ATDTDA (2): "wheelfolk appeared" 42.1)

[David Morris]

>From the WASTE archives:
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112282&keywords=wheelfolk

found this on a blog today.

''In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed
in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at
the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks
and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose
fitting grey colored shirt which we would designate now as a sport
shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long
bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length.
With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to
appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on
a good track he was called a "scorcher," the idea being that he was
going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if
nothing else.''

from http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288


On 2/8/07, Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Spring, arrived, wheelfolk appeared in the streets and parks, in gaudy striped socks and long-billed "scorcher" caps (p. 42).
>
> "Wheelfolk" may relate either to the Ferris employees who were building the Wheel, or to the various employees we might today call the carival workers.