What do you know about Oakland Wheelmen?
"The coming of the railways in the 1830s killed off the stage-coach trade; almost all rural roads reverted to low-level local use. Cyclists were the first group in a generation to use roads and were the first to push for high-quality sealed surfaces and were the first to lobby for national funding and leadership for roads. The first motoring journalists had first been cycling journalists; and there was a transfer of technology from cycling to motoring without which cars as we know them wouldn't exist!" In the 1890’s in Northern California, a rider was not a “cyclist’ but rather was known as a wheelman. Bicyclists, at that time, were challenged by rutted roads of gravel and dirt and faced antagonism from horsemen, wagon drivers, and pedestrians. Organizations like the League of American Wheelmen (L.A.W.), established in the 1880s, advocated rider safety, helping to secure paved roads even before automobiles took the transportation reigns. Formed by local cycling clubs, such as northern California's influential Bay City Wheelmen, they organized at San Francisco on September 1, 1884. [Source: Roads Were Not Built For Cars by Carlton Reid]
Banner of the Bay City Wheelmen
The local Northern California chapter of The League of American Wheelmen (L.A.W.) was the Bay City Wheelmen. The Bay City Wheelmen (BCW) was a bike club that formed around 1884, headquartered in San Francisco on Golden Gate Avenue. They joined the influential San Francisco Bike Club (the second bike club in America founded on December 13, 1876), but later broke off to incorporate on their own on 13 September 1890. It was this new BCW that would go on to build the bike racing track at 8th and Market, very near City Hall in San Francisco, that produced a race that drew 20,000 spectators in 1893. "In a city filled with high priced bikes that only the well off could afford, its many bike shops became an economic force that could not be ignored. In endeavoring to spread the craze that had erupted in their city to a larger market they commissioned a map of the bike roads for the entire state." The result in 1896 became the cutting edge map titled "Map of California Roads for Cyclers" which you can see here-- https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~1604~170041
George W. Blum compiled and published "The Cyclers' Guide and Roadbook of California" mentioned above, which not only contained a map titled "Map of California Roads For Cyclers" in relief with principal roads, it also contained seven sectional maps showing all available roads for cyclers from Chico to San Diego, and a large fold-out map of Golden Gate Park, dated 1896, as well as listings of "cycle-friendly" hotels and businesses. Price at that time for the book was One Dollar.
The complete cyclers' book and maps can be viewed here-- https://archive.org/details/cyclersguideroad00blum
Source: http://www.thewheelmen.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6375
There were also several local Oakland clubs which were later organized and held many events. Here is a list of some of those clubs.
Acme Club Wheelmen; Athenia Cyclers; Oakland Y.M.C.A. Cycling Club; Oak City Cycle Club; Reliance Wheelmen;
Source: https://archive.org/stream/cyclersguideroad00blum#page/25/mode/1up
There was also the Highland [Park] Club [members; W.J. Bowman; Jerome Churchill; J. Blinn; 1888 members; Blinn, Rosborough, Olney, Churchill, Fred Blinn]; The Oakland Ramblers [W. W. Haralson of Fitchburg; A. J. Rosborough, and A. S. Ireland, both of Highland Park]
More Oakland Clubs can be seen on this page listing other Northern California Cycle Clubs
Article from Oakland Tribune dated 18 Feb 1905 regarding the Oakland Wheelmen.
Oakland Tribune 18 Feb 1905
Other sources: http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/09/22/19th-century-bicycling-rubber-was-the-dark-secret/
Wheelmen of California, article from the SF Call, 1 July 1893
