Dartmouth College Bicycle Club. '88

[MattTuck]

1888.

Wife saw this in a book today and thought I'd get a kick out of it, I'm passing it along to y'all. Can't wait for Rapha to launch their revival collection.

Also, the machine on the far left appears to have pedals that are not offset by 180 degrees. I wonder how that works.

[Louis]

W Wheelock St up from the river must have been fun on those. (or going down, for that matter)

[Black Dog]

The saddles have cut outs. What's old is new.

[572cv]

Maybe started with practice crits around Occum Pond.....

[Louis]

The saddles have cut outs. What's old is new.

Hmmm, I wonder if the solar topee helmet is also ready for a comeback?

[Louis]

The guy in the 2nd row, 2nd from the right sort of reminds me of D-Day in "Animal House":

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/600x315/21/b2/b5/21b2b5b5f29c859cfb4674e6d43310b8.jpg

[txcid05]

Great photo. Wonder what type power it took to climb the most gentle hills on one of those...:p

Thanks for the post!

[bikinchris]

The saddles have cut outs. What's old is new.

At that time, you could get saddles custom made for different widths and lengths. They were actually better off.

[cadence90]

Isn't that olde spude, in the back row, grey suit, between the two guys in striped blazers?

Very dashing.... :)

[peanutgallery]

Hipsters

[Tandem Rider]

Looks like back row right side bikes have the small wheel in front.

[ahsere]

Last guy on the right looks like he is doing an armless assisted trackstand...

[john903]

I really enjoy old photos of cycling back in the 1880-1920 era such cool looking bikes and riders. Being the start of the industrial revolution some cool things were happening. as some have noted saddles with cut outs custom made, different wheel sizes, and course all kinds of crazy frame designs. Yes I think the riders also look cool too someone mentioned "Hipsters" well I imagine they were hip back then. Oh by the way what is the book your wife is reading I just finished the book on Major Taylor and am look for another good read.
Have a great day.

[Tickdoc]

I was expecting to see early look pedals and some neon colors!

That is old school cool.

[daker13]

Great pic.

It's worth noting that, this being 1888, these guys are really clinging to a dying technology, the safety bicycle almost completely replacing the penny farthing within another couple of years.

[Mark McM]

Great photo. Wonder what type power it took to climb the most gentle hills on one of those...:p

Thanks for the post!

These bikes are heavy by today's standards, but they also have relatively low "gearing". My road bike has a 52" low gear (52/26, 700c wheels), which is roughly the same as the only gear on these high wheelers. Due to the low "gear" and high and forward rider position, I suspect that downhills are more
"interesting" than uphills.

[Mark McM]

Looks like back row right side bikes have the small wheel in front.

Those look like American Star bikes, introduced in 1880:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Star_Bicycle
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/39_x_24_Star_Bicycle.jpg/800px-39_x_24_Star_Bicycle.jpg



These bikes were designed to counter the tendency of high wheelers to tip over forward when hitting obstructions.

[MattTuck]

I really enjoy old photos of cycling back in the 1880-1920 era such cool looking bikes and riders. Being the start of the industrial revolution some cool things were happening. as some have noted saddles with cut outs custom made, different wheel sizes, and course all kinds of crazy frame designs. Yes I think the riders also look cool too someone mentioned "Hipsters" well I imagine they were hip back then. Oh by the way what is the book your wife is reading I just finished the book on Major Taylor and am look for another good read.
Have a great day.

Not sure of the book, it was in the waiting area at the Honda dealership. I think just a picture book of local history... I'll try to find out.

Great pic.

It's worth noting that, this being 1888, these guys are really clinging to a dying technology, the safety bicycle almost completely replacing the penny farthing within another couple of years.

That's the thing. Compare to this picture of the first winner of the Tour de France, in 1903, and his bike.

https://i.imgur.com/kZkRdDh.jpg

That is 15 years. Such a radical evolution of the design. Equivalent time from 2001 to today.... Lots to say there, in terms of how they converged on a pretty good design after not too long, and how that form has pretty much continued without much improvement for 100+ years.

W Wheelock St up from the river must have been fun on those. (or going down, for that matter)

Fun and terrifying. You know, when we think of it compared to bikes of today, it seems really high and dangerous. I wonder, at the time, if the comparison was to horses... so they just figured, yeah, you're up high on these types of things!

Maybe started with practice crits around Occum Pond.....

I wonder if these guys were considered 'hell raisers', zooming around on their new fangled contraptions, running pedestrians off the road, haha.

Wish I could go back and buy some of that land in 1888. It would have been a good investment.... those houses are not cheap.

[schwa86]

W Wheelock St up from the river must have been fun on those. (or going down, for that matter)

I can't figure out where they would have strapped the case of beer purchased on VT side of river though ...

[Louis]

You know, when we think of it compared to bikes of today, it seems really high and dangerous. I wonder, at the time, if the comparison was to horses... so they just figured, yeah, you're up high on these types of things!

Wish I could go back and buy some of that land in 1888. It would have been a good investment.... those houses are not cheap.

Two different stories related to these comments:

Re: Penny-farthings vs horses

So much is just a series of incremental changes. Years ago (early 80's) I remember noticing the faucets in one of the men's rooms in Reed Hall (one of the older buildings on campus). It had originally been two completely separate faucets, with two control knobs, which of course was because ages ago before there was running water folks just poured the water into a basin. Then one faucet was added - wow, what a luxury, then a second, with hot water, even better! But the water only mixed in the basin. Then a brilliant plumber had an idea - let's connect the two faucets at the outlets so the water mixes before it's in the basin, so you can have perfect temperature water right off the bat. So the two faucets in this bathroom had an obviously retrofitted connection, with a short down-pointing outlet in the middle. It took me a few seconds, but after thinking about it a bit I could visualize the entire evolution of bathroom sinks in the US.



Re: Hanover real estate and getting in on the ground floor

One year during a break in classes I went down to a buddy's home in NJ (again, this was in the early 80's) and was telling his father about a programming class I was taking (BASIC taught by John G Kemeny himself!). I also mentioned how cool these computer networks were, and how you could share information between computer systems that were located in completely different cities or states. He said something like "Bah - that's useless. If I need some information all I have to do is call someone up and ask them myself." Too bad I didn't put my money where my mouth was and either go work for or invest in one of those teeny no-name computer companies that in those days was just getting started...