Bicycles had been in Chicago at least since 1868, when local resident Augustus Wheeler went around in a French "velocipede. It wasn't until the late 1880s, when "safety bicycles" came onto the market. These featured two wheels of the same size instead of the very dangerous big wheel ones.
Chicago became the bicycle center of the country by 1896. Bicycle makers had grown from 4 to 25 companies in the previous six years and were turning out 250,000 a year. (Then, there were the two brothers building bicycles in their shop in Dayton, Ohio,) At an average cost of $75, they were well beyond the pay of most workers.
By 1896, there were 50 cycling clubs in the city with around 10,000 members altogether.
One cycling enthusiast was Carter Harrison Jr. whose father had been mayor. When he ran for mayor in 1897, he posed on a bicycle for a campaign photo and received the support of the cyclists and won his first of five mayoral elections.
Ride! Ride! That Bicycle. --DaCoot
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