The Cycle, Vol 1, No 1
Articles in this issue
- p. 3
Editor Abbot Bassett introduces The Cycle to the cycling world, pledging to report news fairly and impartially without personal axes to grind, and acknowledging honestly that making the venture profitable is the essential goal alongside doing good in the sport.
- p. 3
A detailed analysis of the League of American Wheelmen's Racing Board decision to suspend so-called promateurs — riders paid by manufacturers to race — examining three camps of opinion: strict enforcement, a new intermediate class, and abolishing the amateur law altogether.
- p. 4
The Racing Board has revised its rules for 1886, adding a class race definition, restricting championship prize values to $50, abolishing fifteen and twenty-five mile championship events in favour of a twenty-mile bicycle and two and five-mile tricycle events, and switching start/finish measurement to the front wheel.
- p. 4
A historical essay traces cycling in America from the bone-shaker of 1869 through the introduction of the first proper bicycles at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial, crediting James Starley as the true inventor of the modern machine.
- p. 2
Wm. Read and Sons of Boston advertise the Royal Mail bicycle with six improvements including grip-fast cement-free rim, ball-bearing head, and detachable handlebars, citing a road record of 5,056 miles as evidence of its superiority.
- p. 1
The Coventry Machinists' Co. at 239 Columbus Avenue, Boston advertise their Marlboro Club tricycle for 1886 with catalogues on application.
- p. 1
W. W. Stall of 509 Tremont Street, Boston advertises a new 48-page cycle catalogue for two cents and a new whistle called the Screamer available by mail for fifty cents.