At least we no longer have to worry about bicycle face

I haven't been on a bicycle in years. 

Maybe 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 years ago, hanging at my cousin Barbara's on the Cape with The Banshees (girl gang composed of my sisters and cousins), some of us took off for a little bike spin.

Maybe 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 years ago, my husband and I rented bikes in Killarney and pedaled out to Muckross Abbey. 

When I see the grab-and-go blue bikes around the city, I sometimes look wistfully at them, and think that I should grab and go at some point. But I don't have a helmet. So, nah. 

But as a kid, I spent a lot of time on my bike. 

I don't remember riding it anywhere in particular.

I walked to school. I walked to the shopping center to buy the latest Nancy Drew. I walked to my friends' houses.

It wouldn't have occurred to me to take my bike. That's not what bikes were for.

Bikes were for riding around on your own street, which we did all the time. All of us. Get on the bike and pedal aimlessly around.

But having a bike meant something. You were growing up. You could ride a grown-up size two-wheeler, which everyone got for their eighth birthday. Having a grown-up size bike - 26" was the norm - was a bit of a leg strain for an eight year old. You had to spend a year or two riding while standing," because if you sat on the seat, you couldn't reach the pedals. Sure, there were smaller bikes, but they were for babies. They were for six year olds.

My bike was a blue and white balloon tire special from Western Auto which, by mid-1950's standards was a bit old-fashioned. But, because it had a headlight, it was the one I wanted. Naturally, the first time I was out and about in the rain, the headlight battery corroded, spilling rust all over the place. My father had to pull the headlight out by the roots, so I now had a bike with two rust-rimmed holes where the headlight had been.

My bike was also pretty heavy, especially for a skinny eight year old.

Fortunately, my sister Kath had a lighter weight bike, which she pretty much always let me use when she wasn't on it.

The only kids who had English racers, 10-speed bicycles, were only-children, or from two-kid families. I only recall two such bikes in our neighborhood: Charlie S. and Tony Mc.

Anyway, while these days I'm not a biker, I was a biker girl back in the day. 

And, although I no doubt had it when I was first attempting to master that two-big, two-heavy bike of mine, I don't recall ever having to worry about developing something called bicycle face. 

But if I'd been riding around at the turn of the century, rather than at midcentury, such a condition might well have been a worry. 

Because females on bicycles were a big scary threat. Women and girls biking were exercising not just their leg muscles, but their rights. And just as we were as kids in the 1950's, those early female bikers were independent. They were free. 

"THE UNCONSCIOUS EFFORT TO MAINTAIN ONE'S BALANCE TENDS TO PRODUCE A WEARIED AND EXHAUSTED 'BICYCLE FACE'"

"Over-exertion, the upright position on the wheel, and the unconscious effort to maintain one's balance tend to produce a wearied and exhausted 'bicycle face,'" noted the Literary Digest in 1895. It went on to describe the condition: "usually flushed, but sometimes pale, often with lips more or less drawn, and the beginning of dark shadows under the eyes, and always with an expression of weariness." Elsewhere, others said the condition was "characterized by a hard, clenched jaw and bulging eyes."

Descriptions of bicycle face varied: some implied it could be a permanent condition, while others maintained that given enough time away from a bicycle, a person's bicycle face would eventually subside. (Source: Vox)

A British doctor named Shadwell, who seems to have claimed to have come up with the notion of "bicycle face," warned about the dangers of bicycling for women, because he deemed women "unfit for exertion." While men could also develop "bicycle face," it was mostly members of the fairer sex who were struck by it. 

Anyway, while the fear of developing "bicycle face" was meant to keep women from becoming cyclists, it was just one of many fear factors. Exhaustion. Heart palpitations. Depression. 

Bad things happened when women and girls took to their bikes. 

Fortunately, the existence of "bicycle face" disorder was soon debunked. It only occurred with anxious beginners, and there was no lasting damage. 

The debunker? An American doctor. An American woman doctor named Sarah Hackett Stevenson who was a big proponent of women taking up the activity. Dr. Stevenson was quoted in the 1897 Phrenological Journal: 

"[Cycling] is not injurious to any part of the anatomy, as it improves the general health. I have been conscientiously recommending bicycling for the last five years," she said. "The painfully anxious facial expression is seen only among beginners, and is due to the uncertainty of amateurs. As soon as a rider becomes proficient, can gauge her muscular strength, and acquires perfect confidence in her ability to balance herself and in her power of locomotion, this look passes away."

Thank you, Dr. Stevenson. Blow it out your ear, Dr. Shadwell. (You wanna see bicycle face, bub, I'll show you bicycle face.)