Page 27 - PBCOctober2015

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 12 No.1 March 2015 !27

An Extraordinary Ride on an Extraordinary Ordinary……

It is fairly commonplace nowadays for cyclists to perform daring and dangerous
feats, defying injury and even loss of life. Some observers would agree that commuting in
present day conditions is hazard enough. Yet some still seek to attempt daring exploits.

Not so prevalent in the early years of cycling were there voluntary and thrilling
displays. Uninvited hazards were mainly encountering herds of cattle or sheep or the
sting from an angry coachman’s whip. Yet there is an actual account of a series of ‘tricks’
performed by two extraordinary cyclists, circa 1886, in America. Messrs Kaufmann &
McAnney performed their ‘tricks’ on a ‘Star’ bicycle.

This machine differs from the Old Ordinary in that the small wheel is in advance and
steers the machine while the weight of the rider rests mainly on the 50 or 52 inch large
driving-wheel. In October 1886, a daring and foolhardy feat was performed one
afternoon near Washington. The “Pittsburg Dispatch” received a telegram reporting the
event that took place at Cabin John Bridge. The bridge was said at that time time to be
the largest single span of masonry in the world. It was 125ft high and about 200ft long,
with a single magnificent arch spanning a deep and rocky gorge.

It was a very popular place, attracting large crowds of visitors. On this occasion a
party was in progress in a bridge-side shed with the occupants telling stories and
boasting of their riding skills; their machines stacked outside the building. In the midst
of the hilarity, one young man came out alone, selected his machine, mounted and, without
a word, rode off towards the bridge..

There was a brownstone coping on the three foot wide wall on either side of the
roadway. This coping was about a foot wide and bevelled on the upper two edges for an
inch or two. On the inside of the wall was the roadway and on the outside a sheer drop of
about 125ft in the centre and no less than 75ft at either end. The young man rode to the
bridge end, and placed his machine on top of the coping, remounted and started to ride
along it, to the considerable horror of onlookers. “The sight froze the blood of the ladies
and children picnicking in the gorge below, and was enough to appall the stoutest heart”.
From the end of the bridge he seemed a toy machine running by mechanism, so erect and
motionless he sat, and so evenly he rode.
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