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Antique bike enthusiasts hosting event in downtown Wheaton

Carey Williams believes riding one of those big-wheeled antique bicycles is "as close as you can get to heaven and still touch the ground."

He'll share that experience with 60 to 70 other antique bike enthusiasts and people gathered in downtown Wheaton on Friday, July 8, when The Wheelmen come to town.

Williams, of Chicago, is vice commander of The Wheelmen, a national nonprofit dedicated to researching, collecting, riding and restoring antique bicycles from 1918 and earlier, with a heavy emphasis on Victorian-era bikes, or velocipedes, such as high, large-wheeled bikes, called penny-farthings, and hobby horses, which include two wheels, but no pedals.

The group holds its annual meets in different historic towns throughout the U.S. and decided this year to come to Elmhurst College for the national event. The last time they were in Illinois for a meet was 2003, when they came to Elgin.

The best part of being a Wheelmen member, Williams says, is being able to "ride history" and share it with others.

"Here you have these things that are well over 100 years old being ridden just as well as they were then," he said. "I think it gives value to where the modern bicycle came from."

On July 8, the group will ride along the Illinois Prairie Path from Elmhurst to downtown Wheaton, where they will show off their bikes, demonstrate how they work and present an oral history on their equipment from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The bicyclists will gather near Main Street, just south of the railroad tracks.

Williams hopes people coming out to the Downtown Wheaton Association's regularly scheduled Vintage Rides car show on Front Street that night will take interest in the bikes and stop by to chat with Wheelmen members, many who will be dressed in late 1800s and early 1900s costumes.

The group is celebrating the 150th anniversary of bicycling in America this year and Williams says the Wheaton event will be a fun way for families to learn about that history.

"It's a unique opportunity for them to see displayed in front of them examples of historic bicycles, not only to see them," he said, "but also to see them ridden and to be able to learn how cycling became the popular sport that it is today, to see it's a multigenerational hobby."

About 60 to 70 members of The Wheelmen will have their antique, pre-1918 bikes on display in downtown Wheaton on July 8. Courtesy of John Dixon/Life to lens Photography
Carey Williams shows off an antique bicycle during a recent event at the Glen Ellyn Public Library. Williams is vice commander of The Wheelmen, a group that researches, collects, rides and restores antique bicycles. Courtesy of Ken McClurg
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