★ Dating from the mid-19th century to c.1904, here’s a selection of 18 antique bicycle, tricycle, tandem, velocipede and cyclist illustrations – phew, trying saying that quickly! As always, they’re all free for your personal use so I hope you have lots of fun with them.

First up, six images of what used to be known as ‘safety bicycles’ but are today simply regarded as the everyday, commonplace design with two equally sized wheels. They were originally created to be safer than the older penny-farthing design with the large front wheel, that was notoriously hard to dismount and somewhat unstable.

Next up, more unusual designs including penny-farthings, a tricycle and the oldest form of bicycle, a velocipede, where the wheels are pedalled directly (better not stop too quickly!).

And now we have seven illustrations of cyclists, including a very dapper gentleman in his tweed check cycling breeches, and a young lady in her glorious (and at the time scandalous) bloomers! There are even a couple of images of men using the far older model cycles.

Well, there we have it – a few fabulous illustrations of the early days of personal transport. I think these would be great for scrapbooking, junk journals focused on travel, or even some cute gift tags for cycling enthusiasts. Enjoy!

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Take a look around to find all sorts of FREE vintage graphics for use in your personal projects! I regularly post more vintage images, so be sure to check back to see what’s new! Need more information about my site? Try my About page.

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