CTC Gazette, Vol 1914, No 7
Articles in this issue
- Comments on Capt. H. H. P. Deasy's pamphlet 'The Problem of Road Traffic' and Middlesex County Council's proposed toll on the new Western Road out of London; praises the Irish Cyclist's 29th-birthday special number (contributions by Dr. F. F. MacCabe, Mabel Richards and W. P. French); and reports the manslaughter verdict and the Club's £50 reward in the Lewisham cycling fatality, plus notice of the July Council meeting at the Grand Hotel, Leicester.
- Announces three prizes (20s., 10s. and 5s.) for the best photographs of cycling/touring scenery, judged by Mr Henry Walker of Legbourne, Louth, with entries (members only) due at the Club Office by 31 August 1914.
- 'The Wanderer' reviews the Rev. W. H. Hutton's 'Highways and Byways in Shakespeare's Country', recalling the views from Aston Hill over the Vale of Aylesbury and from Sunrising Hill near Edge Hill, plus Compton Wynyates and Baddesley Clinton; a closing note, 'Motors and Marriage', discusses Jessie Pope's comic novel 'The Tracy Tubbses' and its motor-bicycle honeymoon mishaps.
- Mabel Richards gives hot-weather cycling wardrobe advice (tussore coats, panama hats, low-heeled shoes), describes a tandem couple riding to the theatre in evening dress and borrowing a cook's Rover bicycle after a motoring breakdown, and argues for legal restraint on motor-cyclists carrying 'flapper' passengers on carriers.
- 'Wayfarer' offers satirical squibs on cyclists' speed limits, blames pot-holes on perambulators rather than motor traffic, mocks a Postmen's Federation proposal for double-seated trousers, warns of a coming compulsory gear-case law, and relays a French Customs anecdote about a Welshman travelling with a 'Slumber' bicycle.
- F. T. Bidlake reviews Frank Bowden's book 'Cycling for Health', discusses the health benefits of moderate low-gear riding versus the dangers of over-gearing for young riders and correct frame height, and cites laboratory tests comparing chain-gear and bevel-gear efficiency; also notes R.I.A. work on a Middlesbrough toll-bar and Leeds's Roundhay Road traffic, and reports the Metropolitan/Birmingham & Midlands joint Whitsun tour through the Chiltern Hills to Stowe, Wendover and Aylesbury.
- Includes lighting-up-time tables; a member's notes on touring North-West France from Havre down the Loire to Nantes and Brittany; F. C. Eden's account of Biella and Mosso S. Maria in the Italian Alps; and pages of readers' queries and replies on destinations including Derwentwater, the Yorkshire Dales/Peak/Malvern Hills, Paris, Scotland, Touraine, a walking tour to Budapest, and the Tyrol and Italian Lakes (Luino, Cadenabbia, Lake Garda); closes with the annual index of touring articles from past Gazettes and an Amateur Camping Club note.
- Joseph McGrath describes a low-cost camping tour based at Mr Martin Joyce's Hazel Cottage near Recess, riding out to Kylemore, Letterfrack, Clifden, Roundstone and Carna, climbing Lissoughter, and totalling under £3 for the return journey from London via Galway.
- 'H.W.' rides the Lincolnshire Wolds from Peterborough through Stamford, Grantham (Sir Isaac Newton's birthplace), Lincoln and Horncastle to Tennyson's birthplace at Somersby and his schooldays at Louth, then across the marshes via Mablethorpe and Skegness to Boston and the Spalding tulip fields.
- 'D. and Y. and E.' describe a motor-bicycle tour from the Midlands via Southampton and Havre through Normandy (Caudebec, Evreux, Chartres), the Loire chateaux at Blois, Amboise, Tours, Saumur and Angers, Brittany's 'Emerald Coast' around St Malo and Dinan, and the Cotentin peninsula to Cherbourg, with a detailed daily-expenses table.
- Geo. H. Rydall, B.Sc., rides a lightweight motor-cycle through the Cheviots and along the Northumbrian coast via Wooler, Chillingham Park, the Flodden battlefield near Branxton, Coldstream, Berwick, a sand crossing to Holy Island, and Bamburgh (Grace Darling's grave) to Alnwick.
- A cyclist living abroad recalls the 'road-hunger' of exile, ruminating over old touring maps and remembering an afternoon spent with an old-style cycling enthusiast in a Hertfordshire inn parlour, and longing for English lanes and hedgerows.
- Classified notices from members seeking touring companions for summer 1914, covering proposed trips to Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Brittany, the Tyrol and Italian Lakes, North Wales, the Cotswolds and Holland.
- Eighteenth instalment on landscape photography for touring cyclists, advising on foreground composition, avoiding straight lines such as roads and fences crossing the frame, and balancing clouds against landscape.
- Douglas Leechman, M.I.A.E., road-tests the new Triumph 'Junior' two-stroke lightweight over the Coventry road, describes its carburettor and gear controls, comments on the Isle of Man T.T. results (won on single-cylinder four-strokes, with the Rudge and A.J.S. using multi-speed gears), and recounts belt and wiring repairs made en route to Coventry via Banbury and Warmington.
- Lists C.T.C.-organised summer tour packages to the Rhine (Hotel Goethe, Bingen), the Swiss Alps (Ober-Rickenbach) and Ostend, with prices and itineraries; club notices cover the Preston & North Lancs boundary change, the cancelled motor-cyclists' rally at Stratford, vacant Chief Consul posts in several English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish counties, Consuls wanted in counties including Kent, Wiltshire and Somerset, guidance from the Rights and Privileges Committee on legal defence of members, and the C.T.C. insurance scheme rates for cyclists, auto-wheelists and motor-cyclists.
- Reader letters debate why pedal spindles are threaded opposite-handed, compare methods of carrying touring luggage (handlebar bags, frame bags, rucksacks, juvenile sidecars), report Veeder cyclometer mileages up to 41,400 miles, recommend cycle-touring books, and include a Lausanne reunion-dinner announcement for members abroad and a sharp letter from F. W. Evans criticising the Roads Improvement Association's cyclist representation.
- Reports the Metropolitan D.A.'s third 24-hour ride, starting from Edgware on 20 June with Lichfield as the turning point via Hockliffe, Daventry, Meriden and Coventry, and back through a headwind to Edgware, including a rider's frame snapping in half near Elstree, for a total of 216 miles.
- Monthly reports from District Associations including Birmingham, Bristol & Gloucestershire, Glasgow, Leicestershire & Rutland, Liverpool, Manchester, Metropolitan, Nottingham & Derby, Preston & North Lancashire, Sheffield, Southampton and Yorkshire (West Riding), covering runs programmes, road-danger-board complaints, and the dispute over the Metropolitan D.A.'s resolution against motor-cyclist membership; concludes with the July 1914 county-by-county list of candidates for membership.