AS people are urged to get on yer bike' for a healthier 2006 lifestyle, we take a look at the days when cycling was the only mode of transport for many.

This picture shows Burnley Clarion cycling club at Rivington, circa 1897 note the old Clarion newspaper which can just be seen in the wheel of one of the bikes.

Some clarion clubs are still alive today, 112 years after the Clarion Cycling Club was formed in 1894. Although it no longer has any political connections, it shared founder members with the Independent Labour Party and readers of the Clarion newspaper where the club found its name.

Indeed it was a club that used the simplest most accessible means of transport, the bicycle, to spread the word to the working classes around the towns and villages.

Membership of the Clarion grew in the early twentieth century to some 8,300 in 1936 with 233 regional sections.

The Clarion became a byword for outdoor activities and camaraderie but following the second world war membership began a steady decline threatened mainly by the motor car and changes in social climate away from club spirit and fellowship.

In addition to cycling, which gained the biggest following, the main activities before the First World War were choral singing and rambling, which tended to overlap, so cyclists, choirs and ramblers often met up at the same Saturday or Sunday afternoon venue.