RMCC presentation 1: Introduction

Introduction

 

“Malcolm McRae is a retired engineer who received his degree from the University of Waterloo as well as an Economics degree from Concordia.  He has been an avid life long cyclist. Over the past few years he developed and interest in the early history of cycling in Montreal, publishing a website on the history of the Montreal Bicycle Club. He is also a re-founding member that club.”


Thank you.  I feel particularly honored to be giving a presentation on the Montreal Bicycle Club right here in this very clubhouse of what is the oldest sporting club in North America, the Royal Montreal Curling Club.  It is most likely that some of the people in this early photograph of the Montreal Bicycle Club would have stood in this very same room as where we now gather. These people saw the bicycle change from an elitist sport available to few, to become a worldwide movement that made it available to almost everyone.  At the end of the 1890’s Bicycle Craze, it was Montreal that hosted the last world cycling championships of that era, an event that had many far reaching consequences.  After the initial bicycle craze finished, this club, as well as almost all of the other founding North American cycling organizations went into a steep decline which actually resulted in their demise.  As a result of this demise, much of the cycling history of that era has become forgotten in the popular imagination. 


Today, the world is at a crossroads with environmental issues being a hot topic of conversation.  Urban transportation and the bicycle are at the center of many of these debates.  At its beginning, this machine was a symbol of modern technology, and offered the promise of speedy travel. Today, it has become a symbol of environmental activism, and offers the promise of sustainable travel.   Indeed the bicycle, as well as steel rail transit are the two most effective modes of transportation for reducing GHG and the effects of climate change. 


 Who were the people in the Montreal Bicycle Club and what are their stories?


In order to answer that question we should know that the bicycle did not arrive as a single invention. There were many forms before the modern style “safety bicycle” emerged in
the 1890’s.

The earliest, was invented a little over 200 years ago by Baron Karl Drais in Mannheim Germany.  He was a prolific inventor, of many such things including the meat grinder and one of the first typewriters. Drais was the first person in history to ride on two wheels, one in front of the other. He succeeded in not falling while doing this, by allowing the front wheel to be steered.  With practice, one could learn to balance such a machine while it was in motion, thus the concept of the bicycle was born. Once a person has learned this skill, they never forget it. His invention became known as a hobby horse, or dandy horse.

 One rode it Fred Flintstone style, and in many countries it enjoyed a brief popularity. Riding schools were set up in various cities.  However when people used it outdoors, the roads were so rutted they took to riding on sidewalks. In the 1820’s bans on riding a dandy horse outdoors were made in Germany, Britain, the United States and even Calcutta India.


Unfortunately, I am not aware of any Montreal references to these early machines.