Vol 2, No 28
Articles in this issue
- The Rhine Eight's tour continues from Brussels through a train mishap that leaves them twelve hours stranded at Luxembourg, to Bâle, where they lodge at the "Hôtel des Trois Rois" and Rucker is seized by a plain-clothes policeman for riding in the town, which is forbidden. The party refuses his authority until the landlord obtains them leave from the head of police.
- A translated notice from the Badischer Landesbote, or Karlsruhe Advertiser, of 8 August, one of several sent in. It records M. D. Rucker, Dr. Owen Coleman, G. P. Coleman and W. T. Thorn putting up at the "Hotel Erbprinzen" with the handsomest and largest machines yet seen there, 58 English inches, silver- or nickel-plated, equipped with mile-measure, compass, signal-bells and lanterns at about 500 marks (£25), one of them 9,000 miles old and showing no wear. Dr. Coleman told the paper he habitually visits distant patients by bicycle, which supplies the place of a horse and costs next to nothing to keep; the tourists reported at least 80,000 bicycles in use in England, and their Strasbourg-to-Heidelberg day is held up as proof of the machine's practical value.
- "Eavesdropper" reports that the North-Westers rode through three rivers on their way to Ewell without ever learning their names, and that London, Surrey and Wanderers men were seen near Ripley wading waist-deep minus their lower garments. The fruit hawker who upset Langridge is doing a month in Wandsworth Gaol, a debt owed to the member's father, who spared no expense to show that bicyclists cannot be assaulted with impunity, while A. H. Koch was deliberately run down on Kew Bridge by a coachman out in his master's victoria, his "Humber" badly smashed and a £5 reward offered. Also a post-card from Freeth at Vienna on Austrian hills that are regular precipices, a recommendation of "The Fountain" coffee tavern at Westerham, A. P. Stokes's departure for Hong Kong, and the Bicycle Union's plan for a 10-mile match between Keen and Cortis in September.
- Captain M. D. Rucker jun. first explains how the Ewell fixture came to be called at such short notice: the N.W. were already running there to encourage the struggling S.W., the W. decided to join them at tea, the S.E. would not be left out, and the N.E. District Captain was indignant at the suggestion that 84 miles might be too far for his men. Heavy Saturday rain and vile roads notwithstanding, the parties converged, Jennings and Dalton narrowly escaping a cart in Kingston, Surbiton Hill ridden though heavy, and seventeen sat down at the "Glynn Arms" to a first-rate meat tea at 2s. An hour of conversation and singing kept them till nearly nine; the N.W. rode home by lamplight to Hampstead just before midnight, 42 miles, and Theo. Godlee, helped by Buckler's lamp, completed his 62 miles at 1.45.
- The tabulated meets: Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Chigwell Row, Brentwood, Harlow and Chigwell; "Jack Straw's Castle" for Elstree via Tally Ho Corner and Barnet Gate, and for Ridge via Finchley and Mill Hill, 12 miles; Kew Green for Halliford; and the "Griffin," Kingston, for Windsor and for a circular run via Banstead Races, Upper Gatton and Ewell. The Wednesday evening runs continue at 6.30 from Acton Church and 7 p.m. from Central Croydon.
- Only the S.W. district reports for 16 August, and its run was carried out by a single member, most of the regular attendants being away for their holidays. St. John A. Ryan rode through Hampton and Halliford to Chertsey and back by Hounslow, finding the roads in good condition but inclined to be sandy.
- "Disco, L.B.C." turns his back on Maidenhead on the stroke of eight and rides home under a full moon on a 56-inch "Timberlake" christened "The Camel." The road carries him over the common and White Hill to a Henley veiled in blue mist with the weirs sounding hoarsely below, then up the formidable gradients of Bix Hill through moonlit beech woods to deserted Nettlebed, out over a plain stretching to the Gloucestershire hills fifty miles off with Sinodun Hill island-like in the midst, and down Gangsdown through Benson, Dorchester and Nuneham to Oxford, half seen and the fairer for it, as the moon sets over the Isis.
- Beyond Berry-au-Bac the writer's friend suffers a compound fracture of handle-bar and Stanley head, forcing two days at Rheims, before the party trains on to Metz, where a frontier inspector and customs officials, having never seen a bicycle, treat both machines and riders with suspicion. Near Sierck, beyond Thionville, a hub-lamp failure throws the writer over the handles at 22 miles an hour.
- Heat-by-heat results of the One Mile Handicap (Open) at Stamford Bridge on Saturday 23 August, run on a heavy path. The eight heat winners were Runtz (Pickwick, 40), G. Beeson (Wanderers, 100), Vesey (Surrey, 30), J. Griffits (U.C.A.C., 110), G. R. Oxx (Surrey, 80), S. Wellbeloved (Surrey, 100), W. T. Thorn (60) and Hamilton (15). In the final Hamilton rode splendidly to win by six inches from Wellbeloved, with Runtz a foot away third, in 2min. 53¼sec.
- A single fixture now remains on the list: the Beckenham B.C. meeting at Beckenham on 30 September.
- "Rusticus" describes a tour with his inventive friend "Excelsior," whose machine carries fork-like props that hold it upright and retract into the backbone by a spring between the handles (spilling him at every start), a bamboo mast for a sail when the wind serves, and a row of pegs along the backbone including a fan-opening umbrella that sticks. The narrator, on a lowly boneshaker, dismounts every five minutes to help him up, until Excelsior rigs his sail before a stiff breeze, heels over and wrecks the machine, whereupon he is told to read "Through the Looking-glass" and own himself twin brother to the White Knight.