Maybe the anachronism is just a mis-translation of something? This point also applies to scientists/scholars - they're not the same thing but you can see how a connection between the two could be made, even though it completely obliterates the original concept in the telling.

Obviously "bicycles" is wrong but was there any other mode of conveyance that people abstained from using? Two-wheeled carts, maybe? Though none of us seems ever to have heard of this custom here. (I wish it was cars too!)