The Bicycling World, Vol 13, No 1
Articles in this issue
- The unheaded leader column reaffirms the paper's support of the League of American Wheelmen as the only national organization, opposes H. E. Ducker's nomination for the L.A.W. presidency while favourably mentioning Stephen Terry of Hartford, notes Abbot Bassett will refuse to serve on the Racing Board next year, and defends the Boston League Meet of 27-29 May against charges of apathy.
- A humorous recipe for manufacturing spring cycling poetry is offered, poking fun at the flowery, formulaic verse that fills the cycling press each season.
- At the annual meeting of the Ames Manufacturing Company in Boston, two tickets competed: one sympathetic to Overman (the victors, comprising Aretas Blood, Isaac Sweetser, Wm. Sewall, Bradford, and Gaylord) and an anti-Overman ticket presented by A.C. Woodward that included A.A. Pope; the Overman-aligned ticket won, and Judge Carpenter reduced the ad damnum in Harrington v. Ames from $20,000 to $10,000.
- A.M. Hill and party departed New Orleans on 25 April for the 1,500-mile tour to Boston, with the party reduced to three riders including C.M. Fairchild of the New Orleans Bicycle Club on a Rudge light roadster and H.W. Fairfax; their route runs via Charlotte, Lynchburg, Harper's Ferry, Trenton and New York, due in Boston 25 May.
- A column of squibs reports that St. Louis claims eight hundred wheelmen; Judge Shipman set 20 May for the Overman Wheel Company vs. Pope Manufacturing Company trial over the Bown patent; Jack Prince rides fastest to Yankee Doodle; Weber and Kluge feel their fifty-mile record will stand; Phil Hammel of Chicago is willing to race Schock; and much fun is expected at the League business meeting over the amateur question.
- The New York correspondent reports all talk is of the inter-club road race from Irvington through Milburn to Montclair, with eleven of sixteen association clubs entering teams; a muddle in the League vote saw New York ballots cast out as defective, the New York Bicycle Club has moved to 302 West 28th Street, and George R. Bidwell is arranging the clubs' Fall River line trip to the Boston meet.
- A satirical poem provides a recipe for creating a makers' amateur from a cycling fiend, calling for bluster, a drop of Ducker, rich aunts, a suspicion of speed, essence of Prince mixed with Furnivall, tincture of Johnny L. Sullivan, and a trusting-to-luck that the League will be lenient.
- B.B. Ayers, chairman, maps the League trunk railroad lines for wheelmen travelling to the Boston Meet — the Michigan Central from Chicago, the Wabash from St. Louis, the Baltimore & Ohio for Southern members, and the Fitchburg in New England — with transportation arrangeable through C.R. Bidwell in New York, W.S. Bull in Buffalo and W.M. Brewster in St. Louis.
- The editorial miscellany opens with a Mikado parody duet between the Racing Board and the suspects, notes Canadian cracks W.G. Ross and H.W. Clark may meet at Woodstock, Ont. on 24 May, hopes for a Friedburg-Morgan match, reports Whittaker unhurt after his fall in the fifty-mile race, and previews Jack Easy's Sociable essay and Papa Weston's Log Book.
- The Chicago correspondent 'Philo' reports Schock came to town to have Gormully and Jeffery check his Champion ahead of the proposed six-day race with Jack Prince at Minneapolis, who failed to cover Schock's $200 forfeit; the five-hundred-acre Cheltenham Beach scheme with a four-lap bicycle track counts Col. Albert A. Pope and R. Philip Gormully among its directors.
- A visit to Lynn finds the new track two-thirds covered with finishing coats of blue gravel, a double-decker grand stand well along, and two engineers to swear to its precise length; Knapp, Rowe, Hendee and Windle will quarter near the track, McCurdy will abandon the crank machine for a Star racer, and A.L. Atkins of Pope is in town almost daily.
- A trade pilgrimage calls on W.W. Stall at 509 Tremont Street (now handling Coventry Machinists goods), W.B. Everett at Singer's American depot, and Harry Corey at Stoddard, Lovering and Co. — who shows the first Rudge light roadster ever brought to America, 7,000 miles old — before the Pope Manufacturing Company promises its new safety and two-track ladies' machines in two weeks and hints at a mystery racer.
- The first number of the Wheelman's Gazette, continuation of the Springfield Wheelman's Gazette, is reviewed with a rebuke to Ducker's staff for misstatements about the World; Frank Weston's 'My Cycling Log Book' (Whiting, Boston, $1.25) is commended ahead of its 15 May publication.
- Jack Easy concludes his defence of the Sociable as the superior vehicle for ladies over the Tandem, praising its accurate steering, complete stability on the fastest coasts, freedom from capsizes, and comfortable pace, while conceding the Tandem's speed and noting that a hill a Sociable cannot surmount is better not essayed by a lady rider at all.
- After John Harrington's $20,000 cradle-spring attachment against the Ames Manufacturing Company was dissolved by bond, vice-president Hodges hurried the editor by night express to Springfield and on to Chicopee, where hundreds of Victor bicycles were inspected, crated and shipped inside four hours to beat any further tying-up by the sheriff.
- In the second contest for the championship at Belgrave-road grounds, Leicester, on 17 April, R. Howell of Leicester led H.O. Duncan of France by a yard at the finish, with F.J. Lees third, in 1h. 9m. 46s., taking the belt and ten pounds.
- At the Surrey Bicycle Club's annual meeting E.M. Mayes won the Sydney Challenge Trophy mile, and in the great event H.A. Speechly of Ranelagh Harriers shot by Percy Furnivall twenty yards from home to win the fifty-guinea Silver Challenge Cup — his third win, making it his property — in 41.44; an appended note records Woodside's fifty-mile victory over Prince at Minneapolis in 2h. 44m. 37s., Prince's foul claim being disallowed.
- The New Castle Bicycle Club announces its spring race meeting for Thursday, 20 May 1886, on its improved four-lap track at Wheelmen's Park, with a novel hill-climbing contest on Jefferson Street Hill and a special one-mile dash between C.M. Brown of Greenville, Pa., and James S. Hedge of Buffalo, N.Y.
- The East Hartford Wheel Club's spring races are set for Saturday, 22 May, at the club track, with ten events including the one-mile club championship and a boys' race on 48-inch machines; entries close 19 May with secretary E.E. Arnold.
- The photographic department for cyclists answers a correspondent on proper exposure times — a July midday subject of trees, rocks and grass wanting about nineteen seconds stopped down — and dismisses the recurring rumour of a colour-reproduction process.
- A round-up of news from cycling clubs, including the Lynn Cycle Club's seventy-five members, officer elections at Wheeling (W. Va.), the St. Louis Star Bicycle Club and the York County Wheelmen of Biddeford, Me., the newly formed Newbury Wheelmen, and Charles A. Martin leading the Massachusetts Club with 725 miles for 1886.
- The May fixture list includes Brooklyn Bicycle Club runs to Fort Hamilton and Staten Island, the Springfield Bicycle Club minstrel show on 10 May, New Castle and East Hartford race meetings, the Woodstock, Ont. two-day meet from 24 May, and the L.A.W. Meet and Boston Club exhibition opening 27 May in the Mechanics Fair Building.
- The C.T.C. department under Acting Chief Consul C.H. Potter of Cleveland lists the appointed State consuls, provisionally elected applicants including A.H. Overman and G.R. Bidwell, and the appointment of A.D. Peck, Jr. as consul for Boston.
- A supplement reports that England's National Cyclists' Union, which had suspended suspected makers' amateurs, rescinded the suspensions after only about three weeks, surprising American cyclists who had expected vigorous action; the editors note this back-down will influence the American amateur question.
- Edward J. Shriver writes to correct 'Titnam's' report on the New York Bicycle Club: he is not its captain, no $30,000 was ever raised for a club house, the club leased quarters at 302 West 58th Street instead of building, and its membership is thirty-two, not forty-two.
- The Philadelphia correspondent 'Don Cesar' inspects Columbia machines at Mr. Hart's — the reliable Expert, an improved light roadster, and the new low-priced semi-roadster — and at Gideon's admires a seventy-two-pound automatic-steering Marlboro' Club tricycle from the Coventry Company, ten pounds lighter than an Invincible or Quadrant.
- Supplement squibs report that Jack Prince will settle at Lynn until after 31 May, Thomas Barber and Eugene Crist broke the Washington-to-Cabin John's Bridge record on a Humber tandem, Lawrence Land conquered Corey Hill on a Star in 4.42, and Van Meerbeke's New York-to-San Francisco crossing has reached Alabama; officer elections at the Woodstown (N.J.), Mercury (Flushing) and Montreal bicycle clubs follow.
- Foreign notes record Grove B.C. members thrashing the 'Waltham rough' in England, Furnivall out-generaled by Speechly, the Illustrated London News sketching Mr. O'Brien's tricycle attempt in Palace Yard, and Violet Lorne's 52-lb. 36-inch Cripper tricycle built to order by Humber & Co. of Beeston.