The Bicycling World, Vol 9, No 15
Articles in this issue
- Editorial urging manufacturers to stop selling machines that have not been properly road-tested by practical wheelmen, citing a fault the World had repeatedly flagged that makers only fixed after customers had already suffered annoyance and expense. Followed by short notes on the New York Citizen's Club starting a cycling library, a Treasury ruling that bicycles bought and used abroad may enter duty-free only on affidavit that the owner will not sell them, and hopes for a large Boston-area wheelmen's turnout at the coming L.A.W. meet.
- Detailed description and test report on the Kangaroo Safety Bicycle, built by Hillman, Herbert and Cooper of Coventry, England — a 36-inch-wheeled machine driven through two chains from toothed hub flanges to the pedal cranks, with a 28-inch hollow handlebar, a 22-inch mud-guarded rear wheel, a saddle on an Arab cradle spring and a powerful spoon brake, seating the rider well back from the front axle to guard against headers. Quotes the editor of the London Field praising its steering, mounting, hill-climbing and speed after an extended trial, and reports the World's own staff had since ridden it some three hundred miles, including two single rides of 104 and 100 miles.
- H. S. Wood corrects an earlier item crediting him with a 112-mile century on 4 July: the true distance was 106 miles, from Frankford, Philadelphia, to the Jersey City ferry (96 miles) and ten more to Newark, against a head wind with rain and mud for the last forty miles. He reports repeating the ride in reverse on 3 August, from Jersey City ferry to the Camden (Philadelphia) ferry, a full 100.1 miles, again meeting heavy rain and deep mud around Trenton.
- Extended correspondence signed 'Mordecai' arguing that the amateur rule is undemocratic, a 'gigantic farce,' and should be abolished, pointing to English racers such as Gaskell, Sutton, Chambers and Illston who ride as paid 'kept amateurs' for makers like the Coventry Machinists Company and Rudge. Contrasts this with yachtsmen and horse-owners who race for money without being called professionals, and calls instead for classifying riders by ability, letting each choose whether to race for money or a trophy.
- Short reader letter signed 'b.' asking whether a married couple is better served by buying a second single tricycle or selling their Columbia and buying a Convertible sociable, weighing the ease of riding a single machine against the feeling of extra weight and drag on a sociable.
- Notes column opening with the season's persistent rain, Stoddard, Lovering & Co. ordering a sample Kangaroo bicycle, and repairs beginning on Boston's Milldam road after a wheelmen's petition; also reports Theodore Constein's arrest for stealing bicycles and parts worth $412.50 from the Cunningham Company and the Gamwell brothers' nine-month cycling tour through the Azores, Portugal and Spain. Continuing onto the next page, it adds that racers Illston and F. Sutton have been injured and will miss the Springfield tournament, and that young Abraham Lincoln, son of the Secretary of War, rides a 45-inch Star.
- Report on the Boston Club's second annual tricycle road race, run over a course estimated at sixteen miles from Bailey's Hotel, South Natick, into the city: E. P. Burnham (Victor Rotary) won in 1h.14m.40s. despite the withdrawal of Corey, Johnson and Dudley, with F. Morris second, Abbot Bassett third after being taken with cramps, and J. S. Dean fourth after his steering gear broke near Wellesley.
- Results of England's National Cyclists' Union amateur championships: H. A. Speechly won the one-mile bicycle at Lillie Bridge, R. Chambers the five-mile at Cardiff, R. H. English the twenty-five-mile at Newcastle-on-Tyne and F. R. Fry the fifty-mile at Crystal Palace, while C. E. Liles swept the one-, five- and twenty-five-mile tricycle titles, extending his run of N.C.U. tricycle championships back to 1882.
- The L.A.W. Consul for Dorchester recommends a short ride for Boston-area wheelmen pressed for time: from Copley Square via Dartmouth Street, Columbus and Harrison Avenues to Mount Bowdoin and Meeting House Hill in Dorchester, then by Adams Street and Cedar Grove Cemetery to Lower Mills and Mattapan, returning via Codman Hill — a round trip of seventeen and three-quarter miles over some of the best roads in the vicinity.
- Report, reprinted from the Newark Advertiser, on a moonlight and Chinese-lantern parade of some 150 wheelmen through Newark on 7 August, drawing the Essex, Orange Wanderers, Elizabeth Wheelmen, Passaic County Wheelmen, Æolus (Paterson), Staten Island, Plainfield, Hudson County (Jersey City) and Knickerbocker (Brooklyn) clubs. An estimated 25,000 spectators packed Broad and Market streets and broke up the riders' formation before they reached a collation at Riker's restaurant in Orange.
- Previews of the autumn racing calendar, including the Boston Ramblers' September 5 meeting, a joint Philadelphia/Germantown/Pennsylvania clubs meet for the Pope Challenge Cup, tournaments at Cleveland, Buffalo, Montgomery and Oswego, the Albany Bicycle Club's $1,000-prize meet held jointly with the New York State Division, and a Chicago six-day contest pitting John S. Prince and Mdlle. Louise Armaindo against equestrian C. M. Anderson. Also reports a twenty-hour indoor race on the Union grounds in which Stevens covered 209 miles to C. J. Young's 205 before empty stands, blaming the promoters for failing to advertise it to wheelmen.
- Club notes: Nashville's club has finished new rooms and plans a house-warming, Bangor's twenty-seven-member Pine Tree Wheel Club is fitting out rooms over the city library ahead of a Maplewood Park field day, and a long Manchester, N.H. report covers Lieut. Moses Sheriff's 698-mile Canadian tour and members' rides to Hampton Beach, Rye and along the coast to Salem, Gloucester and Rockport. Also notes C. F. Sawtelle's eighty-five-mile round trip from Manchester to Charlestown, N.H.
- C.T.C. American Division notice giving membership dues and listing provisionally-elected applicants from Wilkesbarre, Pa., and Cleveland, Ohio, and announcing that the division's first annual autumn tour — a repeat of the 'Wheel Around the Hub' — will be held in Boston on the first Monday in October. The Canadian Division gives consul Horace S. Tibbs's Montreal address and appeals for consuls in every Canadian town.
- Answers-to-correspondents column fielding readers' questions, including pointing 'Rudgb' to Frank X. Mudge, editor of the Bicycle in Montgomery, Ala., recommending the King of the Road lantern, advising on saddle soreness, and confirming that no Bicycle Indispensable annual will be issued this year. Identifies the unnamed 'Facilists' in a Providence correspondent's article as J. T. Dyer and C. P. Donahoe.
- Calendar of forthcoming bicycle events from August 14 through October 7, including the Louisville and Cleveland tournaments, Iowa Division races at Des Moines, the Massachusetts Division parade and Boston Ramblers' races on September 5, the Springfield tournament of September 16-19, and the C.T.C. Wheel Around the Hub in October.