The Bicycling World, Vol 11, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Editor Abbot Bassett casts doubt on E. P. Burnham's claimed hour record at Springfield and announces an investigation, defends the weekly's accuracy over the Bulletin's and Boston Globe's speed in reporting the Springfield and Hartford races, and notes the Racing Board's dismissal of the evidence-free protest against Weber and Whittaker.
- London letter from 'Faed' reporting dissatisfaction that M. D. Rucker, Humber and Co.'s London manager, sits on the N.C.U. records committee, the Inventions Exhibition medal awards to Coventry Machinists, Hillman Herbert and Cooper, Humber and the St. George's Engineering Company, the deferred hundred-mile Rover safety road race, and Lamplugh and Brown's new detachable buffer saddle.
- Letters department, in which F. Alcott Pratt, secretary of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, produces Mr. Aaron's receipt dated 4 July 1885 to prove the club paid C. E. Pratt's League dues for the year.
- A Pilgrim's Progress dream-parody of the L.A.W., with Mr. Smooth-it-away guiding the writer past Giant Despair's castle (now a special jail for cyclists) to the Dark River, where Weber crosses linked to a Star, Charlie Pratt sinks on an elapsed membership, and Ducker sails on his nerve.
- Mr. and Mrs. Stall, returning from Bailey's on their tandem tricycle, are run at and dogged as far as Wellesley by two drunken men in a buggy, until the 'Vet.' dismounts and lays both out with a large cart spoke.
- Messrs. Hansmann and Killits of the Capital Club, Washington, ride a Sociable tricycle from Luray to the Natural Bridge, Virginia, via Staunton and Lexington, and on the return cover one hundred miles in 21h. 58m. and 111 miles in twenty-four hours on a 46-inch Meteor, beating the previous sociable record of eighty miles.
- The P.W.B., organised at the 1883 Springfield meet, holds a largely attended annual meeting at the Evans House during the tournament, electing L. W. Seely of Washington Hi-muck-a-muck and initiating H. S. Owen, C. K. Alley and Dr. N. M. Beckwith before an elaborate supper at Barr's restaurant.
- The Orange Wanderers' Chinese-lantern parade musters 165 wheels from clubs including the Hudson County, Elizabeth and Montclair Wheelmen; in the club's annual ten-mile handicap road race C. Hening wins on a 54-inch Victor, with the Johnson-Douglas Humber tandem recording the fastest time of 39:2 1/2.
- 'Daisie' describes watching the Springfield contests from the grand stand, pokes fun at cycling editors who race every man in the world on paper by compiling records, and declares the meets owe their existence to the controlling spirit of one Springfield citizen.
- Column of short notes: English racers Engleheart, Wood, Howell and Chambers sailing home, the 1886 Victor tricycle brought down to eighty pounds, trick bicyclist Harry Tufts forced by a rink manager to perform the night his child died, Colonel Albert A. Pope breaking his collar-bone in a Brookline carriage accident, and Thomas Stevens reaching Tabreez, Persia, on his round-the-world ride.
- Verses by President Bates parodying Portia's 'quality of mercy' speech — 'The quality of cycling is not strained' — in praise of a lady tricyclist floating air-borne between her shining wheels.
- Results roundup opening with the Providence races at Narragansett Park, where W. A. Rowe rode a mile in 2.39 3/4 before 6,000 people, plus meets at Binghamton, Rochester, Attleboro', Danvers, Pittsburg and Montgomery, Richard Howell's world mile record of 2.35 2/5 on his 58-inch Rudge racer at Springfield, and the routes for the Boston Club's hundred-mile and the Massachusetts Club's road races.
- The newly formed Waltham Cycle Club with thirty-three members has secured a club room with a piano, while the Nonantum Cycling Club of Newtonville observes its first anniversary.
- Official C.T.C. column from Acting Chief Consul C. H. Potter of Cleveland listing the State consuls, provisionally elected members, new consul appointments for Mauch Chunk, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Calumet and Detroit, and hotel appointments at Binghamton and Painesville.
- Calendar of coming races, including the Massachusetts Club road race on 26 September, the Boston Club's 100-mile road race on 3 October, the Omaha Wheel Club tournament, and division races at Chicago on 16 and 17 October.