Fancy Cycling: Trick Riding for Amateurs

By Isabel Marks19019 chapters78 images

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Contents

• Preface (opens in a new tab)

  Marks frames trick riding as a natural extension of ordinary cycling's charms, illustrating with two ladies coasting side by side hands-off, and argues that the balance, steering accuracy and coolness it teaches are directly useful for handling crowded traffic. She hopes the book will help popularise "the gentle cult" of trick cycling.
• Introductory Chapter (opens in a new tab)

  Practical groundwork before attempting named tricks: choice of venue (cycling school, club ground or park), the ideal machine (strengthened frame, raked head, short wheelbase, low ~50in gear, short straight or upturned handle-bar, a free wheel with one-point back-pedalling brake), and drills for circle-turning, weaving between obstacles, and riding hands-off, with the stationary balance flagged as the essential foundation skill. Closes with the near-side mount and the dismount over the handle-bar.
• Chapter I, Our Little Ones (opens in a new tab)

  Beginner and juvenile tricks: coasting, side-riding, riding "hands off" (including with a parasol), riding side-saddle, coasting on the saddle, "Unicorn Driving" (a three-rider team mount with reins), "The Old Style and the New" (adult and child riding in tandem), and the stationary balance, photographed largely at Goy's School, Porchester Hall.
• Chapter II, The Evolution of the Coast (opens in a new tab)

  Ten coasting variations: on the handle-bar, on the front forks' foot-rests, side-coasting on step and foot-rest, kneeling on the saddle, steering with the feet on the handle-bar, backwards sitting side-saddle on the top stay, with knees on the handle-bar and feet on the saddle, with one foot on the saddle, on the chest, and standing on the saddle "hands off," performed at Goy's, Emerson's and Jarvis' cycling schools.
• Chapter III, The Ramifications of the Stationary Balance (opens in a new tab)

  Advanced stationary-balance feats: forward-side and backward balance, lighting a lamp and knitting while balanced, removing a jacket while balanced (one rider holds a two-hour record), balancing inside the frame and on the bottom bracket, sitting on the handle-bar, hands-off with feet on the front tyre, facing the handle-bar over the front wheel, and one foot on the saddle with one on the pedal.
• Chapter IV, Heads and Posts, Tilting at the Ring (Sword), Tent-Pegging (opens in a new tab)

  Mounted sword and lance exercises modelled on the 1898 Cavalry Drill manual and performed by pupils of Neville's School, Drill Hall, Davies Street: the "engage" and "assault," cavalry cut, cut at infantry (heads and posts), tilting at the ring, and tent-pegging with a lance.
• Chapter V, Deeds of Derring-do (opens in a new tab)

  The book's most elaborate feats: Mr Neville's patented chiffon "Butterfly Dance" costume, picking up a handkerchief at speed, riding one machine while leading two others, riding with no handle-bar, a stationary balance performed on a machine raised on chairs atop a table, hand-in-hand skating while riding side by side, riding and skating backwards seated on the handle-bar, pedalling a machine balanced upside-down on its saddle and handles, riding backwards side-saddle, riding on one wheel, riding with a leg through/outside/inside the frame, riding on the mud-guard, mounting with the front wheel raised, two riders exchanging machines without dismounting, vaulting over the handle-bar, and "A Venturesome Trio" with a passenger climbing onto two riders' shoulders.
• Chapter VI, Combined Pastimes (opens in a new tab)

  Skipping with a cane "rope" and with a hoop while riding, riding through a hoop, and a horizontal-bar exercise in which a clown-costumed gymnast performs on a pole carried on the shoulders of two cyclists.
• Chapter VII, Side-Riding, Double Riding (opens in a new tab)

  The six-part side-riding sequence (coast, step-and-pedal, pedal only, hip-rest coast, figure-eight, step-and-saddle) performed on the left side of the machine, followed by double-riding tricks for two people sharing one bicycle: double side-riding and riders mounted facing each other on pedals and steps.