Long before the first bicycle was sold in Denver, the people of the area adapted transportation to their needs. Early inhabitants walked, carrying their goods by hand or on their backs. The Native Americans used travois, a blanket wrapped around two long sticks, dragged by a horse. The Spaniards travelled through the region with carretas, two-wheeled carts pulled by oxen. The American settlers travelled in covered wagons, prairie schooners, and later stage coaches, either to gather supplies in the Mile High City for further travels or to settle in Denver.
In 1879 the first bicycles were offered for sale in Denver. The "wheels," as they were called, had a large wheel in front and a smaller wheel in back for support. Only one or two were sold the first year. By 1881, there were about 15 in the city. Due to the difficulty of mounting and riding these wheels, instructional classes were offered. But some people did not like the wheels, and on several occasions, the cycling instructor was arrested for scaring the horses with his bicycle.
The wheels were not popular initially, but within a few years a number of bicycle groups were formed. The Denver Wheel Club was formed in 1881, and several others followed, including the Rambler's Wheel Club, the Arapahoe Wheel Club, and the Burlington Wheel Club, composed of Burlington Railroad employees. One club was open only to bicyclists who had completed a 100-mile journey in twelve hours.
Bicycle trails were created to enable two-wheeler enthusiasts to ride throughout the region. Popular 100-mile century routes included a Denver-Greeley loop and a Denver-Palmer Lake loop. Many people rode to Palmer Lake on Sunday morning, arrived in time for a luncheon and a couple hours of rest, before pedalling back to Denver in the afternoon. Others avoided the uphill ride to Palmer Lake, opting to load their bicycles on one of the trains to Palmer Lake, and returning by bicycle, coasting much of the way back.
In 1900, The Denver Times reported that Denver had more bicycles in proportion to its population than any other city. Thousands were seen on the streets, used in every line of business, from delivering goods to transporting people. An undertaker in Greeley invented a bicycle to carry funeral layouts.
Since bicycles shared the road with horses, carriages, and pedestrians, the competing demands for road space created the need for orderly use of bicycles. In 1880 an ordinance prohibiting bicycles on sidewalks and streets of Denver was considered. In 1899, Mayor Johnson signed a bicycling ordinance for the City of Denver in which bicyclists were not allowed to ride on the sidewalks, and had to ride with at least one hand on the handlebars and both feet on the pedals.
Bicyclists could not ride in the downtown commercial core, and "scorching", riding at speeds exceeding 10 miles per hour, was prohibited. Newspaper reports from 1900 said, "Bicycle thieves did a flourishing business last year," when 1,149 were stolen. In a similar vein, a 1971 newspaper headline said, "Thieves do thriving business in city, 2300 bicycles stolen this year."
By the 1920s automobiles had begun to replace bicycles as the mode of choice. Bicycling was left mainly to newspaper carriers and delivery boys. Many of the paths that were formerly used by bicyclists to ride to other cities, like the Denver-Greeley loop, were widened to accommodate automobiles and closed to bicycles.
After years of ever-increasing automobile use, the needs of bicyclists were left behind. The bicycle was relegated to the status of a toy, ridden only by children and eccentrics. Automobile interests declared that bicycles should stay off the roads, giving various reasons for this opinion. The concept of sharing the road was secondary to ensuring the smooth flow of motor vehicle traffic.
Nonetheless, many people still enjoyed bicycling as a form of recreation, seeing the natural beauty of Denver from the seat of a bicycle. As a result of this interest, Mayor Tom Currigan in 1965 commissioned a bicycle trail connecting City Park, Cheeseman Park and Washington Park. The new trails and paths were created to keep bicycles as far from automobiles as possible. A 1969 City of Denver map of bicycle trails shows mainly park loops with a recreational emphasis.
The environmental movement and the increased awareness of physical fitness combined to give a new push to bicycling in the 1970s. In 1971, the Denver City Council authorized the creation of a bicycle network to serve commuting as well as recreational needs. Joe Shoemaker was an ardent advocate of the Platte River Greenway as the spine of a network of bicycle trails and on-street routes, working like the interstate highway with its system of feeder roads. The energy crises of the 1970s underscored the importance of the bicycle as a legitimate form of transportation.