Cycling – 1978

This issue was released on the 2nd August 1978 and consisted of a set of four stamps designed by Fritz Wegner. The 9p depicted a “Penny Farthing” and an 1884 Safety Bicycle, the 10 1/2p Touring Bicycles, 11p Modern Small-Wheel Bicycles, and the 13p 1978 Road Racers.

The stamps were issued to commemorate the Centenaries of the Cyclists Touring Club and the British Cycling Federation. In 1878 the worlds first national cycling competitions took place and were organised by the federation and the Bicycling Touring Club, which soon changed its name to Cyclists Touring Club. This was set up to coincide with the federation and was designed to assist with the touring side of the sport.

Roadracing became popular in the 1890’s but with the advent of the motor car, cycle racing was quite literally driven off the roads. It was subsequently revived in 1942 by the annual 14-day Milk Race Tour of Britain organised on the lines of the Tour de France race.

France led the world in bicycle production until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 when Britain gained supremacy and the industry was established in Coventry. In 1884 the low-built safety bicycle with chain drive to the rear wheel was developed and it promoted the form of transport to women. The wheel sizes later became standardised and in 1884 Dunlop patented the pneumatic tyre safety bicycle. Dunlop went from strength to strength and is now a world class produced of all types of tyres. For cycles, there was very little change in the basic design until Moulton introduced the open frame with 16 inch wheels in 1962.

This was an interesting issue for collectors, due to the huge amount of varieties that exist on the stamps, ranging from fly speck dots to larger missing design sections. No reason for any of these is given, although it is believed that this was about the time that new cost saving measures were being experimentally tested by the printers, and ultimately the quality of the printing suffered.

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