Grand Avenue, now West Wisconsin, was still a gravel road when these brave souls took their high-wheelers out for a spin in about 1890. The riders were crossing 23rd Street when the shutter clicked. The intersection is part of the densely settled Avenues West neighborhood today, but it was practically in the country when these wheelmen barreled through.
They were participants in America’s first bicycle craze, riding heavy, hazardous vehicles with no brakes, no gears and front wheels nearly five feet in diameter.
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Getting on one of these appropriately named “bone-shakers” was a challenge, and getting off was even harder. A local reporter described the dangers in 1880: “As soon as the speed of the bicycle is checked, it begins to wobble like a dying top, and if the inexperienced rider can manage to dismount without falling off, he is exceptionally lucky.” What sadistic engineer came up with such a perilous contraption?
A sounder alternative was already on the scene. “Safety bicycles,” like the penultimate mount in this procession, had two wheels of equal size, a chain drive and coaster brakes. They were embryonic versions of today’s high-tech bicycles, and they kept riders much closer to the relative safety of the ground than any bone-shaker could.
The public responded with rabid enthusiasm. As “wheel fever” gripped the nation, local ridership soared from perhaps 250 in the bone-shaker era to an estimated 15,000 in 1895. Bicycles were featured attractions in local parades, and newly minted clubs like the Cream City Wheelmen sponsored weekend races that drew thousands of spectators.
The pioneers of 1890 paved the way for today’s bikers. Milwaukee County now maintains more than 135 miles of dedicated trails, and dozens of streets have marked bicycle lanes where our ancestors once found only gravel.
