Word: biked
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...child's device. Pace Leonardo, some researchers have perceived the outlines of bicycles in the frescoes of Pompeii and the tombs of Egypt. In any case, it was not until 1816 that the German baron, Karl von Drais, devised a recognizable model of the contemporary machine. That bike had everything a rider would want-except pedals. The cyclist walked perched on a saddle and propelled himself by running and gliding. In the mid-19th century rubber tires replaced the old boneshaking metal rims and high-wheelers elevated the rider far above the crowd -making crashes all the more resounding...
...premonitory events, John D. Rockefeller gave presents of expensive bicycles to close associates, and lady cyclists abandoned their acres of crinoline for "rational clothing." H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw could be seen atop their new machines, and Scientific American soberly announced that "as a social revolutionizer [the bike] has never had an equal. It has put the human race on wheels, and has thus changed many of the most ordinary processes and methods of social life...
Alas, a greater revolutionizer was on its way. As the century changed, so did inventions, mores and wheels. The automobile ruthlessly honked the bike from the road. In the field of romance, it displaced its predecessor; enclosed in steel and glass, the young couple enjoyed a privacy that was denied them even in the parlor. The bicycle abruptly became an exiled device, to be used somewhere between kindergarten and acne...
Even more unfortunate than the new bike rip-offs is the old anarchy. Any visitor to Europe has wondered at the rapid transit of pedaling citizens in Dublin and London, Paris and Berlin. In America, pandemonium reigns supreme. Some riders go with traffic; others against it. Some obey vehicular signs; others move with the pedestrian tide. The result: an estimated 456,000 emergency-room visitors in 1974. And more are expected this year...
Still, given the risks of robbery and the hazards of traffic, the true believers will not forsake their mounts for something better. In fact, there is nothing better. The bike rider may not get there as fast as in the cab or the family car. But along the way he is creating conditions of health, enjoying the weather and collecting some valuable human truths: every forward motion costs effort; balance means a total involvement in the task; energy has its limits; to stop precipitately is to court disaster; and, of course, a skill once learned is never quite forgotten...