A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle

By Frances E. Willard18955 chapters7 images

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Contents

• Preliminary (opens in a new tab)

  Frances Willard introduces her lifelong love of outdoor activity and her decision at age 53 to learn the bicycle despite doubts from friends.
• The Process (opens in a new tab)

  Willard describes the physical and mental challenges of learning to balance and ride, guided by patient trainers at Lady Henry Somerset estate in England.
• My Teachers (opens in a new tab)

  Frances Willard fondly studies the various kind women who trained her to ride, from one so solicitous she would have carried both pupil and bicycle to a brave, pessimistic friend who never let go of the cross-bar. Together they rejoiced in how the bicycle would advance the "woman question" to which they were both devoted.
• An Ethereal Episode (opens in a new tab)

  Willard recalls how, back in 1886, her young friend Miss Anna Gordon and her niece Miss Katharine Willard fearlessly took to the tricycle on the shady street before Rest Cottage. Her own overconfident attempt to beat their time ends in a crash into the gutter, injuring her elbow so badly a physician must administer ether.
• In Conclusion (opens in a new tab)

  Willard reflects on the moral and philosophical lessons learned from mastering the bicycle, drawing parallels to broader life skills and freedom.