Taming the Bicycle

I highly recommend the short story Taming the Bicycle. It is Mark Twain’s humurous account of learning to ride the high-wheel bicycle, which is also called the ordinary or the penny-farthing. I decided to include it in my blog because it is about a type of bicycle that is now antiquated. It’s not something I ever see in the streets, but there are people who ride it for the novelty of it.

About Taming the Bicycle:

“(Written about 1893; not before published)
In the early eighties Mark Twain learned to ride one of the old high-wheel bicycles of that period. He wrote an account of his experience, but did not offer it for publication. The form of bicycle he rode long ago became antiquated, but in the humor of his pleasantry is a quality which does not grow old.
A. B. P. I”

You can read the story聽on Gutenberg.

“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live.”

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