The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 15
Articles in this issue
- The L.A.W. Racing Board votes that no prize at a club championship meeting may exceed $50 in value, that entries of riders whose amateur standing is in doubt shall be rejected, and that no record will be entered unless made in open competition — board-track and under-cover records excluded.
- Massachusetts Division officers meet at the New Marlboro' Hotel with Chief Consul Ducker and Secretary Lawton to organize the May League Meet in Boston, appointing committees — Colonel A. A. Pope chairing reception, W. B. Everett transportation, W. W. Stall police — and fixing the Vendome as League headquarters.
- A portrait and profile of George Lacy Hillier, editor of Bicycling News, founder of the Tricyclist and co-founder of the Wheel World, defending him against American editors angered by his published doubts of American records; Hillier writes that he will probably visit America this year to race.
- Henry W. Williams of Boston lists new cycle patents, including Albert E. Wallace's velocipede wheel assigned to the Pope Manufacturing Company, Hugh Baines's tricycle of Toronto, Montraville Hoyt's suspended fluid-burning furnace, George Rothgiesser's bicycle saddle of Bielefeld, and John S. Morgan's bicycle leg of Lynn.
- James A. Chase of Hazleton, Pennsylvania argues that safety wheel diameters should sum to 66 inches — Facile 44+22, Quadrant tricycle 26+40, Rover 36+30 — and that riding a minimum of 200 inches of rubber tire circumference combats road vibration.
- A rider signing himself "Facile" writes from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas praising the Facile as his mount for the season: two thousand miles over some of the worst roads in the country with only one broken spoke, a stanch roadster, good hill climber and safe coaster.
- Faed's London letter reports three Columbia bicycles bound for the Speedwell and Stanley shows, Singer & Co.'s Straight Steerer Cripper tricycle and non-convertible tandem, the new double-action cradle springs, the Sparkbrook company's first ordinary bicycle, Smeed and Kaye's refillable lamp, the crank-length controversy, the Quadrant Tricycle Company's new two-speed gear for the Facile, and the Surrey Machinists' Company's adjustable crank.
- A comic verse signed "Pedals" in which a suitor begs his beloved to elope on his sociable, only for the haughty maiden to retort that she doesn't ride sociables this week and he should vamoose and buy a tandem.
- A trade description of the light roadster built by Humber & Co. of Beeston, Notts to L. H. Johnson of East Orange, New Jersey's specifications, with Warwick hollow steel rims, red Para rubber tires and direct piano-steel spokes — the rigidity of direct spokes proved by the twenty-pound Humber racers of Fred Wood, Furnivall, Cripps and English at Springfield; a fifty-inch weighs thirty-three pounds at $145.
- Pope's spring catalogue brings price reductions of $5 to $15 and new features: a keyed-in hollow cow-horn handle-bar, Kirkpatrick saddle and double-grip ball pedals on the Expert, seamless hollow felloes and resultant spokes on the Light Roadster, a new Columbia Racer and a Kangaroo-type Safety; adjoining notes describe the Coventry Machinists' Japanese-styled catalogue and Gormully & Jeffery's forthcoming forty-eight-page catalogue.
- Bank clerk C. M. Goodnow of Westfield wins the gold cyclometer offered by J. A. Lakin & Co. for the greatest amateur mileage of 1885 with 5,056 miles on a 54-inch wheel, ahead of Harry Lakin's 3,991 and H. M. Farr of Holyoke's 2,800 on a safety; eleven contestants covered over 1,200 miles.
- The Boston Club votes to conduct an exhibition of cycles and accessories during the League's annual meet, on the favorable report of a committee chaired by J. S. Dean; city dealers have all agreed to exhibit and a skating rink will likely be hired for the week.
- An essayist signing "5,678" champions the tandem's introduction to American riders, recounting how he and his wife progressed from bone-shaker to a Humber tandem, praising its company, security, ease and speed, and advising patient moderate riding for couples learning together; about a dozen makes are to be imported this season.
- The editorial notes column opens with S. Wady's valentine verse "Building a Valentine", then reports Consul Ducker's hope for 1,000 Massachusetts men in the League parade, Geo. Fred Brooks's "League Waltz", Rhodes's record attempt in Bermuda, E. H. Corson of Rochester, N.H.'s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter rider, the twenty-seven-strong Bermuda tour party, and E. P. Howe's lever-driven tricycle shown at Northboro'.
- H. E. Bidwell of the East Hartford Wheel Club lowers the home-trainer mile record; Minneapolis six-day tournament receipts pay Schock about $960 and Woodside $600; Elsa von Blumen accepts W. A. Hoagland's 51-hour ride-versus-walk challenge at Auburn, N.Y.; a fifty-mile road race near St. Louis is announced for a gold medal offered by J. S. C. Landish of the American Wheelman.
- Club reports include officer elections by the Fort Schuyler Wheelmen of Utica (C. H. Metz president), Brockton's City Club (W. M. Pratt), and New York's Ixion Club; the Boston Club's clubhouse reception and ninety-seventh meeting, at which it voted to join the L.A.W.; the Troy club's tournament at Vallombrosa rink; the Missouris of St. Louis capping membership at two hundred; and the York County Wheelmen's ball at Saco, Maine.
- The American C.T.C. department under Acting Chief Consul C. H. Potter of Cleveland lists the state consuls so far appointed — from F. A. Jackson of New Haven to C. P. Wassung of Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory — and provisionally elects four new members including applicants from Princeton, Illinois and New York.
- Brief editorial replies list the League meet cities from Newport 1880 through Boston 1886 and rule that a rider receiving expenses violates the racing rules but not the amateur rule.