The past and future of cycling

"The Prologue" by Craig Richardson. Used with permission. See more of his Tour de France 2007 photos at his photostream.

Da Square Wheelman has an nice essay about how futuristic cycling seemed back at the turn of the last century.

Back in the last years of the 19th century, it was all about love. Bikes were the cutting-edge choice of the forward-looking Avant Garde. But with the fin de siecle came the fin du cycle as the epitome of all things modern. While declaring his joy of mechanical force in the Manifesto of Futurism, F. T. Marinette quite literally sideswiped bikes. The manifesto's preamble described a reckless, high-speed joy ride which inspired Marinette to become the father of 20th Century Futurism.

Read more at Slowmotion Revolution.

Speaking of the past, Dave Moulton blogs about cycling's past on occasion. He writes about personalities such as Jean Robic: "the little giant" who won the 1947 Tour de France; or technical items such as this one about so-called "suicide shifters."

Bike Snob opened up the time capsule to poke some fun at product innovation from early 90s and made his predictions of what we'll all lampoon twenty years from now.

I like technology and shiny new things, agog over the amazing technology in use in the Tour de France and I'm looking forward to new stuff at Interbike. It's always good to reminisce and remember, though, and appreciate how simple the bike really is.