The Bearings, Vol 5, No 14
Articles in this issue
- Short comic squibs about cycling life: a vain racer humbled by his press photograph, road hogs given a heraldic badge of a boar rampant, the expense of bicycle manufacturing, expelled League members seeking reinstatement, and a pun on the pleasures of 'ball bearings' in all forms.
- Preview of the annual June road trip from St. Louis to De Soto—45 hilly miles past Maxville and Bulltown—noting that June 5 is the chosen date for the Chicago party, with an invitation for participants to register through The Bearings office to secure a reduced railway fare.
- History and profile of the Bay City Wheelmen (founded September 1, 1884, at Edwin Mohrig's residence), tracing their growth from a small road club to a leased club house in 1891 and a Division century run American record of 53 finishers under the current presidency of Wetmore.
- A New York correspondent calling himself 'The Old Vet' humorously answers The Bearings' predictions about cycling in 1917, forecasting the mile record under two minutes, electric cycles, aluminum wheels built in Chicago, and the city holding half a million cyclists.
- Editorial essay arguing that cycling powerfully develops intellectual capacity, citing how novices gain rapid and strong opinions on mechanics, race tactics, and club management after only weeks on the wheel, even those who showed no brilliance at school.
- Detailed report on preparations for The Bearings Chicago-to-New York relay ride, listing names and relay distances for six divisions from Chicago to Rochester, and noting that L.C. Boardman of the New York Recorder has personally ridden the Albany-to-New York division and printed a pamphlet for his riders.
- Short items on notable wheelmen: Captain Frank Welch of the Wissahickon Wheelmen rode 12,553 miles in 1891, breaking the mileage record by 2,552 miles; Mrs. Edwin Mohrig is California's pioneer wheelwoman; and comedian Charles Plunkett and his wife mourn the theft of their Victor pneumatics in New York.
- Editorial praising the Asbury Park Wheelmen for systematically supplying road-improvement articles to local newspapers, calling persistent press advocacy the most effective cycling reform tool short of direct legislative lobbying.
- Editorial criticizing Beloit, Wis. cyclists for staging a deliberate sidewalk-riding arrest as a 'test case,' arguing pedestrians have supreme right to sidewalks and that all prior precedents predict only chagrin for the cyclists.
- Editorial noting new cycle tracks planned or under construction in ten cities from Rahway, N.J. to San Jose, Cal., arguing that smooth board tracks will make cycle racing as universally popular as road riding and will stimulate the cycle trade nationwide.
- Report on a 'good roads' plank inserted in the Illinois Democratic platform at Springfield through the Illinois Highway Improvement Association (Chief Consul Gerould and Hon. Carter Harrison), with discussion of how far the L.A.W. should go in directing cyclists' votes toward road-friendly candidates.
- A $1,000,000 company backed by Chicago millionaire L.G. Fisher and ex-President Rutherford B. Hayes has purchased 100 acres near the World's Fair site to build a cottage encampment for L.A.W. meet visitors in August 1893, with eight-room cottages at about $2 per day including meals and a purpose-built half-mile racing track.
- L.A.W. president Burdett is expected to referee the Pullman road race on May 30 and attend a formal dinner at which General Nelson A. Miles and Mayor Washburne may speak, with stenographic reports to be used in the interests of cycling.
- Clarence F. Smith previews his July 9-18 tour from New York to Washington with easy sub-fifty-mile days, a half-day on the Gettysburg battlefield, and a fifteen-mile gravel coast from Mechanicstown to Frederick, Md., and asks registrants to send a $2 booking fee.
- Chicago's nominating committee for the Century Road Club of America is preparing a list of officers, with W.A. Skinkle of Cleveland mentioned for president and William Herrick willing to accept the honorary title of 'chief centurion.'
- Account of the Milwaukee Wheelmen's minstrel show at Germania Hall drawing over 500 spectators, with Hal Coleman and Charlie Price (who impersonated a girl) as the stars and a burlesque reenactment of the Waukesha road race as the burlesque finale.
- A Fort Dodge dispatch reports that Pocahontas Center, Iowa—the only Iowa county seat without a railway—faces a coal and food shortage because six weeks of impassable spring rains have prevented any fuel freight from reaching the isolated town.
- Surprising disclosure that 49 cycling trade representatives—from Pope Mfg. Co., Gormully & Jeffery, A.G. Spalding & Bros., and dozens of other firms—are members of Chicago's Lincoln Cycling Club, with a full roster of names and employers including F. Ed Spooner, R.D. Garden, and L.D. Munger.
- Roswell C. Taylor of Melrose, Mass. promoted Sercombe-Bolte wheels by staging a home reception where an 'incidental' expert demonstrated the Telegram chainless, ladies', and light roadster models to a circle of guests, resulting in orders for all.
- Riverside Drive, New York riders were puzzled by a heavily sweatered wheelman reeling off endless miles, who turns out to be prizefighter Joe Choynski training for his next bout awheel, prompting The Bearings to note the bicycle has 'invaded all classes of society.'
- Washington preparations for the national L.A.W. meet are advancing: over $3,000 of the $5,000 entertainment fund raised, the Columbia A.C. island track on the Potomac chosen for racing at fifty cents admission, and the Arlington club securing Leader Sousa's Marine Band of sixty-five pieces for the Century Road Club moonlight excursion.
- Charles T. Duryea of Rouse-Duryea Cycle Co. argues in the Springfield Republican that aerial navigation requires humans to first learn to fly—as one learns to swim—before mechanical solutions will succeed, proposing suspension from a balloon for training experiments.
- San Antonio newspaper reporter Otto Praeger, cycling toward Mexico City, survived thirty hours without water crossing the Urich Desert before coasting down a steep incline near Sierra Mojada where his bicycle went over a cliff and was destroyed; he walked sixty miles to town to await a replacement wheel.
- Editorial reprinted from Sporting Life criticizing L.A.W. division junketing, citing Illinois Division figures for 1891 in which $852 of $2,161 income went to entertainment and delegates' expenses versus only $19 to good roads promotion.
- Extended pre-race profiles and humorous assessments of dozens of Chicago-area riders entered or expected in the Pullman Road Race, including Art Merrick, H.J. Cassady on his Sunbeam, F. Howard Tuttle, Gunder Olsen, Joe Stillwell, and others from Lincoln C.C., Columbia Wheelmen, Speedy Cycle Club, Lake View Club, and Englewood.
- Comic ballad by 'Sandy Hook' about a rural youth named Bill who receives a leaky pneumatic tire from a generous agent named Brown and is driven to obsessive futile pumping day and night until he is ultimately killed by the explosion of the pent-up wind.
- Miscellaneous cycling notes from around the country: the Wisconsin Division meet at Oshkosh (July 8-9), Pope Co.'s fire-extinguisher mounted on a safety bicycle, a Gloucester cyclist who coasted through an undertaker's shop window, the Sporting Times retraction in the Prial libel case, and Fletcher & Co.'s ten-cents-a-day cycling storage and locker service in Chicago.
- Profile of Charles P. Sisley, editor of London's Cycling and The Bearings' English representative: as secretary of the Catford C.C. from 1886 he built it into England's largest club, introduced open road handicaps and hill-climbing contests, earned the title 'Cycling Barnum,' and now presides over a weekly circulation of nearly 25,000.
- Club news from across the country: Cook County Wheelmen clear $300 at their minstrel show toward a new club house; Chicago Cycling Club purchases an $8,000 World's Fair site lot for a $22,000 building; Windsor Cycling Club signs a three-year lease near Parkside track; and four Chicago clubs together report nearly 100 membership applicants.
- Profile of Detroit road rider William C. Rands, who in 1891 won prizes in nearly every road race entered—including the Rhode Island Wheelmen's twelve-mile Thanksgiving handicap, the Grand Rapids eighteen-mile Decoration Day race, and the Michigan state championship over Hulett—and is now training for the May 30 Cleveland road race while employed by dealer George Hilsendegen.
- Account of A.A. Zimmerman's debut on an English race path at Brighton, where cold weather and early-season form led to his defeat by M.B. Fowler of the Catford C.C. in a half-mile final—the first time a Britisher had lowered the American champion's colors.
- Preview of the May 30 Decoration Day one-mile scratch race at Herne Hill, London, pitting Zimmerman against England and Ireland's best—Osmond, Edge, Du Cros, Mecredy, and others—with The Bearings predicting Zimmy will lose because he is always a 'dub' early in the season before twenty track battles sharpen him.
- Editorial response to a correspondent's question about whether road race promoters may legitimately set a time limit separately from the official handicapper's duties, concluding that since road races are private enterprises the time limit is generally justified by careful committee study of roads and average rider ability.
- Dayton and Cincinnati are disputing priority for hosting the Ohio Division championship races at the Dayton meet (July 4-6), with Dayton claiming their application reached National Racing Board member Collister twelve hours before Cincinnati's.
- Editorial arguing that the Manhattan Athletic Club's plan to rebuild Manhattan Oval for both cycling and athletics will fail for cyclists, since combined cycling-athletic tracks invariably compromise the cycling surface and a genuine 2:10 mile board track cannot be built where running and walking take priority.
- A St. Louis rider inadvertently revealed that the St. Louis men are training hard for the June 5 DeSoto road race with the intention of burying Chicago's cyclists on the hills; The Bearings challenges Chicago riders to respond.
- The Pullman Road Race course has been surveyed at R.D. Garden's expense, with fifteen-foot course charts distributed to each club house and four-by-four milestones set throughout the route; the Minnette cycling corps has hired Caledonian athlete John West as trainer for its Pullman aspirants.
- C.P. Root of Windsor Park, regarded as one of the best road riders in the West, plans to ride the Forest Park road race in St. Louis and then attempt the 100-mile track record with pace-makers—a feat comparatively rare in America.
- On April 24 the Sacramento club beat the Capital City club in a fifty-two-mile relay from Stockton to Sacramento in 3:11:32¾, winning a $100 banner from the Stockton Mail; controversy arose over whether professional W.F. Knapp illegally paced a Sacramento leg, and C.C. Hopkins separately lowered the solo Stockton-Sacramento record to 3:28:00.
- Full list of events at the L.A.W. national meet races on the Columbia A.C. island track in the Potomac River, including all national championships in quarter, half, and mile for both ordinary and safety, D.C. district championships, a novice mile, tandem mile, team race, and multiple open scratch and handicap events.
- Racing notes from around the country: Zimmerman was the first entry received for the Bristol meet on May 14; Danish road woman Johanne Jorgensen is training in male garb on a Humber tandem paced by a prominent Danish road man; J.E.L. Bates broke all path records from 102 to 350 miles on a geared ordinary; and the Buffalo Athletic Club has formed a cycling section with Dorntge, Penseyres, Brinker, and Banker.
- Profile of F.O. Dolson of the Denver Ramblers: at sixteen years old and six feet tall, he placed second in the spring Rambler-Social road race (first on an ordinary), holds the Colorado five-mile road record on a safety, has recorded a private mile time of 2:40, and works as a machinist in the Overman Wheel Company's Denver repair department.
- The Railway Age reports that the 1893 Chicago World's Fair will feature an extensive cycle exhibit spanning the full length of an exhibition building, with 150 square feet per exhibitor, equal treatment of foreign and home manufacturers, and a centerpiece display bicycle thirty feet in diameter.
- Feature on the Derby Cycle Co.'s diamond-frame bicycle, notable for its distinctive construction from two continuous steel tubes forming the upper and lower frame halves, a patent two-piece spoke removable without disturbing the tire, and Warwick hollow rims fitted exclusively with pneumatic tires.
- The Quadrant Cycle Co. of Birmingham, England has opened a Chicago store in Cycle Row managed by Mr. Hughes and the Lincolns' Harvey Pound; a Bearings test ride of the No. 22 model found it singularly light-running with perfect steering that can be managed hands-off and no tendency to side-slip on greasy pavements.
- Chicago trade news: Spooner-Peterson Co. opens the city's leading repair shop on Madison Street; Pope Mfg. Co.'s 30,000-square-foot riding school at the Siegel-Cooper building is busy under manager McCrum; Humber-Rover Co. force work nights and Sundays; and racing man Herbert Githens partners with C. Henry Larsen to open a bicycle store at 308 Ninety-second Street, South Chicago.
- Reprint from the Cedar Falls (Iowa) Globe arguing that cyclists have the same legal right to public highways as other vehicles, urging pedestrians and drivers to yield space to bicycles and criticizing excessive street sprinkling that makes roads unridable for wheels.
- Correspondent 'The Old 'Un' surveys cycling conditions in five North Carolina cities: Tarboro has twenty wheelmen, Fayetteville allows sidewalk riding, Henderson's council banned cycles from the main street after one scared the mayor's horse, Greensboro enjoys good roads with Pneumatic Ramblers dominant, and Raleigh's buyers are shifting entirely to pneumatic tires.
- Report on the eight bicycle stores of West Madison Street's West Side Cycle Row, tracing the departure of founding dealer E.L. Ferguson to Ogden Avenue and the current lineup including Mason Winn Co., Derby Cycle Co., Charles F. Stokes Co., and the arrival of Bennett-Morris Cycle Co. in Ferguson's former space.
- Racing and touring calendar for May through September 1892, listing over thirty events including The Bearings relay ride start (May 18), the Pullman road race (May 30), the DeSoto road party from Chicago (June 5), the national L.A.W. meet in Washington D.C. (July 18-20), and the Springfield Bicycle Club tournament (September 14-15).