Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky become the first woman ever to travel the world on a bicycle in 1895 at age 23. Supposedly, the ride was in response to a wager by two wealthy Boston clubmen. Traveling with only a change of clothes and a pearl-handled revolver, Londonderry earned her way, in part, by turning her bicycle and her body into a mobile billboard, carrying advertising banners and ribbons through the streets of cities around the world. Thus adorned and riding a men's bicycle and a man's riding suit, Annie was a remarkable sight to Victorian eyes. Her globetrotting adventure became the talk of the world and was a harbinger of the modern women?s liberation movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Londonderry

http://www.larchmontgazette.com/2006...nbloomers.html