The Steel City has a long-time love affair with the bicycle.
Detail of vintage J.C. Higgins on display in Pittsburgh.
It started before local cyclist Frank Lenz left on his tragic global bike ride in 1892 and continues to this day with Pittsburgh as one terminus of an off-road bicycle route that stretches 335 miles to Washington, DC.
So it’s not surprising that the city’s Carnegie Science Center is hosting an exhibit entitled “BIKES: Science of Two Wheels.”
According to reports, the exhibit itself is centered on a display of vintage and modern bicycles. Many are on loan from the vast collection at the Bicycle Museum of America in Bremen, Ohio.
To jazz up the displays with “hands on” activities, the exhibit that opened this past summer has included lectures, BMX and freestyle bicycling demonstrations and such family bikes rides along the riverfront trail.
Some of the bikes on display include a whole host of Schwinns — 1930s Aerocycle to 1970s Stingray –, as well as J.C. Higgins De Luxe (sold by Sears), Huffys, Miyatas, Cannondales and Surlys.
There also are what the museum calls “offshoots and unusual” bicycles, such as a side-by-side trike, unicycle, recumbent and bicycles inspired by Gene Autry’s horse Champion (Monark Gene Autry) and the 1960s space race (Bowden Spacelander).
BIKES: Science of Two Wheels has been at the museum since June, so it’s probably going to wrap up soon. The Carnegie Science Center is located at One Allegheny Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, 15212.
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