General Cycling Discussion - A Little Historic Bicycle Trivia

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randya
06-21-04, 12:14 PM
In the 1890s in lower Manhattan, there were 80 bike shops within a one-mile radius. In Washington D.C., there were two patent buildings – one for bicycles, one for everything else.

-Mr. Smarty Pants
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-06-18/cols_smartypants.html

Chris L
06-21-04, 09:27 PM
In this vain, but on a much smaller scale. Today, the town of Mullumbimby in northern New South Wales has two bikeshops serving a population of all of 3,000 or so. Quite amazing in this region -- I've been to places much bigger than that which had nothing.
seely
06-21-04, 09:32 PM
High five to who can name the guys that came up with the idea of a reverse threaded pedal.

ollo_ollo
06-21-04, 10:03 PM
That would be the Wright Brothers
MKRG
06-21-04, 10:38 PM
A little off topic here. ChrisL I've been reading your posts for a long time and I just have to ask. Is this the guy responsible for naming all the places that you ride? I mean you seriously have some funny sounding locations down there.
randya
06-22-04, 01:10 AM
They're aboriginal names. Not really that much different from the Iroquis and Algonquin Native American names that are common in New England and on the eastern seaboard...
Chris L
06-22-04, 02:09 AM
A little off topic here. ChrisL I've been reading your posts for a long time and I just have to ask. Is this the guy responsible for naming all the places that you ride? I mean you seriously have some funny sounding locations down there.

As RandyA said, some of them are Aboriginal names - some of which I can partially Translate: Numinbah (as in Numinbah Valley) means "Hold tight hunting dog". Murwillumbah (the political, economic, social and cultural capital of the universe) means "place of eels" or something similar.