By Mandy Oakham
Cycling fanatic Rod Charles will take Geelong locals for a ride through the city’s biking history for the 200th birthday of the bicycle this weekend.
Rod, who is the author of three volumes of the book A Whirr of Many Wheels which details Geelong’s long love affair with the bike, will lead the ride from Hearn Parade, Eastern Beach, at 9am on Sunday.
“Since people first looked up at the You Yangs and realised that they could use bikes to get out to these beauty spots the whole of the Geelong area has had a passion for the bicycle,” Rod said.
“People used to arrive in Geelong by steamer or on the train and they would holiday by taking a ride through the Western districts.
“You could say the bike is actually embedded in the history of Geelong.”
In 1979 Geelong was officially declared as “the first cycle city” of Australia because of the State Government’s efforts at the time to produce the first comprehensive bicycle plan for the city and its surrounding areas.
Rod plans to lead his pedal power posse from Eastern Beach, through Eastern Park, then onwards through the town pointing out sights of cyclical interest, with a planned finish out at Point Henry which was the point where people would disembark from the steamers early to begin their holiday rides.
In 1817, German inventor Karl Drais thought that there must be an alternative to the cumbersome horse and cart and designed the Laufmaschine (running machine), which then became the Draisine, the precursor to the bicycle of today.
