Gendered Practices in Finnish Cycling, 1890–1939 Tiina Männistö-Funk Bicycle was one of the most important consumer technologies in Finland during the interwar period, but that period of bicycle’s history is largely unstudied. This article about Finnish rural cycling practices considers the mutual process of shaping between gender and the bicycle. The analysis is based on a large quantity of writ- ten memory sources that permit studying everyday bicycle use from the viewpoint of users. The bicycle’s spread to the countryside from the late-nineteenth century on marked a new process in its development and use, separate from the preceding bi- cycle boom among prosperous city-dwellers. Looking at the cycling practices of elderly farmers’ wives and young hired women, for example, shows us that the bicycle became a radical innovation in rural life. Its uses and success were closely connected to the changes happening in the culture of the countryside. Considering the performative construction of gender helps one to understand the many uses and meanings of the bicycle in the countryside. A concrete example of this are the bicycle rituals connected to the sexuality of rural youth. INTRODUCTION Bicycle was a most romantic vehicle for the young. I am recalling mem- ories of my own youth. When the cows had been milked, we rode to an evening party ..., 30 kilometres was the distance .... When we rode back, there might be a group of twenty girls and boys .... Light, warm summer night made us jolly, we did not feel tired. The cuckoo sang in the birches at the lakeside and the happy group of youngsters pedalled briskly towards home. It was almost five o’clock in the morning when we arrived there. After changing clothes and drinking coffee it was time to milk the cows. 1 This article examines gendered practices of bicycle use in the Finnish countryside from the late-nineteenth century to the Second World War. 2 Through studying everyday practices, I will seek to answer two questions: what kind of a role did gender play in cycling, and how was gender produced through the use of the bicycle. Source material consists of a large trove of folklore material held by the Finnish National Museum. As a part of its annual folklore collection activities in 1971, the museum printed a question- naire about early cycling. Altogether 656 Finns sent in written accounts of their personal bicycle memories. The collection holds nearly 3,500 pages and 03 Mannisto-Funk 21/6/12 3:23 pm Page 1