Saturday, September 18, 2004
A Bicycle Built For Eight...
With the pedallers in a circle, like spokes! Last night, met two of my newer friends for a scrumptious meal at Pam Thai on 49th and 9th, followed by a humid evening stroll through the Great White Way/Restaurant Row, where we saw the bicycle revellers. And on 42nd St! Looked kind of scary, but also fun... If only I'd had a camera. I can't even find a picture of these contraptions on line. I don't even know what they're called. I searched under 'multi-seat bicycles,' 'novelty bicycles' etc. My friends said they'd seen these in Central Park before.
Here's a postcard from the Queens Library Collection: "In the 1890s, the bicycle craze swept the country. The new safety bicycle, with two wheels of the same size, replaced the big-wheeled velocipede, which was difficult to master. By the turn of the century, men and women had formed dozens of cycling clubs across the City. Wheelmen—and women—anxious to tour the countryside around the City pushed local governments for better roads long before the automobile age. "
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