How the Bicycle Boom of the 1970s Prepared the Way for the Bikecentennial

Fifty years ago, a front page photograph in the February 28, 1974 issue of Southwest Times, published in Pulaski, Virginia, showed Dr. David Stanley, a Dublin veterinarian, “streaking down” Route 11 as he rode his bicycle to work at the Pulaski Animal Clinic. The caption indicated that Stanley “is trying to save gas by pedaling his way to and from work,” which takes about 25 minutes each way. A few days later, a March 3, 1974 editorial note in the Southwest Times admitted that the photograph and caption appeared on the same page as an article about “streaking,” defined as “when students band together to streak across campus in the nude.” The editorial headline reassured readers, “Doc Was Dressed,” while the note ended in the same spirit: “We apologize for our caption writer getting caught with his pants down.”

Newspapers available from the Virginia Chronicle collection offer rich resources for exploring the history of bicycles in the 1970s. Our project, Bike 76 VA, draws extensively from this collection to examine a distinctive moment in this history, the “Bikecentennial” which brought thousands of people through Virginia during the summer of 1976 on rides that either crossed the entire country or covered considerable sections. The TransAmerican Bicycle Route that began with the Bikecentennial was later designated as US Bicycle Route 76 and is now marked by distinctive signs with a bicycle outline and the number 76. More than five hundred miles of this route span Virginia, from Yorktown in the east to Breaks Interstate Park in the west.

The bicycling boom of the 1970s reflected new attitudes toward practical as well as recreational uses of this form of transportation, as exemplified by the photograph of Dr. Stanley cited above. Many of the reports on the “bike boom” published in Virginia newspapers drew upon national statistics to document the increased popularity of cycling in the early 1970s. On July 23, 1972, the Southwest Times declared that more bicycles than cars were expected to be sold in the current year. Whereas almost 95% of bike sales in the 1960s were for children, now adult bicycles accounted for 20% of bicycle sales, confirming that both the market and the purposes of cycling had changed. Two years later, on October 2, 1974, the Bull Mountain Bugle, published in Stuart, declared, “America is having a love affair with the bicycle,” due to increased energy prices, environmental concerns, and desire for “enjoyable and healthful exercise.” On July 6, 1977, the Southwest Times reported that nearly one hundred million bicycles were in use in the United States and added saving money on transportation costs to the health benefits of regular cycling: “Bikes are just dandy for visiting friends, light shopping, nipping down to the movies, and the like. You save money every time.”

This context of increasing popularity of cycling explains the attention to the first plans for the Bikecentennial, which connected to broader discussion of plans for celebrating the 200th anniversary of the United States in 1976. Both themes resonate with us today, as we are again experiencing a growth in bicycling as well as looking ahead to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. The intersection of the bicycle boom and the Bikecentennial were evident in the first reports on plans for the national bike ride. On September 5, 1974, the Herald-Progress reported that two cyclists, Jim Richardson and Linda Thorpe, had reached Hanover, Virginia, nearing completion of their coast-to-coast journey on a tandem bicycle. The two followed a route that was being considered for the TransAmerican Bicycle Route in 1976. The front-page article cited the Bike Centennial organization’s prediction that 30,000 cyclists were expected to travel the TransAmerica Trail in 1976. A photograph on the front page showed the tandem riders, with more members of the Richmond Area Bicycle Association following them.

Virginia newspapers continued to report on Bikecentennial plans in the year that followed. The Farmville Herald reported on July 11, 1975 that the organization, “Bikecentennial, Inc.” was designing trails across the United States. On October 17, 1975, the Sweet Briar News published a recruitment call for leaders of the first “Trans-America Bicycle Trail,” to take place in summer 1976. One month later, on November 21, 1975, the Sweet Briar News reported that “America’s longest bike path is being readied for the Bicentennial.” Known as the “Trans-America Bicycle Trail,” this route followed “secondary, paved roads” across the United States: “One of the purposes of the trail is to take a good, long look at historic and rural America at the same time.” These goals were promoted by aligning the route with other historical sites, including Colonial Virginia, as well as the Oregon trail, Lewis and Clark trail, and others.

During the coming year, Bike 76 VA will continue to track the progress of riders who first rode the Bikecentennial in summer of 1976. These stories will be told on our website and in publications leading up to 2026: the 50th anniversary of the Bikecentennial and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. These stories will document the experiences of cyclists but also the response of community members as they observed these unique visitors across more than five hundred miles of Virginia.

Newspapers available from Virginia Chronicle also provide remarkable resources to track individuals after they appear in a particular article. Dr. Stanley, whose photograph appeared on the front page in 1974, remained a visible presence in the Southwest Times for more than fifty years. Dr. Stanley began practicing in Dublin in 1957, according to the Southwest Times, working in Dublin Animal Hospital. In 1986, an article in Southwest Times featured a photograph of Dr. Stanley at a keyboard and described how the animal hospital was entering “the computer age.” According to a profile published by the Southwest Times on December 11, 1987, Stanley grew up on a farm and always wanted to be a veterinarian. Whereas the Dublin Animal Hospital mostly cared for large animals in the first decades of his work, now the practice primarily treated household pets. Ten years later, the Southwest Times reported that Dr. Stanley had sold his share of the practice after working in the area for nearly forty years. Dr. Stanley passed away in early 2019 at the age of 85, after working 47 years as a veterinarian and almost 20 years as a potter, according to an obituary in the Southwest Times. Dr. Stanley’s visibility in the community, as illustrated in the photograph and caption about his cycling activities in early 1974, can thus be traced through the subsequent decades in newspapers serving this region of Virginia. More than twenty miles of the TransAmerican Bicycle Route are in Pulaski County, from the city of Radford in the east to Wythe County in the west. Although the route travels south of Dublin and Pulaski, where Dr. Stanley lived and worked, it’s quite possible he encountered cyclists riding across the country in the summer of 1976, as their transcontinental rides intersected with his daily commutes.

-E. Thomas Ewing, Professor of History, Virginia Tech, and project director, Bike 76 VA