This small game is part of a series known as "the Upidee range". All the games had the same rules but different themes. The series started in 1893 with a horse racing game (Upidee). Three new games were released in 1899: Fox and Geese, From Sailor To Admiral and  Bikee. Finally, three other games completed the series some years later: Aerito (1907, aviation/planes-themed), Flyto (1908, aviation/balloons-themed) and Pip-Pip (1909, motoring-themed)

There is a French edition of this game called "Le Jeu de la Bicyclette".

 

 

 

The box is small (12 x 10 x 3 cm), but you need quite a big table to play the game! At 10 cms each tile, this is a 80 x 30 cm layout. Of course there are other possible layouts, I just used the one shown in the rules.

 

 

Compared to other turn of the century games, this was surely a cheap one. See the cardboard riders...

 

 

Some tiles (If you are interested in a scan of the complete set, email me)

 

The rules (of which unfortunately I only have the first part) mention a teetotum, but I got the game with a die (an old one, for that matter, contemporary of the game). I wonder if the game (or some copies of it) originally had a teetotum.

By the way, notice the mistake in the last sentence of the rules: "...will bring his HORSE on to a picture card..."  Copy and paste mistakes are older than computers  ;-)

 

Bernard Galau has been nice enough to send me scans of the French rules. These rules also mention a teetotum ("toton") instead of a die.
 

It is interesting how some apparently negative accidents (fields 22 and 47) are eventually positive since the player is supposed to receive a compensation for damages.

    

 

Of course, I am still looking for the complete English rules, though my guess is that they are almost identical to the French ones, since the tiles/board are the same in the two editions of the game.

Thanks to Dennis for the tip that allowed me to buy this game at a fair price  :-)
Thanks to Eamon for hias knowledge about the Upidee range.

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