The Badminton Library Cycling 1887
Contents
- Viscount Bury's case for cycling's place among the sports of the Badminton Library, opening from Professor Huxley's remark that since the time of Achilles nothing had added to the speed attainable by unassisted man, and surveying the pastime's rapid rise in popular favour and its practical, economic value.
- Traces the machine from the brakeless dandy-horse propelled by striding riders through the velocipede era to the modern trade, with a tour of a great Coventry cycle factory, mass club parades of over 2,000 riders, and Frank W. Weston's 1880s visit with American cyclists including J. S. Dean of Boston.
- Instruction in learning to ride, recommending the novice begin on an old iron-framed, wooden-wheeled 'boneshaker' velocipede before the bicycle proper, with directions on mounting, pedalling, holding the handles and riding attitude applicable to both bicyclists and tricyclists.
- How racing men drove machine improvement: ex-professional champion Frederick Cooper and Thomas Humber of Nottingham led the demand for lighter mounts, from the thirty-five-pound racer of 1879 to the twenty-to-twenty-six-pound machines ridden on prepared cinder paths, after a craze for flimsy featherweight racers caused breakdowns.
- Hints for the holiday tourist — by far the largest class of active cyclists — on planning trips over favoured routes, the wayside inns that record their passage, and the proper methods of touring in comfort, contrasted with the severe preparation demanded of the racing man.
- Preparation of the body for racing, contrasting sensible modern methods with the ignorant rule-of-thumb regimes of the old professional trainers, who dosed debauched charges with aperient salts; illustrated with 'A Practice Spin'.
- Correct cycling costume — knee breeches, stockings and short jackets for men, the unremarkable C.T.C. grey uniform that protects lady riders — with requirements for closely woven protective cloth and notes on outer garments, undergarments, and the helmet or hat.
- Histories of the leading clubs: the Pickwick B.C. of 1870 with its 'Pickwick Papers' noms de guerre, the London B.C. of 1874, the Stanley C.C. and its annual show of cycles, and the Surrey B.C.'s race meetings at Kennington Oval; names racing men such as Wadham Wyndham and Lacy Hillier and N.C.U. workers including Robert Todd.
- The rise of ladies' tricycling from a pioneering 1878 south-coast tour, progress via sociables and tandems ridden with husbands and brothers, choice of a machine with Arab cradle spring and powerful brake (the fashionable Cripper type judged unsuitable), and the need for broad-soled, low-heeled shoes.
- Why running tracks such as old Lillie Bridge — with its notorious 'Hospital Corner' — proved dangerous for cycle racing, and the requirements of a proper cycling path: a surface like the Crystal Palace track, 30 per cent harder than Stamford Bridge's, and corners banked two feet or more against centrifugal force.
- The founding of the governing body: the 1876 press agitation led by Mr. Murray Ford of the Temple B.C., the London, Pickwick, Surrey and Temple Bicycle Clubs jointly establishing the 'Bicycle Union' in 1877 with the Cambridge and Oxford university clubs consulted, and its growth into the powerful N.C.U.
- The C.T.C. from its founding as the Bicycle Touring Club on August 5, 1878 under Mr. Stanley J. A. Cotterell and the Bradford B.C., through Walter D. Welford's secretaryship to Mr. Shipton's installation as secretary and editor of the monthly 'Gazette', by which time it was the largest athletic association in the world with over 20,000 members.
- A part-by-part account of cycle mechanism, keyed to a labelled figure of a Humber roadster bicycle: head, backbone, hollow front forks, gun-metal hubs, bearings, cranks, pedals, Humber coil spring and saddle, with methods of adjustment and the commonest accidents to each part that a rider must be able to put right on the road.
- The cycling press and its role in the sport's growth: 'Bicycling News' (founded 1876) and its 1885 amalgamation with 'The Tricyclist' and 'Wheel Life', coverage in 'The Sportsman' and 'Sporting Life', and the literature from Nairn's 'Bicycle Annual' to Henry Sturmey's 'Indispensable Bicyclist's Hand-book' of 1879.