Special guests:
The Wheelmen display bike riding skills
If you like antique bicycles, you don't want to miss performances by the Wheelmen during the Great American Brass Band Festival.
The group helps with restoration of big high-wheelers,
tricycles and safeties. They also teach people how to ride these
oldfashioned vehicles. The group reaches over 20 states and
foreign countries with their activities, including rural
countryside tours, century runs of 100 miles in a day, parades
and riding demonstrations and obstacle course runs.
A family-oriented group, the Wheelmen recreate the ``golden age of bicycling.'' They support the modern cycling movement and promote physical fitness through bicycling.
Annual Wheelmen races are held at the Indianapolis Speedway each September. The color and spectacle of the meets has attracted thousands of spectators as well as network television, newspaper and national magazine coverage.
The League of American Wheelmen was formed in 1880, with chapters in a number of cities. The league sponsors bicycle races and tours.
Bicycles were the brain child of Baron von Drais, who attached two wheels to a crossbar and added a saddle and steering bar. The basic design seen today was developed in 1884 by John Starley. In 1889, John B. Dunlop developed the pneumatic tire. Both developments made the modern day bicycle safer and more comfortable.