Once upon a time, the main danger associated with bicycling had nothing to do with
being hit by a car.
Instead, some late 19th century doctors warned that — especially for women — using the newfangled contraption could lead to a threatening medical condition:
bicycle face.
"Over-exertion, the upright position on the wheel, and the unconscious effort to maintain one's balance tend to produce a wearied and exhausted 'bicycle face,'"
noted the Literary Digest in 1895. It went on to describe the condition: "usually flushed, but sometimes pale, often with lips more or less drawn, and the beginning of dark shadows under the eyes, and always with an expression of weariness." Elsewhere,
others said the condition was "characterized by a hard, clenched jaw and bulging eyes."
It's hard to find the very first mention of this "condition," but in
an 1897 article in London's National Review, British doctor A. Shadwell claimed to have first coined the phrase a few years earlier. He went on at length about the dangers of bicycling, especially for women, describing how "cycling as a fashionable craze has been attempted by people unfit for any exertion."
