on the whole most people walked which probably limited the majority of folks to living and working in their own little corner of the world.

The first recorded two-wheeler was the Dandy Horse, invented by Baron Karl von Drais in 1817. Made of wood, it was little more than a long seat with two wheels and handlebars to steer with. There were no pedals, so the rider had to push with their feet to make any progress. A bit like toddlers do with their push-along toys.

As with most good ideas, the bicycle slowly evolved into something more useful. Pedals, a chain and a crank were added so that the front wheel could be driven. This resulted in a large wheel at the front which finally morphed into the Penny Farthing. It’s amazing that such a ridiculous mode of transport should ever have existed, but we’ve all seen the evidence.

By the end of the nineteenth century, bicycles were looking a lot more like the two-wheelers we ride today. The frames were metal, the chain drive had been successfully linked to the rear wheel by means of a crank and pneumatic tyres added. The frame also went through a makeover giving it a V-shape which meant that the rider could sit in a better position to control the bike. Remarkably, the addition of brakes didn’t come until the latter end of the century, so going downhill and stopping suddenly must have been quite hairy experiences.

Roads were at best just tracks that turned into dust in the summer or mud trails in the winter. But along with everything else, the road building system was developed and with the engineering skills of Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam the metaled road became the norm. At last, a bike and a surface which could be ridden on.

If you think that the Penny Farthing was an absurd machine, I have come across some even wackier ones in my research. The Pedamotive had four large wheels which you sat in the middle of, the Tandem Tricycle with side-by-side seats, a Quadracycle, again for two people, and the Boneshaker. Bikes with huge wheels, others with covers, and strange elongated Tricycles. Some came with six, seven and even ten seats and must have gone at an astronomical speed with all that pedal power. It was mainly men that cycled, but women were becoming much more adventurous, specially the suffragists who wanted to hoist up their skirts and get moving. Even Queen Victoria rode a tricycle called the Royal Salvo.

The Victorian era brought in a bit more affluence to the middle classes and some of it trickled down to the working class. There was also more in the way of leisure time and bicycles became an item to aspire to. But they were not cheap, and the Standard Saxon Club Model would have cost you £9, a fortune in the early twentieth century which could be paid off at £1 down and twelve payments of 14s 6d. All that when a common labourer would earn about 3s 6d (42p in today’s terminology) for a 60 hour week. For those that could afford a bike it meant freedom and independence. You could go to work, visit friends or simply have a ride out and save so much time. Cycling clubs began to spring up and groups of mainly young men would go out for Sunday rides. My Grandad was in a cycling club, and there is a photo of him somewhere with the whole group. I know he lived in Portsmouth and worked in the family Bakery and I had hoped that I had found his old club, The Portsmouth North End Cycling Club which was founded in 1900 and is still going strong. I’m amazed they still have the information but a search of the records did not find his name. However, it was kind of them to check for me.

Since their invention the humble bicycle has taken its place in the history of transport development and some of the uses to which it has been put are astonishing. We know that Postmen did deliveries on them (some still do), and Policemen haven’t always driven round in Panda cars. A messenger service is a great use, but who would have thought that Firefighting would be on the list? The cycles were adapted to take a hose reel, siren and bell, with a crowbar, axe and helmet on the rear rack. The military also made use of this handy item and the Bicycle Infantry was a cost effective unit, taking up less space than a horse and much cheaper to maintain. There are even tales of escaped prisoners of war, finding a bike and taking it to make good their escape.

But the ones we are most familiar with were used for deliveries, with big baskets on the front, a sturdy stand, and a metal board in the middle bearing the name of the Butcher, Baker or Greengrocer whose goods were being delivered. It was usually the apprentice or the youngest in the shop who had to cycle for miles, delivering goods and collecting money. I heard tell recently of one Greengrocer who sent his lad out every Friday to make a delivery in Hull. The shop was in Market Weighton and the 20 mile journey started with a climb up a very steep hill and must have taken him a couple of hours, laden down and then he had to go all the way back home again. There were also Knife Grinders who would travel around sharpening knives using a special adaptation on the bike and if you lived in Wales or on the south coast of England, you would have seen Onion Sellers from Brittany every summer. Let’s also hear it for Clowns and Acrobats for whom the Unicycle is an important piece of kit. Some people have a hard time balancing on two wheels, never mind just the one.

York, Oxford and Cambridge are cities that seem to be synonymous with cycling, being very flat areas. I remember when I first moved to York in the 1970s, being amazed at the number of cyclists on the roads when a factory shift ended at Rowntrees, Nestle, Redfern Glass and the Carriageworks. I could imagine that at least 75% of the workforce cycled to and from work and they filled the streets as they rode home, two, three and four abreast, chatting with each other about the day, or where they would meet up later. It wasn’t just York either as this is just an illustration of what would be happening in cities and towns across the country. If you were in a vehicle behind that lot, you could forget being in a hurry.

Out in the wider world, the bicycle is a favoured mode of transport in many countries. Think bike, think China, India, Belgium and many other places. The Netherlands is heaven for the cyclist with their special cycle lanes that can take you all over the country. For many of them the bike is a almost as good as a car and I have often seen children/friends/lovers hopping on the cycle rack for a lift, never mind the specially adapted seat at the front for a toddler. But the most enduring site for a lot of people visiting the Netherlands are the bike racks outside every station where what looks like thousands of bikes are parked each day whilst the owners, having ridden from home, hop on a train to work in the city. How on earth they find their own bike at the end of the day beats me?

Many people took to their bikes during lockdown, for fitness and because the roads were so quiet it made life a lot safer. In fact, the activity became so popular that it effected a boom in bicycle sales of almost 60% as more people took to two wheels. We rode out every day in the first period of Lockdown and put some serious mileage in; it gave us some exercise, a lot of pleasure and eased the boredom! Some of us ride our bikes locally on a daily basis, but the serious cyclists are quite awesome. They can be seen in their lycra gear, often in packs, although just as happy alone, tearing through the countryside at a speed that I can only envy. Not for them the flat streets of places like York, but the challenging rugged hillsides of the Yorkshire Moors and Wolds, or the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District and beyond. It makes me tired just thinking about it, but if that is your passion then it’s a good, healthy one. I wonder if their daydreams would be about competing in races like the Giro d’Italia or winning the Tour de France.

Bicycles are as subject to change and fashion as most things in the modern world. We have seen the BMX, the Tricycle, the Tandem and the Chopper among many and with newer, lightweight materials, Touring bikes and Racing bikes are so much faster, especially for the serious cyclist. Car racks mean that you can take your bike that bit further, but if you don’t want that you can always take a Folding bike. Put it in your car, take it on the bus, or even park it in the corner of your office.

Bicycles are good for so many reasons, not least health and fitness, but a cyclist is very vulnerable and often at the mercy of the motorist, and for some strange reason the sight of someone on a bike can provoke a number of reactions. Anger at the stupidity of 'big boys' on little bikes with a death wish, and anxiety at the responsibility of overtaking so that instead of hanging back, some motorists go so wide that they almost crash into the oncoming traffic. Then there is jealousy that cyclist don’t pay a road tax and the number of bad jokes about cyclists going through Red traffic lights are legion. The sad truth about the latter is that far more motorists jump Red lights and the prospect is much more dangerous. I try not to get exasperated with the state of our third world roads, with their potholes and sunken repair trenches, 75% of which seem to be just where a cyclist travels. But I do despair of some cyclists too. The ones who drift out without a signal, or just a small hand. Indicating with an arm is so much safer and to stay safe we need to see and be seen. Which is why the cyclist without lights at night also grieves me.

Overall, I’ve had a lifetime of happy cycling, from riding my old sit up and beg Hercules all over Scarborough as a youngster, to doing the Leeds / Liverpool canal on my touring bike; but the time is coming when my next bike will be one of the new Electric models. Let the bike take the strain. Super. So next time you see someone on a bike, just think, it could be me; don’t forget to wave.