Summaries

Something for the ladies, too. Mail order catalogues were well equipped already a hundred years ago. Racing machines

Motorcycle racing was more popular in the past decades than nowadays. Risto Lehto (p. 10) looks back to the years 1953 and 1954 when he build two “racing machines” with his brother. There were old bicycle frames and some other parts available. The machines were meant for downhill racing, so there were neither chains nor brakes. Safety of the driver was, however, taken into account. Old army surplus boots were found for the drivers, newspapers and boards were put under the clothes for cushioning arms and knees. Old kettle worked as helmet. The machines are preserved after 50 years, nearly as well as the drivers. Bicycle music

Mikko Kylliäinen (p. 20) describes bicycle as theme of music. The modern bicycle developed during the 19th century which was also the period when composed music divided into popular music and art of music. The early composers of popular music were familiar with classical composing techniques. Their works are mainly dance music with themes from novelties, exotic countries or famous people like actresses or court members. As a theme, bicycle was among other technical inventions.

Most famous of the popular dance composers of the 19th century were members of the Strauss family. Year after the Paris exhibition which made the bicycle of Michauxtype globally known, Josef Strauss (1827-1870) composed a galop entitled Vélocipède in 1868. In Denmark, Hans Christian Lumbye (18101874) published his Velocipedes Galop one year later.

Galops by Strauss and Lumbye are both very fast dances composed for orchestra. The fast tempo is typical for more artistic works, too. There is not knowledge of Strauss or Lumbye as cyclists but Finnish composer Uuno Klami (1900-1961) got his first bicycle in the age on ten. In 1946, Klami composed an orchestral rondo called Pyöräilijä (the Cyclist).

In the Northern America, several pieces describing bicycle were published in the end of the 19th century. These were sold as piano arrangements and marketed already as “popular music”. During the last century, light bicycle music has been done everywhere in the world. For example, in Argentina there are at least two tangos with bicycle theme and in France a chanson by Yves Montand. Bicycles by mail-order

According to Juha K. Kairikko (p. 30), mailorder business in Finland began in 1897. Other of the two first businessmen was Eino Louhivuori from the city of Vaasa. For a start, he offered clocks by mail-order, but after a couple of years, bicycles appeared on the pages of his catalogues.

Louhivuori had an own bicycle factory in Vaasa. The bicycles were assembled mainly from foreign parts. Hit production for many years was his bicycle make Sukkela - the Finnish word refers to speed and quickness. The popularity of Sukkela based both on effective advertising and advantageous prices while there were no middlemen between customer and producer.

Good business idea got quickly successors. Sports de partment of commer cial house Stockmann published a mail-order catalogue in the end of the 19th century, too. Catalogue from year 1914 includes 310 pages dealing with sports, hunting, bicycles and motorcycles. Advertising bicycles and hunting took most of the catalogue. Durability of tyres seems to have been problematic while many tyre types and tools for changing tyres were offered. Automobility

Markku Lahtinen deals with velocars (p. 15). In the 19th century man began to move with new vehicles, trains, bikes, cars, planes. The dream of travel became reality to most people.

The development of recumbent bike already started in 1880’s. Soon it proved out to be much faster than the normal upright bike.

George Mochet assembled a fairing on a recumbent in the 20’s and thus invented a velocar. With three or four wheels it was almost as good as a motor car but it didn’t need any fuel. It was lightweighted and cheap, and won some popularity during the poor 30’s.

The use of private cars was not allowed in Sweden since Hitler attacked Poland in 1939. It was time to make velocars of old bike parts and plywood. They were very popular in Sweden throughout the 40’s. Championships were held every year with tens of racers, single and tandem. Several kind of designs were sold on thousands, but only a few of them were actually built.

Bengt Johansson describes in his new, wonderful book “Folkhemmets farkoster” the birth of the Swedish velocar, how it worked as a commuter but also as family car for recreational trips. No wonder, the idea also landed in Finland in the after-war years when there was lack on everything: cars, gas - even rubber to have tyres as Reijo Lehtonen writes in his story (p. 18) about wooden tyres. He has mounted a tyre made of pieces of hardwood on a pair of wheels. It was a sweaty job, but now the bike looks like many bikes did in the forties.