There is an important catch in the theme of this book and this chapter with in it. It is necessary to differentiate between the bicycle and the bicyclist, as one can be more invisible than the other. At present in the UK the bicycle remains largely invisible, but the cyclist does not. To illustrate this, we need go no further than the nearest city street. One sees many cars, but how many motorists? As almost all motor cars are now made fully enclosed with tinted windscreens and windows, their drivers and occupants become invisible. In day to day language we acknowledge this difference of visibility by tending to give agency to the car: “that car nearly ran me down”; yet the chances are, when faced with a bicycle, we will attribute agency to the cyclist: “that cyclist went straight through those red lights”.
With this in mind, “History, Tweed and the Invisible Bicycle” develops the themes of a number of short papers delivered by the author to the International Cycling History Conference, and another delivered as part of the “Invisible Bicycle” strand at the ICHSMT Conference in 2013. It also touches on some of the themes raised in “This Hill Is Dangerous”, an article in Technology and Culture discussing road signage and politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chapter considers the way in which cycling has been perceived in the context of increasing “invisibility” during much of the twentieth century; then in the context of increasing visibility and assertiveness in recent years.
History has had a very significant role in cycling. The first written histories of the machine were published in the late 1860s, shortly before the high wheeled machine of the 1870s, the starting point of this chapter, was invented. They were the first ever histories that focused on a modern consumer durable. They set a pattern in which historic machines were presented mainly to demonstrate the superiority of newer ones, a model that remained dominant for well over a century and is still common. It was not long before actual demonstrations of ‘ancient’ machines were employed to do the same as a type of living history.
In this chapter, such historical presentation is seen to become significant only during the first half of the twentieth century, when both bicycles and their riders became steadily less visible, even though there were far more of them than there had been previously. In contrast, the “antique” bicycle was often very visible as part of fairs and processions, this will be explored in some depth.
The growing invisibility of bicycles and their riders on the road was not only cultural; bicycles were seen as presenting a hazard to motorists who might not notice them. During the 1920s, against the advice of the Cyclists’ Touring Club (CTC), the most significant voice of cycling at government level, the UK government took steps to make bicycles more visible but not cycling, a key difference that subtly discouraged the activity. Attention waned as cycling diminished in the Post-War era, and with it what visibility it had.
However, in the last three decades, with an increase in the activity, cycling has become far more visible and, in turn, attention has turned to make cyclists more visible, something that has been reflected in wider culture. I conclude the chapter in looking at the “Tweed Run”, where once again “antique” (or now “retro and vintage”) bicycles are presented for public display, to explore the present state of visibility of bicycles and their riders.