The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 2
Articles in this issue
- Leader paragraphs quote H. E. Ducker's charge in the Bulletin that the Coventry Cyclist rejected the Springfield tournament records as a trade paper 'bound hand and foot', citing Fred Wood's remark after his 2.35 3/5 professional handicap; the editor also retracts the story that Harry Etherington billed the Springfield Bicycle Club, and notes Marriott's fifty-inch gear on the Land's End to John O'Groat's ride and Williams's 48-inch Quadrant fifty-mile record.
- A correspondent signing 'Yank' declares that American manufacturers now turn out wheels as good as or better than English-made machines, and predicts America may take the bicycle trade from Coventry just as it took the watch trade.
- T. R. Iker asks the proper size for tricycle wheels, noting the Cripper machines at Springfield carried 36-inch drivers and a large steerer, and wonders whether small wheels should dispense with cogs and chains for direct action.
- 'Vet.' replies to Edward J. Shriver on road courtesy, arguing a wheelman should always return a salutation — George Washington never failed to return the bow of the humblest slave — and that bowing to a lady rider is a mere act of courtesy.
- A rider with six to eight hundred miles on the spiral Club tricycle spring and a thousand on cradles answers H. L. N., finding more side play in the spiral and preferring the cradle for adjustability and resistance to breakage.
- J. S. Dean of Boston rebuts a correspondent signing 'L. A. W.' who claimed Massachusetts limits riders to six miles an hour, citing Public Statutes chapter 53 and Boston's seven-mile-an-hour ordinance, and urges the League to regulate and investigate road racing and road records.
- Charles H. Potter of the Springfield Bicycle Club, a judge at the tournament, answers the English 'Great Objectors' point by point, defending the timing of Furnival's five-mile tricycle and Webber's ten-mile races against the Cyclist's insinuations and explaining how the unknown Kluge beat W. F. Knapp in the 3.10 class.
- 'X. Y. Z.' answers correspondent 'Duffer', arguing the first object of racing is to decide the fastest man rather than to entertain the audience, and that a handicapper should use his own judgment of riders instead of being a slave to public records.
- 'Customs' presses his question on how many used cycles may be brought into the country free of duty, rejecting 'Fair Play's' answer and citing the New York customs case of Astor v. Merritt on goods for personal use.
- W. Lemmon appeals to American makers for a durable boys' bicycle with cone bearings, recounting how his boy's 38-inch machine bought in May 1884 broke spoke after spoke at the hub and wore its bearings loose within six months.
- 'Driver' asks readers where to draw the line on tricycle driving-wheel size, noting a friend rides 40-inch drivers, that makers were once said to have settled on 50 inches, and that 48-inch is now the largest seen on any modern machine.
- Eugene Michener of Brownsville, Pa. corrects the account of the Washington to Uniontown road race, explaining he held third place on his 61-pound Star against eight crank wheels until a chill forced him to stop with manager Stephenson near Uniontown.
- L. D. Munger of Detroit again attacked A. A. McCurdy's twenty-four-hour record from the Faneuil House, Brighton, riding by lantern light with pacemakers C. I. Swan, E. G. Frost, J. C. Clark, W. H. Huntley and J. Vivian, but rain ended the attempt at 130 miles.
- A satirical string of questions asking what Cambridge politicians think of the local bicycle club, whether it elected Geo. A. Perkins to the Legislature, why bicycle club corporation stock is up at auction, and whether Rowe has a rich aunt named Albert.
- 'Daisie' muses on weather omens and a mild-winter prophecy, then advises lady tricyclists on saddle height, pedaling with the ball of the foot and riding 'well over your work' with Dr. Richardson's counsel on keeping the leg straight, and plans an indoor home trainer for winter.
- 'London W.' relates how Barrow of the Cycling Times struck Wheel Life editor McCandlish and was soundly caned in revenge by Kelly of the Wheel Life staff, dismisses the endless English ink spilt over the Springfield records, and takes 'Hal's' Bulletin pen-portrait of him in good part.
- The news-notes column opens with 'The Choice', a poem sequel to 'The Season's Mount', then ranges over A. M. Gooch's new ball bearing, W. W. Stall's plan to build machines to order, the League Meet dates of 27-29 May, the Overman-Hodges Corey Hill climb, Chris Wheeler's 'Rhymes of the Road and River', W. A. Rhodes's wind-beaten 150-mile attempt, the 1886 Bermuda tour under Mr. Elwell, Col. Pope's new house, the Elizabeth Wheelmen's 28,965-mile club record and Howell's welcome home at Leicester.
- Dr. W. G. Kendall is arranging a Thanksgiving Day race to establish a twenty-five-mile road record, and at Minneapolis Grant Bell on a 45-inch Star beat William M. Woodside on a Rudge Safety by forty feet for a $100 purse, a race that makes Bell a professional.
- At Hampden Park on 4-6 November Hendee set amateur quarter and half mile tricycle figures and Rowe lowered the quarter-mile bicycle record to 35 3/5 seconds; F. R. Brown crashed on the curb in his ten-mile tricycle attempt while Williams, the colored tricyclist, took the records above five miles on a Quadrant; Kansas City races, the Ixion Club road race won by E. S. Robinson, the Harlem wheelmen's team-race cup and the Wetmore-Bennett fifty-mile tandem claim follow.
- The Massachusetts Club plans a fancy dress carnival at the Olympian Club rink; Jamestown, N.Y. elects Robert Hazzard president; the Boston Club hears Dr. Kendall's Corey Hill report, accepts Capt. Harrison's resignation and elects W. H. Edmands captain; later columns note Taunton's club races, the Springfield Club's $3,000 tournament profit, the Charlestown Club ball and new clubs at Los Angeles and Tioga, Pa.
- The official C.T.C. column from acting chief consul C. H. Potter of Cleveland lists the State consuls from Connecticut to Wyoming Territory, provisionally elects Jno. R. Clark of Des Moines, and appoints hotels at Canton, Harrisburg and New Orleans with Jos. A. Meyer as Canton consul.
- Brief editorial replies to readers, telling W. F. of Lowell his record will not be allowed, advising J. H. Stone to cover bright parts with vaseline against rust, and explaining to S. E. T. why the automatic steerer is so called.