52 Photos Week 25: Bicycles

Question

Time for the next 52 Photos challenge!

This week's theme:

BICYCLES

To participate, simply:

1. reply below, and
2. add a photo that fits the theme to this week's free-space gallery.

If you use a social network (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) please share the photo there as well, using #52photos and #wikitree. This can be a great way to involve more family members. If you use a blog, include a link to your blog post in your answer below so we can all read it.

Members who participate every week can earn challenge badges. Click here for more info. If this is your first time participating and you don't have the participation badge, or if you pass a milestone (13 in 13, 26 in 26, 52 in 52) please post here.

Answer 1

My great uncle William Young born in Shanghai 1905  on his bike cycle 

Comments

What a fabulous photo Susan, I love the way he is dressed and the stockings. My grandmother often mentioned that boys needed to be a certain age to wear long pants.

---

I love his sailor suit! He is absolutely precious on his tricycle.  Thanks for sharing this treasure with us.

---

Thank You Alexis for your kindness

---

Thank You Caryl for your kind word

---

This picture is just TOOO cute!

---

Thank You Lynn how sweet of you to say so

---

Susan, another wonderful photo from your collection! Your great uncle is so cute! I love his sailor suit, his bike, and especially his boots. Thank you for sharing this.

---

Thank You Robin for your sweet comments how sweet of you

---

I knew Susan would find a bike pic in her mountain of photos!

---

Thank You SJ yes I remember I had this photo of William

---

Susan, I didn't expect anything less from you than a great picture. This is awesome.  I love William's hair, the bicycle and his sailor suit.

This just has to be the best picture for bicycle week!

Thanks for sharing.

---

Thank You Cheryl how very sweet of you to say so

---

Lovely foto of William! and to top it off, he is riding a proper old Tri-cycle. Something one doesn't see any more. A real treasure this is, thank you for sharing this Vintage treasure

---

Thank you Shaun you are always so very sweet

---

Susan.

Your collection of photos is really impressive and enviable.

Thank you so much for sharing your treasure with us!

---

Thank You Ruben how sweet of you to say so you are always so kind thank You for the star

Answer 2

Well, I don't really have an OLD picture related to bicycles, but since this is my 13 out of 13 weeks, you bet your buns I was going to find a picture to post.  So this is only from about 1987, and it's my son Ben on his bicycle in our front yard.  I have no clue why he's wearing "monster" make-up.  He's an 8 year old boy, so I guess that's as good a reason as any..

Comments

Love the photo, he must have kept you busy when he was growing up. Thanks for such a great photo of your son.

---

Oh yes!  He was quite a handful!  LOL  Those days go toooo fast.

---

Wonderful photo of your son Lynn he most love it today looking back when this wonderful photo was taken

---

Very cute picture of your son!

Answer 3

This is a photo taken about 1953 of my husband’s grandfather, W.R. Nelson, riding my husband’s bicycle. My husband says this was probably a Sunday  afternoon, as he is wearing his church clothes as he takes a ride around the neighborhood.

Comments

He is dressed pretty "spiffy" to go with the fancy whitewalls on those tires!  I love those old vintage bikes!!  You have the *BEST* pictures!

---

great photo of your husbands grandfather, what a great outfit he has in, and I like his bike I can se it is great model.

He look very much amazing on his bike thank You for sharing Alexis

---

Thank you Lynn, my husband says it had a light with a battery. That is something I do not remember ever seeing.

---

Thank you Susan, he was a man that stayed very fit and went to work every day until at age 84, when he had a sudden death.

---

that's great!

---

What a great picture. Very handsome, well dressed man. Alexis, I love the pictures that you share with us.  They are all great.

---

Thank you Cheryl.

Answer 4

I have no picture, but maybe a story will be enough. Great grandpa Joe was a bit of a rogue, liked his drink and the ladies. He and his son Cecil raised horses in Texas and drove them to Missouri to sell. Grampa Joe was a horseman, but around town he use his ʻwheelʻ. One night, after a riotous time (I suppose) at the saloon, he came home on his bike - and tied it to a tree so it wouldnʻt run off. Wish I had known him.

Comments

Thank you Kristina for your great story about your great grandpa. Where I live in Eastern Oklahoma is along the cattle trail. My 97 year old next door neighbor told me that a fast growing grass seed was brought from Europe that we keep fighting in our yards.

---

I LOVE that story!  He must have bee quite a character!  And you are lucky to know such a funny story about him.  I wish I knew more stories about mine.

---

Several stories about him that cannot be shared. But he did have two families - one at each end of the drive!

---

It's always fun to have "interesting" ancestors with stories, LOL

---

great story. Thank you for sharing.

Answer 5

My great great grandma Ellen White Benham was a singer in the program at the "grand bicycle picnic" held in Junction City, Oregon on May 24, 1895.  I wish I had a photograph of the bicycles!

She is listed as "Mrs. Benham".  My great grandma Josie Benham also participated.

Comments

Interesting how picnics were such social events back in those years. Caryl, Grand Bicycle Picnic sounds like it was a great fun. Thank you for sharing this.

---

Thank You for sharing this Caryl your great grandmother was beautiful

---

Thanks Susan and Alexis for your kind comments.

---

Your g-grandmother is gorgeous. We have a very large island park in my home town and it was filled with so many festivities back in the day. I love that your great great grandma was a singer in the bicycle festivities.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Answer 6

This is my grandmother Louisa Banks Flintoff Shane posing on this Harley Davidson "motor-bicycle".  She would not have been able to actually ride this motorcycle because she had polio as a child and was not even able to walk without crutches.  I have found it interesting that in photos of her she is often posed in positions which she must have gotten help to be in, such as on this motorcycle or seated on a fence.  There is never any sign of her crutches in any of her photos.

Comments

Wonderful photo -- wonderful story! Thank you for sharing it.

---

wow your grandmother on a Harley Davidson I am stunt

Amazing photo thank you for sharing

---

Susan, what a beautiful grandmother you had, and what a sweet smile. She must a been a really special person to have not let her handicap keep her from going on with her life.

---

Great pic.  Why crutches?  Don't use them on the bike!  Would be like posing with pajamas at lunch time; just cause you needed them before, don't pose if you don't need 'em now! 

---

Thank you, Robin!  I'm always so happy to share my family photos and stories!  :)

---

I was very surprised, too, Susan!  It wasn't hers, but belonged to a friend.  I have some photos with him on it, too.

---

I agree, Alexis!  I was so pleased to inherit many photos of her as a young woman!

---

Thanks, SJ Baty.  I like it, too!  She did still need her crutches all her life since the polio left her legs very weak.  She must have been placed on the bike just for the photo.  I would have thought that since the crutches were such a necessary part of her life, they'd show up in some photo sometime but there's never a sign of them!

---

Susan, what an amazing person your grandmother Louisa Banks Flintoff Shane was. She is very beautiful, and looks like she was very happy and I bet she was a lot of fun to be around. You are certainly blessed to have so many pictures of her, and I thank you for sharing them with us.

Answer 7

I'm another one who does not have any photos of any of my ancestry on bicycles, but I do have this photo of my husband with some of his siblings on bicycles taken in 1955.

These are six of nine children in the family. At this time there was another infant, and two more still to come. All of them are still living, as is their 93 year old mother.

Comments

Wow Robin imagine they are all still living, that is amazing

I love this photo the children are so adorable

Thank You for sharing Robin

---

Robin, thank you for sharing this happy photo. Your mother-in-law must have kept having children because they were all so adorable.

---

Such fun and happiness in this photo! Thank you for sharing!

---

Great pic!

---

Thank you, Susan, for your nice comments.

---

Now there's an idea, Alexis! I agree with you though, they are adorable, but that wouldn't convince me to have nine.

---

They really were/are a bonded group, E.

---

Thanks, SJ!

---

Robin, great picture, and so happy to hear that so many of the children are still alive.

The kids all look so happy together, and you also share so many great pictures.

Thank you for sharing.

---

Thank you, Cheryl. You're always so kind!

Answer 8

Here are George and Charlie Butler with the new Malvern Star Bicycle.

Comments

wonderful photo David of George and Charlie thank You for sharing

---

It's interesting that bicycles haven't changed all that much since they first came out. Thanks for sharing!

---

Super pic!

---

Great picture, Thank you for sharing.

Answer 9

I don't have any photos of any ancestors on bikes so I will have to settle for an early photo of my sister and I riding our bikes to school. This was taken in 1979. Our bikes were Raleigh Twenties, with three gears. Family Collection.

Comments

Great pic - almost matching dresses!

---

cute photo Robynne of your sister and you, I can se your have both the same bikes and dresses where you very close

Thank You for sharing this wonderful photo

---

The same bike was due to how cheap they were when we purchased them.

The dresses were our school uniforms. We were required to wear those purple dresses for school!!

---

I never seen so very nice school uniform before

---

Robynne,

Thank you for sharing this great picture of you and your sister. I was going to comment on both of you wearing dresses, but already read that they are school uniforms.

You two were real beauties. I bet you still are!

Thanks for sharing.

Answer 10

My Dad took this picture of his friend Charlie in Saigon in 1964.  Charlie helps his Dad fix bicycles. I feared bicycles because their frames were used to hold explosives which were detonated as improvised explosive devices. The 1955 novel The Quiet American by Graham Greene describes the use of bicycle bombs in Saigon.

Comments

Great pic, thanks for sharing.  Your comments bring back some memories.

Still using them (bike bombs) in Iraq and Afghanistan unfortunately 

The military and their crazy acronyms.  Roadside bomb became "IED" (improvised explosive device).

A car bomb became a "VBIED," (vehicle borne IED) pronounced "vee-bed."

Yes, there was a BBIED (bicycle borne IED), pronounced bee-bed.

And of course, the MBIED (motorcycle borne IED), pronounced em-bed.

And there was once a bomb put on a donkey and led towards the front gate of one base and it became the DBIED (I'll let you figure that one out).

Once the enemy started connecting home alarm motion sensors they became PIRIED (passive infra-red IED), pronounced Pee-eye-R-eye-ee-Dee - try to say that 3 times fast!

But, my favorite is when Sergeant Castro put on too many pounds and his shirt buttons were straining, First Sergeant A warned that his blouse would soon become an SBIED (shirt borne IED).

---

wow i had no idea they had disambiguated the IED.  My son-in-law was in charge of Route Clearance for the Combat Engineers in Iraq.  That was no fun.   In '64 when this photo was taken Dad was over there and i was in 7th grade watching Walter Cronkite on the news every night with terrible pictures of attacks in Saigon.  I was always praying i would not see my Dad as a victim in one of those news casts.   War was brought to our living rooms in those years.

---

Great picture, but such a sad story. The 2002 film adaptation of Graham Greene's bestselling novel set in Vietnam, which starred Michael Caine, was shelved for a year due to the September 11 attacks and the film's "unpatriotic" message.

How sad that such an innocent item as a bicycle was used as a weapon.

Thank you for sharing the picture, and the memories.

Answer 11

I remember when I was a kid my older cousins were learning how to ride their bikes, they were 8 or 10 years old and I wanted to ride too.  But I was only 4 years old.  My Uncle Herb told me to be patient that I would learn in time.

After the other boys were done, he asked my older cousin Chris if I could have a try and Chris agreed.  I always was very fond of cousin Chris, he was always so nice to me - and funny too.

My uncle put me on the seat and gave a push and I remember my feet couldn't even reach the pedals.  Chris told me to put my feet up on the bar and then my uncle could really get going.  It was such a joy and I wanted to ride by myself.  Later, when I was older, that memory was very strong and it encouraged me to learn how to ride.

Sadly my grandmother and my uncle passed within a few years of each other.  Here they are in their final days:

Comments

What a great story cousin SJ And cute photo

---

Thank you for sharing this wonderful picture and your story. I love when a word like "bicycle" brings back such wonderful memories.

Thanks again SJ.

Answer 12

This is my Aunt Trez, who is my favorite aunt, in the year I was born, 1953.  She is about nine years old when this picture was taken.  Trez was riding her Cousin Frank's boy bike.  In those days bikes were heavy, but she managed to get on his bike and ride up that hill.  She was pretty proud of herself.

Comments

lovely photo!

---

I remember those bikes -- we must have developed quite some muscles in our legs back then. Thanks for sharing.

---

beautiful photo of your aunt Trez with a boys bike

---

I love the picture of your Aunt Trez on the boy's bike. I sure hope she didn't fall. I remember falling on a boy's bike, and how it "hurt".

Your aunt looks like a doll. 

Thank you for sharing this great picture with us.

Answer 13

This is my mother Alice Larner when she was twelve (in 1932); she was riding her sister Dorothy's bicycle, and is posing by a haystack near the village of Taverham in Norfolk, England.

Comments

lovely photo of your mother riding your her sisters bike

---

Well I have to say that your mother Alice Larner is a little over shadowed by the haystack behind her. I don't think I have ever seen one quite that large.

Your mother does look adorable. I wonder - did she not get a bile of her own?

---

Thank you  Susan & Cheryl for your comments, yes my mother got a bike of her own when she started work a couple of years later and needed it. She walked to school as it was close to home.

Answer 14

This is my great-great grand aunt Margaret Etheridge Feaviour, who was born in 1874. Apparently she turned heads for being the first woman in her area to ride a bicycle. Her brothers ran a cycle repair business and were members of the local cycling club.

Comments

Wonderful bike just love this old bike with your GG grand aunt holding it thank You for sharing

---

That's definitely an old safety bicycle (called that because they were much safer than the penny-farthings with their big drive wheel and tiny second wheel).  She may have been the first woman in the area, but soon bicycles were credited with giving women new freedom in movement.  

Previously if they wanted to go somewhere they had to walk or use a team of horses if they had one, but the husband might need the horses for work, or just veto the idea.

---

I can understand why your great-great grand aunt Margaret Etheridge Feaviour, turned heads. She was beautiful. 

I just wonder how difficult it was with that long dress.

Thank you for sharing this awesome picture with us.

Answer 15

My mom's dad on his bike, probably early 1940s.

Comments

Great picture, thank you for sharing.

Answer 16

I wasn't sure if I had any photos of people with bicycles. My ancestors were more likely to ride horses than bicycles. But I found one!

Here's my great-grandfather's youngest brother, Hugh, sometime in the 1930s.

I have plenty of photos of my own, modern-day family with bikes.

In 2012, when my daughter was not quite two, we spent a week riding 235 miles on the Katy Trail across Missouri.

In 2017, we revisited the Katy Trail in St. Charles, just for an afternoon. My son Oliver is now in the world and along for the ride.

And now Oliver is three and learning to pedal for himself.

Comments

I love your photos of different bikes they are gorgeous

The last one are so cute

---

Thank you for sharing the photos of your family on bicycles through the generations. What a great idea for this week's photo clue.

Answer 17

Adrian Fortenberry on leave, spending time with family in Clarkston, Georgia.  On 7 December 1941, Adrian was stationed at Pearl Harbor and was aboard the USS Helena when it was torpedoed.  After spending several weeks in the hospital in Hawaii and waiting for his ship to be repaired enough to "make the float" across the Pacific, Dad was granted time with family before rejoining the crew of the Helena. Date: February 1942.   7 December 1941 was Dad's 23rd birthday!

Comments

That's quite a story!  I hope he made it home after the war.

---

Rob,

YES!  Dad lived to age 77. During the war, he became a Fire Controlman, working aboard ships with the computers that controlled the big guns.  Unfortunately, his cousin, Alvie Fortinberry was stationed aboard the USS Arizona and did not survive. Dad spent the day before (6 Dec. 1941) with Alvie!

---

Lovely story Teresa and cute photo thank you for sharing

---

A date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan, and it was your dad's 23rd birthday. WOW, what a way to celebrate. But I am so glad that your dad was alive and able to have this beautiful picture taken.

Thank you for sharing.

---

Thank you, Susan!  We have actually discovered quite a lot of interesting facts surrounding this family story!

---

Thank you, Cheryl!! It is beautiful and heart-breaking all at once!

Answer 18

I have no pictures of people on bikes. But I do remember how much I rode mine. I grew up in a small country town and the only real transportation for me was hoofing it or my bike. I spent hours everyday riding the streets and visiting people I knew.

Comments

MaryAnn,

You are like so many of us that grew up in small towns. My sister and I spent so many of our younger days riding our bikes all over town.

Thank you for sharing your story and bringing back such great memories from my childhood.

Answer 19

Stringing Spokes in Bicycle Wheels

My great grandfather, George Hull [Hull-2336] and his family built bicycles for a few years at the end of the 19th century.  As members of the Religious Society of Friends, they originally called their product the Quaker Bicycle.  Soon another company in Erie, Pennsylvania, started marketing a Quaker Bicycle, and George Hull wrote to them about the use of the name.  It turned out that the Hull family had used the name first and had the rights to it.  The company in Erie had invested a lot in advertising so offered to purchase the rights to the name, which George Hull accepted.  When one of his sons asked what they would then use for the name of their bicycle, George told them they would henceforth use a much better name:  the Friend Bicycle.

The attached photo, taken about 1898 at Gasport, Niagara County, New York, shows four men (left to right):  Warren Nehemiah Hull [Hull-5293], John Clarence Hull [Hull-4193], George Hull [Hull-2336], Aaron Taber; and one young girl, Julia Ruth Hull [Hull-2335] stringing spokes to bicycle wheels in their home.

Comments

Cool story, but I'm not seeing a picture...?

---

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your reply.  After I added the story I could not find it - it just seemed to disappear!  I also have two photos to share, but have not figured out how to add them yet.  I'll try again later today.

Bill

---

OK - figured out how to attach the photo!

Thanks again,

Bill

---

Great picture and interesting story!

---

What a great picture. I love everything about it. Looks like the entire family was involved in the process.

Really a family business.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful picture.

---

Yep, I see the picture now.  Very cool.  I do a little photo editing, I could take the haziness out of the picture, make it look clearer, if you want.

---

Hi Rob,

Yes, please feel free to clean up the photo.  I also added it to the 52 photos - week 25 space, and that photo may be a little larger and thus easier to edit.

Bill

---

Alright, hopefully this looks better to you.  I used the picture on the 52 photo free space page, so as to not lose resolution.

I uploaded the new image back to the free space page.

---

Awesome picture Rob. I still love that the whole family is working together in the family business. Even the little girl. I am glad to see that a little of the fog is removed from this picture.

Thanks for sharing this picture, again!

---

Hi Rob,

Thanks!  That looks much better.

Bill

Answer 20

My father tried to ride cross country or at least from New Orleans to San Francisco several times.  Once he found someone in Canada who wanted to ride with him.  The gentleman reached New Orleans, but was too sick to ride his bike.  It was something more than a common cold.  Pneumonia or something.  He stayed at our house long enough to recuperate and fly home.  My Dad went on a shorter trip without him.  

Another time my Dad tried to ride from San Francisco up into Yosemite.  If you have been there, it is a very steep grade.  My mother left later in the family car planning to meet him.  We caught up with him, and even I could tell that he looked sick and should stop.  He kept trying to make it up the mountain, but finally had  to give it up.  We spent a week camped in Yosemite while he recouped from spinal menangitis.  (We knew it was meningitis because my brother had just gotten out of the hospital with it.  My dad didn't want to go to the hospital because there was nothing they could do for it at the time.)  So my mom entertained the three of us kids with hikes and playing in streams.  Then she got sick, and lay on the air mattress in the tent recuperating.  My dad took us hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls and in general entertained us till Mom was strong enough to drive home.  I have very fond memories of Yosemite.

 Dad also raced bikes one year he fell and skidded across the pavement.  Bikers wear shorts and pavement and legs don't get along well.  He took lots of skin off his legs.  The problem was we were supposed to drive to California to visit grandparents a week or so later.  We owned a station wagon and he rode in the back lying down.

He had been a chemistry professor, but at some point he opened a small bike shop in our garage.  Neighborhood kids brought their bikes to get fixed and  played ping pong with us while they waited.  He dreamed of building bikes to sell.

Comments

I can't seem to get my photo added.  I copied the free space identifier and added it to my picture both 52_Photos_Week_25 and Space:52_Photos_Week_25.  I clicked image above and added the url from the picture in the tree.  Nothing is working.

---

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story about your father and his cross country bike trips. Very interesting.

Sorry you were not able to show the picture.

---

On the picture, did you click on it until it's just the picture, no text on the page?  (The URL should end with .jpg).

---

Hi Cindy,

I had the same problem trying to add my photos.  I finally edited the text and copied and pasted the photo in the space above the text.  It worked! 

I also followed the instructions for the 52 photos week 25, and it didn't work for me, either - although I did add the two photos there.

Best wishes,

Bill Hull