Cycling is currently experiencing something of a renaissance in popularity in Britain. Road traffic statistics put the number of cycled miles in the UK during 2016 at 3.5 billion, an increase of 23% on a decade before. This renaissance is not just confined to Britain; there have been reported increases in cycle sales and use in Ireland and the United States, for example, following decades of decline as private car use soared. With cycling today being increasingly commonplace – seen as part of an environmentally responsible and active lifestyle – it is hard to imagine that not so long ago it was novel, innovative and even revolutionary.

The origins of the bicycle go back 200 years to when a short-lived craze for a curious wooden machine known as a velocipede or draisine (sometimes nicknamed the ‘dandy horse’) erupted among sporting young gentlemen in 1817. Invented by Baron Karl von Drais, the Grand Duke of Baden, this was a two-wheeled wooden machine that riders propelled with their feet. It was faster than walking and provided an exciting change from horse riding, but the poor condition of many roads and the speed at which riders wore out their boot leather led to it falling from fashion.

The idea did not entirely go away, however. The idea of a mechanically driven velocipede with pedals to save on soles began to appear some 20 years later, although it is unclear exactly who first invented it; it may have been Dumfries blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan in 1839 or possibly Lanarkshire draper Gavin Dalzell around 1845. The first commercially successful bicycle, however, was the ‘boneshaker’ of the 1860s. Designed in France, its metal body allowed for mass production, but the front-wheel drive made steering (and particularly cornering) tricky, while the iron-rimmed wheels produced the juddering ride that gave the design its nickname. The boneshaker was also short lived, the market being undermined by the Franco-Prussian war in Europe, while it never really took off in the United States.

Cycle manufacturers experimented with increasing speed via a large front wheel (the famous ‘penny farthing’), but cycling remained the preserve of wealthy urban men of a daring disposition (a Starley bicycle, for instance, would cost more than an ordinary working man earned in a year). When the safety bicycle appeared in the mid-1880s, all this began to change. This cycle was revolutionary; featuring even-sized wheels, rear-wheel drive and John Dunlop’s pneumatic tyres, it was easier, more comfortable and safer to ride than its predecessors. The simple diamond frame design (still in use today) also made it cheaper to buy and easier to maintain, moving the cycle from expensive novelty to a more practical device. Most significantly, perhaps, it also meant a step-through design for women riders became possible.

At first this meant that middle-class woman could start riding bicycles, but as the cost gradually started to come down during the 1890s, they became more accessible. This raised a new question – what to wear? Bare legs and trousers were scandalous propositions for women, and long skirts cumbersome. Bloomers saw a resurgence in fashion as modest yet practical cycling wear, and culottes (divided skirts) became another popular option for women riders. Bicycles gave these women their own independent form of transport for the first time, free from the rigid schedules of the train timetable and the cost of a horse and carriage.

As well as transportation, it brought a new leisure pursuit, a sense of freedom and liberation – and for women in more rural areas in particular, the prospect of wider pool of potential marriage partners. This of course led to good deal of conservative disapproval and tutting about unseemly behaviour as women could now escape the surveillance of chaperones with a new ease. American feminist Susan B Anthony remarked that, ‘It has done more to emancipate women than anything else. I stand up and rejoice every time I see woman ride on a wheel. It gives a woman a sense of freedom and self-reliance.’ Another female cyclist wrote in 1899: ‘The bicycle is in truth the women’s emancipator. It imparts an open-air freedom and freshness to a life hithertofore cribbed, cabined and confined by convention.’

Disapproval came from many onlookers, including doctors, who saw this new freedom as dangerous for women’s health. The Literary Digest of 1895 recorded that ‘Over-exertion, the upright position on the wheel, and the unconscious effort to maintain one’s balance tend to produce a wearied and exhausted “bicycle face”.’ If this ‘condition’ weren’t worrisome enough, women were also told that cycling could induce exhaustion, insomnia, heart palpitations and melancholy.

Fortunately, the health benefits of cycling began to be appreciated as cycle touring took off as a leisure pursuit for urban citizens keen to escape the dirt, noise and routine of working life. By the early 1900s, this had in turned acted as a spur for infrastructure improvements along popular routes and brought new custom to inns, cafes and repair shops. Not everybody welcomed the new breed of tourist, however, and some viewed them as arrogant intruders. Many cycling groups found themselves campaigning for the acceptance of this new mode of transport on roads and, as many of the wealthy and privileged were enthusiastic cyclists, they ultimately becoming involved in the standardisation of road use rules and signposting, as different vehicles learnt to share road space. Riding schools were a common sight across both Europe and North America, teaching riders to cycle with social responsibility and courtesy in mind as much as the physical ability to propel their bikes.

It wasn’t just women who felt the liberating effect of the bicycle. In both Britain and continental Europe, the increasing uptake of cycling among the working class began an association between the activity and the socialist movement. The German workers’ cycling federation, Solidarität (Solidarity) became the world’s largest cycling federation, amassing 330,000 members across Germany by 1933. In the UK, the Clarion Cycling Club – named after the Clarion socialist newspaper – started in 1894 and branches quickly sprang up across the country, especially in industrialised northern towns. When the clubs went on tour, they stopped regularly to hand out socialist literature and spread the word of their cause. By 1914, there were 30,000 members. What was once a toy of well-to-do gentlemen had now became a tool of feminism and socialist activism.

Cycling had further effects on society. Long-distance cycle races, first organised in France, became the first commercialised mass-spectator sport to be reported in the newspapers. As they grew in popularity, both road races and indoor velodromes began to appear across Europe to offer sporting entertainment and competition. Postal services adopted them as more efficient means of delivering mail than walking, thus improving deliveries. They were also adopted into military use as a cheaper alternative to traditional mounted cavalry, providing units of fast-moving infantry, reconnaissance and messenger services. Army use also saw the development of the first folding bicycles, which later moved into civilian use, the descendants of which are still popularly used by commuters today.

The arrival of the motor car and the increasing availability of the bicycle saw its gradual downgrade in status. The fashionable and wealthy traveller now drove, and the bicycle moved into being a utilitarian device, a mode of transport used by the young, the eccentric and those of lower status. The bicycle had helped with the early growth of the suburbs as it had made longer work commutes possible, but not on the scale that automobiles now enabled. A resurgence around the war years reflected the use of petrol rationing, as people used cycles as a cheap means of transport on roads that had steadily emptied of other users (although cycling was best attempted during daylight hours, owing to the restrictions on lights that wartime regulations enforced).

The decline in cycling since the 1950s was less to do with the relative number of cyclists or drivers, and more due to the changing status of the bicycle: what was once prestigious had become humble, even obsolete. As a consequence, policy makers and town planners – backed up by a motoring lobby of growing power – simply overlooked or excluded the bicycle from their frame of reference. With the latest revitalisation, as ‘cycle chic’ raises the status of cycling as a positive lifestyle choice, it is good to recall the many and varied effects it has had on society over time (and be glad that we now can use bright lights and pneumatic tyres).