{"id":1763,"date":"2017-01-13T08:30:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T22:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=1763"},"modified":"2016-12-14T13:32:20","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T03:02:20","slug":"history-cycling-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2017\/01\/history-cycling-adelaide\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of cycling in Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of talk about cycling in Adelaide recently. The Tour Down Under opens tomorrow, and recently\u00a0the City Council has devoted a lot of time to\u00a0installing and ripping up bike pathways all over the city! But it’s not like this is a new thing for us. Adelaidians have been mad-keen cyclists for yonks, as Denis Molyneux investigates in\u00a0<\/em>Time for Play<\/a>, his history of recreation and leisure in SA. Check out the pics —<\/em><\/p>\n

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The bicycle evolved through three phases \u2013 the Velocipede, the high wheel\u00a0Ordinary and finally, the Safety bicycle. The velocipede, or \u2018boneshaker\u2019, accommodated\u00a0a rider sitting astride two wheels, who propelled the machine first with\u00a0one foot and then the other. The later versions of the machine had pedals on the\u00a0front wheel. There do not appear to have been many owners of the velocipede\u00a0in South Australia, although there were enthusiasts riding the machine in the\u00a0Kapunda area in the early 1870s.<\/p>\n

\"Time<\/a>

Velocipede [SLSA B7964]<\/p><\/div>\n

The heavy and cumbersome velocipede was replaced in the late 1870s by the\u00a0high wheel, or ordinary. Its design, with the big wheel standing 52\u201354 inches\u00a0(130\u2013135 cm) high and pedalled from a central position immediately above the\u00a0wheel, was a challenge to the strength, balance and athleticism of a male rider.\u00a0For those who met these requirements and could afford the cost of the machines,\u00a0the ordinary became a vehicle for racing or touring, but of limited use in daily\u00a0transportation, not least because of its size. Its cost meant that owners were\u00a0drawn predominantly from the middle classes.<\/p>\n

The touring side of cycling clubs carried a strong middle class social element.\u00a0\u2018Handle Bar\u2019, the cycling correspondent of the Register<\/em>, writing in his weekly\u00a0column \u2013 Wheelmarks \u2013 in May 1892 observed:<\/p>\n

\n

Six to thirteen miles generally constitute the distance of Club runs on Saturday\u00a0afternoons in this colony, and within that area some very pretty places can\u00a0be visited. What is more enjoyable than a spin before tea to Tea Tree Gully,\u00a0Thorndon Park, or Belair? Should hill climbing be objected to, Glenelg or\u00a0Brighton are pleasant places to visit on the wheel. Not only is the exercise\u00a0healthful and enjoyable, but the scenery is beautiful, and an appetite is generally\u00a0secured which only cyclists can boast of possessing. I advise all unattached\u00a0wheelmen to accompany the clubs to some of their favourite rendezvous, and it\u00a0need scarcely be added an advantageous afternoon will result.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Time<\/a>

A ladies cycle race at Mount Gambier, c. 1900.
The gentlemen are present to help the ladies. [SLSA B46443]<\/p><\/div>\n

Reports of individual club runs generally included some reference to the state\u00a0of the road surfaces for the benefit of other cyclists, although as one columnist\u00a0observed:<\/p>\n

\n

when the pneumatic tire [sic] comes into general use, and it is rapidly replacing\u00a0others, rough roads will have little effect \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The year\u2019s runs for the South Australian and North Adelaide Clubs reporting\u00a0in 1892 were for the former, 37 excursions totalling 688 miles and the latter, 34\u00a0at 802 miles.<\/p>\n

The Clubs that emerged in the late 1870s and through the 1880s, with their\u00a0emphasis on touring rides, where members often wore uniforms, and gathered to\u00a0socialise in club rooms, would have proved exclusive to those few working class\u00a0cyclists who were able to purchase the ordinary machine.<\/p>\n

\"Time<\/a>

Uniformed Club Riders on \u2018Ordinary\u2019 bicycles, 1880. [SLSA B7805]<\/p><\/div>\n

The bicycle continued to evolve through the 1880s, with experimentation in\u00a0mechanical design, culminating in the Safety version. The safety model included\u00a0several innovative features, notably a diamond shaped tubular steel frame\u00a0linking two similar size wheels, the ball bearing, a chain driving the rear wheel\u00a0and tangentially-spoked wheels. All added safety for the rider \u2013 hence the name;\u00a0moreover, it was lighter in weight and proved to be strong, durable, reliable and\u00a0capable of operating with minimum maintenance.<\/p>\n

The invention of the pneumatic tyre proved to be a further significant milestone.\u00a0Patented in Britain in 1888, the inflated tyre, after initial suspicion among\u00a0many hardened cyclists, was the major feature that led to the safety bicycle developing\u00a0a market that swept the world, including the Australian colonies. The\u00a0safety bicycle, equipped with pneumatic tyres, was particularly well-suited to\u00a0Australian conditions \u2018where the terrain and long distances and climate seemed\u00a0to be waiting for the Dunlop invention.\u2019\u00a0<\/span>It was faster, more comfortable and\u00a0easier to propel. In addition:<\/p>\n

\n

Australian men were more likely to buy a bicycle, partly because they earned\u00a0higher wages. Furthermore, they could ride a bicycle the whole year round in\u00a0most climatic regions of their land.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Safety bicycle\u2019s potential was soon noted in South Australia. The cyclist\u00a0on the energy efficient machine proved to be two or three times as fast as a\u00a0pedestrian or horse or camel.\u00a0<\/span>One did not have to be young and athletic to ride\u00a0the safety bicycle; the model was attractive to young and old riders alike. With\u00a0the arrival of the \u2018step through\u2019 version, the safety model rapidly became popular\u00a0with women and softened some of the criticism directed against their cycling. It\u00a0was to prove highly significant in women\u2019s social liberation in the closing years\u00a0of the century.<\/p>\n

\"Time<\/a>

The well patronised North Adelaide Ladies Cycling Club, c. 1900. [SLSA B9188]<\/p><\/div>\n

To read more of this fascinating history, please click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a lot of talk about cycling in Adelaide recently. The Tour Down Under opens tomorrow, and recently\u00a0the City Council has devoted a lot of time to\u00a0installing and ripping up bike pathways all over the city! But it’s not … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[587,586,585,590,589,584,588],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extract","tag-bikes","tag-cycling","tag-denis-molyneux","tag-ordinary","tag-safety","tag-time-for-play","tag-velocipede"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-sr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1847,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions\/1847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}