Bicycle Erotica

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” ~ Gloria Steinem

While researching military bicycles, I discovered the OldBike.eu site and an article called Bicycle Erotica. The collection is quite graphic and beautiful, but alas, it is NSFW. Here you will see pictures like this:

And read a history of bicycle that you rarely find in a school book:

A major impediment, in the Victorian era, to the adoption of cycling by women was men’s pre-occupation with the idea that women only wanted to ride bicycles because of the stimulation they might receive from the saddle. Horses were ridden side-saddle and, such was male paranoia, it was considered abhorrent for girls to sit astride any object, even a see-saw or hobby-horse.

This obsession with the female virginal condition contributed to a boom in erotica in the Victorian age. Cameras and the printing process were becoming cheaper and easier to use. Bicycles captured the public imagination like nothing before, and erotic imagery, as with every other media form of the time, reflected this new-found interest.

Enjoy.