Do You Want to Bike in 1927?

Fewer and fewer people are interested in obtaining their driver’s licenses and buying a car, which actually represents the path into adulthood. More and more people see the car ownership often as a burden. As they grow up and enter the university or the workforce, my generation, millennial Y Gen, is turning to public transportation and biking as commuting options. Even though, public transportation is vital and dominating over the means of transportation, biking is growing more than ever. Thanks to this environmental and healthy shift, urban landscapes and across the world is changing and becoming more human dominated.

Uppsala, as a large Swedish city, also follows this trend. Bike lanes, specific rules for bike parking, air pumps, bike sharing stations and more are already in use and the bike culture is the prominent part of the city life. Millenials, including myself, prefer to live in “walkable” communities where locality plays an essential role.

Single-speed, fixed-gear or mountain bikes… Thanks to environmental awareness, bikes are experiencing a renaissance these days, especially in Europe and the US, and most large manufacturers now offer at least one model for urban riding, commuting, or fitness. But what about 1927?

Anders Nyman, a young entrepreneur, opened his small workshop on Dragarbrunnsgatan 25 in Uppsala in 1873. Later, Nyman began to repair farming tools and started to learn how to build a velocipede. in 1888, he could able to show his bikes in his workshop. After his dead, the workshop continued to expand itself and every passing year was a better year for Nyman family’s company.

When the new capital was needed, the workshop was converted into a bigger company which began its operation as the real large factory production of bicycles where around 500 bikes were produced. In 1905, the factory expanded more and 2500 bikes and 500 bikes kits were produced.

In 1920s, bike manufacturing was damaged because of WWI. The most of producers started to merge with each other to survive during the war. Post-war period was also painful for bike manufacturers because American cars started appearing in the market.

Enjoy the video!

PS: The video below shows us how Nyman’s business was going in 1927. The video is taken from fimkarkivet.se which is funded by Svenska Filminstutet and National Library of Sweden.

Andaç Baran

Written by Andaç Baran

18 May 2016