Bicycle Week in 1923 Lower Energy than in Previous Years

Back in 1923, the first week of May was "Bicycle Week." This was the seventh edition of the annual trade celebration. In 1923 it also seemed a little tired.

Bike week ad, April 29th, 1923

Bicycle Week, April 29th, 1923

The paper had an article, but it was forced:

"Bicycle week" serves as the special period of the year when bicycle enthusiasts advance the many arguments in favor of wheeling for economy, health, pleasure, sport and general utility. The importance of of the bicycle as an independent form of individual transportation is undoubtedly appreciated now more than ever before. The average man or woman now has little or no time to waste for common conveyances such as street cars and railway trains. Much time is lost in waiting for a trolley car and when the car does come it is generally crowded. The natural desire is for some form of individual vehicle that adds to convenience, saves minutes, improves health and is generally useful seven days in the week. This is where the bicycle comes in. The bicycle is now more popular than ever before front the utility standpoint.

The trusty bicycle has always formed the cheapest vehicle of transportation. In this respect it is hardly likely that the bicycle will ever be supplanted by any other means of personal transportation. Authorities on the subject point out that even walking is expensive when compared with wheeling. Moreover, cycling is twice as easy as walking and three times taster. The bicycle will never pass out.

Cycling twice as easy as walking? 'Fraid not. Though it certainly is faster. (And is that that the bicycle will never pass out of fashion? Or that the bicycle will never pass out from exhaustion? That's a funny ambiguity.)

There are fewer ads, also.

The Scott ad at top seems to dovetail with the gendered rhetoric in early Boy Scouting:

Red-blooded boys ride bicycles today, boys who stay out in the open and prepare themselves for strong, clean manhood.

Here are details from the other ads, all targeting boys for the bicycles (though also addressing parents directly and indirectly).

Ramsden ad, April 29th, 1923

Bike week, April 29th, 1923

At the end of bike week, the ads did address adult commuters, as in 1922 using the streetcar as a foil.

That's when you slip the fellows spending their money riding in old-fashioned jams instead of saving it by riding a health-building, mind-refreshing bicycle.

Bicycle Week, May 6th, 1923

Back to our current time, the City's continued silence on Bike Month and its activities is disappointing, particularly in light of our Climate Action Plan. At least two strategies in it, TL21 and TL34, would fit with an emphasis on promoting Bike Month and its activities.

TL21 and TL34 would fit neatly with Bike Month

Previously, Bike Weeks in 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1922. The note on 1922, "Break the Annual Cycles of Bike Month," specifically discusses the inadequacy of the frame of bike promotion, however.