Self Protection on a Cycle from 1901

**DdlR** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 3:24am

http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/20...ycle-at-ismac/ - including a picture from (and link to) an eccentric, probably tongue-in-cheek 1901 magazine article on "self protection on a cycle". Also a picture from the class of the same name from the ISMAC WMA event in Detroit this May.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 3:36am

Haha, fun. I was kind of expecting the bike to have a big front wheel and a small back one, though.

**A.M.** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 8:39am

It looks like a parody and the opening paragraph has this very cheeky British tounge in cheek feel to it.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jimmy_f...tion/cycle.htm

**Permalost** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 10:11am

"It is well to know how to utilise the momentum of a cycle in disabling an opponent to the best effect. To deliver a blow whilst riding — say, at the head of an objectionable small boy who has been indulging in the dangerous practice of throwing a cap at your wheel, and stands in need of punishment — or at the head of an assailant of larger growth — it is necessary to swerve suddenly as you come alongside, so that you throw the balance of your machine over towards your assailant! Leaning well over you deliver a swinging, slightly upward, and frontward, blow with your hand or your weapon. If the blow be timed well, the shock of the recoil — which, it must be understood, would otherwise be disastrous — will have no other effect than to throw your machine back into an upright position, and to cause you to regain your balance easily, when you may ride on in triumph."

Bully.

JP · Posted On: 8/04/2009 12:03pm

On a similar, but decidedly more modern bent is the following piece in New York Magazine:

Bike Jousting in Brooklyn.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people...ligencer/9381/

In further bizarreness, one of these groups contracted my old martial arts school about teaching their members some self-defense stuff. I wasn't there for this workshop, but apparently it was entertaining.

**ZenOfAnger** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 12:23pm

That article was quite entertaining! I wouldn't be surprised if Jackie Chan had a fight scene with bicycles in one of his movies using some of the tactics shown.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 3:16pm

I've heard that in Southeast Asia, some locals rob tourists by riding the bike into them with the wheels between the legs, hitting them in the groin. While confused and full of nutpain, accomplices rob them.

**Ajax** · Posted On: 8/04/2009 8:45pm

Ride boldly up to your assailant's side, leap bravely from your machine full upon him.

nice!!!

**meataxe** · Posted On: 8/05/2009 8:25am

Originally Posted by ZenOfAnger

That article was quite entertaining! I wouldn't be surprised if Jackie Chan had a fight scene with bicycles in one of his movies using some of the tactics shown.

Project A

I got a chance to put some of these techniques to the test today... it's rough out there.

:kermit: