Chicago: The Detroit of Bicycling

According to Chris McAuliffe, at the turn of the century Chicago was to the bicycle industry what Detroit was to the automobile industry. 

​Chris is the author of the book Cycling in Chicago and he shared highlights the city’s cycling heritage at the April 17 meeting of the Evanston Bike Club.  
Chris is a long time Chicago resident, cyclist enthusiastic, and first time author who pitched a book about cycling history to a publisher and received a contract 10 days later.  He did the research for the book at libraries and by examining the archives of local families with ties to Chicago cycling history. 

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The early days of cycling in Chicago was from 1890 to 1910 where there were:

• 50 cycling clubs in Chicago with 10,000 members
• Bikes costing $75 in 1890 which is equivalent to $2,000 in today’s dollars
• An entrepreneurial spirit, a rail transportation network, and an urban infrastructure that included paved streets to ride on 
• 30 bike manufacturers; Schwinn was the largest
• Emergence of A. A. Zimmerman the first world racing champion at the World’s Columbia Exposition and Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, the first African American bicycle champion       

 
The Glory Days were from 1920 to 1940:

• Era of the 6-day race where participants were paid the same as baseball players; each rider had a partner where one would ride, the other rest 
• Popularity of cycle trains, where Chicagoans would take their bikes on a train to ride outside the city
• Humboldt park Velodrome,  built in 1932 and torn down in 1962 due to it state of disrepair

 
Prominent cycling personalities in Chicago were:

• Ignaz Schwinn, a German immigrant who founded the Schwinn Bicycle Company
• Oscar Wastyn, who developed the Schwinn Paramont, the only Schwinn not made in the factory
• Carl Stockholm, Olympian, businessman and community leader brought the submarine to the Museum of Science and Industry
• May Thielgard Watts, a naturalists and botanist who founded the Illinois Prairie Path
• George Garner, the #1 Schwinn Dealer who trained other bike dealers
• Phyllis Harmon one of the founders of the Evanston Bicycle Club and active in the League of American Wheelmen; there is a trail on the Northshore names after her

 
Cycling in Chicago is available on Amazon and Arcadia Publishing, Barnes and Noble and many independent bookstores and bike shops