The Bicycling World, Vol 2, No 16
Articles in this issue
- The editor reports that the League meet location is nearly decided, mocks a Valentine prank sent to the office, and discusses the recent surge of tricycle sales in England.
- An editorial admits that the bicycler who rides off for a half-day's run leaves wife and family behind, and urges riders to buy tricycles for the ladies and to show courtesy to horse-drivers on the road.
- The World argues that the first grand L.A.W. meet on 31 May 1881 will shape the future of American cycling, citing the spread of Xtraordinary Challenges among middle-aged riders such as Mr. Bentley of Philadelphia and the growing demand for tricycles among ladies.
- Two letters debate the site of the 1881 L.A.W. meet: 'Rolain' claims Boston, the home of the bicycle and birthplace of the League, while 'G. E. B.', a rural New York member, endorses Washington's asphalt streets and berates New York's Central Park exclusion of wheelmen.
- Clippings from the English press include Mr. C. Wheaton's claim that Edwin Dalzell of Lesmahagow built the first true bicycle thirty-four years earlier, a correspondent's defence of the tricycle's downhill safety on a 'Salvo', the congress in Paris to form a Union Velocipedique Francais, tricycle matches at Lyons, and a Bombay horseman's complaint about 'obstructionist' tricyclers.
- 'C.' relays Cyclist reports on thick tires slipping on wet macadam, rural letter collectors at Coventry and in the Isle of Wight delivering mail by tricycle, English riders led by Mr. Winter planning a March visit to America, and Hillman & Herbert's improved Stanley head for their Premier bicycle.
- A comic poem read at the Boston Bicycle Club's third annual dinner on 7 February 1881, in which the narrator demonstrates his wheel on Olympus, Diana rides it around the heavens, and Vulcan takes forty orders for machines.
- 'Ixion' describes a six-mile fog-bound ride on his 54-inch wheel over the ice-armored Essex macadams after seven weeks of sleighing, his Hill & Tolman alarm serving as a fog horn, and appends comparative measurements of three high-class English and American machines.
- 'Bert' of Philadelphia disputes contributor 'H.''s claim that weight should be shifted off the driving wheel, arguing that loading the small rear wheel only increases drag and would return the bicycle to bone-shaker principles.
- 'Ivanhoe' recommends a camphene pocket lantern for re-cementing a loosened tire on the road in place of unsightly strings, and advocates handle bars of twenty-two inches or longer for better control.
- E. P. Hodges of the Keystone Bicycle Club describes Pittsburg riding along Second Avenue past Soho and the Monongahela to Glenwood, and recounts a fifteen-mile August excursion with Mr. Ormsby through Braddock's Field to McKeesport, complete with ruts, headers, and gawking crowds.
- 'The Arab' reports that the Essex Bicycle Club is wintering quietly, forming its first territorial division, the Orange Wanderers under Capt. Johnson, after a fifty-couple reception at secretary E. R. Bellman's house, and expects Johnson, Field, and Lafon to defend its racing reputation in the coming season.
- A mock obituary for the 'inordinate ambition of a 'cycler to practice fancy riding', killed when a Haverhill rider attempting a standing-still mount on his 50-inch Columbia struck his head on a treacherous chandelier.
- The Archery Field editorial observes that beginners in archery, as in bicycling, wrongly blame or credit their instruments, arguing that practice with common weapons beats the choicest Aldred bows and Highfield arrows wielded with critical dilettanteism.
- 'Friar Tuck' asks how an archer can hold a point of aim thirty feet above the target against a blank sky at the 100-yard York round range, noting the Brooklyn national meeting grounds lack any background, and explains why bicycling wins converts faster than the more exacting science of archery.
- 'C. G. H.' rebukes the editor's complaint about archers' lack of enthusiasm, pointing to field days at Highland Park, the North Side Archers' Saturday meets at Lincoln Park in Chicago, and clubs already planning to carry off prizes at the Brooklyn national meeting in July.
- 'Sugna' recounts the first large Western meet, a three-day run of forty-one wheelmen from Milwaukee on 3-5 July with riders from Chicago, Indianapolis, Lafayette, and Grand Rapids, through Wauwatosa and Waukesha to Nagawicka Lake, a thunder-storm forcing them to skip Oconomowoc before the farewell supper at the Plankinton House.
- Secretary E. H. Fowler invites visiting bicyclers to the Capital Bi. Club's run around Washington on 4 March, and the Orange Wanderers, the Essex club's new subdivision, vote on dues and a buff-and-seal-brown uniform with a half-orange badge.
- League notices give joining instructions via treasurer Hugh L. Willoughby and secretary Albert S. Parsons, followed by membership applications from the Detroit, New Britain, Roxbury, and Boston clubs, the entire Seaside Club of Norfolk, Va., and the new Arlington Bi. Club of Washington under president E. B. Hay.
- 'Whele' of Brooklyn laments the cobbles, sham macadam, and slatternly approaches that hem in the American rider, argues that bad roads are an hourly tax on everyone, and proposes a winter survey by riders in every State to measure how much road is fit for the bicycle.