沃尔瑟姆, 如今，这座城市有60多名居民,000, lies about 11 miles northwest of Boston and was a prominent manufacturing center in the nineteenth century, home to the Boston Manufacturing Company and 沃尔瑟姆 Watch Company. The city was also a center of bicycle manufacture and racing.

查尔斯H. 梅斯出生在纽约州尤蒂卡.Y., in 1863 and sold Columbia bikes as a teenager. He was also a competitive cyclist in his own right. 熟练的技工, Metz began designing bicycles for Union Cycles of Highlandville (Needham Heights), 质量., 在他自己闯荡之前, 成立了沃尔瑟姆制造公司, “东方”系列自行车的制造商. 1898年杂志上的条目 郊游 吹捧东方线, 其中包括双人组, 还有“三胞胎”, 四胞胎, 五重奏, 六重奏, and septets (the commonly accepted names for machines seating three, 四个, 五个, six and s甚至 riders respectively)” priced from $200-$600, while eight to ten seaters could be built upon request. Perhaps contributing to the decline in popularity of his own product, Metz began attaching motors to bikes (originally for motor pacing bike races) and later manufactured automobiles.

With the rise of recreational cycling came an increase in interest in the sport of bicycle racing. 约15,000 people were on hand for the opening of the 沃尔瑟姆 Cycle Park, the first race track in 麻萨诸塞州 dedicated solely to bicycle racing, 1894年5月30日开业. 不久之后, the dirt and gravel surface was replaced by “methalithic composition,提供了一个绝对平滑的, 甚至, and weatherproof surface for 甚至 faster racing. Renowned racers flocked to the 沃尔瑟姆 track in their bids to establish world record times. By 1902, 然而, the track had been sold and was increasingly used for other sports and 甚至 as an Army recruiting camp during World War I. 在此期间, bicycle racing was also featured at tracks in Cambridge, 里维尔海滩, 和斯普林菲尔德, 麻萨诸塞州.

自行车俱乐部的兴起

正如斯蒂芬·哈代在他的书中所写的 波士顿是怎么打的, “Pioneer sportsmen and sportswomen needed emotional support. 他们在俱乐部里发现了这个, a group of like minded deviants who formed a subculture based on enjoyment of a certain activity.” Boston was home to the very first cycling club, 波士顿自行车俱乐部, 成立于1878年2月, which required its members to have 10 years of cycling experience under their belt, 但不到20年后, the state was home to no fewer than 139 cycling clubs—catering to various proclivities (racing or recreational), 性别(尽管有些俱乐部是男女同校的), 很多都不是。), 种族和国籍. In 1879, 沃尔瑟姆自行车俱乐部成立的那一年, 阿默斯特也成立了俱乐部, 布罗克顿, 埃塞克斯, 菲奇堡, 哈佛大学, 林恩, 萨勒姆, 和伍斯特郡! 尽管有些俱乐部只是一起骑, others maintained lavish headquarters where members could indulge in other social activities. Cycling clubs also proved to be a vital lobbying group, advocating for better roads and protections for cyclists who were often considered a nuisance, 如果不是真正的威胁的话.

“的确，骑自行车已经成为一种习惯。”

1892年，波士顿 飞行员 得出的结论是,, 远非一时的流行, bicycling would be a permanent and widely accepted and adopted part of society. 在现实中, by the time our featured picture was taken in 1904, the recreational cycling boom begun in the 1880s and 1890s was already on the wane. Stephen Hardy attributes this to the rise of the automobile and improvements in public transportation, but Lorenz Finison posits that cycling’s very popularity led to its falling out of favor. When the price of a used (or 甚至 new) bike decreased to a level where the “lower order” of people could afford to buy one, the middle and upper classes who had fueled the meteoric rise of cycling during this era moved on to other entertainments thereby avoiding having to mix with the 大众.

尽管自行车从未消失, when the Covid-19 pandemic locked down American life in Spring of 2020, 骑自行车的人气再次飙升, with dealers and manufacturers unable to keep up with the demand for bikes of every description—from kids’ cruisers to mountain and road bikes. 再一次, bicycling became an important escape and cyclists crowded the streets and bike paths in Boston and the suburbs. It remains to be seen whether the pandemic cycling craze will be the one that sticks.