On the face of it, this is a compilation for geeks. It does not take long to realise that here is something for the rest of us, as well as those gripped by a fascination for the evolution of bicycle design since the late-nineteenth century, when the opening short shows women taking to to the road in perilously long whites dresses which are sure to crease as they drag against the chain. Safety is a recurrent feature of these diverse films, in two of which - in one case, after hanging onto the back of a truck for easy speed - the bicycle turns ghostly white and voyages further on: through the Hereafter.
Which is a far cry from Herne Hill, which once had a well-known cycling track.
Children, naturally, surface in these films, such as Tom's Ride, in which a boy and girl discover the virtue of honesty. Meanwhile, perhaps best of all is The Ballad of the Battered Bicycle, narrated in rough effective verse by Stanley Holloway who doubles in rôles as a fairground hawker and a Judge who delivers judgment on the boy who has spurned the Highway Code.