Of Babies and Bikes – Adaline Felt
Mrs. Adeline Felt with her daughter in this bicycle basket. Photo from the Mountain West Digital Library, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. I am fascinated with archival photos of women on bicycles. Perhaps because they are relatively scarce, especially shots showing women with their children on bikes. In this particular shot, Mrs. Felt (who is wearing a skirt, which in my view was more dominant than the acclaimed bloomers). Even... Read More
CycloFemme ride with us!
This year it’s the second annual CycloFemme ride, with nearly 160 different rides around the country and flung out to various spots in the world. A big-tent sisterhood of riders, doing all types of riding, celebrating women and bikes. Just that. In Portland, Oregon we have two rides registered – a 23-miler and a 10-miler, both ending at the season’s first car-free Sunday Parkways in East Portland. Tattoos, cupcakes, and balloons, not to mention a fun... Read More
Friday Fun Photo: Hats on bikes
These lovely women were from the era when bikes became affordable to more cyclists. Read More
Friday Fun Photo – Cycle dazzle
These crazy loop the loop tracks, also called the ‘cycle dazzle’ or the ‘saucer track’ were the cause of many a cyclist’s injury or even death. A favorite racing cyclist of mine, Dottie Farnsworth, died after performing on the cycle dazzle in the tiny town of Salamanca, New York, in 1902. Farnsworth was moonlighting in the Walter Main circus, and after she built up speed, flew right off the loop and crashed. While she didn’t die directly from... Read More
Friday Fun Photo – Women do all the work
‘Women Do All The Work” Love this engraving showing a quadricycle built for four. Must have been uncomfortable for the men, who don’t even have a perch. But from a quick glance it seems the women are doing the serious pedaling and the men are just along for the ride! Read More
Tillie & Belva I Love You
Thistle was a bike brand that Tillie endorsed. This is Women’s History Month, and in honor of that, the League of American Bicyclists and Carolyn at the League have done a great job showcasing some of the bike heroines that inspire me. They asked me to write two posts – one on Belva Lockwood, Washington DC’s first female cyclist (tricyclist), and also one on Tillie Anderson, the Swedish racing cyclist. I searched in vain for a portrait of Belva, an enterprising... Read More
Rainbow Riders Hurrah!
Friday Fun Photo
Getting the Gumption to Ride – 2013
Lovely Swedish cyclist does it in her street clothes. Find at: www.sockenbilden.se I was telling the story recently of how unhappy a cyclist I once was, but I’m not sure my listeners believed me. Read More Read More
