In a 1928 yearbook from our local college, I see a photo of a tandem bike that is obviously built
for a man and woman. The front position has a low, curved, double top tube, made to accomodate
skirts, while the rear top tube is high and straight. There's another shot of a man on a standard
bike that appears to have wheels that are larger (28" or 29"😉 than today's models. It also has two
narrow, straight rods going up from the bottoms of the front forks and bolting onto the headset at
the top. There are no shock-absorber springs in them. There's a crossbar spanning between the
back-curved handlebars, about halfway to the handgrips. I wonder how sturdy frame tubes were in
those days, compared to those now used and if these extra supports were really necessary? The rider
is accompanied by a young girl on what was once called a "junior bike" with wheels that look like
about 24" in size.
From the time of their availability, bikes were widely used at this school by the students and
faculty. I've seen several photos from this era showing them riding at locations many miles up
on roads in the hills. None of the bikes appear to have lights. According to old folks I knew
when I was a boy, bike theft was unknown then and no one even considered locking them up. I see
very few cars in the pictures, even though the economy was peaking just before the 1929 crash.
Quite a few people rode horses or used horse or mule-drawn wagons to commute to school and
there was a livery stable for them on campus. I believe this mode of getting to the college was
even more important during the Depression, as was bike riding. Do you suppose there were
right-of-way conflicts between horses, wagons, cars and bikes? The ROTC had a cavalry unit that
did close-order drill on horseback.
Canoe paddling was also a major activity then, as a large river was close by and a millrace
flowed for two miles right through the campus. Guys who didn't have access to a Canoe were
handicapped in their dating success, as many secluded "activity" areas were accessible only by
water. People who were young then have told me that the self-incorporated Victorian repressions
that ruled society, seemed to dissipate a lot when this nearby, but yet remote, magical other
world was accessed by a Canoe.
Steve McDonald Eugene, Oregon