A few months ago I was given the opportunity to dig through the Archives at American Cyclery, one of the oldest bicycle shops in San Francisco. The archives are interesting as the original owner of American, Oscar Juner collected tons and tons of scrap books and ephemera of cycling around the bay area dating back to the early 40s. It paints a picture of a rich cycling community that seems to have been lost to the ages. To illustrate the scale of the collection, all the photos I am posting now are from a single scrap book. There is an entire storage unit filled with these, plus trophies, jerseys, parts, bikes, and much much more. The Bicycle Museum in Davis has expressed interest in acquiring the collection but the current owner of American fears the collection would be hidden away from the viewing public. He expressed to me interest in having the archive digitized and freely availible online but unfortunately it was too daunting of a task for me to undertake. Perhaps someone out there has the wherewithal to pull it together!
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As promised – I have uploaded another twenty pictures from a visit to Cycle Square. Last month we went over to Cycle Square in Tokyo to check out the spot and see Erik’s exhibition.
Cycle Square is in Sendagaya, which not too far from Shinjuku and a bit north of Shibuya. It’s a quieter neighborhood, surrounded by several parks and garden such as Shinjuku Gyoen National garden, Yoyogi Park and Aoyama Cemetery. A very tranquil place to be.
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There are two past times that capture the free spirit of easy living better than any other human activity, and both share many similarities as far as history and transportation go. The bicycle and the train were both monumental inventions that propelled our world into an entirely new state that allowed us tiny people the ability to move!
Two types of Rambling
Yes, right around the time that the first Steam Engines were being considered, and tracks were being plunked down criss-crossing all across this country, we also had the birth of the Bicycle. Like all good things, both of these inventions were born out of necessity and
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