The Cycle, Vol 1, No 15
Articles in this issue
- The Cycle argues that the L.A.W., whose purpose is securing legal rights for wheelmen, cannot logically regulate road racing that is frequently conducted in violation of law, citing an English 50-mile race kept secret from police as an example of what the League should avoid.
- The paper notes the air is full of reports that the two rival associations are negotiating a settlement, but argues that no single representative of either body has the authority to resolve the differences alone and warns that a hasty agreement would satisfy no one.
- The Independence Day holiday produced a large crop of bicycle racing records, with Victor C. Placere notably returning to racing and winning a championship at his first meeting back, prompting the Cycle to remark 'He knows his Place.'
- Ohio wheelmen held an indignation meeting at the Gibson House after the arrest of John A. Green for riding a bicycle in Cincinnati, with Governor Foraker and the mayor both addressing the crowd and assuring cyclists the police had misunderstood orders restricting only a small strip of Race Street.
- A gossipy column of short notes on local cycling personalities, including Dr. Kendall's photography collection, the Boston club's new straw hat, the closure of Glenmere Track for repairs, and the doings of riders such as McCurdy, Hendee, Weber, and Neilson.
- A serialised cycling romance in which a young wheelman on a Welsh tour crashes his bicycle on a steep descent and is rescued by a young woman, the Honorable Lilith, with whom he begins to fall in love; the instalment ends with him discovering her aristocratic identity.
- An itinerary letter from Thomas Stevens, forwarded by Karl Kron, recounting his bicycle journey from Meshed through Afghanistan to the Caspian Sea and thence to Constantinople in the spring of 1886, including notes on road conditions and his detention by Afghan authorities.
- The Cycle reprints a letter from Illustrated Bits describing a primitive two-speed hand-cranked velocipede built in Birstall over forty years earlier, with the correspondent humorously suggesting arm-powered gearing would still be the ideal solution for hill-climbing.
- A digest of recent British cycling news covering N.C.U. path-record certifications for bicycle and tricycle events, results of the fifty-mile North Road road race, the Scottish fifty-mile amateur championship, and Letchford's tricycle time-trial at Cambridge.
- A reader signed F.W.C. disputes the A.C.U. president's claim that the N.C.U. took over racing from the C.T.C., and the editor corrects the historical record, noting that the C.T.C. never had anything to do with racing when the N.C.U. was formed in 1878.
- A Louisiana correspondent reports on upcoming race arrangements for the Hill medal fifty-mile race, W.L. Hughes's unbeaten record in his first season of racing, the appearance of the first tandem in the Southwest, and L.A.W. divisional appointments in New Orleans.
- A signed column (initials 5678) reflecting on bicycle advertising, arguing that honest and specific claims earn more trust than bombastic assertions of universal superiority, and noting that weight misrepresentations are the most common form of manufacturer deception.
- A poem by L.H.P. in the Cyclets department contrasting the ancient ideal of combined physical and mental excellence with modern commercial life, and concluding that cycling above all other sports restores that wholesome union of body and mind.
- A condensed compilation of Fourth of July bicycle race results from Lynn, Boston Common, Springfield, Cleveland, Waltham, Brookline, North Adams, Newton, Wakefield, Chelsea, Brushton Pa., and Ottawa, including W.A. Rowe's new ten-mile world record at Lynn and V.C. Place's L.A.W. championship win at Cleveland.