Read the excerpt from Chapter 4 of Wheels of Change.Von Blumen, for one, saw herself as a role model, especially for other females. "In presenting myself to the public in my bicycle exercises," she told The Bicycling World magazine in 1881, "I feel I am not only offering the most novel and fascinating entertainment now before the people, but am demonstrating the great need of American young ladies, especially, of physical culture and bodily exercise. Success in life depends upon vigorous and healthy body as upon clear and active mind.”