Italian Online Exhibit - Bicycle History

The first Italian "bicicletto" seems to suggest (at least as I read it) an Italian spin to the history of the development of the modern bicycle.

I hadn't realized that Bianchi dated back to 1885. That must make Bianchi one of the oldest bike makers still operating.

A Bike for the Ages?!?

A bike in France that won't be taking part in the Tour de France.

Article about Annie Londonderry Completing Her Trip

San Francisco Call newspaper article about completion of Annie Londonderry's round-the-world bicycle trip.



From the September 26 1895 issue of the San Francisco Call

Urban Short-term Rental Bikes

In the past week or so, I have seen a half dozen Capital Rideshare bikes being ridden on the National Mall (see example below). My impression of the riders is that they are using it as a tourism tool, which isn't the usual point of the exercise, but it's a start and anyway, some use is better than no use.



The Capital Rideshare bikes are similar in nature to the gray bikes in similar (and much greater) use in Paris (below).



Here is a photo of an example of an urban rental bike in Barcelona - but it is less customized as a rental; more of a "regular bike." I note the plastic chain guard on one of them is already broken. The extensive use of brittle-looking plastics on urban rental bikes is puzzling.

1913 Suffrage Parade Photo - Two Bikes

At first I didn't see any bikes, but eventually I saw one with a fellow next to a car on the left. With a hat - a police officer? Perhaps. Then I noticed the bicycle leaning against a tree on the right. Is it with the photographer? Probably not, but it seems odd for it just to be there, waiting to be stolen. Or 100 years ago there was no bike theft? There certainly were bike locks then, but I don't see one here.



From the Library of Congress Bain Collection (via Flickr); more information is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain.

Good Balance - Egyptian Style

I have some bicycle photos in my Flickr sets; here I have (just barely) caught a fellow riding with a few hundred pita breads on a rack balanced on his head. This is common on the streets of Cairo. Occasionally one or two will fall off in the wind but I never saw a rider drop an entire rack.

Taken from inside a taxi. The non-working meter is visible.

Capital Bikeshare Usage - Online Real Time Map

This map displays usage of Rideshare bikes in the DC area in real time.

Not so much usage yet, even in good weather, it seems. Still I have seen four or five being ridden, which seems pretty good since they are so new.

The Washington Post has this article on the topic.