The Bicycling World, Vol 6, No 12
Articles in this issue
- A bill introduced in the Ohio legislature by a Mr. Green of Shelby County would require cyclists to dismount at least twenty-five feet from any approaching horse, effectively making cycling on public highways impractical; the editor calls the measure absurd and unconstitutional, and reports that the League is taking steps to oppose it.
- Julius Wilcox argues that safe and courteous cycling carries a moral dimension beyond legal rights; a Louisville correspondent reports on the Kentucky Bicycle Club's recent race meeting won by Crawford of Louisville; a third letter discusses the ideal tricycle design the cycling public is waiting for.
- Boston, January 20: Bay State Wheel Club five-mile won by Miller in 19m. 49⅜s., open amateur five-mile won by Burnham in 16m. 26¾s., and the Frye–Prince title contest concludes with lap-by-lap times; Cincinnati, January 18: a 90-minute long-distance club championship won by Reed over Kitchell.
- A technical analysis arguing that ball bearings wear faster than parallel bearings because the steel balls hammer depressions into the case-hardened surfaces under road vibration; the author contends that ball bearings also run harder as they wear, are heavier, costlier, and can be dangerous when balls split under load.
- Cyclists have the same legal right to use public highways as horse-drawn vehicles; the courts have consistently held that a horse shying at a bicycle is the driver's fault; reproduces the full text of the Ohio Green bill's most dangerous clause, requiring cyclists to dismount twenty-five feet from any approaching horse.
- Portrait and biography of J.O. Blake, vice-president of John Wilkinson Company of Chicago and organizer of the Chicago Bicycle Club; followed by a letter from Mrs. King rebutting 'Matterhorn's' earlier argument and defending a rational dress for lady tricyclists; League applications, B.T.C. notices, and a note on Massachusetts guide boards round out the page.
- A professional cyclist argues that the Bicycle Union should create a governing body open to professionals, who are currently excluded from all cycling organizations and treated as outsiders despite being legitimate sportsmen with valid interests in the sport's regulation.
- Inspirational cycling poem 'Up the Hill' by Ninon Neckar, urging steady effort on climbs with the promise of rest at the summit.
- Crimmins and Viele are the new New York park commissioners, and wheelmen are urged to apply for park access; Ohio wheelmen are encouraged to keep pressing their rights; Burnham is praised as a dark horse; H.L. Cortis is reported as being warmly received in Melbourne.
- Notes on the increasing development of variable-ratio gearing for tricycles, promising cyclists the ability to shift to a lower gear for hill climbing; the cryptodynamic gear inventor proposes extending the system to bicycles, which would make multi-speed machines universally practical.
- Review of The Century's February issue, a midwinter number featuring the opening of Howells' new novel 'A Woman's Reason,' a portrait of George William Curtis, and illustrated articles including one by Philadelphia bicycling artist J. Pennell; brief notice of St. Nicholas for February, largely devoted to the valentine season.