If you’ve ever heard the song "A Bicycle Built for Two," you may have smiled at its oldfashioned images. But in the 1890s, the safety bicycle was new, liberating, and just plain irresistible. Earlier bicycles were uncomfortable and difficult to maneuver, but safety bicycles resembled today’s bikes. They had air-filled tires, wheels of equal size linked by gears and chains, a padded seat, handlebars that could be adjusted, and easy-to-use brakes.
People were obsessed with bicycles. In 1884, there were about twenty thousand bicycles in the United States. A decade later, there were ten million! Bicycles soon took over the leisure time of the middle class. Merchants grumbled that
people were spending their money on bicycles rather than on jewelry, clothes, or shoes. Book dealers complained that
people who were busy cycling around day and night would have no time for reading. Music hall owners tried to bolster business by offering discounts to lure cyclists inside.
The tremendous interest in bicycling shocked staid society. Some clergy members deplored the bicycle as an invitation to idleness. They also condemned the newfound freedom that young people had to cycle off beyond the watchful eyes of adults.
The bicycle proved to be more than a frivolous fad. It had many practical uses. Doctors rode their bikes on house calls to sick patients. Salespeople used bicycles to make their rounds. City dwellers had few qualms about owning bicycles, which were much easier, cheaper, and cleaner to maintain than a horse and buggy. The bicycle frenzy died down when the automobile came along, but the safety bike forever changed the way Americans got around.