Les trois âges du vélo en France - article ; n°1 ; vol.29, pg 17-34

Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire - Année 1991 - Volume 29 - Numéro 1 - Pages 17-34
The bicycle's three âges in France, Philippe Gaboriau.
Appearing in the first quarter of the 19th c, the bike retained for a long time an image limited to the social and cultural elites. Gradually, however, the « bourgeois bike » gave away to the « popular bike », which had its apogee between the 1920s and 1960s and then lost ground due to the emergence of the « ecological bike » in the 1980s. The sociological study of biking practice makes it possible to measure its development as a good reflection of social and cultural changes in contemporary France, and as a precious testimony of the relation between the mental worlds of the rulers and the ruled.
18 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.