14 February 2020

My name is Malcolm McRae, this website's author and I have a confession to make.  When I wander the streets of Montreal I see ghosts!

      I’m not alone in seeing spirits in Montreal.  This city is the most haunted in North America.  An Algonquian warrior has been spotted on Mont Royal, a decapitated Mary Gallagher  searches for her head in Griffintown, and Beaupré the Giant’s  corpse now wanders the National Theatre near Old Montreal.

      But those are just the famous ones, ghosts who now take pleasure in scaring tourists. No, the phantoms who decided to possess me have other motives.  When I first saw this apparition of them, I was unaware of their diabolical plans.

     These cycling shadows created a club that thrived till the end of the 19th century. Back then, they were well known, respected. They lived in what later became known as the world wide ​ bicycle craze​ of the 1890’s. At the end of that decade the it seemed that the future was bright for the bicycle in this city.  However the 20th century was not friendly towards them. They were forgotten, tormented as they watched the city they loved being slowly destroyed by the car.

     These winged souls look over us, they know that cycling in ​Montreal​ may soon have a true renaissance. They celebrate every time a new cycling path is created. They hear our debates about climate change, the environment, safety. They pray that the bicycle may yet reign again in Montreal.

     These phantoms knew my weaknesses. I was a perfect mark for their plans. They sought me out, forcing me to tell how cycling and Montreal have long been linked. They drove me to re-found their club and ordered me to follow the same rituals and covenants they had created.

Montreal Bicycle Club founding 2 Dec 1878

Montreal Bicycle Club re-founding 21 March 2017

 
   These spooks called their rides “Fixtures”, and demanded that the living club must use that term as well.  They announced their Fixtures in newspapers, and commanded me to do the same on the Internet.  The shadows demanded that a club of their name must have rides 3 to 4 times a week!  These winged wheel demons are hard task masters to follow!

Montreal Bicycle Club Minute Book 17 June 1886

    These tormented souls have a mania for writing minutes of meetings. Every ride has to be documented in the ​Minute book​ . I did all I could to appease these ghosts, slaving away on a website devoted to praising them, but they were never satisfied with me.

One of these cycling spirits,​ Louis Rubenstein​ , would complain to me “Why doesn’t anyone know who I am? In addition to being a racing cyclist, I was a world champion figure skater. Now there is only one lousy water fountain with my name on it. Does not anyone know I brought the world cycling championships to Montreal?"

Louis Rubenstein, in Montreal Bicycle Club uniform, 1891

29 August 2019, Minnesota cycling tourists at the Louis Rubenstein memorial water fountain

Start to the 1899 World Cycling Meet at Queens Park in Verdun, it was so forgotten that even its location has been a matter of debate recently.

     In a pique of rage these spirits came to me one night demanding that all the living members adopt a spirit name. Now all the new minutes are written as if it is the ​actual ghosts who are doing these 21 century Fixtures. Perhaps it is true.

     The spirits directed me to study club legends long forgotten. I had to learn the answers to obscure trivia like, “Who was the first person to cycle up Cote des Neiges hill?”.

Bertie Lane 1885, the first person to cycle up Cote des Neiges hill

The Canaian Wheelman, July 1887

 
    Images of old club meeting places became super imposed upon my thoughts, blurring my distinction between past and present.

Original Blue Bonnets, located near present Montreal West train station, site of many club meetings

Cruising the Canals, 18 Oct, 2019

    I needed help, these ghosts kept demanding more and more from me. Each of them had a story to tell, who they were, what they had done. This madness is spreading, living club members are telling me now how they too had heard from cycling spirits insisting their life stories also be published on my website.

One of them, W.G. Ross, I knew only as a racing cyclist with an obsession with medals.  I was ordered to publish his life story and to inform everyone that there is now a national achievement award named after him!

W. G. Ross, Montreal Bicycle Club, 1885

4 June 2019, W.G. Ross was director of the Montreal Street Railway

2019 WG Ross Lifetime Achievement Award winners

     I even learned that some of these cycling souls had even become tempted by the dark side.  Dr. Perry Doolittle, a quaint early cycling cherub later became the first person to drive a car across Canada. He is now known as the Father of the Trans Canada Highway.

Dr Perry Doolittle

The Model T that Dr. Doolittle drove from Halifax to Vancouver in 1925.

Trans Canada Highway, Montreal

     These cycling ghosts are demanding, yet fair. The cause they compel me to promote is right for our times. Ghostly help for me is on its way. Postings are now appearing on my website without my intervention! Indeed the Montreal Bicycle Club seems poised to rise again.

     Will this be enough to appease these spirits? No, for these phantoms to rest in peace, bicycles once again rule the streets of Montreal.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though winged wheels roll
      Upon Mont Royal.

Montreal Bicycle Club

John McCrae author of "In Flanders Fields"