On June 12, 1817 a certain Baron Karl Freiherr von Drais introduced the world to the bicycle. The Baron’s invention was made entirely of wood and had no pedals, but he could travel around his home city of Mannheim at an average speed of 9.3 mph. Today, as we celebrate Cycle to Workday, we thought we would look at some iconic iterations of the bicycle in popular fiction.
So, here are our top 5 fictional bikes.
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- Paul Newman’s Town Bike in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. More comfortable behind the wheel of an Indy 500 racing car, Paul Newman showed his skill on two wheels in this classic movie. Newman did all of the riding in what was, effectively, the first music video.
- Elliott’s BMX in ET. Who said bikes can’t fly? Wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a basket, our eponymous hero took to the sky to save his human chum. The original bike was bought, apparently, by Kasabian singer Tom Meighan in 2007 for £10,000.
- Miss Gulch in The Wizard of Oz. Poor Toto, taken by the wicked Miss Gulch, who later transpires to be a wicked witch and the bike becomes a broomstick. They don’t make them like that anymore.
- The 3-seater Tandem in The Goodies. Back in the day this was the BBC’s most popular comedy series. Our three heroes saved the world from giant kittens, parodied South African apartheid and travelled everywhere on their tandem.
- The bike most people remember from The Great Escape is Steve McQueen’s Triumph TR6 Trophy; but for all his stunts, McQueen was captured. On the other hand, James Coburn’s character, Sedgwick, made good his escape. And he did it on a humble pedal bike.
If you are considering getting a new bike for work click on the link: bike2workscheme.co.uk
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Published: 3 August 2023
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