The first bicycle racing at the Gardens was in 1869, a two miles race for £20 and a silver cup was advertised for 22nd May 1869, but it did not take place, instead there was a match race between Messrs Scott and Leavermore, who had both learnt to ride their velocipedes at Mr Willway's velocipedium in Broadmead. Scott won easily, his opponent had only been riding for three or four days. This was followed by a race for any kind of velocipede, in which there were four starters, two on bicycle, two on tricycles.
Mr Kitto the manager of the Gardens, tried again with bicycle races on 12th June 1869 and this time the race did take place, with six entries and one non-starter. There were two heats on a gravel course of 684 yards around the Garden and the final was won by Williams, riding a locally made machine by Allen of Lower Street. The winner, who worked at Clifton Post Office, had been riding for only five weeks. There were large crowds at the events as this was the first time that regular bicycle races had been seen in the Bristol area.
The first Avonmouth Bicycle Challenge race was held on 19th June 1869, which was to be the first of three races for a Challenge cup, value five guineas. The entrance fee for the race was 2s 6d and riders were required "to run in colours", which was an individual coloured jacket and hat. The course was two laps around the Gardens, there were four competitors; Williams (the postman), Jeffrys, Morgan and James, all the competitors had 36 inch wheels. Williams took the lead from the start and quickly gained ten yards, he won fairly easily by thirty yards. The race distance was estimated to be a mile and a quarter and the time was four minutes. After this there was a slow bicycle race. Newspaper reports of the attendance varied from ‘fair' to ‘very large'.
The second Challenge race was held on 3rd July and postman Williams won again. At the final race on 10th July, Williams had to win to make the Challenge Cup his own property. In the first heat, Williams was leading alongside Morgan when the two men crashed a few feet before the finishing line. The umpire decided that the finishing line had been crossed and awarded the race to Morgan, this was followed by protests from the crowd that became more vociferous, causing the match to be postponed. The final race was eventually held on 24th July, but it was a great anticlimax with Morgan winning by a walkover.
By July 1869, the Gardens was advertising bicycles for sale and hire, describing itself as "The finest practicing ground in the West of England." Later in the month, the Horfield Pleasure Gardens in Bristol, started to advertise that bicycle races were to be held there on Monday 26th July 1869 and each following Monday.
On 14th and 21st August 1869, there was a challenge match over two races between postman Williams, who was described as ‘the bicycledian of Bristol' and Curthoys. Williams rode a 40" wheel, whilst Curthoys rode 36". They raced for 1½ miles, a total of three laps, the first race was won by Williams, but in the second race Curthoys was given a thirty yards start. Williams gradually made up his deficit and caught Curthoys at the start of the last lap, then passed him and won by a hundred yards.
For the 1870 season, the Gardens announced that there would be bicycle racing each Saturday. The following is an article in the Western Daily Press which described the race on 11th June 1870 which was billed implausibly as the ‘Championship of England.'
"A contest between two noted bicyclists took place in the Avonmouth Gardens on Saturday, in the presence of a very large concourse of people. The competitors were Ward, of Birmingham, and Williams, of Bristol, both of whom are designated as ‘champions' of the respective districts from which they hail. The race was for £25 a side and ‘the championship England,' and the distance five miles—a very short one for the decision of so important a matter as the championship of the country. The great feats of bicycling are those in which long distances are got over with rapidity. Five miles is no adequate test of endurance or practical mastery of the instrument. However, such were the conditions of the contest, and the competitors appeared satisfied, we have no right to grumble. By the sufferance of Ward, they kept pretty well together, until within the last mile, when Williams's powers, being strung to their highest tension, he was unable to keep pace with the flying wheels of the Birmingham man who shot ahead, and won he liked, by nearly half the course. There was considerable betting on the event."
Bicycle racing at Avonmouth Gardens continued through 1870, the last bicycle race there was a seven miles match between postman Williams and Ward, the Bristol and Birmingham bicycle champions. Ward proved to be the faster man.
The Gardens remained popular as a day trip from Bristol until the 1880s, when the passage for ships to Avonmouth pier started to silt up and the building of the Royal Edward Dock scheme resulted in the closure of Avonmouth Gardens.