Fun question, how far back is cycling in your family?

[Citoyen du monde]

Here are two older photos of my forebears. The one is of my great-great grandmother being transported by wicker tricycle in about 1920. The other is of my great grandmother and her brother in 1896 in front of their house.

 

[little jim]

No photos but my grandmother did a couple of time trials in 1948 ish. I only beat her ten mile time last year as well
I think it was her brother that did grass track racing around that time. He won quite a few of the local club awards for it.

On a side note, if anyone has a 1948ish claud butler fixed wheel frame or bike they're looking to get rid of, give me a shout. I'll put a wanted ad up as well but thought I'd ask while we're on the subject.

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Wouldn't it have been great to find these bikes again and put them back in the family were they belong.

Very doubtful though as most were destroyed for steel during WWII

 

[Citoyen du monde]

I think that it should be pointed out that at the time of the OP's photo, riding a bike was exclusively a pastime of the wealthy and the relative cost of a bike was well beyond the reach of your average person. By the 20's, the price had dropped considerably and came within the reach of a far larger portion of the population. By the late 30's it had become quite commonplace and the wealthy had almost exclusively left the sport and moved on to automobiles and other pursuits, leving the sport of cycling as a more general pursuit. It is quite funny how it is now once again beginning to attract people as a somewhat exclusive sport, with many wealthy people eschewing sports like golf for the high-end of cycling.

 

[roadking]

Early Bicycles.

I think that it should be pointed out that at the time of the OP's photo, riding a bike was exclusively a pastime of the wealthy and the relative cost of a bike was well beyond the reach of your average person. By the 20's, the price had dropped considerably and came within the reach of a far larger portion of the population. By the late 30's it had become quite commonplace and the wealthy had almost exclusively left the sport and moved on to automobiles and other pursuits, leving the sport of cycling as a more general pursuit. It is quite funny how it is now once again beginning to attract people as a somewhat exclusive sport, with many wealthy people eschewing sports like golf for the high-end of cycling.

I would like to think, Cdm, that many, certainly the more knowledgeable RetroBikers would be aware of this most basic aspect of cycling history; I for one do - being the OP.
Typical, and well known early adopters of the bicycle were Edward Elgar the composer (who famously rode a Humber) and George Bernard Shaw (the playwright and author), as well as members of the Royal Family and the upper middle classes in general. These early bicycles were as expensive then as a decent car is today.
My own family were also early adopters of the automobile; having bought the first one before the Great War, and during the 20s and 30s owned such makes as Marmon, Packard and Mercedes - in fact my Grandfather had to hide his black Mercedes away upon the outbreak of WW2, and bought a six light Austin Ascot for his wartime motoring.
The earliest bicycle I have in my own collection is a Centaur Featherweight which dates from around 1906 - see this link for one like it.
http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/1906-centa ... -roadster/
Take the mobile phone as a parallel example, the first I ever had was £2500.00: if they were that price today how many people would own one?
Roadking.

 

[stedlocks]

You start the topic with '.....fun question', then proceed to turn it into a 'see how high you can p**s' competition.....!
Cdm was only trying to be informative and helpful.

I don't normally criticise other people's posts, whether I agree with them or not, but i found your remarks on both this post, and the curly hetchins topic, a bit condescending, to be honest.......

 

[roadking]

Return to this fun thread please.

We're all entitled to an opinion; and I don't agree with yours (either of them).

This thread was supposed to be a"fun"one, and Cdm's original post was fine. However his second was condescending, we did not want a history lesson, however simplistic, and my reply was to make a point about how many things always change over time.

How you view my Hetchins post is beyond me, it is certainly not condescending - you may say it is, but it doesn't mean that's the case.

Roadking.

 

[Paul_Buckley]

Dad since 1948 and still riding. We still have the 1937 Stephens that was already vintage when he bought it and raced on it in the early 50's