Vol 5, No 29
Articles in this issue
- A standing note that the latest hour for reception of copy for the Gazette is 5.30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
- Arrangements for the Crawley road trial: the S.E. leave the Central Croydon Station in Katharine Street at 4.15 and ride to Caterham Junction on the Brighton road, where the start takes place at 4.50, finishing at the bridge by the gasometer just short of Crawley. The full handicap is printed, from J. S. Whatton at scratch through F. L. Adam, C. A. Brown and D. R. Smith to E. F. Smither at 14 minutes, with late entries taken at the starting place.
- A. W. B. reports from a Southsea correspondent that tricycles now scud over the Common under canvas, rigged with a pair of leg-of-mutton sails on two masts, and regrets that no details of halyards and sheets are given. He then recalls his own experiment in the early days, stepping a mast in the socket of a new forty-two-incher and running two miles before the wind at six or seven miles an hour until a heavy gybe snapped the mast and brought machine and rider down.
- A defence, signed "Goethe," of the member who never attends a run, never writes for the Gazette and never answers his District Captain, but who does pay his guinea. The writer argues that the active member gets society, race meetings, dinners and friendships for his subscription while the lazy member gets nothing in exchange, so the Club would be badly off without a certain number of them.
- Under Rule 40 no member may represent the Club at a race meeting without the Captain's permission; the Captain sanctions riding at the meetings listed, namely the L.A.C. at Stamford Bridge on October 7 and again on November 4.
- Arthur Morley of Colfe Lodge, Lewisham Hill, S.E., offers for sale or exchange for a 54-inch machine a 52-inch "Tangent" bicycle with adjustable ball bearings to both wheels, plated all over except the rim; it cost £22 and he will take £12.
- Tabulated meeting points and times for each district over the next two Saturdays: N.E. at Syborn's Corner on the Lea Bridge Road, N.W. at "Jack Straw's Castle," W. at Savernake Cottage and Hammersmith Bridge, S.W. at Kingston Station, and the S.E. Croydon and Blackheath Divisions, for Waltham Abbey, Eastcott, Walton-on-Thames and Crawley, then Abridge, Barnet, a Kingston circular run and Godstone.
- District reports for the run of 16th September. The N.E. (Godlee) took only three men by Chingford Mills and Edmonton to Enfield over a road partly up; the N.W. (E. S. Price, D.C.'s Sub) rode via Barnet to see the North of Thames Meet, where Elgood broke his backbone close to the neck and had to walk two miles to a station, and tea was had at the "George"; the W. (Daniel T. Nops) mustered only H. G. Atkinson and a visitor at Ewell; the S.W. (Arthur E. Buckler) saw a large assemblage of three districts at Ewell and sped their D.C. off to Switzerland with an L.B.C. four; and the S.E. (H. G. A. Brown) rode through Sutton to the "Glyn Arms," where Parker gave a lesson in billiards. Brown adds an "Important" appeal for the last two runs of the season at Crawley and Godstone, and Stephen P. Smith directs the Blackheath Division to take the 3.30 train from Ladywell to Croydon.
- E. S. Price, Hon. Sec., urges the members who have not yet settled up for their race tickets to do so at once, as they are keeping the Club accounts open.
- "Galley-Bell" describes converting an old friend back to cycling by letter and then by putting the handle and backbone of a "Humber" into his grasp, only for the convert to ride away on one of the author's own machines. He then reviews his cyclometers, damning an "Odometer" that must be wound thirty times to reset and preferring Stanton's, notes that hub lamps and cyclometers will not share a front wheel, and surveys his gongs, including an eighteenpenny bell bought at "the Rinilock" in Oxford Street and Stormont's melodious but fragile bicycle alarm.
- "Rambler's" paragraphs: the Franco-Swiss Four, W. J. Williams, A. E. Buckler and N. B. Morris of the 1879 Pyrenees expedition, with Dr. Langmore, have been heard of from Rouen and may be written to at Neuchâtel; a Meet of bicyclists and tricyclists at Barnet on the 16th drew about 360 clubmen and 200 unattached riders; the Bath Trial men who ride home afterwards prove a Bank Holiday Meet feasible; and, since the Bicycle Union objects to prize values being published, he offers an invaluable prize for the best leading article on current bicycling topics.
- The letters column, opening with Gerard F. Cobb's continued Swiss series and closing on page 8 with W. X. W., who thinks an August Bank Holiday run impracticable because of the holiday crowds and the ride home in the dark, and "A Refrigerated Voucher," who complains that Rule 28 leaves a member vouching for a candidate standing on the staircase of No. 108, Fenchurch Street.
- Gerard F. Cobb's continued letter from the Thunerhof, Thun, taking § 7 to the extensions of the Interlachen ride, Lauterbrunnen, Mürren and Grindelwald. He compares roads A and B from Därligen to Bönigen, warns against riding down the steep turn opposite the Staubbach, recommends walking up to Mürren from Stechelberg, records the Wetterhorn ascent that burnt the party's faces and the deaths of Mr. Penhall and Professor Balfour, and establishes 30 centimes as the tariff for a bicycle on the lake steamers.
- All contributions must be addressed to "The Editor, L.B.C. Gazette, 85, Eastcheap, E.C.," bear the author's name though not necessarily for insertion, be written on one side of the paper only, and reach the office by 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday for immediate insertion.