14th Street Bridge Approach Still Not Perfect

Of course, what is perfect. Not much.

I have not been commuting by bike since early October (2018) when I had some surgery. At the time, work had started at the DC end of the 14th St Bridge across the Potomac for the pedestrian/cyclist access. There was a relatively narrow strip of asphalt that followed the contour of the hill towards the Jefferson Memorial - this was widened.


Looking towards Virginia

Above you can see the main enhancements, such as they are - before there was just some poorly applied asphalt to the right of the two poles in the photograph. They added and redid the asphalt so there is more of it for cyclists and pedestrians inbound and outbound can maneuver better at the approach to the bridge. Not visible, reflect panels were added to the far pole so that cyclists on the bridge riding in the dark won't plow into the pole. I am disappointed that they didn't add a railing - if you made a mistake and went over the wood edge material you would be seriously injured going down the hill.


Looking in to DC


Not very friendly supports for road railing

If a cyclist makes a mistake where the asphalt curves in and falls, a cyclist could easily fall onto the ends of the girders that support the road railing. This was true before, of course, but this was project was supposed to be a comprehensive improvement.

American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America (Book Review)

American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America by Jamie Smith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the third book by Jamie Smith about American bicycle racing, the American bicycle racing scene (as perhaps one can still say). I read his first book, published ten years about (also by VeloPress) -
Roadie
. He has a more recent book, Reading the Race, written with Chris Horner is (apparently) intended as an instructional book for road bike racer-beginners - I have some interest in reading it but haven't got around to it yet.

VeloPress has some further background information on Mr. Smith.

The first book, Roadie, was intended to be somewhat humorous but this third book is more of a narrative where the humor that appears is part of what the narrative describes. The author's goal is to clarify what much of professional cycling racing at the levels below the World Tour (ie, Tour de France type events) is like in the U.S. today. He describes five seasons (2012-2016) of racing by a particular team that competed both in road events and criteriums.

You don't have to know that much about bicycle racing to enjoy the book. He doesn't focus a lot of attention on the bicycles themselves and their technology. Most of the narrative is more about the people involved and the challenges of this kind of semi-professional sport. The approach is mostly chronological covering the five separate seasons but there are some separate chapters, such as one on how families often host bicycle racers. Any book on bicycle racing has to have some blow-by-blow descriptions of interesting races and Smith is good at those.

Very nice.



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Cyclist Safety - Is it Really that Hard to Understand??

I found this on the Internet, from the govt of the state of Georgia.

GEORGIA DOT RESEARCH PROJECT 13-17 - FINAL REPORT
BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN SAFETY IN THE [Georgia] HIGHWAY SAFETY MANUAL - July 2016
http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/ggp/query:_ca:%22GA+T700.R4+M1+2016+B53%22

Abstract: An accurate understanding of the expected effectiveness of bicycle and pedestrian safety countermeasures is needed to support decisions about how to best allocate limited public resources to increase safety for non-motorized users. However, the kind of data necessary for developing Highway Safety Manual (HSM)–style safety performance functions for bicycle and pedestrian treatments are not currently available. Limited research has been done to date about the impact of bicycle and pedestrian treatments, and most studies are not robust enough to draw broad conclusions. Most agencies surveyed valued safety as a key component of their decision to implement infrastructure, but most did not collect enough exposure and crash data to adequately assess the safety impacts. The two major challenges in using crash records for bicycle safety research are that crashes in general and cyclist crashes specifically are underreported, and pedestrian and bicycle crashes are rare events. Therefore, GDOT should pursue case-control approaches in the immediate and build toward more robust data collection, including new sources for bicycle and pedestrian crash data, counts for exposure data, and site-specific before-and-after treatment data collection.

As I read this, bicycle and pedestrian accidents are sufficiently rare and/or not reported that their approach will be to wait until there are more reported accidents and then study the subject. But in the meanwhile . . . after all, those resources that you might allocate are limited. Etc.

Also, the pseudo-military phrasing, "expected effectiveness of bicycle and pedestrian safety countermeasures," sounds like it concerned with measures to oppose rather than support safety, but who knows. And why do they refer to "bicycle and pedestrian safety" and not "cyclist and pedestrian safety?"

Strange.

When Is an eBike No Longer a Bike?

This Gazelle (from the Netherlands) appeared on the bike rack in the garage where I work.



I am amused (or something) by the seat on the bike rack, which I guess is intended for a child too large for a conventional kid's bike seat. It would put a fair amount of weight relatively high up.

The entire bike is quite heavy. Out of curiosity I tried lifting it by the back rack and I would guess the whole thing is at least 60 pounds. So a certain amount of what the electric motor is doing is assuring all the bike's own weight gets down the road, before it starts in with the rider. Or riders, in this case.

Given the weight, I would expect hydraulic disk brakes, but it has conventional rim brakes. Perhaps you aren't expected to go that fast, but with this much weight and rim brakes, you would have less stopping power than you might want and go through brake pads at a pretty good clip. You would probably go through (expensive) wheel rims much more often than most people expect (which I think is typically never - people don't expect to wear through wheel rims with rim braking).

The Gazelle USA site suggests this kind of eBike costs somewhere upward of $2,500 - many of their models are around $3,500.

I guess because of the cost (value?), the owner of this thing has a chain that he uses to lock it to the rack. Most people do lock their bikes to the rack in this garage, but I don't see the point - there is no public access to this garage. I prefer to keep the time I don't spend messing around with bike locks. And certainly I don't carry a massive chain with me! Or any chain, actually. I use the strap on helmet through part of the frame to assure the bike doesn't fall down during the day - this is the worst sort of bike rack for that.

One realizes how things change looking at this - the Dutch Gazelle bike aesthetic (or something like that) for me was always a simple, mostly steel bike - utilitarian and simple. Ageless. This thing has heaps of plastic (that will most certainly age poorly) and I don't think "simple" is a word that comes to mind, although I guess it is utilitarian.


"A Timeless Classic" from user MacFred64 on Flickr (CC license)

This probably pigeonholes me as an aging cyclist frump of some kind. Oh well.

New Video (from 1965) "Magic of the Bicycle" (from Schwinn)

Part of the Library of Congress National Screening Room.

Summary: From MacDonald inventory: Historical profile of the development of the first bicycles beginning in the 1800s--various bicycle models shown; high-wheeler, bike without peddles, etc.--first bicycle w/ sprocket and chain gear--newspaper boys delivering paper on bicycles--new bicycle lanes open-up--bikes used in industry and businesses; bikes used to delivery tools to business--bicycle used for adventure trips--couple enjoys romantic time bicycling in the wild--housewife and mother uses bicycle w/ shopping basket to go grocery shopping, "She will save money on gas!"--film promotes bicycling as a good family bonding activity and good for health--bicycle race around track--Jackie Hines, Olympian bike rider and others shown--bike safety features of new model shown--interview w/ Dr. White on the importance of bicycling for good health.

One wonders what the audience was for this promotional video, or where they would have seen it, but clearly Schwinn spent very little on having it created. The doctor who speaks on the health benefits of cycling at the end appears at about 17 minutes into it and takes up about five minutes - he might get 45 seconds today.

Commuting Choices (Mine)

1995 Trek SingleTrack with right set up makes a good commuter

I have a shoulder problem that has meant I had to cut back on bicycling. For a while I wasn't riding at all, which wasn't much fun. Thanks to a cortisone shot, I am riding some now, commuting to and from work most days, which is about 19 miles round trip.

Initially I didn't want to carry my stuff in a backpack or messenger bag as I usually have for more than five (?) years, so I put a rack and fenders on my Trek SingleTrack. This is a good commuter, and the fact that I paid only $65 for it amuses me. Because I started using Metro here and wanted to get the transit subsidy, my agency's transit subsidy person told me I couldn't keep a bicycle parking permit for our garage. This turned out to be wrong, but for a while I was locking up my bike outside during work and I wasn't willing to park a bike that would be sad to have stolen.


1982 Bridgestone Sirius appeals to me more

Fortunately I was able to work out the business with the parking garage and have decided I can use a backpack, so I riding this bike again, which is zippier than the Trek and somehow more fun. Don't get me wrong, the Trek would be an outstanding "I can only have one bike" bike, but since I seem to insist on having 4-6 ridable bikes, the one I want to ride to work on most days is the old Bridgestone.

The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France (Book Review)

From Flickr user Anders - Greg LeMond and the 1989 Tour de France

My rating: 4 of 5 stars - from GoodReads.

It's odd, but the title on the hardcover version I have is "The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France" which is quite different from "30 Shotgun Pellets, and the World's Greatest Bicycle Race."

The central event of the book is, as the title (on the copy I read) suggests, on LeMond's amazing win over Laurent Fignon in the 1989 Tour de France after recovering from being shot in a hunting accident. But to describe this properly, the author presents a reasonably complete biography of LeMond and narrative description of his career both before and after that Tour.

Perhaps of equal importance, this book is about the transition from the LeMond era of professional cycling, when racers could win without doping, to the Lance Armstrong era, when the could not. For the author, then, LeMond is "the true king" of American professional bicycle road racing and Armstrong is not.

After the detailed description of LeMond's second tour victory and a shorter description of his third victory the following year, the book becomes tendentious. The tone changes since for the most part, it is no longer build around bicycle races but instead focusing on who-did-what-to-whom-and-why. Armstrong is the villain while LeMond is a tragic hero. I don't disagree (not that I'm an expert) on anything said here but my sense was that the author ends up launching a discussion of the EPO era in cycling to end his book that is less than convincing because it is so much less detailed and nuanced than what came before - and yet is hardly just a few pages in closing.

One problem for me with some of this is that two different issues are mixed together. One is simply that EPO was so much better a substance when used for doping than all the preceding ones (from strychnine to amphetamines) that it allowed mediocre racers to become winners. The other is that Lance Armstrong in particular was an evil person who orchestrated a successful campaign to discredit and demean LeMond. This is true not just of this book, but other discussions of this time that one reads.

Perhaps a problem is simply my own shame since I was one of many who began to follow the Tour de France mostly thanks to Armstrong's success. This coincided with my own developing interest in cycling (of a far more utilitarian nature). With the complete discrediting of Armstrong I lost interest in bicycle racing generally and the Tour de France in particular. (It is July and I have no idea who any of the leaders are and have not watched one second of footage.) Still, I have found I am still willing to read some books about road racing history, such as this one. And to be clear, I think this is mostly very well done.

This book complements rather nicely "Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11435656-slaying-the-badger published in 2011 that centers on the 1986 Tour de France that LeMond won over Hinault.

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Danes Have Used Bicycles for a While

Photograph of "Danish election returns" in Flickr from the Bain News Service, about 1915

I was slightly surprised to see the prevalence of bicycles represented in this photo of Denmark one hundred years ago. Probably should not have been? The newspaper office that is shown in this photo is in Copenhagen.

I see five or perhaps six bicycles here - all seem to be in the service of men in suits who are riding them in the same way most modern Americans would use a car, that is, to get around, not for exercise or sport.

New Bicycle Project - Panasonic Sport

Purchased as-is yesterday from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative in Alexandria VA

A project, of sorts. Other than the foam handlebar (tape) and one assumes the tires, it appears to be all original. Some parts are not worth speculating about too much - say, the chain. Is this the original chain? Doesn't really matter, I'm not concerned with ending up with a modern operating version of the bike as it was.

To my surprise, the tires hold air and I could immediately ride this thing. The gear levers shift the gears correctly both front and back. I wouldn't ride down a hill at high speed on it since the tires have fatigued looking sidewalls but riding around the block, sure. Also the front wheel spins, but it seems like something with the front wheel bearings is not right. It doesn't seem crunchy like the bearings have deteriorated; more like the grease is gunked up (for lack of a technical term). So with the front wheel as it is, riding more than a short distance would require needless effort.

Slightly over 30 lbs. This was the lowest end Panasonic road bike model available at the time (whenever that was) based on what I see on the Internet. The highly curved front fork, the presence of only five cogs in the back, and the type of rear drop out suggest this is from some time in the 1970s. I like the periwinkle color.

The 1982 Bridgestone road bike frame and fork I once purchased and turned into a good commuter bike presented different issues than this older bike. Also with that, I planned to purchase and add the components while this thing comes "ready to go" - but how much would one really keep? And it probably doesn't make sense to invest much $ in this frame since it is not as good as the Bridgestone was. But the way to learn is from practice, I guess.

Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative, which sells used bikes that it receives as donations after refurbishing them, ends up with too many bikes, so they periodically have these "as-is" sales. I purchased a 1995 Trek SingleTrack from them in December 2015 that I am extremely pleased with, but its situation was quite different than this periwinkle bike. It was missing pedals and a seat and was filthy - like it was covered in kitchen grease. Very odd. But once it was cleaned up and pedals and saddle added, it was good to go. I added some slick more narrow 26 inch tires and it became an outstanding commuter bike. I don't expect anything so useful from this, but who knows.


Previous purchase from Vélocity Bicycle Cooperative

Dog Trailer - a New Experience

Laika (the dog) outside of the trailer

I purchased a Schwinn "Rascal" dog trailer to haul around our Springer Spaniel. She weights around 39 pounds. This trailer is supposed to be OK for dogs up to 50 pounds.

The trailer by itself weights 24 pounds. It is a little on the heavy side, I suppose - which isn't surprising, this trailer costs less than $100 (online). After all, this bicycle by itself only weighs 27 pounds! It has 16 inch wheels, which seems reasonable - that is, bigger isn't necessary in order to have a reasonably smooth ride. It takes a little extra care to make sure that the trailer wheels don't encounter something that they shouldn't, to give the dog a pleasant enough ride. One change I will probably make is to lower the air pressure in the tires; I think the tires could be doing more shock absorbing if they were softer.

Once I discovered that there are trailers intended for dogs, I stopped looking at ones intended for hauling small children. A trailer for one child seemed too small while the ones for two children were larger than this one.


Laika in the trailer

I don't think of this as being a high speed experience. I don't think Laika would care for it, for one thing. This bike is good for that since it has lots of low gearing.

Bike to Work Day 2018

6:30 in the morning at the Shirlington "pit stop" for Bike to Work Day in Arlington, VA

I was surprised to read in the Wikipedia entry on Bike to Work Day that it was created by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956. I would have guessed much more recently.


From BTWD ride in 2011 - it doesn't always rain on BTWD

I have a somewhat ambiguous relationship with BTWD - I commute almost religiously; that is, I hardly get to and from work any other way than by bicycle. In theory I want more people to ride because it is the logical thing to want, but I have found in fact that so far for my commute, increasing use of the Mount Vernon Trail in particular has not led to significant improvements in the trail's usability. Most of the asphalt is the same as it was 20+ years ago - and this isn't because it is aging well or that there is enough of it (in terms of the width of the trail in particular).

Also, my sense is that the DC area BTWD has had amazingly bad luck in terms of weather - that is, more often than not, it rains. And in fact it rained yesterday for BTWD 2018 and it was fairly steady and heavy enough to keep many from riding. I had signed up and stopped at the local "pit stop" in Shirlington to get a free BTWD 2018 t-shirt (as I did last year, when the weather was better) as a way of showing interest and support (I suppose). It is inspiring (or something along those lines) to see the volunteers there, even at 6:30 am when it started. I was amused to see a small "convoy" of riders there right as they opened. A few seemed underdressed to me, given that it was wet and not really May warmth. (This turned out to be a ride where at the start the rain was light, but over the 10 or so miles it got more and more heavy, to the point that upon arrival at work I was pretty well soaked. Fortunately I have my own office and it is fine to have a clothes line, more or less. Well - fine with me, anyway.)


Another slightly out-of-focus shot

I was glad to get my yellow BTWD 2018 t-shirt. During the past year I have been amused how many times I have seen people wearing the lavender colored BTWD 2017 t-shirt - amused that I recognized it, as much as anything. I suppose eventually they will give away the 2018 t-shirts somehow but I assume most were not picked up by riders on the way to work, because I think many people took a pass on riding yesterday. Still, a good souvenir of what was not a bad ride - it was just another ride. The rides - they're all good.

Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism (Book Review)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mikael Colville-Andersen has a strong set of views about urban cycling - I'm not sure I agree with all of them but it seems good to have a person able to voice a positive approach for urban cycling infrastructure and changes in attitudes so clearly.

http://www.copenhagenize.com/ the web site for Colville-Andersen's cycling infrastructure consulting company (in English) gives some flavor for what the book is like. Colville-Andersen is Danish but grew up in Canada, so he writes in English (as well as Danish . . .).


Photo of Copenhagen bicycle "superhighways" - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

Here is the table of contents - the book is in three sections.

Introduction
1. The Life-Sized City
2. Bicycle Urbanism by Design
3. The Bicycle's Role in Urban Life
4. The Redemocratization of Cycling
5. Taming the Bull in Society's China Shop

The Learning Curve
6. Copenhagen's Journey
7. Climaphobia and Vacuum-Packed Cities
8. Arrogance of Space
9. Mythbusting
10. Architecture
11. Desire Lines & Understanding Behavior
12. A Secret Cycling Language
13. A2Bism
14. The Art of Gathering Data

The Toolbox
15. Best-Practice Design & Infrastructure
16. Prioritizing Cycling
17. Design & Innovation
18. Cargo Bike Logistics
19. Curating Transferable Ideas
20. Communication & Advocacy

Conclusion


Colville-Andersen speaking at a TEDX conference, from Flickr user TEDx Zurich

Most of the positive examples are taken from Europe, with some mention of Japan. From north America, Montreal and Washington DC are mentioned the most - I don't think either Seattle or Portland OR are mentioned. (The book does not have an index.)

As an American who favors development of better infrastructure for cycling along the lines of what is described here, the distance we have to go to get there is distressing. Also, according to Colville-Andersen, as a bicycle nut I am not the ideal advocate - that advocacy for cycling does better when it comes from "regular" people. Hmm.

Much of the current DC area bike cycling measures do not meet Colville-Andersen's approval - in fact, the center-0f-the-road bidirectional cycle track on Pennsylvania Avenue is specifically taken as an example of what not to do - of what is done by people who think they know what to do but who have really really bad ideas. DC provides several other such examples, alas - I agree with his analysis completely.

It was fairly late in the book, but there is some discussion of "vehicular bicycling" which was a theory from the 1960s onward that advocated strongly for cyclists to use the same infrastructure as motorists - which he dismisses easily enough. He also has a brief discussion of e-bikes - he is generally not thrilled with their typical use at relatively high speeds, creating a new hazard for other cyclists and even more so for themselves.

There is a brief discussion of bikeshare as a good "last mile" measure but dockless bikeshare is so new (outside of China) that it isn't mentioned - suggesting to me at least that even though bicycles have been around for more than a hundred years, we are having a period of change or evolution. Interesting.

The books is readable. The author as noted has strong views, but doesn't (in my view) hit the reader too hard over the head with them.

An odd complaint - the typeface used in the text for the book has very fine lines and I discovered my lighting setup for reading in bed wasn't enough to let me read this book comfortably, which was a surprise. I felt it was a kind of ironic statement that a book that advocates simple intuitive designs in one area (urban cycling infrastructure design) failed the test of simple access this way, making the book more difficult to read because of some font-fashion decision. (I read a lot - this is an unusual problem for me to have.)

There is a lot here to try to get one's head around - I should likely read this again in a few months.


Photo of cargo bikes racing - CC license by Colville-Andersen from his Flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine

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Crawford Bicycles Poster (1896)

Title-Ride a Crawford Bicycle
Summary-Young couple with bicycles pause by side of road.
Created / Published-1896.
Notes
- Chromolithograph by Strobridge & Co. Lith., Cincinnati-New York, 211 x 102 cm.
- This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Medium-1 print (poster).
Call Number/Physical Location POS - ADV. 19th c. - Bicycles. S778, no. 7 (in 3 parts) (D size) [P&P]
Repository-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
www.loc.gov/item/2002719169/

The summer of 1896 was the height of the "bicycle craze" of the 1890s - a price range of $60 to $75 at that time was fairly good (that is, inexpensive) compared to Columbia bicycles that were offering their most expansive models for $100.

"For Health & Recreation" is an amusing slogan to feature on this poster, given that the couple seems mostly to be enjoying one another's company. Also, the width of the byway upon which they are traveling seems fanciful - not realistic one suspects for the time (or any time, in fact). Still, cyclists were (ahead of motorists, who didn't yet exist!) leaders in the "good roads" movement. Well - some cyclists along with some bicycle manufacturing companies. There had to be some good roads in order for the product to be useful.



A modest ad for Crawford Bicycles - see how it appeared here: archive.org/stream/cyclinglife00test#page/n759/mode/1up in "Cycling Life," a trade journal. This small ad ran frequently in 1896-1897.

Crawford Bicycles had its factory in nearby Hagerstown MD. (Nearby from the perspective of the Washington DC area.) In 1902 the Crawford brothers sold their bicycle business to a larger bicycle company and proceeded to start up an automobicle manufacturing company, Crawford Automobile.

Seattle PI Newspaper and Cycling in 1897

Newspaper sponsored cyclists riding from Seattle to SF

The Page devoted to cyclist interests in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of 1897. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for 16 May 1897.

According to Biking Puget Sound (2nd edition) by Bill Thorness published in 2014 Seattle in 1900 had 55,000 residents and these 55,000 had 10,000 bicycles. Pretty impressive!

In looking at Seattle papers online, I see evidence of the interest in cycling with occasional full page coverage of the subject.

Here is the article's text:

SEATTLE TO SAN FRANCISCO

Arthur W. Whaliey, W. W. Ewing and Arnet Johnson, three well-known Seattle athletes, are now on their way to San Francisco by the pedal route. They left the city Friday afternoon at 2:45 o'clock on the steamer Flyer and commenced their long ride from Tacoma, intending to follow the telephone line to Portland. After leaving Portland the stumbling block will the Siskiyou mountains, but as their trip is not made on a wager or for the specific purpose of breaking down their constitutions by overexertion, they may be able to ride over the difficulties.

Prior to the completion of arrangements for the trip it was mutually understood that it was merely a pleasure jaunt, to end at San Francisco, providing the roads were !n good condition, and the riders did not play out. If the journey proves too hard a strain on one or all of them, they will take the first train and ride the remainder of the way, free from the companionship of the first relay of tramps.

The riders have followed the common-sense plan of reduicing the weight to be carried to the minimum. Every article that Is not absolutely necessary to their welfare has been discarded. In fact, the only supernumerary is a kodiak. which might be called a necessity tn this latter part of the nineteenth century.

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods (Book Review)

The Hardmen: Legends and Lessons from the Cycling Gods by The Velominati

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Apparently the idea is to celebrate tough guy cycling, mostly road racing figures, mostly (but not entirely) men. The point of view, according to the dust jack, is one of "(ir)reverance." Well, perhaps.

Each of the 38 chapters focuses on a particular cyclist. The chapters are not long enough to say that much. The tone is . . . well, it might be fine for a blog, but it seems a little much for a book.

I suppose as much as anything I was annoyed when the chapter about Rebecca Twigg said she attended Washington University in Seattle. Of for God's sake, it is the University of Washington. Washington University is not in Washington state. Geez.

There is a snarky attitude towards dopers such as Tyler Hamilton or Mr. Armstrong, but the casual thumbs-up, thumbs-down approach of the collective authors disregards the historical complexities of this topic. To take just one example, the same Rebecca Twigg won a silver medal at the 1984 Olympics in part because of admitted blood doping, which at the time was merely discouraged and not forbidden - the chapter doesn't mention this.

The intent of the book seems good, and the person chosen seem interesting enough, but the execution could have been better.

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"Bike" or "Bicycle" or Weak Automated Recognition

If you search for "bike" in the Library of Congress materials in Flickr, there is a considerable amount of noise. It seems to be a result of Flickr's automated recognition of certain things and automated adding of tags that is often incorrect when it identifies "bikes" in particular.



The tags for the above photo added by Flickr include "bike" and "vehicle."



Again, "bike" and "vehicle" (and also "outdoors)" - it appears it is the spokes that confuse things.



A motorcycle is arguably a kind of bike - tags added by Flickr here were again "vehicle" and "bike."



This is in fact a bicycle - this photo has same automated tags "vehicle" and "bike."

If however you search for "bicycle" in the Library of Congress metadata, a different, but complementary, pattern emerges.



As with many photographs in Flickr of bicycles, the spokes are not that visible. Here there is no automated added tag for either "vehicle" or "bike." Instead there is a tag that was manually added for "bicycle" providing access. And in fact, the overlap between items with both "bike" and "bicycle" is quite small, only 14 items and for several of those, both the "bike" and "bicycle" tags were manually added.

In conclusion - searching for historic photographs of bikes and bicycles can be a noisy process.

"Bicycle Riding in the District Runs Back Quite a Number of Years"

"High Wheels Launched Bicycle Riding in the District - Stories of Early Experts are Recalled by Washingtonians Who Admired Their Skill, Century Runs, Hill-Climbing and Rough-Riding Contests Between Popular Events for Young People"

Newspaper article from the Washington Evening Star Newspaper from 1929. Article starts on this page, filling the entire page, and continues to the next page, also taking up the entire page.


Illustration with article showing an early member of the Capital Bicycle Club with a "high wheel" bicycle

From the article:

Credit is given to Charles G. W. Krauskopf for introducing the modern bicycle in Washington in 1878 This machine was known as the “Ariels," and had double spokes and 46-inch wheels. With a desire to learn something more about this pioneer rider, the City Directory was consulted, and the only per son of this name found was Charles G. Krauskopf, who kept a hotel and restaurant at the corner of Tenth and E streets northwest, over which he resided. He had obtained the machine from the British vice consul stationed at Baltimore.

Naturally Krauskopf was kidded and guyed as he rode the “new steed” through the streets. But the bicycle had come to stay, and .it was not long before William C. Scribner ceased managing the Gazette, at 931 D street northwest. and opened a bicycle store around the corner at 1108 E street, and if he was not the first one in the city to engage in this business, he at least was one of the earliest.

Though Krauskopf was the subject of much chaffing and joking, yet it was not long before he had company, and soon other Washingtonians became infatuated with the vehicle which was to become so immensely popular in such a brief space of time.

Soon Frank G. Wood, Max Hansmann, Fred D. Owen. L. P. Einolf, Herbert S. Owen and Louis N. Jesungofsky were proudly riding the silent steed, and it was these gentlemen, with Mr. Krauskopf. who organized the Capital Bicycle Club on January 31, 1879.

So the first "modern" (that is, high wheel, or penny farthing, type of bicycle appeared in Washington 140 years ago. And the first DC bicycle club the following year.


Another illustration from the same page, from 1897 - showing DC cycling history

What Does a Woman's "Bicycle Suit" Cost? (1897, NYC)

New York journal and advertiser, May 16, 1897

The New York Journal was for its time a newspaper with many pages to fill, and it often did so at this time with human interest stories of various kinds about cycling as well as "high society" - this example of an article that took up a half page with its illustration combines both.

A Gorgeous Cycling Suit to Cost $715

The most expensive bicycle suit on record has Just been ordered at one of the swellest tailors in New York.

The girl who meets the bill is worth a million in her own right, is an athletic beauty and a reigning belle in the ultra-smart set.

The suit which makes the bill is the most elaborate ever designed in this country. It is lined with silk, finished with Jewels, and will cost a lump sum of $715.50.

Two "Scott and Adie" shawls at $75 apiece will be employed in making the skirt and jacket. And, by the way, these English shawls are the very latest thing: for any sort of fancy outing suit.

The skirt will be stitched half way to the knees, with the lines of stitching not over a sixteenth of an inch apart: this is the new device to stiffen the lower part of the skirt without adding to the weight.

The edges of the jacket are also stitched and, together with the skirt, is elaborately braided, which latter touch adds some $25 to the expense.

Bloomers and linings of suit throughout will be of silk.not less than sixteen yards of silk to be used, which gives another item of 522.50. With the bloomers have been ordered a half dozen interlining of the finest fawn, at 52.50 a pair.

Loose Jackets are no longer the correct thing for the crack bicyclist. The newest waist is tight-fitting always, and worn with a series of vests and shirt fronts.

It sounds very simple just to say, "I shall order at least three vests for my new bicycle suit," doesn't It? Well, that Is what the "millionairess" in question did, and these three vests are going to cost her 525 apiece. The principal question color in her suit is green, so she has ordered one vest of sage green, one of geranium red, embroidered in black and gold, and one of white broadcloth, in silver. With these vests she will wear snow-white linen shirt embroidered fronts and black satin ties.

And $25 is not so very extravagant for a vest when you stop to consider that the garment is made when the material is wet and was to be moulded to the figure.

A Panama straw hat, fawn color and trimmed with scarlet and green, will add one $10 Item, and bicycle boots of finest leather will add another of $18. Golf stockings in mixed greens and tans will be worn In place of the high top boot. An entire box of these stockings have been ordered, as it is difficult to match them exactly. Fifteen dollars a half dozen will buy the softest and best in the shops.

But the crowning extravagance of this particular "biking" maid is yet to come. Her belt of elephant green leather is clasped with a buckle of oxidized silver set with emeralds. The buckle is in the form of two bicycle wheels; the rim of each wheel is bordered with small green stones, a single large emerald forming the hub. This trifling decoration to adorn the "slender waist" of the pretty wheelwomen will cost treble the price of her wheel! that is to say, exactly $300.