The Bicycling World, Vol 6, No 18
Articles in this issue
- The editorial 'Reweighed' revisits the ideal weight for a touring bicycle, weighing a Wheelman contributor's case for 48-50 lb machines against Sturmey's claim that the craze for ultra-light roadsters has passed, then rebuts The Wheel's charge of editorial duplicity and corrects a rival's history of 'Our First Bicycle Club' to credit Frank W. Weston as its true founder.
- Stanley Show Part III reviews machines by the Bicycle and Tricycle Supply Association (Matchless bicycles), the Omnicycle with adjustable leverage, the Centaur Company's Tandem, Zephyr Company's speed gear, the Sterling (pedalled backwards), Harrington Arab Cradle Spring, and Rudge; the reviewer notes a growing trend toward lightness and front-steering tricycles.
- New York Letter: good riding conditions follow recent rain before a sudden snow-storm catches riders out; the Ixions plan a masquerade after their monthly meeting; Captain Will R. Pitman is appointed League consul for New York City; and the writer presses New York's case over Washington for the League Meet.
- The Hermes Race Meeting in Chicago on 22 February draws about 2,000 spectators including Mayor Harrison; S. G. Sturges wins the one-mile, Chas. H. Jenkins beats W. R. Crawford by half a length in the five-mile, and the ten-mile ends in a declared tie; a Cincinnati long-distance meet is won by Wright, and H. D. Hedger posts $150 to back a proposed twenty-mile relay race pitting John S. Prince against four leading riders on 17 March.
- Club news: the 'Social Boston' club opens its riding season on 1 March with eight men out on muddy roads; new officers are reported for the Cortlandt Wheelmen, Fostoria Bicycle Touring Club, Albany Club and Valley Bicycle Club of Newark, Ohio; and new clubs are organized at Sidney, Ohio (Valley City Wheel Club) and Laramie, Wyoming Territory.
- F. C. H. of Scranton argues Washington is the best venue for the League Meet; Stephen Terry of Hartford disputes a claim about balanced/differential tricycle gears, citing the Starley, Pritchard and National designs; and 'Geesee' of Marblehead urges L.A.W. members to vote only for earnest, interested workers in the coming election.
- L.A.W. membership applications are listed for the Greenfield, Lowell, Toledo and Canton clubs; Ohio members are notified of a nomination meeting in Columbus on 12 March; detailed instructions govern the annual election of chief consuls and representatives, with ballots due at the Cleveland corresponding secretary's office by midnight, 10 April; and state-by-state membership and representation figures are tabulated.
- Fixtures from 9 March to 1 July, including a Columbia Bicycle Club ball at Wamsutta Opera House, a Woodside-Morgan 25-mile race at Philadelphia's Industrial Hall, annual meetings of the Maryland, Lawrence, Milwaukee, Haverhill, Brooklyn and Missouri clubs, and the Chicago Bicycle Club's Canadian tour starting from Ann Arbor on 1 July.
- President Bates writes urging Washington as the League Meet site, citing strong Western support, while Louise Armaindo is reported training in Chicago to lower the professional hundred-mile record and a prior Keith Falconer two-mile record is corrected to 5m 36.5s. The column runs on to page 218 with notes on a proposed Oregon race track, a critique of Henry Sturmey's Wheelman letter, inspection of a new hill-climbing gear patent, and a Peekskill correspondent's praise for the McDonnell cyclometer over the 'Star' bicycle.
- Foreign notes: C. W. Nairn of the Cyclist, recovered from illness, reports from the Stanley Show at Albert Hall; a photography lecture for wheelmen is held at Anderton's, where a meeting also considers a Metropolitan tricyclists' meet; and moves are afoot to rename the Bicycle Union and the Bicycle Touring Club amid a Tricyclist debate over whether the Humber is a front- or rear-steerer.
- Replies to correspondents (including 'Hermes' of Chicago and F. C. H. of Scranton) are followed by an obituary for the Frenchman who devised the pedal-crank for the Draisine, dying in Bicetre aged sixty-nine, and a note on the Bicycling Times' opposition to tricycle racing. A testimonial letter, 'A Good Thing,' has Llewellyn H. Johnson of the New York Bicycle Club praising the Overman Wheel Company's Yale roadster and Harrington's black enamel finish.