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Fixed Gear Friday!

Jul 19th 2007

By: RL Policar

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I can’t tell of this is legit or not…looks fake to me..

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- Nick
  
  July 19th, 2007 at 19:43
  
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  The top one is indeed real and is in the Library of Congress. The freewheel was invented a couple years before 1899, but didn’t get popular until after the turn of the century.
  
  It’s funny that, more than a century later, we’re still doing the same tricks.
- Ghost Rider
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 02:15
  
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  Nick’s right…it is totally real. BUT, that may not actually be Edison ridiing the bike. The film is credited to the Edison Manufacturing Company, but there is no mention of who the rider is.
  
  Edison would have been in his early 50s when this film was made, which doesn’t rule him out as the rider, but casts a bit of doubt in my mind.
- Nick
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 03:55
  
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  Oh no, it’s not Edison on the bike, it’s Edison behind the camera. He shot the film.
- RL Policar
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 04:07
  
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  Are you sure that’s real? That back drop looks like a painting…
- Ghost Rider
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 05:41
  
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  RL, it IS a painted backdrop…read below.
  
  Straight from the U.S. Historical Archive website
  (http://www.ushistoricalarchive.com/cds/edison1.html):
  
  “SUMMARY Opens with a man riding a bicycle in a backwards circle, on a stage with a painted backdrop of a city street. He dismounts, then remounts the cycle and rides in a forwards circle, pausing and balancing for a moment as he rears up and spins the front wheel. Continuing in the circle, the man moves in front of the handlebars and continues pedaling briefly. For his next trick, the cyclist makes one circle and then pauses center stage as he does a balancing act to the left side of the bike, with his left leg on the pedal and his right on the front wheel. Ends after he remounts but continues to hold the bicycle motionless. “
- Nick
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 05:47
  
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  Or, in trickster speak:
  
  backwards circles to off-the-rear dismount, to barspins, to leg-over-bar pedaling, to leap mount to trackstand to one-sided, no handed trackstand.
  
  RL, haven’t you heard of google?
- RL Policar
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 06:49
  
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  I’ve giggled before…but google? What’s that?
- Ghost Rider
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 07:43
  
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  Nick, RL relies on us to keep him up to speed — you with your streetwise skills and me with my reference librarian techniques…
- Val
  
  July 20th, 2007 at 08:20
  
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  RL: For morre of this type of action than you can stand to watch, try searching for “Artistic Cycling” on YouTube. They have competitions in Europe, and some of the standard, required moves will leave your jaw an the floor. Shouldn’t be possible, but there are some amazing men and women that make them look easy.
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