New Zealand has a rich history in cycling, with the first bikes appearing in 1869. Since then, Kiwi's have embraced cycling as a way of life, whether we are going cross country through National Parks, bunch riding through the city, down the local BMX park with the kids, or competing on the World stage - bikes are a part of who we are.
We have a look at where it all began...
The Revolution Begins: 1869
"After about ten days' good hard work, and lots of bruises, we succeeded in learning to ride it, and the new sensation so fired our imaginations that we almost immediately started to build another [bicycle], on very different lines."
W. H. Cutten, Dunedin, 1874
Without warning, two-wheeled ‘iron horses' rolled into the streets of New Zealand, astonishing and amusing curious bystanders. Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland newspapers heralded the bicycle's arrival within months of each other. In August 1869, the Southern Cross reported, under the headline "The First Bicycle In Auckland", that coachbuilders test rode a velocipede that they had just built on commission: "The cost of manufacture is about £14; and the weight of the ‘velox' 40 lb. ... We hear that Messrs. Cousins and Atkin have offered a very handsome premium to any of the employees who can first bring it safely along Queen Street without a spill."
Racing played an important role in the bicycles rapid evolution. Riders immediately realised that the fastest velocipede was the one with the largest front wheel, and thus, within a few years, the Penny Farthing was born. With it's massive front wheel, the penny farthing was as dangerous as it was impressive. This limited it's use to young adventurous men, and lead inventors to search for a safer alternative.
Around 1890 the penny farthing was superseded by the modern ‘safety' bicycle. By connecting a large cog attached to the pedal cranks with a small cog on the rear wheel, the new ‘safety' bicycle had a gear equivalent to the ordinary penny farthing, yet it's rider was low enough to be able to put their feet on the ground. Pneumatic tyres, invented in 1887 by a scottish vet called Dunlop were also added to the ‘safeties" diamond shaped bicycle frame.
This invention gained worldwide popularity, and revolutionised personal transportation as well as the sport of cycling.
"Our first impression of the pneumatic-tyre bicycle," recalled penny farthing racer Mr Bargrove in a Press interview, "was at an afternoon meeting where the Pioneer Club put on six of the events. Tom Clarkson had entered for all the events with what looked to us like a toy bicycle. Compared with out high ordinary machines it looked so insignificant, and a general laugh went round from all of us when he was ready to start. However, he won not only one race, but five, and, of course, had the laugh over us. That was the end of the high bicycle."
The basic design of ‘safety' bicycle, remained unchallenged until the small wheeled bikes such as the Raleigh Twenty, swept around the globe in the late 1960s. These popular commuting bikes were in turn usurped by the sleek Ten-speed in the 1970s, the tough BMX among children in the 1980s, and the practical mountain bike in the 1990s.
The Golden Age: 1900-1950
"... the bicycle is not longer a toy that everyone is anxious to possess and play with. With most of us, cycling has come to be part of our daily life. We ride down to the office as naturally as we walk downstairs to breakfast."
New Zealand Cycle Touring Club Gazette, 1 April 1899
Between 1900 and 1950, New Zealand imported nearly 800,000 bicycles and manufactured many thousands more. This was cycling's golden age, a period that saw the bicycle become the most common way of transporting individuals from A to B and back again. Cycling was more convenient than travelling by a horse, which had to be fed and saddled, and less expensive than motorised transport, which was especially important during the 1930s depression and petrol rationing that lasted throughout the 1940s.
Changing gear: 1950-2005
"After the war, as soon as people had money in their pockets, they couldn't get off their bikes and into cars quick enough. It got to the point where you scarcely saw another adult on a bike."
Cheyne, Christchurch cyclist
The story of cycling in New Zealand during the latter half of the twentieth century is on of adaptation and diversification. In the years immediately following World War Two, most cyclists pedalled purely for transportation. However, during the 1950s and ‘60s, as New Zealanders became wealthier and busier, the car grew in popularity until it dominated most urban roads. Cycle commuting declined in the major centres until the oil crisis of the 1970s. It then grew throughout the 80s, only to taper off again in the 90s. Meanwhile, recreational cycling boomed, and by the 1990s, cycling was one of the most popular sports in New Zealand. In 2006, oil was once again influencing bicycle transport. Bicycle sales responded well to soaring petrol prices, and a growing number of people decided to commuting by bike once again.
Industry and innovation
"When we consider the watch-like accuracy of make, the magnificent material, and the amount of mechanical skill put into a modern bicycle, one is led to wonder where there is room for much improvement."
New Zealand Wheelman, 1897
In 1869, only eight years after the velocipede was invented in France, local coachbuilders, working from overseas drawings and innate creativity, built the first bicycles ridden in New Zealand. Within weeks, overseas models were also imported, starting a competition between local industry and importers that has continued ever since.
Adaptation, entrepreneurial spirit and determination have helped the New Zealand cycle industry survive a roller-coaster ride, with highs and lows caused by changing government policies, economic depressions, motor car booms and advances in cycle technology. Though local manufacturing was at a low ebb in 2006, cycle sales were at an all time high and New Zealanders have access to the most diverse selection of bicycles ever available.
Women take to the wheel
"People used to throw stones at us, so we were afraid to go [cycling] by ourselves. Hoodlums and even the grown up people used to think it was shocking that we were riding these bicycles."
Blanch Thompson, pioneer cyclist, 1892
When Blanch Thompson began cycling in the early 1890s, society generally considered it a controversial act, and associated women on bicycles with the suffragette movement. Cycling not only offered women greater freedom to travel, but also encouraged them to wear radical new clothes, called ‘rational dress'. In 1892, the renowned women's rights campaigner Kate Sheppard (pictured on the New Zealand ten dollar note) helped form the Atalanta Cycling Club, one of the first for women in the world. Other such clubs soon sprang up around the country and by the end of the decade, women cycling in public, along with the right to vote, had become accepted in New Zealand. Other rights, such as that of women to race bicycles, would take many more decades to be won.
Growing up with Bikes
"One of the most harmful forms of cycling is that indulged in by youngsters. Almost any day they may be seen dashing along on machines that are so long that their feet can only touch the pedals at their highest point. For my own part I must say I have a distinct objection to seeing mere children riding bicycles. H. Cooke, The New Zealand Cyclist, 1898
Since 1898, learning to ride a bike has become a milestone for a child. It represents mobility, independence and responsibility. Riding a bike is the beginning of a private life. It means leaving the house without your parents, mucking around with your mates down at the park, taking the bike to bits and putting it back together again and learning jumps and tricks. For countless Kiwi kids, cycling has been one of the paramount joys of growing up in New Zealand.
Back Pedalling
"It's an incredible feeling, when you ride one of these machines that was built over a century ago. It's like going back in time..." Leon Nevin, bicycle restorer, 2002
One thing cycle collectors, restorers and retro riders have in common is a passion for fine bicycles; an admiration for the inventiveness and attention to detail that's turned the planet's most efficient form of transport into an irresistible form of art. What's a Colin McCahon hanging on the wall compared with a nickel-plated, wooden-rimmed Speedy at the door, ready to ride? Cycle enthusiasts are drawn to the magic of these time machines, bikes rich with history, always ready to carry them into the past.
For more information on any of these topics, refer to RIDE: the story of cycling in New Zealand, published by the Kennett Brothers in 2004