January 13, 1902
John Keen, an internationally renowned English cyclist, died of tuberculosis at the age of 52 in the London-area community of Finchley. “A CHAMPION’S DEMISE,” announced a headline in the next day’s edition of the London-based Echo newspaper.
Keen, who started out life in 1849 in the English village of Broadway, was a carpenter by trade but eventually developed a huge passion for high-wheeled bicycles instead. Sometime around 1870, he began participating in races using this type of transportation. Keen quickly gained a reputation as a formidable competitor who could win those races in record-setting time over a variety of distances. He rode 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) in less than 36 minutes in 1872, for example, and completed a race of 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) in three hours and nine minutes in 1874 — considerable achievements for someone pedaling a high-wheeled bicycle.
During that decade, Keen firmly established himself as a popular and tough-to-beat cyclist at various English racing tracks. The Echo asserted, “‘Jack’ Keen in the seventies was the idol of the crowds of people who used to attend the high bicycle races at the Molineux Grounds, Wolverhampton, and also at Leicester.” Keen’s skills and reputation likewise became known well beyond the boundaries of his homeland, and he also competed in bicycle races in France and the United States. By 1878, he was widely acclaimed as the fastest man in the world.
Keen also found time to launch his own bicycle-manufacturing business in London’s southwestern community of Surbiton during the 1870s. He continued building bicycles under the brand name of Eclipse as late as 1901.
Image Credit: Public Domain
For more information on John Keen, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keen_(cyclist)
Transportation History 
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