The Bearings, Vol 5, No 3
Articles in this issue
- A collection of short humorous paragraphs on the cover including 'Sure Cure' (a mock prescription of cold lead applied internally to a dog), cycling puns, a poem demanding cash prizes, and a comic dialogue between a bicycle wheel and Monkey Wrench about spoon brakes and pneumatic tires.
- William Twinkle's Oshkosh column refutes the L.A.W. Pointer's claim that the Early Rose Wheelers are defunct, describing their rigorous winter training — the Johnson boys cutting cordwood, Dan Harris firing a sawmill, Steve Elder cutting railroad ties — and mockingly noting that the rival Dogbutton Ramblers' president still defeated the whole club in every fall race.
- Notes column of cycling queries and items: whether Windle will race this season, who will first ride a geared ordinary in America, the Manhattan Bicycle Club's asphalt pavement on Fortieth Street, a proposed Boston-to-New York relay race backed by Bidwell and Ormonde, and a call for Illinois L.A.W. members to submit road information for the Division road book.
- Gossip column noting Billy Herrick joining the Stokes Mfg. Co. after the 22nd, Frank Dyer's impending marriage to L.A.W. member Miss Annie Wadsworth, Joe Judge's good track work with the Riverside Wheelmen of New York, Harry Seward's gymnasium weight loss to 154 pounds, and the Milwaukee Wheelmen's new press committee and racing board.
- Editorial arguing that an amateur four-hours-per-day six-day cycle race could succeed in Chicago or any major city if held alongside a fair controlled by associated clubs, but warning that dishonest events such as a recent Omaha amateur race do cycling incalculable injury.
- Editorial contending that the L.A.W. forfeited a substantial annual income — at least $2,500 per year — by secretly extending the Wheelman Company's five-year official organ contract without competitive bidding, noting the publishers' willingness to invest $25,000 in new plant proves they valued the contract at $5,000 annually.
- Full report on the L.A.W. National Assembly at Columbus covering President Dunn's farewell address, Isaac Potter's Road Improvement Bureau financed by Col. Pope's $4,000 and Bidwell's $1,000, elections of Col. C.L. Burdett as president and Sheridan, Brown, and Brewster as vice presidents, the Michigan Division contested election decided for Detroit, and the Assembly's resolution against changing the amateur rule.
- Report on the Associated Cycling Clubs of Chicago annual meeting: C.E. Randall elected president, the Cook County Wheelmen admitted to membership, and committees appointed to manage the annual Pullman Road Race with reforms to last year's prize distribution abuses.
- Report on the second annual Philadelphia cycle show at Industrial Hall, opened by Mayor Edward Shaw with 78 exhibitors and daily attendance of 2,000–2,500; highlights include John Palmer's non-deflatable pneumatic tire (punctured 300 times without deflating), Zimmerman's pony Star, Pete Berlo's 18-pound hickory-rimmed racer, and the Sercombe & Bolte chainless Telegram; a full list of exhibitors continues on page 7.
- The Humber Cycle Importing Co. renames itself the Humber-Rover Cycle Co. and elects A. Montgomery Ward president, with Wm. C. Thorne, L.M. Richardson, Horace Bell, and Geo. K. Barrett as officers; Ward subscribes all remaining stock.
- Special interview for The Bearings and Cycling at the Speedwell Club, Birmingham, in which English champion F.J. Osmond says he cannot visit America this year, rates Zimmerman faster than Windle, predicts the mile record will fall below 2:12 on American tracks due to clearer air and more reliable record days, and calls for 'anything but clocks and dessert knives' as amateur prizes.
- Opinion letter by 'EREMA' condemning obscene language in cycling club rooms, endorsing the good roads movement, defending the stooping riding position as fully expanding the lungs compared to the erect style, and recommending 1¼- or 1½-inch solid rubber tires over costly pneumatics for durability.
- Anonymous exposé of a Chicago cycle salesman called 'Clifton Dear' and 'Rosy Cheeked Rover' who deceived Midwestern dealers with impossible promises, opened a Cleveland sporting-goods store closed by the sheriff, juggled at least eight simultaneous matrimonial engagements, and has been blackballed by two cycling clubs — the writer inviting him to dispute the facts publicly.
- Editorial arguing that road reformers must stop soaring on intellectual essays and instead demonstrate practical improvement: farm people seen from a Baltimore & Ohio train on snow-covered Ohio roads read weekly story papers, not highway treatises, and one good road will convert a community better than any amount of agitation.
- Humorous personal essay by 'JIM' recounting a first country outing on a high ordinary in which cheerful companions lead the writer through mud, across a flooded road where he ends up in three feet of water, and to a breakfast where he is forced to drink a quart of buttermilk, leaving him absent from the office for two days with 'a crick in the neck.'
- Club notes from Cleveland's Relay Road Club on preparations for the relay race to Buffalo, their unusual treasury requiring every member present to authorise any disbursement, their emblem of a perspiring hand rampant on azure, and the latest admission of Harry Cassady.
- Correspondent J. Jay Ross reports on the formation of the Century Road Club of Canada at Toronto on February 5 with Fred Brimer as Chief Centurion, Dave Nasmith's remarkable winter 100-mile ride to Newcastle and back through mud, snow, ice, and frozen ears, and club elections at the Toronto Bicycle Club, the Ramblers of Hamilton, and the Wanderers.
- City correspondence from Alabama (Gulf City C.C. officer elections and a Mardi Gras fancy-dress bicycle parade in Mobile), Colorado (new Denver Cyclists' Union officers under A.G. Brocker), Illinois (Chicago club socials, Lincoln C.C.'s blizzard tramp up Sheridan Drive, Englewood ladies' leap-year party, Thomas Stevens lecture at Central Music Hall), Maryland (Baltimore's planned quarter-mile oval track), Missouri (St. Louis riders Rule, Todd, and Hurck on the De Soto road), and New York and Wisconsin clubs including the Manhattan B.C.'s Hard Times Smoker and the Rochester bicycle exposition.
- Profile of Pennsylvania Division secretary-treasurer John J. Van Nort of Scranton, who began riding in 1881 on a full nickel-plated Columbia and was one of four members whose energy built the Scranton Bicycle Club's $15,000 club house.
- Comic profile of inventor Sterling Elliott, maker of the Hickory wooden bicycle, quoting a friend's mock-biography that has him born in 1637 in a railroad car, son of the Wandering Jew, elected president of the American Society of Cranks with Bill Nye as lecturer, and destined never to die.
- Profiles of Parker H. Sercombe, who rose from a farm boy to prosperous manufacturer after stints as teacher, postal clerk, and paint dealer, and his partner F.H. Bolte, a Northwestern University mechanical engineer whose spring-fork saddles and Indestructible pneumatic tire won national recognition; they are showing their new 23-pound 'Lightning Messenger' racer and chainless Telegram at the Philadelphia show.
- Review of the second issue of Good Roads magazine praising Isaac Potter's 'Popular Opinion' page of commendatory letters from Vice President Levi Morton, Secretary of Agriculture Rush, Senators Aldrich, Dawes, and Allison, and Governors McKinley and Russell of Ohio and Massachusetts.
- Cincinnati correspondent 'JACK' urges compromise on the clash between Dayton's Ohio Division meet on July 4–5 and Poorman's road race plus the Porkopolis Wheelmen's track events on the same day, proposing the Cincinnati events move to Saturday July 2 so riders can attend both.
- Combined calendar of upcoming cycling races, shows, and social events from February through September 1892 — including the Madison Square six-day race in March, the Pullman road race on May 30, and the Ohio Division meet at Dayton on July 4–5 — plus a detailed listing of Chicago club indoor fixtures through March.
- Trade news across pages 18–20 covering Sager's new tension-spring saddle, W.J. Miles's patent non-rusting silver steel for bearings, cycling business patterns on the South Atlantic Coast, the Birch all-steel automatic bicycle lock, Cleveland trade notes, Peter Berlo's record 18.5-pound pneumatic safety, Lozier's four 1892 Cleveland models, and dealer reports from Cincinnati, Toledo, and Kingman & Co. in Peoria.