In a witty, late 19th century pun about leisure-time recreation, the first speaker says, “How wonderfully cheap clothing is getting to be. Trousers have come down one-half.”
The second speaker, as published Sept. 26, 1896 in The Morning Star of Glens Falls, quips, “Yes – just about one-half. Since this bicycle craze, they only come down to the knees.”
Glens Falls Bicycle Club circa 1900 • Photo courtesy of the Folklife Center at Crandall Library
The Glens Falls region enthusiastically embraced the “bicycle craze” of the 1880s and 1890s, a national phenomenon brought on by the inventions of safety bicycles, pneumatic bicycle tires and coaster brakes.
Numerous bicycle clubs were formed in the greater Glens Falls area,
“It is stated that several bicyclists of Glens Falls and Sandy Hill contemplate organizing a local club and joining the National Wheelman’s League,” The Morning Star reported on July 13, 1883.
“A movement is a foot among several young bicyclists of Glens Falls to organize a club here, which will doubtless be accomplished in a few weeks, providing suitable quarters can be obtained,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 3, 1883. “About forty persons have already signified their intention of becoming members of the organization, nine of whom are owners of machines in the Columbia pattern,” with a large front wheel and a tiny back wheel.
One of the local bicycle clubs, The Glens Falls Bicycle and Athletic Club, was established on March 22, 1887, and by early May had 107 members.
The club evolved into The Glens Falls Club, an elite men’s social club that had its club rooms on the upper floors of the building at the corner of Glen and Ridge Streets, the building where Northeastern Fine Jewelry is now located.
The Fort Edward Bicycle Club, another local club, often joined cross-country touring bicycle groups that passed through the area, riding along on the stretch between Fort Edward and Glens Falls, and sometimes on to Lake George.
Local clubs included several exclusive “century” clubs, so named because membership was restricted to cyclists that had ridden at least 100 miles in a single day.
The bicycle craze dwindled in the early 1900s, due to multiple factors, including the advent of the automobile, the laying of trolley tracks along road-side paths that bicyclists had used, and the development of other recreational pursuits, according to the National Museum of American History.
Between 1900 and 1905, the number of bicycle manufacturers in the United States dropped from 312 to 101.
For about the next 50 years, bicycling would be a mode of transportation primarily limited to children and teenagers.
But at the peak of the craze, bicycling was enjoyed by riders of all ages.
“The bicycle craze has struck the line of boys over sixty years old, and several have ordered wheels,” The Morning Star reported on June 17, 1898.
Bicycle racing also was popular in Glens Falls.
“Nature donned one of her highest smiles yesterday after noon, and the managers of the bicycle meet were correspondingly happy,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 6, 1895. “The attendance was large and all things conspired to make the event a success.”
The program at The Mile Track, a harness racing track on Upper Coolidge Avenue, between Dixon Road and Sherman Avenue, featured both competitive and exhibition events.
The old One-Mile Track at Broadacres, where harness racing and bicycle racing was held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries • Photo courtesy of The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library.
“A novelty was introduced when M.H. Donovan of South Glens Falls came on the track to attempt to walk one mile while a tandem team, consisting of George Eddy and C.H. Austin, wheeled three miles. The effort was successful. Donovan covered the mile in 7:14, several minutes ahead of the tandem.”
The quarter-mile speed race was particularly noteworthy.
James G. Budd won the first heat, with a time of 32 seconds, advancing to the championship heat against several other qualifying riders, including Harry D. Elkes, who won the second heat, with a time of 33.75 seconds.
The championship heat was close.
“Budd and Elkes finished a splendid exhibition of speed, and finished close together, with the former slightly in the lead.”
Budd won with a time of 32.25 seconds.
Budd and brother Delmar A. Budd operated a bicycle factory on Maple Street that made the D & H brand bicycle., according to former Post-Star history columnist Howard Mason, whose writing is collected in the anthology “Backward Glances,” which Warren County Historical Society published in 2014.
Elkes went on to become a professional bicycle racer who broke several records, racing in the United States and Europe.
Elkes was killed May 30, 1903, in a bicycle accident during a race in Boston, and he is buried in the Glens Falls Cemetery on Bay Street.
