The Tricycle in Relation to Health and Recreation
Contents
- The publisher explains that the papers collected here were written originally for Good Words by Dr. B. W. Richardson, and are reprinted with his permission with a few revisions and additions from his pen.
- Richardson credits Mr. J. Browning with introducing him to tricycling and with inviting him to become President of the London Tricycle Club, and describes five years' riding in London and the country. He sets out the questions the book will answer: whether the exercise is safe for all classes, whether it is healthful for the healthy, and what special dangers it carries.
- Argues the tricycle suits both sexes and all ages, and is exceptionally useful to heavy, fat-laden men who become "leg tired" after a short walk because their weight falls on two limbs. Warns that such men have overloaded hearts, weakened blood-vessels and poor breathing, so they should begin on level ground, stop short of fatigue, and increase distance gradually until five or six miles cost less weariness than one mile on foot.
- Turns to town-bound sedentary workers whose occupation keeps them from exercise until they become depressed and nervous, and to the shy, the confirmed dyspeptic and the gouty. Holds that the change of scene and company is even more valuable than the exertion, but cautions the gouty that sudden violent effort and profuse early perspiration can precipitate the very attack they hope to avoid.
- Reports favourably on tricycling for those already in health, ranking it below horseback but calling it the next best exercise for anyone who cannot ride a bicycle. Stresses the mental benefit: a steady five or six miles an hour occupies the brain pleasantly without worry, so that a holiday ride rests the mind instead of leaving it wearied like a dream-broken sleep.
- Names those who should not ride at all — the excessively nervous, the giddy or faint, sufferers from organic heart disease, and epileptics, who are never quite safe however long the interval between seizures. Cites cautionary cases of a rider of seventy-eight racing Brighton to Lewes against time and a would-be London-to-Bath century, and long-distance feats by Mr. Marriott (183 then 219 miles) and Mrs. Allen (153 miles in twenty-four hours) as evidence of the strain of competitive riding.
- Answers the medical objections most often put by intending riders: varicose veins (permissible, and sometimes cured, where the enlargement is merely local, but dangerous where it follows obstruction in liver, heart or lungs), haemorrhoids, and hernia, for which the tricycle is preferred and a well-fitted support essential. Discusses Dr. Strahan of Berrywood's warning in the Lancet about perineal pressure from the saddle, with its numbness spreading down the inner thighs, calling it a real if somewhat overstated danger.
- Explains physiologically why tricycling is easier than walking or horseback riding: the limbs carry no body weight, the fixed pelvis lets the diaphragm work with purchase, and the heart escapes the concussion that tries the aortic valves in the saddle. Gives the technique — press from the ball of the foot letting the heel descend to avoid dead stops, keep the limb nearly straight rather than the knee bent, and sit three-parts standing — and recommends a long narrow saddle for men, a hollowed seat for ladies, and the new saddles devised after Dr. Strahan's observations.
- Warns that hauling on both handles fixes the chest, forces deep distending breaths and throws great pressure on the heart, so the handles should serve as rests on ordinary occasions and the extra pull be reserved for emergencies. Insists on breathing through the nose, since mouth-breathing dries the tongue and throat, provokes cough and excessive drinking, and exposes moist mucous membrane to swallowed road dust.
- Sets out seven rules for graduated work: begin with one or two miles on a level road, never ride to excessive weariness, dismount and push up long hills rather than strain, and hold the brake to seven or eight miles an hour when running down. Gives six miles an hour for six hours a day as the sound average, warns that growing youths suffer most from overstrain — Richardson recalls with compunction giving a prize for a fifty-mile competition — and advises dividing a tour into stages of fifteen to twenty miles.
- Advises against starting on a hearty meal before digestion has turned, and recommends eggs with biscuit, oatmeal porridge, milk thickened with wheat meal, bread in moderation and fresh fruit, noting that oranges provoke thirst on a warm day. On drink he argues for total abstinence, citing Hanlan the oarsman, Weston the pedestrian, Carver the marksman and the experiments of the late Dr. Parkes, prefers tea or "milk tea" to coffee or aerated waters, and condemns English town water supplies as a disgrace, urging boiled and charcoal-filtered water.
- Prefers the breeches knickerbocker and trouser-knickerbocker to trousers, with soft porous stockings reaching just below the knee, no garter if it can be avoided, and firm rough-soled shoes rather than spring-side boots, which lock the ankle. For the upper dress he wants a free neck with a silk handkerchief instead of a stiff collar, a light straw hat, grey porous clothing rather than thick flannel, no waterproof coat worn while working, and a change of clothes with a warm bath and brisk friction after every ride.
- Declines to commend any particular make — and leaves the bicycle alone entirely, having no practical experience of it — offering instead twelve essential qualities for a machine bought by an adult rider with no competitive ambitions. These cover lightness, easy access, low friction, freedom from vibration, an adjustable elastic saddle avoiding perineal pressure, adjustable handles, double driving, front steering with the handle on the right, a powerful jerk-free brake, alarum and lamps, a tool pouch with spanner and oil can, and a cage for a bag or hold-all.
- Comments on the twelve rules: seventy-five pounds is enough weight, the front should be clear for easy mounting, and a side steering wheel giving a double track is preferable on the road to a central wheel cutting a third track. Compares single-driver and double-driver two-track patterns and the Humber type, which he believes surpasses all others for speed in practised hands, and recommends inch india-rubber tyres and three-quarter-inch rubber handle coverings to save the unrecognised labour of vibration.
- Describes the small leather case of accident appliances made by Messrs. Krohne and Seseman — scissors, scalpel, forceps, caustic-holder for dog bite, needle and thread, a printed Esmarch's bandage, a bristle loop for the eye, and styptic cotton. Then compares lever with rotary pedalling, which he adopted in the end, and explains gearing up, level and down, preferring a forty-eight inch wheel geared up to fifty-four and noting the crypto-dynamic invention that varies gearing while the tricycle is in motion.