The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 23
Articles in this issue
- The editors note that for the first time in the history of any cycling paper, the Bicycling World was delivered by carrier tricycle on the streets of Boston, with advertising dodgers also distributed from the same vehicle.
- The new editors publish a detailed history of the paper's former editors from 1878 to 1886, profiling Frank Weston, Charles Pratt, L.R. Harrison, W.E. Gilman, J.S. Dean, and Abbot Bassett, with characteristic sketches of each man's contribution.
- The Racing Board of the L.A.W. has changed its rules: no records made on board tracks or against time will be accepted, championship entries are to be revised by the Board, prize values are limited to $50, tracks must have a fixed and continuous curb, and the fifteen and twenty-five mile championships give way to twenty-mile events with points counted as in a lap race.
- The editors retract their previous issue's correction of the Boston Herald, admitting they were in error in stating that the Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette had placed a Pope Manufacturing Company advertisement on its front page in place of the Overman Wheel Company's.
- Titnam's New York column mocks the endless makers' amateur debate and dissects a jingo-style letter from Springfield's Mr. Ducker in the Cyclist and Athlete, who resigned from the Racing Board vowing to 'lead the forces to victory'; further notes cover 'Adonis' Cripps defying the N.C.U., wretched Holland roads, deaf-mute fancy rider Stout of New Jersey, and Karl Kron's long-promised 'X.M. Miles' book.
- Tour-master Burley B. Ayers reports to L.A.W. president Dr. N.M. Beckwith that the Big Four Bicycle Tour Association has disbanded into the League's new Touring Board (Bidwell, Bull, Graves, Conkling, Orr, King, and Coleman), which divided the country into four touring divisions, planned a national touring map, adopted royal purple colors, and set the annual tour for September 1886 from Niagara Falls through Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to Philadelphia.
- The Stroller column awakes from winter inactivity to report on the opening of the spring cycling season in Boston, visiting dealers in the drizzling rain and finding cycling establishments busier than ever, with notes on the Boston Club's exhibition committee, the Massachusetts Club's contested increase of dues to $20, and the division's $500 loan towards the League Meet.
- A column of cycling intelligence reports that Neilson will use Springfield as his training ground to prepare for his race with Prince; that Burley Ayers and H.S. Wood are doing effective work on the League's Touring Board; that Consul Ducker has appointed L.E. Isham consul for Northboro'; and that J.T. Williams and N. Ethier will instruct Massachusetts Club members in Indian clubs and dumb-bells.
- A tour of Boston's booming cycle trade finds the new Stars selling well at Stall's, which expects a lot of Humber-pattern Sparbrook tandems; Gid Haynes proud of his Suffolk Wheel Club captaincy at Everett's, where the Harrington cradle spring impresses; Club machines selling at Gaskell's; Larry Overman showing the new Victor; and Wm. Read & Son expecting a new 26-inch-steerer tricycle to be called the Radial.
- A list of pointed queries asks whether there will be a band at the next League parade, whether Munger's record will be accepted by the Racing Board, whether the Prince-Neilson race will give Lynn's new track a boom, and what has become of ex-president Miller, Ben Sanford, Will Pitman, and Eagan.
- A running column of brief notes: the World's carrier tricycle caused consternation in School street; Jim Underwood has sold his drug store to boom the Quadrant and Rover; Miss Lilly Currie of New York has written a book on tricycling for ladies; new racing tracks are springing up everywhere; and six New Orleans Bicycle Club members (A.M. Hill, E.W. Hunter, W.L. Hughes, H.W. Fairfax, C.M. Fairchild, and S.M. Patton) will ride all the way from New Orleans to Boston.
- L.D. Munger captured the 50-mile road record at New Orleans in 3 hours 2 minutes and 34 seconds, beating the world's record by three minutes on the same 57-inch Apollo he rode to previous records in the East, despite a route back and forth over one of New Orleans' most crowded thoroughfares crossing eight busy streets.
- A correspondent signing '43' argues that the curved handle bar's proper place is now behind the head rather than in front, contending this would bring the handles nearer the body for power, cure the strained hunch-back riding position, and give an inch and a half more rake without affecting the steering.
- A Boston correspondent signing 'R.M.P.' seconds E.J. Shriver of the New York Club in demanding the League abandon the parade at the coming Boston Meet, calling the procession, flags, gilt-edged uniforms, and brass band a Barnum-style disgrace to a body of cyclers now largely made up of men of middle age.
- A feature article describes the new Singer Straight Steerer (also called the Cripper pattern) shown for the first time at the Stanley Show, noting its 40-inch driving and 22-inch steering wheels with crescent rims, butt-ended spokes, Reynolds' chain, Pritchards balance gear, central gearing, and ball bearings to all parts except pedals.
- Club news reports the Stoneham Club's calico dance, the East Cambridge Cycle Club's reorganization under president H.A. Lienhard, the Massachusetts Club closing its winter entertainments, the Waltham Club's hop on 15 April, the Missouri division caucus nominating J.S. Rogers for chief consul, and J.S. Dean's call to reorganize the Boston Bicycle Club's tricycle division at the Faneuil House, Brighton.
- The official C.T.C. column from acting chief consul C.H. Potter of Cleveland gives dues and application details, lists the State consuls so far appointed from Connecticut to Wyoming Territory, and names five provisionally elected members including Andrew G. Slevin of Plainfield and J.K. Thompson of Fort Porter, Buffalo.
- The Overman Wheel Company publishes a full statement of its patent war with the Pope Manufacturing Company, recounting its surrendered 1883 tricycle license, injunctions denied by Judges Colt and Carpenter, $73,000 of attachments against it and the Ames Manufacturing Company, and its vow to break the monopoly even if litigation delays the 1886 Victor.