Beaverton’s long tradition with Bicycling: It’s been a rocky road

A bicycling craze swept through the United States in the 1880s on heavy, difficult to maneuver bikes with one large front wheel and a smaller rear wheel. They were suitable only for athletic young men. A later safety version was easy to mount and dismount, had equally sized wheels, was lighter weight, and had inflatable tires and kerosene lamp.

Women and men in the 1890s encountered a new and frightening medical “disorder” that was said to cause long-lasting and harmful bodily effects. Physicians warned the condition, known as “bicycle face” was especially harmful to females, but males weren’t immune. Clenched jaws, dark shadows under bulging eyes, flushed faces, and pinched lips resulted from overexertion maintaining balance on two wheels. It’s a story of technological innovation, social and cultural phenomenon, leisure activity, fashion arbiter, creator of new words, and economic booster.

They were viewed by many as scandalous instruments of female emancipation, providing mobility and freedom from cumbersome corsets and petticoats worn under ankle length dresses. Critics likewise attacked other aspects: exercise exhausted the human system that caused excess perspiration, good manners were ignored as men failed to doff their hats as they passed other riders or folks on horseback or in carriages, and riding with open mouths injured vocal cords. Nevertheless, the sport grew and influenced national standards as wheelmen and bicycle clubs advocated good roads and traffic regulations.

In 1895, there were 300 bike and accessories manufacturers in the U.S. employing thousands of men, women, and children who turned wood, leather, rubber, and steel into a finished product. Machine shops made parts, bells, patches, and repair kits. Prices ranged from $30 to $100 ($1,142 to $3,807 in 2025), depending on manufacturer and features, but businesses rented them and provided lessons for 75 cents an hour.

Locals soon took up the sport. Beaverton Hardware & Implement sold the two wheelers and supplies by 1914 and four years later, school principal Earl Fisher and the seventh and eighth grades of Beaverton Public Schools sponsored a field meet to close out the school year. A bicycle race was among the athletic events open to all students.

Washington County had appointed three bicycle commissioners in 1899 to distribute funds from a county-wide bicycle levy of $1.25. Owners who didn’t pay were warned they’d have to “let go of their bicycles.” All monies were dedicated to the construction of bike paths, work to be supervised by the County Bicycle Club, one of at least 35 that had been organized.

Racing became important as the sport increased in popularity. Communities built racetracks, or where they were unavailable, racers took to the streets. These new “steeds of steel” and “scorchers”, scofflaws who careened around corners and swooped around pedestrians, were considered a danger, so cities established regulations. Beaverton had enacted ordinances addressing the concern in 1916. A Beaverton Times newspaper article that year warned anyone defying the law by riding on sidewalks would be “given what is coming to him” because bicycles “have become so numerous they are a pest.”

Much changed over the following years. Bikes became more streamlined, improvements revitalizing a sport that had lost favor as automobiles took over the roads. The Beaverton Kiwanis Bicycle Carnival invited everyone in the Tualatin Valley to attend a gala event with multiple races for youngsters, prizes, and thrills. The Multnomah County Bicycle Corps was on hand to add exhibitions to the 1948 happening that was central to the dedication of Beaverton High School’s new athletic field. Proceeds from the evening program went to the organization’s mission of helping local underprivileged children.

The City’s Bicycle Advisory Committee focuses on the promotion, education and safety of bicycling and related modes of active transportation in and around the City of Beaverton. Members provide recommendations to City Council on bicycle and related active transportation uses as well as provide City staff with general recommendations on bicycle and related active transportation circulation, access, and general use. For more information, please visit their website (www.beavertonoregon.gov/890/Bicycle-Advisory-Committee) or attend one of their monthly meetings. They meet every second Thursday of the month in the Columbia River room on the fifth floor of City Hall between 6:30 – 8:30 pm.”.

By Ann Koppy, local historian.