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1. Prologue

Learning to ride a bicycle is a rite of passage ingrained in the childhood memories of most New Zealanders. The joy and freedom associated with mastering that magic combination of balance, steering and speed is unforgettable.

From that moment, young pedallers have followed various two-wheeled paths - road and track racing, mountain biking, cycle commuting and more.

This book explores them all and in doing so fills a key gap in our history. Its production was a collaboration of ten contributing writers and dozens of cycle experts, all aware that what is not recorded of our rich heritage may be lost forever. Every photo in this book was either taken in New Zealand or is of a New Zealander.

The result is a tribute to the cyclists described only too briefly in the following pages. We often lamented, "This rider deserves a whole book!".

2. The revolution begins: 1869 Pennyfarthing badge made from coins

Without warning, two-wheeled ‘iron horses’ rolled into the streets of New Zealand, astonishing and amusing curious bystanders. Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland newspapers heralded the bicycle’s arrival within months of each other. In August 1869, the Southern Cross reported, under the headline "The First Bicycle In Auckland", that coachbuilders Cousins and Atkin test rode a velocipede that they had just built.

3. The golden age: 1900-1950

Between 1900 and 1950, New Zealand imported nearly 800,000 bicycles and manufactured thousands more. By the late 1930s, an estimated 250,000 bicycles were being ridden in New Zealand - one for every six people. Learning to ride a bike had become, like learning to swim, one of the initiation rites of every Kiwi’s childhood. This was cycling’s golden age, a period that saw the bicycle and the automobile largely replace the horse and tram as a way of transporting individuals from A to B and back again.

4. Changing gear: 1950-2004 No cycling sign

The story of cycling in New Zealand during the latter half of the twentieth century is one of adaptation and diversification. In the years immediately following World War II, most cyclists pedalled purely for transportation. However, during the 1950s and ’60s, as New Zealanders became wealthier and busier, the car grew in popularity until it dominated most urban roads. Cycle commuting declined in the major centres, but recreational cycling boomed, and by the 1990s, cycling was one of the most popular sports in New Zealand.

5. Industry and innovation

Eight years after the velocipede was invented in France, newspapers reported that sensational machines were being test ridden in Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch. Inspired coachbuilders, working from overseas drawings and innate creativity, crafted these velocipedes in 1869. Before that, the development of the bicycle in New Zealand is a mystery. Just a few tantalising clues remain. Lancaster Park, Christchurch, April 1896 6. Women take to the wheel

It was considered a controversial act. Public debate raged over their conduct and behaviour. Bystanders jeered. At worst, stones were hurled.

7. Fixed and fast: track racing

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, a 200-strong crowd buzzes with anticipation at the Caledonian Sports Ground in Dunedin. It is November 1869, and the annual Foresters’ Fęte has a velocipede race on the programme.

8. Chess on wheels: road racing Taranaki Circular Road Race logo

In the penultimate stage of the 1967 Dulux Tour of the North Island, a tiring Harry Kent crashed to avoid colliding with a car, ending up on the ground with lacerations to his thigh, arms and head. He got to his feet and, realising his bike was unrideable, took off his awkward cycling shoes and set off on foot for the finish line, more than a kilometre away. The next day, on a borrowed bike, he raced the final 160 kilometres to Wellington.

9. Pedalling to adventure: touring

He wobbled away from home down the dirt road on his ‘ordinary’, with an oilskin and a blanket, a package of oatmeal, tea and a twist of sugar, all in a bag slung over his shoulder, and the glint of adventure in his eye.

10. Growing up with bikes

When the bicycle burst onto the New Zealand scene in 1869, advertisements offered men’s, women’s and children’s velocipedes. Over the following years, as the boneshaker morphed into the high wheeler, miniature versions were built for children. However, only wealthy families could afford a child’s bicycle. In 1890, a ‘safety’ bicycle cost Ł30 - almost half the average annual income. Most people viewed them as a ridiculous extravagance. Of course, this didn’t stop kids trying to ride adults’ bikes.

11. Bicycle motocross: BMX Gilbert Wortman at the first BMX national champs in 1981

Scot Breithaupt, now considered the founding father of BMX, organised his first race and formed a club, called BUMS (Bicycle United Motocross Society). Through magazines, TV shows and demonstrations, Scot helped spread the sport well beyond America. He was invited by John Struthers, owner of Sheppard Industries Ltd, to tour New Zealand with a team of American riders in 1980. This tour augmented New Zealand’s first major BMX meeting in November of that year.

12. Fat tyre fever: mountain biking

When mountain bikes first trickled into New Zealand in the early 1980s, most Kiwis didn’t know what to make of them. It’s not hard to see why. They looked like big BMXs with 15 gears, but they were lighter than locally-made ten-speeds. What’s more, the people riding them were obviously having fun, and that was infectious.

13. Back pedalling: preserving the past Velocipede frame found in 1999

Lining up across the road, half a dozen wheelmen reach up to grasp their wooden handlebar grips, and each places a foot upon their mounting peg. As a biting southerly funnels down the main street, the captain of the Oamaru Wanderers Club, bugle in hand, reiterates the rules for the final of the New Zealand Penny Farthing Championships. BANG! Within a second, they have launched themselves into the air, landed on their saddles, found the pedals and are sprinting down the road, urged on by a cheering crowd. The year is 2003.

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