The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 26
Articles in this issue
- A special supplement gives full returns of the League of American Wheelmen's annual election for chief consuls and representatives in every state, noting that many Boston Club votes were thrown out because membership applications arrived three days late. Massachusetts results show Henry E. Ducker of Springfield and A.D. Peck of Boston contesting Chief Consul with fourteen representatives elected including Sanford Lawton, Abbot Bassett and Charles E. Pratt, while Eugene M. Aaron of Philadelphia wins Pennsylvania and returns are compiled for California, Illinois, Connecticut, Ohio and the smaller states.
- A review of the Cyclists' Touring Club handbook for 1886, which lists over seven hundred places in England and abroad with hotels, consuls and repair shops, and includes a coloured map of England, Scotland and Wales divided into numbered districts plus a tourist's diary.
- H.O. Duncan left Montpellier, France on 4 April and arrived in Paris on 9 April, covering about 500 miles in five days on a Rudge bicyclette of the Rover safety pattern, despite missing the road several times and facing rain, headwinds, hail, and mountainous roads with newly laid stones.
- After the dissolution of Humber, Marriott & Cooper, Humber & Co.'s application to register 'Genuine Humber' as a trade mark was opposed by Marriott & Cooper and refused by Vice-Chancellor Bacon in the High Court of Justice on 9 April, on the ground that both firms' Humbers are equally genuine.
- Chief Consul Ducker visited Boston to finalise arrangements for the Sixth Annual League Meet, with over $1,400 already subscribed, Chairman Whitney selecting a design for badges, and races announced for Saturday 29 May at Union Grounds on Dartmouth Street.
- A column notes that Jenkins had to pay admission and could not get dinner at the L.A.W. Buffalo Meet; that court plaster and arnica will fill the New Orleans to Boston tourist's baggage; and that a ladies' annex of the Citizen's Club in New York is talked of because ladies cannot use the main clubhouse.
- Two of the World's editors ride out from Boston over the Milldam to Waltham, South Natick and Bailey's hotel, twenty-two miles in two hours' running time, meeting veteran A.D. Chandler on horseback and finding fifty wheelmen, including Bob Neilson scorching, at the Chestnut Hill reservoir rendezvous.
- A poem, 'Memories of Waltham,' describes a hapless wheelman covered in bruises, bangs and scratches from his riding misadventures, followed by news paragraphs noting St. Louis amateurs upset at exclusion from the 'suspects' list, the Springfield Bicycle Club minstrel rehearsal, and Neilson training round Boston until the Lynn track opens.
- A technical article examines the effect of fork rake on the Rover safety's steering, arguing that excessive rake carries the pivot line too far forward of the ground contact point, and that setting the steering centres closer to vertical — as in the 'Xtraordinary bicycle — improves steering precision, though a small structural difficulty remains.
- Don Caesar reports that the Association for the Advancement of Cycling is an assured fact in Philadelphia, with about one hundred riders joining, Eugene M. Aaron elected president and headquarters at 5 South Merrick Street; he also tries the experimental Philadelphia Safety — a sixty-pound cross between a Rover, Star, Kangaroo and Humber — finding its steering steadier than either Rover or Star, with the makers promising to cut the weight to forty-five pounds.
- The Massachusetts Division Racing Board names officials for the League races: Abbot Bassett as referee, judges Dr. N.M. Beckwith and Stephen Terry, starter H.E. Ducker of Springfield, and scorers including D.N. Van Sicklen of Chicago; the Board also establishes one-mile and five-mile Massachusetts State bicycle championships.
- Results of the L.A.W. mail vote on constitutional amendments show every article carried by wide margins, with Article 4 approved 1,581 to 68.
- Titnam's New York letter reports the Citizens Club settling into its new clubhouse, the New York Bicycle Club's old quarters dark and placarded 'To Let', the Ixions planning their fifty-mile Decoration Day road race at Orange, the K.C.W. announcing its race meet for 19 June at the Brooklyn Athletic Club Grounds, and C.T.C. Consul Frank Pool's ladies' moonlight run up Riverside Drive.
- In his ninth letter Jack Easy refutes Faed's suggestion in the Wheel World that Frank (Papa) Weston has given up riding, citing recent runs together on a Victor tricycle and Yale bicycle, then takes up the tandem versus sociable question, admitting the tandem's advantages of weight, width, wind resistance and speed but arguing they become defects on a machine that ladies use.
- A comic ballad reprinted from Wheeling, signed The Welsher, tells how trick rider Dan Canary's one-wheel skill so captivated Miss St. Clarey that her suitor broke his neck trying to match him.
- W.G. Kendall nominates H.E. Ducker for L.A.W. president; J.A.R. Underwood defends the weight of Quadrant tricycles; Edward J. Schriver defends the New York Bicycle Club and announces its move to 302 W. 58th Street; J. Jaques of Salt Lake City argues a strong $50 bicycle is possible; and F.C. Stokes asks for road advice for a ride home from the Boston Meet via Pittsfield, Albany and the Hudson.
- A Boston wheelman looks forward to greeting old friends at the League Meet but pleads for abandoning the solemn street parade, recalling the Chicago meet's farcical hare-and-hounds chase between the band wagon and the chief marshal's staff, and urging quiet runs into the suburbs instead.
- The programme for the Woodstock Amateur Athletic Association's third annual meeting at Woodstock, Ontario, on 24 and 25 May lists amateur and professional bicycle events including the mile professional championship of Canada, all run under C.W.A. rules, with entries to secretary D.A. White by 18 May.
- The Photographic department continues its series on fog in negatives, explaining green fog, red fog and chemical fog, quoting Capt. Abney's bleaching cure, and describing how to distinguish chemical from light fog and trace camera leaks; the article concludes with a promise to describe a small inexpensive amateur studio.
- Club news includes the Suffolk Club's run to Downer Landing, the Omaha Wheel Club electing Warren Rogers president, officer elections at the Peoria, Moline and Terre Haute clubs, and the Leominster Bicycle Club taking larger rooms as it grows toward fifty members.
- A calendar of May dates lists the Brockton Bicycle Club run to Cobb's in Sharon, Somerville Cycle Club runs to South Natick and Lowell, Brooklyn Bicycle Club runs to Fort Hamilton and a Staten Island moonlight run, and the Springfield Bicycle Club minstrel show on 10 May.
- The official race programme for the L.A.W. races at Union Grounds lists events including the one-mile League National Championship for bicycles and tricycles, the Massachusetts State Championship, a novice bicycle race, a handicap mile, and invitation races at one and three miles.