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.

Links

Useful cycling history resources and databases that complement this archive.

Historical Archives & Libraries

• National Cycle Archive (UK) — UK's largest cycling archive with 11,000+ items from the 19th century onwards, including club records and race results.
• Library of Congress Digital Collections — Primary source materials including bicycle manuals, advertisements, and newspapers from the 1890s "bicycle craze."
• Internet Archive — Massive digital library with 34,000+ magazines including complete runs of historical cycling publications.
• Chronicling America — Searchable historic American newspapers (1789-1963) with extensive coverage of early cycling culture.

Museums & Collections

• Online Bicycle Museum — Virtual museum with 1,600+ pages covering Victorian and Edwardian bicycles, tricycles, and cycling culture.
• Smithsonian Bicycle Collection — Digital tour of historic bicycles from 1818 onwards with detailed historical context.
• Northwestern University Bicycle Catalogs — 71 illustrated U.S. bicycle manufacturers' catalogs from 1890-1932.

Race Results & Statistics

• BikeRaceInfo.com — Complete Tour de France stage results plus Giro, Vuelta, classics, and Olympic cycling history.
• ProCyclingStats — Comprehensive professional cycling database with race results, rider profiles, and historical data.
• FirstCycling — Extensive cycling database covering road, amateur, cyclocross, MTB, and track cycling results.

Heritage Organizations

• Cycling UK — World's oldest national cycling organization (1878) with 140+ years of cycling advocacy history.
• U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame — Preserving American cycling history from the 1880s with inductee database and artifact collections.

Reference Resources

• BicycleHistory.net — Comprehensive coverage from early velocipedes to modern competition and technological development.
• Journal of Science and Cycling — Open access academic journal for cycling and triathlon research articles and reviews.