Women and Bicycle an enduring History

Having been in a boys school and men's college during most part of my student life, my memories of women on bicycle is very less except for few initial years of school when my class teacher Mrs.Lotille came riding in her ladies bicycle to school and followed by the evening classes at her home where a sound thrashing awaited me from her daughter Miss.Honourine also my English teacher, sometimes this spilled to the weekends when my grandfather would throw open a party to these two gracious women who commuted on bicycle. These stories apart the bicycle played a vital role in woman's emancipation, the introduction of Safety bicycle by J.K. Starley in 1885 and invention of pneumatic tires few years later gave western women an unprecedented freedom and with mass production it became cheaper that soon more women got access, in fact many women started learning to ride and ushering with it changes to their costume. Possibly the earliest lady bicycle (perhaps an upgrade of Rover Safety with pneumatic tires) with drop frame came to the market by around 1888-89, followed by a series of production (random order) like Rambler Ladies, Sunbeam, Raleigh Ladies Roadster, Stearns (USA) and BSA Ladies Roadster etc, but one must mention that from the period of safety bicycle till the Second World War or even later there seems to have been not much of major changes to the ladies bicycle, in early 1970's we here the name Mixte's probably a Unisex bicycle having step through frame it must have been in existence till around 1980's after which there is not much information. In India apart from emancipation bicycle also had to play the role of empowering women, Mahatma Gandhi in his reply to Maniben Patal (daughter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patal) in 1926 mentions about riding bicycle as a good form of exercise after she wrote to him about her purchase of bicycle. Even though the earliest bicycle and bicycle parts industry in India originates to Kolkata around year 1910 where manufacture of bicycle components and manufacture units was set up, imports of bicycles from UK, Germany and Japan flourished but there seems to have been a drop of sales during the Second World War. From 1950's till the present day ladies bicycle is being produced by all the major Indian bicycle brands, over the years these bicycles would have witnessed many technological development and upgrades an example in this direction being TI Cycles Ltd producing an exclusive girls bike BSA Ladybird in 1994. Even as we stand today being the second largest bicycle manufacturer in the world, Indian women owe much to the Bicycle as much has it owes to Annie Londenderry, Maniben Patel or to the saga of many unknown women riding bicycles in rural India, ending this rhetoric and awaiting the traffic of information from your side which is still on the one way ... till next time.   

A lady riding bicycle (Robin Wahengbam, 2012)