My dad was an inveterate collector of books.
We have been sorting some of them and found a couple of items that should(?) help us all with our cycling.
One is ‘The “Contour” Road Book of Scotland’ dated 1907-8, which seems to cover all the main routes in Scotland at the time, all 497 of them. It also has 500 maps and plans, with many of these being gradient profiles. It is amazing to think of the journeys undertaken by bike at that time, and the effort put in to collating this guide. But this is just a teaser. I’ll write a bit more about this at a later date.
Right now, it’s an earlier document from 1902 from which I’m going to outline some items. In these days of charging bike lights by USB, multiple gears, suspension etc. it is fascinating to look through a catalogue for bikes of the time.
So may I present the first snippet from:
I just love the motto “What We Say We Do, We Do Do”
Among the many, many items of fascination there is an advert for Racing Bicycles:
They started at £5 and 13 shillings, which was ‘very light, safe and sturdy’ on which they place the celebrated W. & M. tyres! The top model was £14 and 14 shillings which “represents everything to be desired as a perfect road or track racer.”
But the best bit for me was the endorsement:
I can maybe imagine riding in a Royal Aquarium maybe, but wonder how Bradley Wiggins would have done on this bike?
If you cannot read the endorsement from (Miss) Monie Hardwood let me know & I’ll add a transcription.
Amazing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Go Monie – Gentle Lady 🙂 This is fascinating memorabilia. Great that you found it amongst your Dad’s things. Will look forward to seeing some more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tried to find some info on Monie, but no luck so far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are wonderful. What treasures! Don’t ever throw them away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a lovely post! Miss Monie Hardwood sounds like a great racer and reading her endorsement of her winning bicycle after the past few days following the Women’s Tour has particular resonance this morning. Great treasures, thank you for posting them for us to enjoy 🙂
LikeLike
The lady cyclist was Monica HARWOOD – winner of a six day race in London in the 1890s. See http://www.sixday.org.uk/html/19c_female_riders.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brilliant, thanks so much for the info, I’ll have to read up on some of the others.
LikeLike
She also used to ride an Élyssée bike according to The Hub (have it somewhere…). You can see “Elys…” on the banderol across her shoulder here: http://www.sixday.org.uk/html/early_photos.html
LikeLiked by 1 person