About the Cycling Archive

I started this project because I kept stumbling across fascinating old cycling magazines in dusty corners of the internet and university libraries. These weren't just any magazines - they were from the 1860s through 1890s, when bicycles were still called "wheels" and people were genuinely trying to figure out if this whole cycling thing would catch on.

Why I Think This Matters

These magazines capture cycling at its most experimental moment. Every issue has someone inventing a new type of brake, debating the merits of different wheel sizes, or arguing about whether bicycles will replace horses (spoiler: they didn't, but cars did).

The social history is equally fascinating. You can watch cycling transform from a rich man's hobby to a middle-class phenomenon to something that sparked genuine moral panic about women's independence and proper Victorian behavior.

How It Works

Everything here is free to read online. I've tried to make the PDFs as readable as possible while keeping file sizes reasonable. Most are searchable, though 19th-century typography can be... challenging for OCR software.

Found Something Interesting? Have Something to Add?

I'm always hunting for more publications from this era. If you know of a cycling magazine or newsletter from the 1860s-1890s that should be here, or if you spot errors in what I've digitized, please get in touch. This is very much a work in progress.

The site runs on modern web tech but tries to stay simple and fast. PDFs are served from a CDN so they should load quickly wherever you are.

Built with curiosity about two-wheeled history.