Buchanan, Dave2024-01-182024-01-182021Buchanan, D. (2021). Love on Wheels: American Cycling-Romance Novels of the Early 1880s. Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, 39(1), p1-24.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/3375Romantic fiction about cycling—sometimes called “cycling romance” (Chen) or “romantic bicycling fiction” (Hanlon)—is usually considered to have emerged in the 1890s, during the great “bicycle boom” that peaked mid-decade in North America, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere (Herlihy 251). High-wheel cycling had been popular in certain circles (mainly among well-off athletic men) as far back as the 1870s, but, in the late 1880s, the rise of the more affordable and accessible safety bicycle (with same-size wheels, much like bicycles today) and technical innovations (such as the pneumatic tire) led to an explosion in cycling’s popularity.enAll Rights Reservedcycling romanceromantic bicycling fictionArticle