Westmount Historical Association presentation on Montreal Bicycle Club: 2 - Velocipede Era

The next development in the bicycle was the addition of pedals which was first done in Paris by a French blacksmith Pierre Michaux in the early 1860’s.

      This machine became known as a velocipede (hence the french word velo) and again riding schools became popular.

 By 1869 there were at least five such riding schools in Montreal as seen from the Montreal Evening Star. One its articles that year was entitled Velocipede! Velocipede! In which it was reported, I quote:

     "In April the "Grand Velocipede Masquerade" was held at the Drill Hall Rink to the tunes of the city's 69th Regiment Band and attracted between forty and fifty riders. Among the highlights was a one-mile race, demonstrations of "fancy riding" and an exhibition on two and three wheeled machines by Boston rider Miss M.J. Frothingham.”


      Riding a “bone shaker”, a name given to these early machines, was best accomplished on the smooth indoor surfaces that these riding school arenas could provide. During Montreal winters, when the St Lawrence froze solid, there was another opportunity to ride as shown in Canadian Illustrated News, 1870.

 

   

Quoting from that magazine:


     “The ice-velocipede has but one wheel armed with short spikes which catch in the ice and considerably lessen the chance of slipping. The hind wheel is replaced by two small runners placed side by side, a few inches apart, and connected to the body of the machine with a stout iron bar. The manipulation of the ice velocipede is the same as an ordinary bicycle.

Our illustration represents an everyday scene on the river near Montreal where the ice-velocipede is in everyday use.”


      The Velocipede was still a heavy, slow, machine barely faster than walking. In order to improve it what was needed was a way to build stronger, lighter wheels.