Veterans and 3rd Categories 10-mile race, and a Senior Road Race over 35 miles. Cycle racing came to an end at
Brooklands in 1986, but the story doesn’t end there. In 1989, before the Museum opened to the public, local schools were invited to guided educational tours by Diana Bedford, the Education and Training Manager. These proved a great success and grew quickly. By 1996, 6000 school children visited the Museum that year and cycling played a key part in bringing their class studies to life. Using different bicycles to demonstrate
the progression of gears and gearing and the development of materials in manufacturing showed the progress from wood, through steel and aluminium to carbon fibre. It also helped with social history, charting how clothing has developed with cycling, as well as telling how bicycles evolved from being the preserve of the wealthy to cheap transport for the masses. It has also been useful for highlighting the need for healthier lives today as there were 10 bicycles to one car in 1920.
The Museum Collection includes a wide range of bicycles from very early models right up the latest machinery. It shows how cycling is woven into the fabric of Brooklands from its opening in 1907 and continues to the present day as the Prudential Ride London route passes the Museum.
Dan O’Donovan and his brothers were keen cycling competitors at Brooklands and went on to work in the cycling business in the 1930s.
The Napier-Railton outside Dunlop Mac’s workshop. Is that a young Gerald O’Donovan with his bike behind the car? MARCH - APRIL 2020 | BROOKLANDS BULLETIN 37
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