Buy a bike for 10p a week!

What's this all about, then?

For about 25 years (until the mid-noughties), my uncle, Graham Trunks, was the editor of the Northern Wheel. Amongst his pile of goodies was an original copy of the very first issue of the "Northern Wheel", published in July 1935.

The front cover trumpets it as "The Official Organ of the Manchester District Association Cyclists' Touring Club". Naturally, it also sports the wonderful, beloved, gothic "Winged Wheel". Underneath the tag line is a one-line advert, urging everybody to "Ride a BSA".

A cataclysmic event (in C.T.C. terms) led to the creation of the magazine: Manchester D.A. had, since 1917, provided its supplement to the C.T.C. Gazette but, for some unknown reason, 18 years later, the C.T.C. decided to strangle it.

In the grand scheme of historical documents, it is hardly the Mappa Mundi. It is, however, a time capsule of cycling in the inter-war years, and highlights the popularity which cycling then enjoyed. It also gives us a glimpse of Manchester cycling in the mid 1930's.

The C.T.C. structure used to consist of District Associations, each of which contained a number of Sections. Each Section has its own report in the magazine, which shows the reach and vigour of the D.A.

The 'Editorial' sternly states that the purpose of this new magazine is not "that abhorrent modern word - Propaganda". Somebody should have told the author of the 'Foreword', who notes that the magazine, and its distribution to non-members and members "makes for excellent propaganda". The printer, wisely, kept his head down and printed both.

The author of the Altrincham report seems particularly focussed on "the girls". The writer of the Rochdale report appears to have been on mind-bending drugs, as he puts the boot into a "Yorkshire lad" of the section. The Manchester Section report is a cursory two lines - they must have struggled to get their copy to the Hon. Editor "not later than the 4th of each month. Write on one side of the paper only".

Why didn't you just scan it?

Well, I did - several times. The whole scanned magazine is available as a pdf file, which I have passed to the secretary of the Manchester CTC.

I wanted to provide a lightweight version of the magazine, which was quick to load and easy to skim. Whilst pdf files are useful, they are not a particularly friendly way to read a magazine, and are often quite large to download.

I therefore scanned the magazine, and did some OCR trickery to convert into text, which I then tweaked. I have tried not to editorialise - any original spelling mistakes remain.

The original magazine was mainly laid out with advertisments on the left hand page, and content on the right hand pages (there were also a few advertisements embedded within the content pages). I have not kept the original pagination, but instead have created three separate documents:

I have tried to minimise bloat on the site: there is no javascript and no tracking.

As far as possible, I have laid out pages similarly to the originals. There are, though, places where I have had to use some artistic licence. The pages are designed to be viewable on most screen widths, from smartphones to desktops, but without using javascript. Also, I do not download any special fonts, relying upon only the basic serif and sans-serif fonts in the user's browser.

The frontispiece contains an image of Manchester's coat of arms (see footnote [1] for attribution). This is not the exact original; the original monochrome image in the source document was of poor resolution.

I have tried to lay out the advertisements in a similar fashion to the originals, but there are places where I have had to compromise to meet my goal of supporting various screen sizes.

I have redrawn a number of the graphics as vector graphics, to provide good resolution at all screen sizes. Where I have used raster graphics these have been reworked to make them transparent (so that they sit on the background without looking 'cut-out') and to sharpen them up where possible.

The advertisements are often as interesting as the content. Many independent businesses served the cycling enthusiast, some offering payment terms of around 2 shillings a week to help ease the purchase of a new bike.

Tucked away amongst the bicycle vendors and repair shops is Davy's of High Street Cheadle, toting the 1930's equivalent of today's performance enhancers ("For your cigarettes, Tobaccos and Smokers' Requisites").

You could nip along to Arthur S. Walto, Moor Street Rusholme, to buy a "Dainty Skirt - entirely original skirt and shorts combined on one belt. Three Pockets. Only 7/11". Founded in 1894, they anticipated the League of Gentlemen's "local shop for local people" by more than 100 years, with their strapline "Manchester Kit for Manchester Bikes".

If it's shoes you were after, then "Thank goodness for 'Brigham Shoes'" from F. Brigham, whose copy contains the sinister afterthought "(You know him)".

I enjoyed it so much. Can I send you some money?

No. Spend it on bike bits.

Or save up £17 6s and treat yourself to a B.S.A. Ladyback Tandem from E.Goodwin, 194 Manchester Road, Denton. Phone Denton 2122.

Alternatively, if you do not have a female companion to stoke your tandem, and you value "Maximum Power for Minimum Effort", consider grabbing a "Glider Rider" - only £7 10s from the Stenton Glider Cycle Company.

(I have no affiliation with either company, and do not receive commission).

What's Missing?

Navigation is rudimentary at this point.

Also, I still have to complete two images: the "Winged Wheel" on the cover page, and the "Coventry Eagle" logo in the advertisements.