Vol 2, No 8
Articles in this issue
- Hon. Sec. E. C. Koch reminds members of the concert at the Langham Hall on Tuesday the 22nd, asks them to persuade more sisters to sing in the glees (names to M. D. Rucker jun.), and presses them to sell the tickets already posted, since the private concert can only pay its way through members' exertions.
- The club will hold its first Open Bicycle Handicap at its sports on 24 May, largely through the exertions of L.B.C. members Penrose and Crawley, who hope their confreres will enter.
- At the Committee meeting of 7 April the Evening Race Meeting was put back to 27 May to avoid clashing with the Cambridge races, 10 June was fixed for the match with the Cambridge Club at Stamford Bridge, Mr. Goodhall's resignation was accepted, Mr. Cosens was placed on the Absentee List, and J. Scott Stokes was elected a Club representative on the Bicycle Union.
- The Committee ask members to send a post-card before the meeting of the 21st saying how often they would use a rented room at Kew for storing bicycles and uniforms, before deciding whether to take it again this year; M. D. Rucker jun. signs.
- "Rusticus" opens Chapter I with a stranger riding into the village of Lumberly on a bicycle, Harry Darley the rector's son badgering his father for one, and ten local riders founding a club, christened the Bellerophon Bicycle Club after the shy grocer's son supplies both "Atalanta" and "Bellerophon", which adopts the L.B.C.'s rules wholesale along with a buff jacket and knickerbockers.
- Thanks are given to Mr. H. Sharpe for enabling the Committee to quit 44 Pall Mall; the Club's business will be conducted until further notice at 108 Fenchurch Street.
- A tabulated fortnight of district meets, no meets on 12 April for Easter, then Lea Bridge Road and Syborn's Corner for Epping, Jack Straw's Castle for Ridge and later Northolt, Harlesden Green for Elstree by Bentley Priory, and Surbiton and Central Croydon for Dorking.
- Palmer Dalton's N.W. district ran 33 miles to Watford with the West despite the boat race and the rain, Metcalfe and Barnett both coming down; W. A. Smith's West men met them at "The Green Man," Kingsbury and took tea at B. Clegg's "Essex Arms"; R. G. Trollope's S.W. five diverted to Leatherhead to join the S.E. at the "Swan"; and J. C. Oswald reports the S.E. run over Duppas Hill through Cheam and Ewell, with the S.W. meeting place moved to "The Griffin" in Kingston Market Place.
- A moonlit frost-bound ride through empty suburban streets turns nightmarish as the rider loses his bearings, finds a deserted inn with a black cat asleep by a pewter pot, and is chased by a half-naked deformed figure carrying a bloodied knife into an ivy-covered churchyard, waking in bed to swear off two Welsh rarebits for supper.
- Norman B. Morris answers Mr. Pollock's invitation of 23 January, arguing that mountainous France need not be avoided, only 5 kilometres of the Vosges crossing between Ronchamp and Belfort had to be walked, and the Val de Travers and Brunig Pass roads are splendidly engineered, while warning against zigzag descents without a cool head and a reliable brake (not Carter's), and recommending Hachette's 50c. departmental maps and Joanne's "Guides Diamants."
- Dates from 19 April to 5 July, adding the University College A.C. two-mile handicap on 24 May, the L.B.C. evening meeting on 27 May and the L.B.C. versus University Bicycle Club match at 1, 4 and 15 miles on 10 June to the London Athletic Club handicaps, Surrey B.C. and Pickwick B.C. meetings and the Bicycle Union championships.
- "A Bicycling M.D." concludes by dismantling the Lancet's puff for tricycles, its unexplained "special dangers" and its "continual vibration," no worse than an old four-wheel cab, and argues that driving a bicycle resembles climbing an easy flight of stairs, so rupture is no likelier than in other exercise and regular riding tends to prevent it.
- W. J. Williams of 23 Highbury Place answers "S.G.O." on mile gauges, reporting that his 35s. Johnson's bought in June 1877 for a 52-inch wheel has registered over 5,600 miles and stayed accurate against milestones except in the Bath race, and comparing it with the erratic "M.D.R." and Stassen's costly "three pounder."
- Contributions must be addressed to the Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 35, Eastcheap, E.C., bear the author's name, be written on one side of the paper only, and arrive by Tuesday morning for immediate insertion.