Bicycles emerged on the scene relatively late in human existence. In fact, the first bicycle was introduced by the German inventor Karl von Drais in 1817, a full 13 years after the introduction of the first locomotive in Britain. And it wasn't until 1885 that the "safety bicycle" was introduced, the first bicycle design resembling modern bicycles.
Throughout its history, bicycling has experienced alternating boom and bust cycles. It boomed when the safety bicycle first came on the scene, only to bust when the automobile was first introduced – and for many years following. It experienced a resurgence with the environmental movements and gas crisis of the 1960s and 1970s, only to see its popularity wain once again heading into the 21st century. Most recently, the bicycle has seen a resurgence once again as citizens become more concerned with a changing climate and see the bicycle as an excellent substitute for short car journeys. For more on the efficiency and usefulness of the bicycle, see our previous post "A Primer on Bicycling."
Towards the end of our post "A Primer on Bicycling," we examined how centering urban design around the bicycle really brings the urban space back to a human scale. In this post, I want to examine another, often overlooked, aspect of the bicycle: joy. Think back to when you were a kid and the feeling of freedom at being able to propel yourself around on your first bicycle, far outstripping the distances you could cover on foot. Even as an adult, riding a bicycle provides the rider with freedom of movement and natural exercise, but it also allows space for what I can only describe as a "bicyclist's high."
It's that feeling of euphoria that comes about from racing down a hill, the long-awaited payoff from the struggle to the top. It's that feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that you propelled yourself around town rather than relying on an engine (and can now pig out for the rest of the day). It's the recognition of the simplicity of the machine, marveling as the mere pumping of your legs – the pedaling of your feet – drive the bicycle forward. It's the space to let your mind wander in the midst of an otherwise chaotic world.
With these euphoric feelings in mind, let's take a look at what others have had to say about the bicycle and their experiences with it throughout the years.
"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of the country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."
→ Ernest Hemingway
"Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!...Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you're going to smash up. Well, now, that's something! And then go home again after three hours of it...and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again!"
→ Jack London
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race."
→ HG Wells
"I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it."
→ HG Wells
"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
→ Mark Twain
"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking."
→ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride."
→ John F. Kennedy
"After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow."
→ HG Wells
"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. It makes her feel as if she were independent... the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
→ Susan B. Anthony
"Meet the future; the future mode of transportation for this weary Western world. Now I'm not gonna make a lot of extravagant claims for this little machine. Sure, it'll change your whole life for the better, but that's all."
→ Salesman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
