ABSTRACT
The ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1892) notes a rapid growth in the popularity of cycling "during the past two years." According to Constance EverettGreen there was a marked shift between April and June of 1895; suddenly, during the latter month, it was eccentric among the fashionable not to cycle. The fad lasted through 1897, leaving several marks on British culture. To some extent interest in the bicycle cut across classes: sudden and widespread enthusiasm created an important manufacturing industry catering to a mass market. H. G. Wells's The Wheels of Chance (1896) has for its hero the shop assistant Hoopdriver, who discovers new mobility on a bike. But particularly attracted to this pastime were young people of the middle classes with advanced views, money, and leisure time. Bicycling allowed new and less supervised forms of contact between the sexes. It was taken up extensively by women seeking independence; there were controversies about proper female dress for cycling. A popular association between bicycling and controversial social positions is suggested by stories of male hostility to female riders passing through working-class neighborhoods. In the preface to Too True to Be Good (1932) George Bernard Shaw (an enthusiastic cyclist in his youth, once colliding with Bertrand Russell) complained that newspapers could not distinguish between "a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization." During the 1890s, however, bicycles often did seem tied to the fortunes of civilization.
