Walkabout: Knights of the Knickerbocker, Part 2

Bicycling was all the rage during the last decades of the 19th century, into the first decades of the 20th. In Brooklyn, racing clubs were formed by young men.

The first clubs were the Brooklyn Bicycling Club, the Kings County Wheelmen, and the Brooklyn Wheelmen.

Most of the early clubs were populated by upper-middle class and wealthy men who could afford the high wheeled bicycles, and had a lot of leisure time, and these are the clubs that built or rented club houses, had fancy riding uniforms and colors, and sponsored events.

But as the 20th century dawned, advances in assembly line mass production produced the safety bicycle, the familiar shaped bike we know today, enabling many more people to afford a bicycle, and this recreational sport just took off.

Every nationality and ethnic group would soon have racing teams and cycling events, since many were not welcome at the mainstream clubs. Bicycles and racing them were the great equalizer, and no one knew that better than women.

Susan B. Anthony, the champion of women’s rights said, Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance.

I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood. The picture of a young woman on a bicycle became the New Woman of the approaching 20th century, free to get around on her own, exercise, and, gasp! wear bloomers.

Obviously, it was impossible to ride a bicycle in full skirts, so new forms of clothing were needed, and in its own way, the humble bicycle contributed to freeing women from constricting corsets, dragging skirts, and voluminous petticoats.

The ladies of America and England, in particular, took to cycling like ducks to water. The sight of their menfolk racing around inspired women to do the same, in their own way.

By the late 1890’s, there were women’s cycling clubs in Brooklyn. There were even women’s racing teams, although that was much more risqué, and generally relegated to something like an anomaly or circus act.

There are many entries in the programs of the Clermont Rink promoting women racers. In the early days of cycling, women were often given large adult tricycles to promenade in, some of which could even be ridden side-saddle, but most of the ladies wanted a real bicycle.

Many of Brooklyn’s most prominent ladies, young, middle-aged and older, were dedicated wheelwomen.

In 1893, Mrs. Lena Sittig became world famous for her designs for riding clothing. She was quite wealthy, a great philanthropist in her own right, and an inventor, with several patents to her credit.

Several of those patents were for bicycling clothes; special riding skirts that would allow a lady the freedom of movement needed, while also remaining covered, and as she would say quite feminine. She was interviewed at great length by the papers, including the Eagle, the New York Times, and even the British press.

Her most popular design was a divided skirt worn with leggings. By means of ribbons and buttons, the skirt could be gathered up so that the legs were free and the skirt would not catch in the wheels or the chain.

Mrs. Sittig organized the Woman’s International Bicycle Club, which often met at her home in Bedford at 378 Jefferson Avenue. She also sold her clothing all over the world, showing them at the Atlanta World’s Fair in 1894, in a pavilion that featured only women’s inventions. See this Walkabout to read more about Mrs. Sittig.)

Another famous Brooklyn wheelwoman was Mrs. Charlotte Bolton, famous in the 1890’s as the unfortunate wife of pharmaceutical giant, real estate investor, and cheating bigamist, William C. Bolton. (You can read about them in this Walkabout piece: part 1, part 2, part 3)

After a very messy and public divorce, she became one of Brooklyn’s most ardent supporters and advocates for bicycling, especially women’s cycling. She was also a member of Mrs. Sittig’s International Bicycle Club, and was president of the organization for years.

She had custom wheels, made for herself and friends, advocated for women’s membership and participation in the men’s clubs, and gave advice about appropriate dress for women in cycling. Her summer home near Coney Island was a gathering place for female cyclists, and she led a group there called the Ladies Tourist Club, amateur riders who took weekend excursions.

The wheelmen and wheelwomen, were not without controversy, some of it as current as today. Not all cyclists were careful, and there were instances of children being run over, and several fatalities of both riders and pedestrians.

On a more positive side, the wheelmen’s clubs pestered the city tirelessly to pave major streets with asphalt. The men’s clubs liked to ride, en masse, from northern Brooklyn down Ocean Parkway to Coney Island and the shore, on weekends, and sometimes in the evening.

The city gave them a dedicated bike lane in the middle of the promenade lane, but often, that was not enough for the cyclists, who would ride in the traffic lanes.

In 1896, after a series of egregious violations of that pact, Parks Commissioner Squier vowed to have any wheelman caught riding outside of the bicycle lane arrested.

He was also on record as saying that cycling was a fad that would die out, although when he said it, there were over 25,000 riders, and growing, in Brooklyn alone. As the Eagle said, people who take up the bicycle do not drop it, although sometimes it drops them.

One of the most popular riding routes in the 1890’s was to ride the length of Bedford Avenue, the longest street in Brooklyn, from Greenpoint to Sheepshead Bay. It was also one of the few streets to be paved in asphalt for most of its length.

As more and more women took up recreational biking, there began to be problems with well dressed hoodlums and young men of a sporting tendency, as the Eagle called them, congregating on the streets, shouting insults and inappropriate comments at them as the women rolled by.

In June of 1890, the Superintendent of Police called out the troops, and had police all along the route to encourage these young men to move on. Several arrests were made, as well. After a week of constant policing, the fun was gone, and the harassment of women cyclists stopped, at least overtly.

Not that everyone along Bedford Avenue was happy about cyclists. There were those who were particularly upset by the sight of so many calves on Bedford Avenue on the weekends. Not veal, the Eagle said, but the lower habitat of the human leg.

In October of 1892, someone circulated a flier at local churches and in homes on the Avenue decrying the sight of so much muscle, male and female. In a tongue and cheek advertisement, they touted the sight of well-turned calves on Sunday morning.

Grand procession of beautifully developed calves. Attractive cavalcade of male and female bicycle riders on the Bedford Avenue course on Sunday morning. The flyer went on to propose a contest to measure only naturally formed calves, and give prizes.

The winners could collect by appearing at church services. Bicycles must be left outside. The Eagle reporter writing the story interviewed several people along Bedford Avenue to get their opinion of the flyer and of cyclists.

One respondent, a local minister, said that he understood that the flyer was in jest, but that his church was wrestling with the problem of cyclists. He said that he didn’t have any problems with the male riders in their tights, as they were called, and he thought the female riders quite modest.

He did have problems with hordes of young people in groups riding past his church laughing and carrying on while they were having services, and what kind of world were they living in, when these young people were not, themselves, in church?

He did not, unlike some of his parishioners, think bicycles to be evil, and thought that exercise and enjoying the outdoors to be a very godly activity. He just wished they’d be more respectful of the people in church.

The article had several other remarks, but the best was from a Mrs. C. Breslow, who said, The limbs of these young men are an affliction, aesthetically and from the standpoint of good taste. The majority of the riders are in their callow period.

Callow things are never pretty, you know. There is nothing uglier than the unfeathered wings and legs of young birds, unless it’s the limbs of very young men… But in the case of the birds, they have the sense to not venture into public life until they and their limbs have attained a decent growth.

The cycling mania continued to grow as the 20th century advanced. The upper-class clubs added bowling, golf and card tournaments to their activities, holding contests among themselves in these events, as well as in racing.

They raised money for charity. The ladies continued to find bicycling to be good sport, fun, and a way to get out of the house by oneself that was socially acceptable. People began bicycling to work.

The bicycle itself improved in comfort, speed and affordability. It seemed as if the bicycle could never be replaced as recreation or personal transportation.

Then came the automobile, and America found a new love, to which we are still quite engaged. In twenty years, the clubs were gone, and the bicycle became for most people, a children’s toy.