The great thing about finding cool vintage cycling photos is that through the magic of the Interwebnet machine you can track down a good deal of information on the photo and the subjects. The bad thing is that sometimes the information trail ends and you are left just staring at some cool old pics. Then again, maybe part of the charm is NOT knowing the whole story and letting your imagination fill in the gaps of the story.
Such is the case with the Fred Scherer and Walter Wiley, two cyclists that took part in a 48 day transcontinental race from New York to San Francisco in 1913.
It seems that the trip went well enough, but information is scarce after the pair arrived in Chicago (as seen in the photo below). One thing we know is that they sported some sweet wool gear and seemed happy enough and no worse for wear while averaging 70 miles per day along the way.
If you find Fred & Walter’s trip of interest, I recommend checking out shorpy.com, it has a lot more information on the race, sponsors and equipment. I’m sure in the coming days I’ll find myself trying to find out more about these two and their trip. If and or when I do, I’ll follow up.
Top photo: Bain News Service glass negative. Click [HERE] to supersize the pic and check out the gear.
Bottom photo: Chicago Daily News, Library of Congress collection.
New York Times scan: © New York Times, May 1913