News & Blog by David V Herlihy
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John Kelly did reply to my email. That was sometime in 2000, I believe. As I recall, he told me that he had suffered a heart attack and had put the Lenz project on the backburner. I confirmed that I intended to write a book on Lenz. I didn’t get an answer. I assumed that he probably wasn’t pleased but had no grounds to object. When my book finally did come out, a good ten years later, I reconnected...
Of course I wanted to see Lenz’s scrapbook! Or, more precisely, Petticord’s scrapbook. Charlie Petticord was Lenz’s bosom buddy and constant cycling companion (they rode thousands of miles together on their high-wheelers). Petticord, in fact, should have gone with Lenz around the world but backed out at the last minute. He planned, nonetheless, to meet up with Lenz in Europe for the last leg. Lenz...
About a dozen years ago, a journalist approached me at my home in Boston to find out what I knew about Frank Lenz, an American cyclist who disappeared in Turkey in 1894 while trying to complete a round-the-world journey on a new-fangled “safety” bicycle with inflatable tires. I was already known as a bicycle historian, thanks primarily to my research on the early development of the bicycle. The inquirer,...
