Even over a century ago, bikes were hot stuff in SF. Streetsblog tells us all about it:
The bike clubs organized century rides around the Bay Area and annual “Bike Meets” where the fastest cyclists would compete against each other before large audiences. One of the biggest ever was during the 4th of July weekend in 1893 when an estimated 20,000 spectators would jam a special track built at Central Park just south of City Hall to watch the scorchers as they hurtled around the loop.
Daaang! I guess cycling isn’t a newfangled hipster fad after all. I mean, look at that dude up there… one of the original cool dads.
Read on for even older pics, talk of “boneshakers” and more.
[Thanks, Joshua!]
Hey look! It’s the last time Fixies on the streets were anything more than a lame hipster affectation!