The Bicycling World, Vol 12, No 5
Articles in this issue
- The lead editorial examines the debate over optimal bicycle wheel sizes, weighing the speed advantages of larger wheels against the comfort and safety benefits of smaller ones, and reviewing the growing evidence from the year's racing results.
- Letters to the editor: 'Duffer' and 'X. Y. Z.' spar over class racing versus handicapping, 'Justice' and 'Amateur' attack the makers' amateur system, and Mr. and Mrs. Tandemon answer 'Daisie' on tandems. 'Stevens' and 'Boston' question the cyclometer evidence behind the Huntley, Munger and McCurdy road records, 'A Small Wheelman' surveys Boston dealers' tricycle patterns in the wheel-size debate, and 'T. Square' of Chicago proposes instantaneous photographs to settle close race finishes.
- The Manufacture department reviews the Invincible Roadster Tricycle built by the Surrey Machinists' Company of London and imported by George D. Gideon of Philadelphia — a seventy-six-pound T-frame machine with 44-inch drivers, central balance gearing and ball bearings throughout, praised by veteran tricycler Willis Farrington for its long wheel base.
- Bull & Bowen of Buffalo reduce the price of their home trainer from $40 to $30; the World commends it for keeping wheelmen in condition through the winter, noting its adjustable brake-resistance scale and the cyclometer and quarter-hour bell fitted to the Buffalo model.
- A detailed report on L.D. Munger's 259-mile twenty-four-hour road record, including route conditions, cyclometer verification, pacemaking arrangements, and the official certificates signed by timekeepers and witnesses.
- A listing of recently granted U.S. patents for bicycle and tricycle inventions, covering wheel bearings, braking systems, saddle designs, and propulsion mechanisms.
- Daisie compares the pleasures of winter skating and cycling, defending the bicycle as the superior winter recreation, and reflects on the approach of the social season and the importance of temperance in leisure.
- The editor's miscellany column, opening with 'The Bicycle Bell' poem, and covering items on C.T.C. renewals, League dues, the amateur age question, rink races, Hull and Bowen home trainers, and Montreal Bicycle Club season mileage.
- Race results from Eufaula, Alabama, Minneapolis, and Washington on Thanksgiving Day, including club races, road events, and William Woodside's fifty-mile rink record attempt in Minneapolis.
- Club news from Boston, Chicago, Rhode Island, and across the country covering meetings, the Rhode Island Division's formation efforts, the Pope versus Overman patent lawsuit, and plans for winter socials.
- The C.T.C. department from acting chief consul C.H. Potter of Cleveland, giving membership dues and the list of state consuls appointed so far, from E.A. Jackson in New Haven and F.A. Pratt in Boston to L.H. Johnson in Orange, New Jersey.