When Greece learned a bike

The distant 1869 for the first time the bike in Greece made its appearance.

It was wooden, heavy and cumbersome.

King George I brought it to the country and did not expose it much in public view – it was a bit released and was soon abandoned due to the great difficulty in its use. At the same time, Piraeus Mayor Paul Damalas brings a bike from Marseilles to the city.

The new medium is not late to spread, in a country where only carriages and donkeys were circulated, in front of the eyes of amazed passers -by watching the first orthopedics on public roads and are surprised by the accidents arising with victims of unsuspecting passers -by.

In a country where the first « group cycling journey », from downtown Athens to Daphni, was a great event: « They were seven in whole, but they were impressed in Daphion impressing with 1,007 devils, who were able to get out of the tartar », « 

One and a half years later, today’s World Bike Day finds a habit that began as a modernist hobby to have gained its place on the everyday life of the planet, with more than a billion bicycles circulating worldwide.

Cycling resists, despite the prevalence of machines in our lives: from cities at the top of the list, such as Copenhagen, where the bike is used for 50% of daily commuting, and countries such as the Netherlands, where public bike rental has begun with its 60s, Calculated below 1%, the history of the bike is captivating.

Unique evidence of the state’s general records unravel the country’s cycling history: Statutes of cycling associations, 1894, and seals of associations « under the protection of the same royal highness of the successor » trigger a journey into the past.

« The bicycles in Europe have already been introduced at half. This strange and difficult kind of kids and mail was until just known to be known in Piraeus, and the use of it and in Athens, « the newspaper » Truth « writes in late January 1870.

Indeed, Piraeus pioneered in 1890, at the initiative of Vasilis Kapsabeli, a Royal Navy officer, the first cycling club in Greece, the Piraeus Cycling Club, was established, who also had a hymn to the poet Aleko Alekos: / Eros, drunkenness and youth and bicycle together / And let’s say vain who is unaware of. « 

Following are Athens, Syros, Tripoli – areas with a bourgeoisie – and cities where foreign traders such as Patras were active, where the first bikes arrived from English raisins.

Gradually cycling unions are established throughout Greece, while bicycles are staffed by the post office, the army and the police. On Stadiou and Patision Streets, the first cyclists appear and many are starting to go to the Athens countryside.

This is the subject that is concerned with the Board of Directors of the Athens Cycling Association in 1894, as we read in a document of the General Archives of the State: These are the minutes from a meeting of the Cycling Association, Veloce Club Athenien, founded in 1891, on « The way of electing heads ».

The GAKs also keep other important documents, records of cycling clubs that were drawn up more than a century ago. One of them carries a logo with a six -star star that reads « the Greek cycling company under the protection of ABY, 1895 ».

The Articles of Association of the Athens Cycling Association issued « Types of Boston » 130 years ago, the Statute of the Ermoupolis Cycling Association, the Statute of the Patras Cycling Association, 1894.

The new medium has been very popular, especially since 1895. The trend is reinforced when, in the Athens Olympics in 1896, the gold medal in cycling is received by Aristides Konstantinidis, who finishes first on an 87km route, from Faliro to Marathon and from there to the Panathenaic Stadium.

According to testimonies, on the eve of the first Olympic Games, Athens already had 2,000 cyclists, and, as the writer and journalist Ioannis Damberg describes, « its ways and its countryside crossing every day. They are running from here, they run from there, others in groups, others permanent, others as Dioscuri, two or two, only, staying with a lot of courage and more tortoarism, enjoying the cycling.

Catalytic in the dissemination of the bike in Greece is considered the role of German Baroness von Gedrich, a large bicycle company representative, who had settled in a house on Epirus Street and established a shop sales shop. But he didn’t sell more than one bike a year.

So, according to testimonies, he decided to implement an intelligent plan: he announced that he would try with his wife to do the round of Greece by bike, an unprecedented boldness of the season.

The news has caught the interest of public opinion and many were gathered at Syntagma Square on the day of the start to see the couple start the dangerous mission. A few days later, the Greek press was published in the news that the Gedrich couple had found a horrible death as it was ambushed outside Arachova. The interest in bicycles was rekindled.

People started flocking to the store to find out details and buy a bike, launching sales. Until one night the Gedrich couple appeared on Syntagma Square riding with his bikes enjoying the success of the plan…

It is noted that the first Greek bike was officially presented at the Thessaloniki exhibition in 1904, with a manufacturer Alekos Vichos, winning the Golden Award of the Exhibition.