Bicycle Boom

Today we are experiencing under the pandemic a bicycle boom.

The first bicycle boom was in the 1890s after the advent of the “safety” bicycle. By the mid-1890s, some 300 American companies were churning out over a million bicycles a year.* New York Times article, 2015/07/14 

By 1897, about 300,000 people — 1 of every 5 Chicagoans — were riding bikes, a city official estimated.*Chicago Tribune article, https://www.chicagotribune.com › news › ct-bicycle-craze-flashback-0427...May 3, 2014

I came of age riding in the 1970s—another bike-mad time.

Wheelmen clubs began sprouting up all across the country. In Dayton, Ohio there was a wheelmen club that I contacted after going through the city phone directory. (Remember those things?!) A gentleman who answered the phone told me about a weekly ride in Kettering I could join.

There was no official uniform or jersey; we rode in whatever was comfortable. A few people wore the cycling caps. Back then no one wore a helmet. I’m not sure if helmets were even sold in bicycle shops. I rode with the group a couple of times. Later, I saw in the wheelmen newsletter that the guy who had invited me to join the “wheelmen” had been killed outside of Oregonia when a dog ran out in front of him and he was catapulted over his handlebars. I believe after reading this I went out and found a helmet.

From 1970 to 1974 baby boomers created a surge in cycling. Sales to adults outstripped bicycles sold to children. In 1971 86% of Schwinn sales were to adults. The 10-speed was growing in popularity, making it possible to cycle further with ease. Bicycles outsold cars in the United States in 1972.  

I'm smart enough to make a chart--but can't figure out how to insert it into blogger😢

I can’t explain why the 70s fermented so much bike activity. Perhaps, it was the back-to-nature movement or the counter culture or the 1973 oil embargo that drove people to bike. During the first Earth Day in 1970, activists and protesters at San Jose State College buried a new Ford Maverick on campus in a 12-foot-deep grave. Concerned Bike Riders for the Environment rode through Los Angeles wearing gas masks. In 1971, Time noted that the U.S. was riding “the bicycle’s biggest wave of popularity in its 154-year history,” and that 64 million Americans were regularly using bikes.