The Bicycling World, Vol 5, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Twenty-nine members and guests of the San Francisco Bicycle Club made their season-opening run on April 16, 1882, riding 20 miles from the city to San Mateo via the old San Bruno road, with stops at Sierra Point House for clam chowder and at D. O. Mills's country estate. The ride concluded with an inaugural meet on the banks of San Mateo Creek at the home of Mr. Webb Howard, where the club's culinary committee spread lunch on the greensward beneath a large shady oak.
- The editor urges members attending the League's annual meeting in Chicago on May 30 to come prepared to nominate two qualified director candidates for each State and to carry certificates allowing them to vote for absent club members, suggesting the corresponding secretaryship is best filled from New York. Clubs that neglect to send delegates and votes, he warns, must not complain afterwards if a sectional distribution of the honors leaves them out in the cold.
- The paper reprints its May 5 editorial declaring that the Bicycling World is published in the general interests of bicycling and not in the special interests of manufacturers and dealers — followed, as the ironic 'immediate reward', by Albert A. Pope's letter of the same date discontinuing the Pope Manufacturing Company's advertisement.
- This recurring club news column covers run and meeting schedules for the Boston and Roxbury Bicycle Clubs, and reports the AEolus Wheel Club of Worcester's formal resignation from the L.A.W. after their protest against the admission of F. S. Clark was overruled by the membership committee. Also included are formation and election reports from new or reorganized clubs in Marinette (WI), Portsmouth (NH), Canandaigua (NY), Newton (MA), Brooklyn (NY), Lowell (MA), Cleveland (OH), Scranton (PA), and Syracuse (NY), with many clubs noting plans to send delegates to the upcoming L.A.W. Meet in Chicago.
- Reports a three-day bicycle tournament in Montreal (April 13-15) at the Crystal Rink where Mlle. Armaindo set a ladies' record riding 95 miles in 7 hours 58 minutes 25 seconds, and describes the new Olympic Athletic Club track in Oakland—a one-fifth-mile hard-pan clay circuit at 14th and Centre streets—which held an informal one-mile handicap on April 29 won by W. H. Lowden. Champion John S. Prince also issues a public challenge to any four professional bicyclers in America to ride a 20-mile relay race against him, with $10 already deposited as stakeholder with the Bicycling World editor.
- Kol Kron's 'Advice Gratis for Chicago' corrects the record that the upcoming meet is properly the League's third annual gathering (not second) and offers detailed advice on parade formation, hotel arrangements, bicycle transport certificates, and dinner format for Chicago organizers. Other letters describe the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's new rank insignia (shoulder straps with a wheel device in silver on blue), debate road conditions for the Essex County Meet at Lawrence, defend bicycle dealers against criticism for not stocking more machines given rapid design improvements, and present G. F. C. Smillie's proposal for restructuring the L.A.W. with a five-member executive committee and state boards elected by geographic district.
- The L.A.W. section sets out membership procedures: a $1 admission fee (50 cents each if an entire club joins), applications submitted to Corresponding Secretary Kingman N. Putnam at 54 Wall Street, New York, with names published in the Bicycling World for public scrutiny before approval. It also lists outlets where the League Hand-Book (30 cents) can be purchased and instructs members to bring appropriate certificates to vote for absent club members at the Chicago annual meeting.
- Corresponding Secretary Kingman N. Putnam publishes the final batch of L.A.W. membership applications for the current League year, including the newly formed Pioneer Bicycle Club of Marinette (WI), additional members of the Aertel and Hermes clubs of Chicago, the Cincinnati Bicycle Club, the Aylmer Bicycle Club of Ontario, and the Dunkirk Bicycle Club of New York, along with unattached riders from Illinois, Michigan, New York, Kentucky, New Jersey, Maryland, and Lancashire, England. No further applications can be received in time for the May 30 election.
- This miscellany column notes that the Dunkirk and Chelsea Bicycle Clubs have adopted new uniforms, J. S. Dean announces his intention to race this season, and the Charlotte (NC) club will lead the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence celebration parade on May 20. Also reports that the Seneca Falls club is forming a stock company to build a sixth-mile bicycle track, that Messrs. Keller, Probert, and Capt. Smith of Dunkirk completed a 52-mile run from Dunkirk to Mayville and back via Fredonia and Westfield, and that C. H. Lamson will exhibit the new L.A.W. badge design at the Chicago Meet in styles from $2.50 upward.
- Answers to correspondents give Lewis T. Frye's American amateur ten-mile record (35m 44 4/5s at Boston's Institute Fair building) and W. W. Stall's outdoor mark at Beacon Park, describe the five-lap indoor track at the New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute building, and point 'Oscar' of St. Catharines to earlier accounts of White Mountain wheel tours via Dixville Notch and North Conway. A clipping from the Cyclist notes that Bayliss, Thomas & Co. of Coventry received a cable order from the States for 250 machines, and a Puck verse about a flirtatious rider's header closes the column.
- A detailed review of the Cheylesmore double-driving tricycle, built by the Coventry Machinist Company (makers of the Special Club bicycle) and imported by Schuyler & Duane of New York, arguing that double drivers will soon displace the dangerous single side-driving pattern and commending the machine to lady riders. Praised features include the 44-inch drivers with Club hollow rims, the patent clutches on a double-cranked ball-bearing shaft, and the effective lever-worked spoon brake fitted because back-pedalling is impossible.