Watch this history buff bring big antique bikes back to life in Montreal
When Paul Gauthier rides his bike via the streets of Montreal, individuals cease and stare.
Gauthier mentioned strangers typically flag him all the way down to ask questions. Pedestrians whip out their telephones and snap photos. Automobiles decelerate to let him move, perplexed.
“They’re like: who is that this man? Is that this like some form of promoting? They usually’re undecided, nevertheless it’s simply me driving my bike,” he mentioned, laughing.
His bike, admittedly, stands out in a crowd. Gauthier, a self-described historical past buff, rides a penny-farthing — the large-wheeled, tall-framed bikes from the 1800s.
Gauthier mentioned it isn’t only a showpiece: he makes use of the bike to run errands or take a journey round his neighbourhood. Most not too long ago, he accomplished the Tour de l’Île — a 36-kilometre route via downtown Montreal — all atop his penny-farthing.
“From the second individuals see you, they’re like, ‘oh, historical past is coming,'” he mentioned.
A chunk of historical past
Gauthier mentioned getting the bike was a spur of the second resolution. Throughout the pandemic, he’d been researching the Victorian period in his spare time and puzzled if it was nonetheless doable to get a motorbike like that.
It turned out to be straightforward to get an correct reproduction on-line, so he ordered it on a whim.
“[When it arrived] I checked out it for an excellent hour in my front room and I used to be like: ‘what have I performed?'” he mentioned.
Gauthier mentioned he needed to lookup movies on-line to learn to journey it. Simply getting on is difficult: you should hoist your self onto the seat by stepping onto a peg on the body, all whereas the bike is in movement. In the meantime, its rubber wheel means there’s little shock absorption, incomes it the nickname the boneshaker.
Additionally, it has no brakes. Hills particularly could be a problem, he mentioned.
“Your centre of gravity is tremendous excessive … so it’s important to watch out if you go down,” he mentioned. In any other case, you’ll be able to really feel the again wheel lifting off the bottom, resulting in the penny-farthing’s infamous capacity to pitch riders headfirst over the handlebars. (Helmets are beneficial.)
“Normally if there’s a dangerous hill, I simply stroll it down,” he mentioned. “However you’ll be able to go uphill no downside!”
On the highway, Gauthier mentioned driving the penny-farthing requires a heightened consciousness, however he does not normally have any issues. Cyclists and drivers each are likely to decelerate and provides him area, as if respecting the bike, he mentioned.
“I believe they’re saying, like: ‘If this man is loopy sufficient to journey this, let’s simply let him do it. Let’s get out of the way in which and let him do his factor,'” he mentioned, laughing.
Seeking to the longer term prior to now
Now, Gauthier offers lessons on how one can journey the bike via his affiliation for penny-farthing followers, Boneshaker MTL, so others can expertise it for themselves.
Xavier Marine, additionally a historical past buff, is likely one of the ones who tried Gauthier’s bike. He liked it a lot he now owns his personal penny-farthing and likewise offers classes via Boneshaker.
“The concept is to make individuals have the identical feeling we had. Being completely happy and that sense of freedom — we need to give that to individuals,” he mentioned. “And the factor I really like is persons are all the time afraid of the bike!”
“It is like skydiving, the primary time you do it. It is scary, however you then need to do it once more — it is the identical feeling.”
It is also how individuals again then would have felt, when the idea of the bike itself was nonetheless model new, he mentioned.
“This gave beginning to the common bike we now have now. So it is an necessary a part of historical past and naturally, it is a huge a part of the historical past of Montreal,” he mentioned.
Gauthier and Marine say remembering that historical past, and paying homage to it, is an enormous a part of why they do what they do.
However Gauthier has one other motive, too. The penny-farthing “form of disappeared from historical past,” he mentioned — changed, partially, by the automotive.
Simply the presence of the penny-farthing raises the query of whom Montreal’s streets had been made for, he mentioned. Gautier factors to the truth that Montreal’s first highway map was truly a map for cyclists, and plenty of of these routes exist the place bike paths are right this moment.
WATCH | Check out Montreal’s first highway map for cyclists:
It seems bike lanes had been in Montreal earlier than automotive lanes. Penny-farthing rider and Victorian period historical past buff, Paul Gauthier, tells us why the primary highway map of Montreal was a biking map.
“Bicycles predated the car,” he mentioned. “We must always present people who we used to have our place within the streets — and we should always attempt to acquire it again.”
Particularly within the face of local weather change, he mentioned he needs to encourage individuals to look to a time earlier than fossil fuels for inspiration.
His hope is to in the future see a bunch driving via the streets on penny-farthings collectively, like they used to 150 years in the past.
For these not sure if they will deal with the bike, Gauthier encourages them to make the leap, saying the penny-farthing has been a “life-changer.”
“It is among the finest rides ever,” he mentioned. “You’re feeling such as you’re flying … simply thoughts that there isn’t any brakes!”
