Old Photo Pick - 4

If you google something like 'girls on bikes vintage photo' you will find plenty of erotic and pin-up pictures. Not because bikes seemed to be particular erotic a hundred years ago, but because it was something from men's world that was taken by women. Women cycled publicly for the first time through the streets of Indianapolis, USA, on April 23, 1895. Press wrote that four women riding bikes through the city aroused in men deep disgust for the ladies.

Cycling in skirts - real...

...and ideal. Alphonse Mucha, bike advertisement,
early 20th century.

Bicycle was socially accepted as sport activity for women pretty early, in 1890s. Though riding a bicycle was handy and healthy (and brought so much fun, as we can see on the picture), men really didn't like when something from their sphere of influence was adopted by women.  At the same time women began to participate in public life, that was not allowed previously: politics, economics, even fashion. (Why even fashion? Thats in one of the following articles.) When something can't be conquered or stopped, it would be  neglected or turned into joke. Erotic joke in this case. But bicycle became a symbol, or a tool for the first steps in the struggle for independence and equality with men.

Today I picked very serious photos for you, because riding a bike in traditional women's long full skirt outfit was hardly possible, pants have been tried on. 
I remember I was riding a bike in my teens, wearing loose jeans. Once a jean leg got under a bike chain, I fell down and it was hard to get my jeans out of bike though it was just a small part of hem. Imagine how hard it would be with the long  skirt.

Bloomer, late 19th century version with jacket.

Bloomer costume consists of very loose  trousers based on Turkish harem pants, with ankle-long dress (or jacket in later interpretations) It looks pretty modest, but back in the 1850s it was a real revolution. It required a great courage to put on such suit, because 'woman in pants' looked very provocative and often needed police protection from the crowd. 
The Bloomer has a very exciting history. It became a symbol of woman's rights in the early 1850th, as the same women who adopted the new form of dress, also advocated woman's right to vote. These women - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony - called their new fashion the 'freedom dress'. Big crowds gathered and bought tickets to their lectures not only to listen to radical ideas but to see 'scandalous' fashion - women in pants. 
It was a metaphorical symbol of freedom, as for the first time women chose what to put on themselves. And they chose what was comfortable and practical and not what men liked to see. That was a real scandal. 
After three years many of these women returned to corsets and long full skirts, because they realised that their clothes was drawing attention away from their ideas. 

Later, in the late 19th century Bloomer was reinvented as ideal bicycle attire. It was less restricting than popular fashion and gave more physical freedom for women. It happened in 1893 at  the Woman's Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, where Bloomer was discussed as an aid in improving women's health through physical exercise. Its woman's dress session was opened by Lucy Stone's talk about bloomer movement of 1850s. She said that bloomer was 'cleanest, neatest, most comfortable and most sensible garment' she had ever worn; and young women modelling different versions of the dress. Bloomer soon became the standard 'bicycle dress' for women.

Later option of a skirt transformer. Buttons allow to change this garment from pants to skirt and back. On the back it remains pants though. 
Bicycle riding was one of the triggers that helped women's pants emerge. It was obvious that in the new way of life, less woman for man, more woman for herself, - pants and other features of comfortable, no-fuss, easy to put on costume would find their place.