The only form of cycling suitable for women in the 1880s was the tricycle but this presented problems for the ladies. Their dresses were constantly riding over their knees, each alternate stroke lifting them higher. Then a few bicycles with dropped frames appeared on the market and by the middle of the 90s, women began to ride them. The “Saturday Globe” in 1895 wrote: “Almost every day parties of young women on bicycles can be met on Utica’s streets and that they enjoy it is evident from their beaming looks and happy smiles. The question of a becoming dress is a serious one. So what, they ask, shall we do? Shall it be bloomers or what? A reporter asked the opinion of this matter from a prominent cycling woman in Utica and was answered thus: ‘Bloomers, I can see no objection to bloomers on any ground save that of their ugliness; they are simply hideous and yet one can’t wear skirts without the danger of becoming all tangled up and getting severely hurt.’ Knickerbockers were suggested as a possible solution and the young woman replied, ‘Well, knickerbockers might be better. In fact I’ll tell you something if you’ll promise not to tell. Some girls are thinking of knickerbockers. There’s nothing so dreadful in them when you get used to it; it’s just the idea. I have just come from New York and there I saw dozens of women in bloomers and a few in knickerbockers. I am bound to say, however, that the latter class was much more interesting.’ The reporter thought he would find them most interesting too.”

The new asphalt pavement on Rutger street, the first such in Utica, was the favorite spot for bicycling. Lucy Clark, in “Town Topics”, November 1931 wrote: “On Sundays it was the mecca of bicyclists from all parts of the city and suburbs. Oh, the ladies in shortwaists, sailor hats and short skirts — ‘short’ meant at the shoetops, in those days and, a few daring ones in bloomers. The men in caps, blouses and odd, skimpy knickers. What a picturesque pageant they made, pedaling past those dignified houses, from which an occasional horrified occupant peeped out the parlor window, bewailing modern contraptions. But youth is ever indifferent to the pangs caused by the passing of old time ways, and the boys and girls of Rutger street’s best families were mingled in that gay wheeling throng many a smart debutante looking very sweet ‘upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.’

Albert J. Seaton conducted a bicycle academy in the old armory on Bleecker street in 1895 and he was enjoying such popularity that Welch Brothers built a bicycle rink on a vacant lot on Oneida Square, just south of Pegg’s Tavern. It was a frame building 144 feet deep, two stories in height. with towers on either end. The bicycle rink was in the rear, 76 by 140 feet in dimensions. There were platforms at the side upon which spectators could sit. The rink opened on June 19, 1895. The Academy was open daily and each evening as well. The rates were: Admission without riding, 10 cents; admission for people having their own wheels to ride, 20 cents; admission and wheel for one hour, without instruction, 30 cents; single lesson with instructions for half hour, 40 cents; course of six lessons, $2. Wheels could also be rented for road riding.

The Oneida Square Bicycle Rink was also used for ice skating and political rallies. During a presidential campaign in 1900, Teddy Roosevelt’s oratory rang in its precincts and Senator Chauncey M. Depew’s wit entertained a great audience gathered at the same meeting. The rink was sold in October 1901 at foreclosure.