The Bicycling World, Vol 13, No 10
Articles in this issue
- The leader column welcomes the A.C.U.'s three-class definition of amateur, promateur and professional, questions the Racing Board's practice of dating Mr. Bassett's suspension letters back three days, urges universal adoption of the push-off start for racing tricycles, and counsels wheelmen to back Ducker's mail vote for the League to give up racing; the New York Division left the Buffalo parade question to the Buffalo Club.
- A roll of new records: Geo. M. Hendee's 2.34 mile at Springfield on 5 July, H. A. Speechly's 2.34 1/4 English mile at the Crystal Palace, Wm. A. Rowe's five-to-ten-mile figures at Lynn, F. A. Eldred's 20-mile road record of 1.19.50, H. G. Priest's 2.38 road tricycle mile, and A. H. Fletcher's 24-hour tricycle record of 251 miles.
- A special cable reports that H. A. Speechly rode the mile in 2.34 1/4 on the Crystal Palace track on 3 July, breaking the world's amateur record previously held by Rowe at 2.35 3/4.
- Thomas Stevens, Outing's round-the-world correspondent, writes from Constantinople about his detention at Herat, Col. Ridgway of the Boundary Commission declining to help him through to India, his escort back into Persia, and a Russian officer at Tiflis who tried to pump him about the roads below Herat.
- The Rockingham Bicycle Club of Portsmouth hosted the New Hampshire Division's annual meet for the fourth year, with a parade, a steamboat ride to the mouth of the Piscataqua, dinner at the Wentworth House for seventy wheelmen, the election of Geo. F. Hill of Great Falls as secretary-treasurer, and a visit to the residence of Hon. Frank Jones.
- A gossip column of short items: L. B. Hamilton of Yale skipping the State road race, the Canadian Wheelmen's Association timing by electricity, Kluge's timely accident policy before his Lynn tumble, the Lynn tournament fixed for 23-25 September, and the Globe's claim that the Pope Manufacturing Company's A.C.U. team costs $1,000 a month.
- Titnam's New York letter covers the State Division officers' meeting at the Grand Union Hotel under George Bidwell, praising DeGraaf, Luscomb and Potter, with the annual meet accepted for Buffalo on 3-4 September; also Colonel Pope's departure for Europe and the coming Orange Wanderers ten-mile road race at Newark.
- Philo reports the Illinois Division Meet at Cheltenham Beach with a run to Pullman and races on Monday, the Chicago Bicycle Club's race meeting set for 31 July, Blake's work in getting the Exposition people to build what may be the fastest four-lap track in the country, and the contest among papers to become the division's official organ.
- A column of brief notes cheering Hendee's 2.34 mile, Speechly's 2.34 1/4, and Eldred's 1.19.50 twenty miles; noting the new weekly Recreation replacing the Cyclist and Athlete, the arrest of a cyclist in Cincinnati, and Outing sending James Rialton toward the Arctic Ocean on a tricycle convertible into a bed.
- President Bates writes to defend the old gentleman-amateur definition and the proscribed makers' amateurs, proposing amateurs be split into Class A (paying their own expenses) and Class B (expenses paid by clubs or promoters), so that flyers like Hendee, Rowe and Weber can stay amateurs and beat the English records.
- Frank W. Weston denies Mr. Ducker's assertion that he received expenses as a race official, noting he personally bore nearly $50 for the Framingham race of 1881 and over $500 for the Institute races of 1882, and respectfully declined Ducker's offer of expenses at the 1884 Springfield meeting.
- J. Jaques of Salt Lake City, citing the trend at the Stanley and other British shows, argues that no bicycle or tricycle small wheel should be under twenty-four inches, dismissing the 12-to-18-inch wheels favoured by cautious American makers as little, pottering and jolting.
- A correspondent signing 'Doubter' points out that Hendee's quarter-mile tricycle record should be 40 seconds, made on 6 November (the day John Williams made the ten-mile tricycle record), not the 42 seconds credited by the Racing Board; the editor hears the 40-second figure will be allowed.
- A description of Foote's anti-header device, which uses a rubber roller to clamp the forks the moment the small wheel tries to jump forward, claiming to prevent nine-tenths of headers and make a safety of the ordinary crank machine; the Overman Wheel Co. contests the device.
- A correspondent reports on the use of potash developer for photographic plates as described to the Society of Amateur Photographers, noting its advantages over soda developer for cycling photographers seeking instantaneous results.
- Meetings at President Ducker's house amend the Union's constitution and rules to create three classes — amateur, promateur and professional — with new requirements for record claims (sworn surveyors' statements or three certified cyclometers) and a code of road-racing rules covering timekeepers, starters, scorers, umpires and team scoring.
- Racing round-up: at Lynn's Glenmere track Rowe broke every world record from five to ten miles (28.03 2/5 for ten) and Knapp beat Weber in the two-mile; Eldred's 20-mile Springfield road record of 1.19.50 is detailed, along with meets at Cheltenham Beach, Boston Common, Cleveland's Athletic Park, Binghamton, Chelsea, North Adams, and Hendee's 2.34 amateur mile at Springfield.
- The racing and touring calendar: the Indiana Division race meet at Indianapolis on 15 July, Elwell's Blue Nose tour down the St. John River from 16 July, the Connecticut Bicycle Club meeting at Charter Oak Park on 8 September, the Springfield tournament from 14 September, and the Lynn tournament from 23 September.
- C.T.C. notices from acting chief consul C. H. Potter of Cleveland: the list of State consuls, provisionally elected members including Rev. Wayland Hoyt of Philadelphia, hotel and consul appointments in Ohio, and the 1886 Hand-Book offered at thirty-five cents.