Vol 2, No 20
Articles in this issue
- The Editor, back from an enforced holiday of fogs, rain and salt water, finds the promised contributions still not flowing in. The Gazette cannot be the record of the runs, races and other doings of the Club it professes to be unless members supply the material, and he asks whether it is good business to vote money to a paper the members will not also give their wits to: A never scribbles because he is sure B and C are burning to appear in print. He doubts the blue book's two hundred and fifty members, a dozen have proved their identity to him, and awaits the indignant letters of his slumbering brethren.
- At the meeting of the 30th June, George Reginald Weaver, medical student, of 41 Upper Baker Street, was elected a member on the proposal of G. G. Walker and A. H. Koch, and the resignation of Mr. P. Clutterbuck was accepted.
- Hon. Sec. Herbert R. Boyce, of 35 Warrington Crescent, again requests those members who have not yet returned their unused tickets, with payment for those used, to do so at once.
- This instalment examines the "City" bicycle, built by W. O. Aves, formerly Grout's partner, at 46 Barbican, E.C., where he has fitted up steam works and a practice ground. It has a "Stanley" head with solid or hollow forks at the buyer's option, a hollow-drawn steel backbone, a powerful lever spoon brake, tension wheels adjusted by nipples screwed into the felloe, and the celebrated vulcanised tyre attached by a patented process. Its great feature is the "Pickwick" bearing, worked out by an engineering member of the P.B.C., in which a divided box screwing one half into the other keeps a true bearing instead of wearing oval, gives some twenty separate adjustments, and is virtually dust-proof.
- A 50-inch coned "Timberlake" with spoon brake, in good order, to be sold cheap to a Club man; to be seen at 5 Furnival's Inn, Holborn, on application to Alfred Henry there or at 39 Lothbury.
- Meets tabulated for July 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th: Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Harlow, Upminster and Ongar; "Jack Straw's Castle" for Abbots Langley and for Eastcote; Acton Church for Burnham Beeches via Langley Park and for St. Alban's via Watford; Kew Green for Walton-on-the-Hill and for Rickmansworth via Duck's Hill; and Central Croydon for Dorking, the "Royal Oak" on the Brighton Road for Crawley, with the Blackheath Division for Farningham. Wednesday evening runs continue from Acton Church at 6.30 and from Central Croydon at 7.
- N.E.: "The Substitute" found only four others at Syborn's Corner for Navestock, where a "hideous old Challenge" began shedding a treadle and crank and was taken to a blacksmith's forge, and the "Green Man" gave a substantial tea beside a village cricket match. N.W.: fourteen rode to Shenley by Finchley and Mill Hill through a deep watersplash, past a bolting baker's pony, to tea at the "Black Lion", 28 miles, marred by a pile-up on Rowley Green Hill in which Broad came down, Dr. Langmore over him and Marchant and his "Stassen" on top. Western: the Captain's list of fixtures vanished into the Editor's "tub", so he rode by Hanger Hill and Bushey Heath to join the N.W. at Shenley. S.W.: four met at the "Griffin" and ran by Hampton, Sunbury and Staines to Virginia Water, where the ostler asked a deposit on their machines. S.E.: four from Central Croydon met five of the Blackheath Division at Lock's Bottom and tea'd at the "Amhurst Arms", Riverhead.
- "Goethe" draws the Bath Road medallist who cannot leave his ride alone, how he walked only two hills, how he never was on worse roads, every item of food solid or fluid, repeated half a dozen times to anyone who mentions the weather, the wind or the Thames floods at Reading, ladies and gentlemen attacked indiscriminately, and the same theme still going at the following Saturday's club run. He adds that the sketch is published with the full knowledge and consent of the party implicated.
- Gossip paragraphs: the second-best attendance at N.E. meets scored by a member not seen in the district all year; men who after the Race Meeting proposed to sprain their arms, it seemed such a help on the path; Theo. Godlee's Bath medal machine wanting a trailing brake and lamp; an unofficial S.E. trial from Purley to Crawley on July 12th, "we will not call it a race"; Cortis going abroad and off to Lynn to fetch a gun; the "Eight" bound for the Rhine roads now leaving on July 26th; the view of Hind Head, the Hog's Back and the Chilterns from a gateway near the "Hare" at the top of Clamp Hill, Bentley Priory; Charlie Sopper the champion starter; a run of ploughing-match puns; and "Eavesdropper's" tale of a bicyclist's French on the Boulevards.
- The L.A.C.'s Summer Meeting at Stamford Bridge in fine weather and before a large crowd, where the running and walking were poor and the bicycling saved the afternoon. In the Three Miles Open Handicap Cortis came from scratch to catch Wyndham half a yard from the post in the first heat and Ainslie, whose entry had been accepted in error, won the second; in the final Cortis shook Ainslie off in the last mile and beat Wyndham by eight yards, his miles taking 3min. 1sec., 6min. 3sec. and 9min. 12sec. on a very heavy course.
- From July 5th to September 30th: the Pickwick mile at the Alexandra Palace, the Beckenham C.C. two miles, the Temple mile at Stamford Bridge, the Wanderers' mile handicap and ten miles scratch, the Lombard mile at Catford Bridge, the Rovers at the Alexandra Palace, the Stanley mile, and the Beckenham B.C. meeting.
- The letters open with an objection to "Excelsior's" proposed hill-climbing prize as unadvisable, Rucker or Appleyard would certainly win it, and men straining for victory may strain their hearts, two of the writer's friends having been forbidden to ride at all. Later letters bring A. Ogier Ward's account of the execrable Queensferry road at Edinburgh (the best road thereabouts, he was told) and his threat to ride south via Hereford; John F. Marchant's suggestion that the Club start an insurance fund of its own now there is difficulty with the R.P.A. Company; "X" on the disgrace of the Hon. Sec. having to appeal five weeks running for the Evening Meeting ticket money; and Alfred Henry's cutting from the Daily Telegraph reporting that the Berks Sessions have approved making bicycles conform to the rules of the road in order to prevent racing.
- H. Sharpe, of Hampstead, who claims more hill practice than most men and never gets off for a hill if he can help it, nevertheless opposes a hill-riding competition as decidedly dangerous: a quiet solitary attempt at Muswell Hill left him feeling the strain for a week and he would fear internal injuries in a contest. He asks what the doctors say, and judges a rather under-sized machine with a long throw best for hills, though far more depends on the man than the machine.