CHAT ABOUT THE CYCLE. - The San Jose Road Club and Its Members. - General Interest in the Race Meets to Be Held To-Day - High Jinks in the Redwoods. - Mon, Jul 4, 1892 - Page 8 · The San Francisco Call

See San Francisco Call, Volume 72, Number 35, 5 July 1892 - Bicycle Races in Various Parts of the State for the results of the races, hyped below. - MF

CHAT ABOUT THE CYCLE. The San Jose Road Club and Its Members. Mon, Jul 4, 1892 – Page 8 · The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

CHAT ABOUT THE CYCLE.

The San Jose Road Club and Its Members.

General Interest in the Race Meets to Be Held To-Day - High Jinks in the Redwoods.

 Captain Bailey. 

The San Jose Road Club, although a young organization, is showing a degree of vim and enterprise not always found in older associations of wheelmen. It was formed on April 7, 1892, with ten charter members. Its ranks have since been considerably augmented, and several recent applications are pending. The object of the club is to advance the interests of road-riding and racing for the purpose of physical improvement and the promotion of amateur sport. The club's emblem - an ivy leaf, symbolic of friendship and union - is worn by some of the best riders in Santa Clara County. The club's colors are straw and lavender. About half of the members belong to the L. A. W., and the others have declared their intention of joining, the ultimate intention being to make the organization a league club. W. E. Berry represented the club at the Decoration day race meet in Alameda and developed considerable speed. He promises to be heard from in future events. Two of the members will be seen on the track at Alameda to-day, and will endeavor to carry the ivy leaf to the front. The present officers of the club are as follows: William L. Parker, president; C. A. Heppe, vice-president; C. J. Belloli, secretary and treasurer; W. E. Berry, sergeant-at-arms; J. T. Bailey, captain; O. Ziegler Jr.. lieutenant; A. M. Hobson, color-bearer; J. G. Minor, bugler.

WOMEN WHEELERS - A Thousand Local Ladies Ride Bicycles. - A VERY ECONOMICAL STEED. - The Park Is Their Great Pleasure Ground and the Pastime Is Fast Becoming Popular. - Sun, Jan 8, 1893 - Page 12 - The San Francisco Call

Read more about women on bikes in SF Bay area bicycle history.

WOMEN WHEELERS A Thousand Local Ladies Ride Bicycles Sun, Jan 8, 1893 – Page 12 · The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

WOMEN WHEELERS

A Thousand Local Ladies Ride Bicycles.

A VERY ECONOMICAL STEED.

The Park Is Their Great Pleasure Ground and the Pastime Is Fast Becoming Popular.

OTHING in the form of open-air exercise for women can compare with riding on a safety bicycle. A few years ago, when it was discovered that several San Francisco ladies had taken to wheeling through Golden Gate Park for health and pleasure combined, that garrulous old dame Madame Grundy threw up her hands in horror and sent post haste for her smelling salts. Then the old lady betook herself to bed and worked herself into a hysterical ecstasy over the shocking impropriety of such a departure.

The "ordinary" or high-wheeled vehicle was then in vogue and the present popular type of safety was just beginning to become known in the East. As no one had ever seen aught but a tinseled dame of the circus arena make use of a wheel, the term "ladies' bicycle" carried with it visions of fair maids and matrons perched high in the air. And Mrs. Grundy groaned.

"To think of a woman astride - actually astride - of one of those horrid things! It's too awful for anything.” It was a state of affairs which the good old chaperon could not contemplate, and it was little wonder that she was shocked beyond expression.

To Haywards and Back by Bicycle. - Tue, Nov 12, 1878 - Page 1 - Oakland Tribune

To Haywards and Back by Bicycle Tue, Nov 12, 1878 – Page 1 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

To Haywards and Back by Bicycle.

Two gentlemen made a trip from this city to Haywards and back last Sunday on bicycles. They report the journey as being pleasant and enjoyable in all respects. The roads were found to be favorable to such novel locomotion, with the exception of one or two sandy places. After leaving Oakland a moderate pace was kept up and four stops were made, we suppose for lubricating purposes. After leaving San Leandro, the road to Haywards via San Lorenzo was taken, and the sixteen and a half miles from Market Street, was made in two hours and ten minutes. At Haywards the bicyclists partook of a light lunch at the house of Tony Oakes. Mr. Oakes courteously refusing compensation in honor, it it is supposed, of the first visit of the kind to Haywards. The return trip was made at a more lively pace, notwithstanding the wind had to be faced all the way. The run back to Market Street was made in one hour and fifty minutes. Bicycle clubs have been formed in Boston, Washington, Lynn and Bangor, and the vehicle is in use in other large cities. There are nine bicycles now in use on the Pacific Coast and others have been ordered from the eastern states and from England.

THE WHEELMEN - Lucian Lesna, world champion, in Golden Gate Park - Cyclers' Rest - The San Francisco Call - 05 Jun 1897, Sat, Page 8

THE WHEELMEN 05 Jun 1897, Sat The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com

Enthusiasm for bicycle riding was at a fever pitch in 1897, in America, and the whole world. The automobile hadn't yet displaced the bicycle. Everyone rode, and huge crowds flocked to races. So imagine an unknown frenchman spinning around Golden Gate Park with a local who, when he's challenged by some local fast guys, blows them away, and then he turns out to be the World Champion? The description of Bordeaux-Paris is incredible. The first Tour de France wouldn't be run for six more years. Local racers Bob and Harry Terrill were in France, hoping to make some money, racing professionally. One of the racers Pognon described them racing against was Maurice Garin, who won the inaugural Tour de France. We often talk about Greg Lemond and Lance Armstrong being the first Americans to break into European racing, or Marshall Taylor, from Indiana back in the 1890s, but here are San Francisco boys going to France to race. How did the Terrill's do, in France? I'll follow up on that. Listen to the podcast about Cycler's Rest, amazing. I don't know why Tom Cooper's illustration is included, as he's not mentioned in the article, but click his name to read about him. He was one of the many bicycle pros who became part of the early automobile racing firmament. - MF

THE WHEELMEN. 

Associated Clubs' Meeting and Race Meet at Sacramento To-Morrow. 

Lucien Lesna, the champion French cyclist, and his manager, Raymond Pognon, whose arrival from Australia was told in The Call yesterday, spent their time yesterday sight-seeing. In the afternoon M. Verilhac of the Bay City Wheelmen took Lena [sic] out for a ride in the park awheel. He told an amusing story afterward about how, when they were riding along the cycle path, chatting in French, three local men caught up with them and one of them said, "Let's sew up these Frenchmen." Verilhac understood what they said, but Lesna, who cannot speak or understand English, did not. Verilhac repeated it to him, and with a smile Lesna "tacked on" behind the trio, and after they had each tried their best to

TOM COOPER

"shake him" he sailed by them laughing. They were telling some one at the cyclers' rest of the "wonder" run up against on the way out, who could not speak English but could ride like the wind. When informed that he was Lesna, the champion road-rider of the world, they had no more to say, but eyed him from a distance with open-mouthed admiration.

The Wheelmen. - run to Hollister - 09 Jun 1890, Mon San Francisco Chronicle

81% ordinaries, 19% safetys in 1890 century run W. M. Meeker 09 Jun 1890, Mon San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com

The Wheelmen. 

(Official Organ California Division L. A.W.)

The much talked-of 100-mile ride of the California Division, League of American Wheelmen, took place June 1st and proved a great success. The route was from this city straightaway to Hollister. Sixty-five bicyclists started with the intention of completing the full distance, and of this number fifty-three finished. The start was made from Twenty-first and Mission streets at 5:22 A. M. It was intended to start at 5 o'clock sharp, but the ever present photographer consumed some time in getting a picture. Between San Francisco and Millbrae, seventeen miles, Captain Meeker took his men along at such a pace that they regained the twenty-two minutes lost at the start so that Millbrae was reached on schedule time. The hotel man was quite unprepared for such a crowd at breakfast, and some of the riders suffered in consequence. The pace to San Jose seemed rather fast and took a great deal out of some of the riders. Dan O'Callaghan and others turned it up at San Jose.

'League of American Wheelmen Century Run, June 1, 1890, in San Francisco at 21st and Capp Mission Street. ( George R. Butler/California Historical Society)'

THE WHEEL. - A New Club-House for the San Franciscos. - Sun, Jun 8, 1890 - Page 3 - The San Francisco Call

THE WHEEL. Sun, Jun 8, 1890 – Page 3 · The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

THE WHEEL.

A New Club-House for the San Franciscos. 

The century run last Sunday to Hollister was a great success. About seventy-five wheelmen started, of whom fifty-three arrived in Hollister awheel. The others, either on account of weariness or accidents to their wheels, were compelled to stop at points on the way. The run has awakened a great deal of enthusiasm among the league members and has been the means of inducing others to become members of the division. Now that it is over wheelmen will settle down to work training for the races next month at San Jose. Some men new to the path, and encouraged by the showing they made against same of the older racers in the brushes on the way to Hollister, are going to see what they can do at San Jose, and the old stagers will have to pedal pretty lively if they expect to win many medals.

'League of American Wheelmen Century Run, June 1, 1890, in San Francisco at 21st and Capp Mission Street. ( George R. Butler/California Historical Society)'

When San Francisco Was Teaching America to Ride a Bicycle - Sun, Feb 26, 1905 - Page 5 - San Francisco Chronicle

When San Francisco Was Teaching America to Ride a Bicycle F. D. Elwell Sun, Feb 26, 1905 – Page 5 · San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

It Was San Francisco Which First Took Up the Odd Invention Called a Boneshaker and Brought It and the Taller Bicycle Which Came After It Into Popular Usage; Thus San Francisco Paved the Way for the Modern Safety and the Automobile...

PIONEER cyclists! Like their hardy forbears of old, the men who hewed down forests, forded impassable streams and generally opened the way to civilization, their tale is one of difficulties overcome, of obstacles which they refused to recognize, of lukewarm assistance in time of need, and of final triumph which has given to San Francisco the right to be hailed as "First Expounder of the Wheel."

OLYMPIC CYCLISTS. Young Men Who Will Boom Wheeling. Some Reminiscences of the Sport. - Sat, Oct 14, 1893 - Page 10 - San Francisco Chronicle

Sat, Oct 14, 1893 – Page 10 · San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

OLYMPIC CYCLISTS.

Young Men Who Will Boom Wheeling.

Some Reminiscences of the Sport.

Benefit of Cycling Clubs Joining a Big Athletic Organization

The early wheelmen were by force of circumstances a gregarious lot. To sally forth upon the public highway with that decidedly alarming type of vehicle, the old ordinary bicycle, called for a degree of courage, both moral and physical, which was most readily obtained from the association of numbers.

One of the original members of the old San Francisco Bicycle Club, organized in 1878, telling of a run over the Point Lobos road soon after the organization of the club, relates that each man came to the place of rendezvous, the junction of Central and Point Lobos avenues with his wheel in an express wagon, and when the run was over, loaded his wheel into his own particular wagon and was driven home.

[Geary Boulevard used to be Point Lobos Avenue, and Central Avenue used to bisect it. See this 1904 map in georeferencer.com. The junction of Central and Point Lobos avenues would now be Geary at Presidio. Back then, it was the northern edge of Calvary Cemetery, now a target. Geary does still become Los Lobos Avenue as it reaches the western edge of the city, near the Cliff House. - MF]

Knave - Sequoya, Hayward fault, Virginia City, Lake Tahoe, panthers, San Leandro, Davis, Estudillo - Oakland Tribune, 23 Jun 1946, Sun, Page 11

KNAVE Sun, Jun 23, 1946 – Page 11 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

IN PICKING up the article in which the California Folklore Quarterly explains the derivation of a number of place names familiar in California, the Knave is struck with the number which have origin in the East and in the Indian tribes who were there.

BAY CITY WHEELMEN, Well-Known Athletes Who Travel Around on Wheels. - Sun, Oct 14, 1888 - 9 - The San Francisco Examiner

BAY CITY WHEELMEN Well-Known Athletes Who Travel Around on Wheels Sun, Oct 14, 1888 – 9 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

BAY CITY WHEELMEN

Well-Known Athletes Who Travel Around on Wheels.

CALIFORNIA CYCLISTS.

How the Sport Has Grown in Interest Since it Was First Introduced on This Coast.

OF all the athletic sports that have ever been introduced on this coast no particular one has made such rapid strides toward perfection as cycling has.

BICYCLE-RIDING. Meet on the Point Lobos Road, and Formation of a Club - Fri, Nov 29, 1878 - Page 3 - San Francisco Chronicle

BICYCLE RIDING. Meet on the Point Lobos Road and Formation of a Club. Fri, Nov 29, 1878 – Page 3 · San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

BICYCLE-RIDING.

Meet on the Point Lobos Road, and Formation of a Club 

Among the vehicles for rapid transportation which are now coming into favor in this country, where it has but lately been introduced, is the bicycle.

OLD TIME RACER TO BUILD TRACKS - Frank D. Elwell Will Assist in Re-establishing Bike Game. - Sun, Oct 27, 1907 - Page 19 - San Francisco Chronicle

OLD TIME RACER TO BUILD TRACKS Frank D. Elwell Sun, Oct 27, 1907 – Page 19 · San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) · Newspapers.com

OLD TIME RACER TO BUILD TRACKS

Frank D. Elwell Will Assist in Re-establishing Bike Game.

Old-time wheelmen and enthusiasts who followed the sport twenty years ago will perhaps recall some of the feats accomplished in the racing in the early days of the sport in this city by Frank D. Elwell. At that time he was the foremost rider of the country.