Really?
What is a bike, a bike in the city? The bike as a sport? The bike as a lifestyle? A dream in chaotic Istanbul? The big tour on the Islands? The Sunday ordeal on the coast road? Or a grandfather's report-card present? Maybe the reason for your first piggy bank? Then, that summer, the reason for the knee wound on your sunburnt skin?
The year is 2016, what's with this nostalgia!
For some it's a sport, for some a means of transport, for some physiotherapy, for some an activity for escaping the city. The vehicle of freedom in the blowing wind, of healthy living, of socialising here and there, of coming together: "the bike is the vehicle for everything!"For me, it's a brand-new hobby. I'd like to tell you about it: it's not known when or by whom the first bicycle was brought to Turkey. Although its arrival was quite early, it took years to be adopted as a sport; it came into our lives through races led by non-Muslims. With the well-known dominance of French, it entered our language with the news of these races, given under the heading "Velospid".
The news says: "Among the velocipedists of Karşıyaka, three mademoiselles and one madame became famous last week. It was heard that the women were secretly practising. According to the information that has reached us, in a short while 40-50 mademoiselles and madames will appear like wandering flowers among the very roads we have described… The number of Muslim cyclists has naturally increased too. When the velocipedes they ordered from Europe, of the latest kind, arrive in 5-10 days, the number of Muslim velocipedists will pass thirty. Another fifteen or so people are trying to learn."
Though not widespread at the end of the 19th century, it had by then become part of the "adventure" trips of city gentlemen, and by 1912 our first cyclists took part in the Paris Olympics.