The Bicycling World, Vol 13, No 20
Articles in this issue
- Editorial note opening the Springfield Extra edition, explaining that special correspondent "Comus" telegraphed an exhaustive review of the Springfield Tournament, and regretting that the rain postponement prevents inclusion of the last day's results.
- "Comus"'s day-by-day report from Hampden Park: Rowe, Burnham, Stone and Neilson win the one-mile World's Championship heats, Hendee takes the ten-mile A.C.U. promateur championship, and Crist and Brown of Washington set world tandem-tricycle records. Rain washes out Thursday, and on the third day Rowe beats Hendee in their heat while Woodside wins the one-mile professional race.
- A reader letter from James A. Spead advises that bicycle rattles are almost always caused by loose joint bolts at the fork ends, not loose ball bearings, and warns that wrongly tightening the bearing cones instead will grind them to ruin.
- Reprinted from the Springfield Union, this story traces the premature graying of professional racing cyclist Tom Eck to a terrifying childhood ordeal at sixteen, when two companions drowned after their boat capsized in a Lake Ontario storm.
- A trade note describing the Beauty Cycle Saddle made by the Humphreys Spring Company of Irwin, Pa., a coiled-wire suspension-and-spring saddle with a rocking cradle motion said to absorb any ordinary jar.
- The editors announce they will publish a special Friday Extra edition to deliver full Springfield tournament results without delaying the regular weekly issue, calling it a stroke of enterprise.
- The unheaded leader column boosts the coming Lynn (23-25 September) and Roseville tournaments and races at Pittsburg, Brooklyn, Mineola and Winona, praises Fred Wood's 2.33 race-mile at Hartford, mocks the C.T.C.'s proposed new badge as a near-facsimile of the L.A.W. symbol, and describes the electric timing wire and bells first used at Springfield.
- "Comus" sketches the peaceable meeting of rival editors Merrill, Aaron and Bassett at the Hartford tournament, recalls yelling as Fred Wood tore after Neilson in the handicap race, and marks young Fred Foster, Neilson's find, as a coming marvel.
- Notes ahead of the Lynn Cycle Club tournament: the track is perfect and the new grand stand due by 21 September, while a training collision injured Star rider Harry Sherman, Whitten and Worden; wheelmen's three-day season tickets cost $1.00.
- "Verax" reports Van Sicklen's plan to spend his vacation racing at the Owl Club, Winona and Minneapolis meets, dry-goods merchant M. P. Warner's header at Ithaca alongside the badly hurt Dakin, and the Illinois Cyclers blackballing Conkling and Ingalls by eleven votes to four.
- "Comus" writes from Springfield mid-tournament: fair skies and good patronage vindicate Ducker, the absent English riders are missed, the promateur class is judged a passing experiment, and Rowe is tipped for the world's championship unless Wood recovers his form.
- "Brevity" describes plans for the St. Louis wheelmen's torchlight parade with some 350 riders under Grand Marshal Stettinius, including the St. Johns Bicycle Brass Band and a demon squad, plus a sixteen-mile race on the Manchester pike and regret at Percy Stone turning promateur.
- "The Idler" reflects on the Hartford races and Fred Wood's 2.33 mile, argues the promateur is barely removed from the professional -- Rowe and Hendee visibly race under their manager's instructions -- and passes on the rumor that Hendee will turn professional after the season.
- New York correspondent covers the Harlem Wheelmen's inaugural race meet—notable for close multi-man finishes—and details the Ixion Bicycle Club's ambitious all-handicap tournament planned at Roseville in October with $195 first prizes.
- A letter from Geo. E. Blackham of Dunkirk, N.Y., correcting correspondent "H"'s account of his resolutions at the Buffalo officers' meeting, which asserted the L.A.W.'s supreme jurisdiction over cycling athletics in this country.
- Explorer Ricalton, sent by Outing to ride a three-wheeled machine from Archangel through Russia to the Crimea, has not been heard from since leaving New York, and his friends fear his photographic apparatus led to his arrest -- though a press-time note says he has now been heard from.
- A special despatch from Chicago reports that Whittaker broke the ten-mile road record by three minutes on 13 September riding a Champion bicycle, though the editors note no time was given so the claim cannot be verified.
- Reports W.H. Huntley's near-successful 24-hour road record attempt near Boston, during which he covered 140 miles in 11 laps and broke the 100-mile American road record en route, before a stone placed in the road threw him and ended the attempt.
- F.B. Hawkins of the Brooklyn Bicycle Club covered 202 miles in 24 hours over a measured course starting from the club rooms on St. Felix Street, with pace-makers throughout, despite his crank breaking at 192 miles.
- Editorial squibs on tournament week: Howell's reluctance to come over for handicap races, the Warner-Dakin crash at Ithaca, Furnivall's 2.30 mile at Long Eaton, sixteen-year-old G. Sharpless's 100 miles in twelve hours, and the L.A.W. Racing Board's refusal to reinstate Whitney, Senter and others.
- A miscellaneous column mixing cycling correspondence, rider testimonials for the New Rapid bicycle, gossip about the contested Rowe–Ives result at Pittsfield, and club news from Boston, New York, and the Midwest.
- Reports proposed ordinances in Orange, West Orange, and South Orange, New Jersey, that would require all vehicle riders—including cyclists—to give audible warning of approach to pedestrians and to carry lighted lamps from one hour after sunset.
- A roundup of domestic and international racing notes covering recent results at Pittsfield, the upcoming East Hartford Wheel Club meeting, and commentary on the form of professionals Ives, Rowe, Wood, and newcomer Crocker.
- Full two-day results from Pittsfield, 10-11 September: Rowe, Hendee and Burnham win the promateur events, Neilson, Woodside and Crocker split the professional races, and Ives beats scratch-man Rowe in the five-mile promateur handicap.
- Results of the races held with the Baltimore County Fair on 9 September over a heavy clay half-mile track: R. Whittingham wins the one-mile, J. H. Cunningham the three-mile handicap, and the Maryland Bicycle Club the tug-of-war.
- Summary of the Harlem Wheelmen's first race meet on a sharp-cornered quarter-mile cinder path: E. T. Halstead and J. W. Powers, Jr. win club events, A. B. Rich takes the New York State three-mile championship, and the Kings County Wheelmen win the team-race silver cup.
- The Attleboro' Farmers and Mechanics Association annual races of 14 September, managed by the Columbia Bicycle Club under O. W. Clifford: W. H. Senter is debarred as a professional, F. B. Brigham breaks the track's mile record, and the Brockton Club wins the team race.
- Full two-day summaries from the Hartford tournament of 8-9 September: Hendee takes the A.C.U. one-mile promateur championship, Fred Wood rides 2.33 from scratch in the professional handicap -- the fastest mile ever made in a race -- and Crist and Brown win the tandem-tricycle event.