The fish and bicycle page

The Fish and Bicycle Page

Exploring some (fast?) Eddies
in the stream of American culture.

compiled by John S. Allen

Button: "A Woman Without a Man is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle" The button shown here expresses a timeless sentiment. Buttons just like this one have been made by the same company in West Orange, New Jersey, USA at least since 1982, with no end in sight. Information about the origin of the saying is posted on another page of this site.

A quick Web search on <bike AND fish AND man AND woman> turns up catalogs of "empowerment resources" on the one hand, and tirades against the feminist movement on the other -- generally rather heavy stuff.

Bicyclists give a radical feminist slogan
a different spin.

But for bicyclists, the idea of fish riding bicycles is not a complete absurdity and certainly not without humor. After all, bicyclists do get caught unprepared in wet weather. Over the years, the fish/bicycle motif has, uh, surfaced a number of times in the bicycling community, on T-shirts, bicycling jerseys, greeting cards and posters. Humorous examples have surfaced outside the bicycling community too. This site gives a few examples...

Also highly recommended: fishonabike.com, another site much like this one which delivers European fish/bike sightings including -- get this -- a Guinness TV ad!

TOSRVART by Greg Siple

This image graced the 1982 poster for the Tour of the Scioto River Valley, a ride with a reputation for wet weather, and was reproduced in the book The Mighty TOSRV.

Not American culture only.

This Fish is Loaded was originally published in England; fishonabike.com has many additional European examples.

But also ... Shimano of Japan is a leading manufacturer of bicycle components -- and of fishing tackle. Check it out on the Shimano Web site. It's reely true!

The Fish and Bicycle Page

Bicyclists give a radical feminist slogan a different spin.

Yet more examples!

Bicyclists give a radical feminist slogan
a different spin.