by Diane Solomon, History San José & SVBC Volunteer

Did you know that Santa Clara Valley’s residents have been cycling since the 19th century?

While Silicon Valley is known as the birthplace of biotech, the Internet, and personal computers, its residents are known for being early adopters of new technology.

Largely unknown is the early adoption of cycling in our Valley. In the 1870s locals cycled on velocipedes. By the 1880s and 1890s, they cycled, raced, and traveled on big-wheeled penny farthings.

By 1895, over a dozen San José shops sold “safety” bicycles, the first bicycles with two same-sized rubber wheels, brakes, and more user-friendly seats. Enthusiastic riders included women and African Americans who formed clubs.

In the 1880s, the Garden City Wheelmen started a vibrant racing scene on penny farthings. They won national attention beginning at the turn of the 19th century when they switched to safety bicycles that were tweaked for speed.

On this blog, you’ll learn about:

The turn of the 19th century’s recreation, racing, and club scene.
Valley road bicyclists that changed the sport of racing, and the regional champions who went to the Olympics
The locals who improved the bicycle’s technology and founded internationally known brands
The history of local bicycle shops and their proprietors
The she-roes and heroes who were our region’s first bicycling advocates. They formed what is today’s Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Their herculean efforts got bicycles on Santa Clara County public transportation, they convinced Santa Clara County cities to provide bicycle parking, and got employers to accommodate bicyclists by providing changing rooms, showers, and bicycle racks. These advocates were instrumental in getting local planners, developers, governments, and educational institutions to begin the consideration and accommodation that bicyclists and their bicycles receive today.

Let’s Begin With the Earliest Years:

Wasn’t 19th century Santa Clara County an unknown backwater farming community?
Why were so many San Josèan and Palo Altan bicyclists in the late 19th century?
How did they even learn about velocipedes, Penny Farthings, and Safety Bicycles?

Beginning in the late 19th century, the Santa Clara Valley’s agricultural products fed the nation. San José was the epicenter of a huge agricultural industry that provided thousands of jobs to farmers, farm workers, produce processors, canneries, and railroad workers.

In 1890, a Californian, Edwin Tobias Earl, invented the refrigerator railroad car. This new technology was quickly embraced by our Valley’s farmers, who began shipping their produce on trains. This earned them a national customer base and gave this region a new name, the Valley of Hearts Delight. Thousands of jobs were generated along with an opportunity for many to earn a good standard of living.

Four institutions of higher education attracted and grew an educated populace. The University of the Pacific was located in San José, where Bellarmine College Preparatory stands today. Leland Stanford Junior University was founded in 1891. Santa Clara University began in 1851 as Santa Clara College. San José State University was founded in 1862 as The California Normal School, a college that trained its students to become public school teachers.

There were public libraries here, practitioners of the fine arts, concert halls, grand parades, public parks, and the same types of entertainments that were offered in large East Coast and Mid-Western cities.

Telegraph communications enabled the San José Daily Mercury, the San José Daily Herald, and the Mayfield Enterprise to report on local and national, news, sports, and cultural trends. These newspapers, as well as national magazines and journals, were widely read here, and were distributed via paperboys, newsstands, or the U.S. mail.

Good paved roads were needed then to transport produce from farms to trains. They were made from Asphaltum and Bituminous Rock that was mined in Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties.

In short, paved roads; temperate weather; plentiful well-paying jobs; leisure time; an informed populace, and early adopters of new technology are the reasons why bicycling took hold here during its infancy.

What were the first cyclists riding here?

The precursor of today’s bicycle was the velocipede. According to the Smithsonian Institute, this early ancestor of the modern bicycle was in use by the early 1800s.

A Google image search for velocipedes will yield a variety of versions. The earliest velocipedes consisted of two same-sized solid wood or metal wheels with spokes, a wooden or metal seat, and handle bars that controlled the front wheel. One’s own feet were the brakes. Later versions had a lever brake. Rides on these cycles earned them the name, “boneshakers”.

According to the Design Museum’s “Fifty Bicycles That Changed the World” by Alex Newson, velocipedes were widely in use from the 1840s to the 1870’s. We know from San Jose Daily Mercury articles that by the late 1860s they were ridden here by children and men. Long skirts and restrictive mores prevented women from riding velocipes.

According to the Smithsonian Institute:

In 1863, in Paris, an important milepost in velocipede development occurred when pedals were added to the front axle. This happened in the workshop of Pierre Michaux, but to this day is cannot certainly be said whether he or his employee Pierre Lallement is entitled to the credit. Lallement moved to the New Haven Connecticut, and in 1866 he was granted a patent for “improvements in velocipedes.” In 1868, the Hanlon brothers of New York, improved Lallement’s vehicle.

For more information please visit Museo Galileo’s online exhibit “Cycling Through Past”

The velocipede in History San José’s collection was made in 1842 and was the gift of Clyde Arbuckle. Mr. Arbuckle founded History San José and he’s the young racer pictured above, fifth from the left.

According to the Museo Galileo, cyclists in France began racing velocipedes in 1868.

What we know about velocipede-riding in the Santa Clara Valley is from San Jose Daily Mercury and San Jose Herald newspaper clippings. My apologies for not being able to access the Mayfield Enterprise, due to Covid-19’s restrictions on public library access. The Mayfield Enterprise was published from 1870 to1899. Here is what I did find:

This September 18, 1891 article salutes the Valley’s velocipede riders.

Articles and advertisements indicate that velocipedes were a popular children’s toy—like today’s balance bicycles. There were mishaps and children were injured.

Here are a few examples:

August 1876: On First Street, a mentally ill man “…forcibly took possession of a velocipede belonging to a young lad.”

February 1879: A six-year old girl riding a velocipede rode under a horse. They collided and the girl was seriously injured

February 1883: In Salinas City, a six-year old boy fell off his velocipede and was seriously injured.

In February 1879, San José’s City Council creates a “no velocipede zone”. See the two below clippings from this month. The 8th paragraph of the first article describes this zone. Please note that “boy” also refers to low wage workers who ran errands and made deliveries for businesses.

The second article specifies the penalties for violating the ordinance and its limitations.

More about this ordinance:

This October 29, 1879 article indicates that San José men rode velocipedes as early as 1869 and it introduces the subjects of our next ¡Silicon Valley Bikes! blog:

We hope that you enjoyed this information!

Please visit this page again for our next edition of ¡ Silicon Valley Bikes ! A Celebration of our Valley’s Rich Bicycling History. Our subjects will be the Penny Farthing bicycle; the Garden City Wheelmen, and the birth of local bicycle racing and long-distance bicycle excursions.

We’d love to know about your, or your family’s, Silicon Valley bicycling history.

Please email Diane at siliconvalleybikes@historysanjose.org to share your Santa Clara Valley bicycling history with us.

Please do not share or reproduce anything on this page without permission.

For permission to use any of the content on this page, please email Diane at siliconvalleybikes@historysanjose.org

Photo Credits – Please obtain Permission to Repost or to Use These Photos:
The photo of the women and photo of the Garden City Wheelmen are courtesy of History San José
The 1973 photo of the Morrow Dirt Club is courtesy of Joe Breeze & History San José
The 1979 photo of Greg LeMond & friend at Hellyer Velodrome is courtesy of Terry Shaw
The photo of the four men is courtesy of the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County
The photo of the happy family is courtesy of Richard Masoner
The photo of History San José’s Lefebvre Velocipede is courtesy of Diane Solomon
The photo of Terry Shaw and Mike Sinyard is courtesy of Diane Solomon
The photo of the bicycle club family is courtesy of Diane Solomon
The photo of the show bike is courtesy of Kryod LaPointe
The photo of Ellen Fletcher is courtesy of the SVBC

About History San José:
History San José is a nonprofit organization that collects, preserves and celebrates the stories of diversity and innovation in San José and the Santa Clara Valley. HSJ manages one of the largest and most comprehensive regional history collections in the State of California, from 1784’s Spanish governmental records to Silicon Valley’s twenty-first century technology.