Simon in Velomobile belonging to Markku Lahtinen, Chairman, Finnish veteran cycle association Vanhat Velotry.
Photo by Markku Lahtinen
In the European Summer of 2007, while Mc Ewan, O’Grady and Evans were successfully adding to Australia’s bicycling success, several other Australians were also in Europe contributing to another aspect of our sport - it’s history.
The
18th annual International Cycling History Conference held in Tampere, Finland, saw several Australian attendees with three of these giving papers. In fact, the Australian representation was fourth only after the host nation, Germany and the UK. Like our sportspeople, it seems Australian historians, too, are overachieving against bigger nations!
The International Cycling History Conference is an annual event and has previously been held in several European countries, South Africa, the USA and Canada, Britain and Japan and was held in Australia at the Canberra Bicycle Museum and Resource Centre in 2003. In Finland this year, experts from 10 nations from three continents gathered together for four days of discussion.
This year’s conference was organized by the Finnish veteran cycle association
Vanhat Velot ry by Chairman Markku Lahtinen and co-ordinated by Mikko Kyllianen. Topics discussed ranged from Inventions and manufacturing, bicycle touring, bicycle organisations, racing and competition, and social research into types of bike users.
The three Australian presenters were as follows.
Annemarie Driver from
The Canberra Bicycle Museum and Resource Centre, gave a paper entitled “Early cycle tourers in Australia”. At the conclusion of the conference she and her husband left after to cycle to Russia.
Melbourne based bicycle collector Paul Farren spoke of Bicycle manufacture in the Australian Colonies during the 1880’s and early 1890’s. The focus of his paper was to show that Australia has always loved new technology and especially in gold-rush enriched Victoria, ‘keeping up’ with what was happening in British cycling circles was considered important and possible. Before 1882 all cycles were imported, however a small number of manufacturers began producing high class machines in Victoria and South Australia from then onwards although probably no more than two per cent of machines were constructed in Australia during the period 1880 to 1890.
Charlie Farren also attended the conference having previously led a group of Australian cyclists in the footsteps of the Tour de France marvelling daily at the feats of strength and stamina by the Tour riders.
Simon Jackson, design historian at the
Faculty of Design, Swinburne University of Technology considered the role of sport and bikes in particular in the construction of Australian national identity in a paper entitled Boxing Kangaroos on Wheels – Australian Design, sports technology and national identity.
Velomania ! Centuries of cyclingThe conference coincided with a bicycle exhibition, a co-operation of Museum Centre Vapriikki and Vanhat Velot ry. The Velomania! Exhibition presented a fascinating journey through the history of cycling, from the first attempts to the modern day. Visitors learned about the first cycling pioneers on their highwheeled bicycles, as well as ordinary factory workers and country boys and girls riding their bikes to dance pavilions. The bicycle has provided new opportunities for moving from one place to another. It has been used for shopping trips, courting, and transportation in times of war. The exhibition also displayed the cycling activism that emerged in the 1960’s, cycle racing, and the bicycle as a means of transport used by postmen and cycle couriers in their work. The bicycles on display in the Velomania! exhibition came from Vapriikki’s own collections, Finnish cycling aficionados, and leading international museums.
The more than 90 bicycles on show covered the whole range of bicycles in existence, from the first ‘running machines’ – the draisiennes and hobby-horses – to modern racing cycles. Many special models are displayed also: three-wheeled models from the 19th century, low recumbents, tandems, and even the giant bike of tallest man in Finland.
Cycling in TampereThe City of Tampere in Finland was an appropriate venue for a bike conference with a long history of involvement with the sport. The first bicycles were seen in Tampere in 1869. In the beginning of the 20th century, there were already several bicycle tradesmen in Tampere manufacturing their own makes from foreign and domestic components. During the 1930’s, Tampere became the other centre of Finnish bicycle industry as bicycle frame production started. In 1950’s, the cycle make Jaguar produced in Tampere was most popular of the Finnish makes. At the same time, many of the most successful Finnish competing cyclists came from Tampere. Nowadays bicycles can be seen everywhere in Tampere. People use bicycles in their every-day life. Children cycle to school and 40 000 students to the two large universities and other educational establishments. Many people cycle to their working places, too. Bicycle paths connect all city parts and city centre. The length of the cycling paths covers several hundreds of kilometres. The City of Tampere is also a member of the
Network of Finnish Cycling Municipalities. Cycling in FinlandThe next
International Cycling History Conference is being held in St. Etienne, France.
