The Cycle, Vol 1, No 2
Articles in this issue
- The Cycle argues forcefully against any constitutional amendment that would do away with the League of American Wheelmen's annual general meeting, calling it the membership's only rein on the Board of Officers and a fundamental democratic safeguard. The article also notes that proxy voting has been inadvertently abolished, leaving distant clubs such as California without representation at the Boston Meet.
- The second instalment of this series by Jamsatis traces the development of tricycles from 1881, documenting the rapid growth in machine patterns from 100 to roughly 400 by 1885 and the gradual adoption of balance gears in place of clutches. It closes by noting that the Coventry Rotary and the Humber have remained essentially unchanged since their introduction, outlasting hundreds of short-lived rival designs.
- Writing as "Daisie," the author reflects on the start of the riding season and argues that cycling surpasses all other pastimes, including the progressive-whist craze sweeping Boston. She proposes that a private school for teaching ladies to ride tricycles — modelled on the morning sessions once offered at roller-skating rinks — would succeed commercially and bring many women to the wheel.
- Tour-master Burley B. Ayers reports that the Big Four Bicycle Tour Association has dissolved to merge into the L.A.W. Touring Department, and that a provisional Touring Board has divided the country into Eastern, Middle, Western, and Southern districts each with its own marshal. The annual tour for September 1886 is laid out from Niagara Falls through Central New York, down the Shenandoah Valley, and to Philadelphia, with a royal-purple ribbon adopted as the Touring Department's color.
- The Massachusetts Bicycle Club held its final athletic exhibition of the season at the club gymnasium, drawing a large crowd for home-trainer races, parallel-bar gymnastics, club swinging, and amateur sparring bouts. Results are given for the home-trainer mile — H. C. Getchell in 1:38½ and John T. Williams in 1:47½ — along with Arthur Porter's quarter-mile in 25 seconds.
- A resolution passed unanimously by the California Division of the L.A.W. expresses sympathy for suspended rider Fred Russ Cook and urges the League's officers to do all in their power to reinstate him as an amateur.
- The Springfield Bicycle Club, through president Henry E. Ducker, extends a formal invitation to the cycling bodies of the N.C.U., L.A.W., Irish Cyclists' Association, Dutch Cyclists' Union, and Australian Cyclists' Union to send representatives to Springfield in September 1886 for a heat-format world amateur championship race, with $1,000 budgeted for prizes and all travelling and hotel expenses.
- A contributor signing as "Barney" proposes a new League rule defining a "promateur" as one who has never contested for a money prize nor ridden with a professional, arguing this would create three distinct classes — amateur, promateur, and professional — allowing the League to retain supervision of racing while readmitting suspended riders such as Rowe, Hendee, and Burnham.
- "'Ostler Joe" satirises the promateur debate by proposing not one but eight finely graded classes of rider — from the strictly pure amateur to the cycling journalist — each distinguished by a lettered badge, exposing the absurdity of drawing lines between the many shades of commercialism already present in the sport.
- A reader signing as "Cricket" asks why a cyclist loses amateur status by competing alongside professionals while college baseball nines and cricket clubs routinely do the same without penalty. The editor replies that cycling falls under the L.A.W.'s jurisdiction while baseball and cricket remain outside any recognised amateur organisation.
- A correspondent identified as "S. T. F." urges strongly against holding the League banquet in a hired hall, predicting cold food, poor service, and embarrassment for Boston, and recommends limiting tickets and holding the dinner at a hotel instead.
- "Benedict" advises readers not to buy a tandem yet, noting that the popular Humber style places steering and braking duties on the lady and that several new designs with the gentleman steering from the front are expected this spring.
- The Nashville (Tenn.) Club held an entertainment at its clubrooms on 30 March featuring home-trainer races across half-mile, three-eighths-mile, and quarter-mile distances, with prizes of embroidered items donated by the young lady friends of the club. Race results are given in detail for competitors E. D. Fisher, Bowman Duncan, D. Talbot, R. Vanderford, and D. A. Palmer.
- The columnist "5678" opens the riding season by contrasting regular year-round cyclists with "butterfly riders" who winter indoors, arguing that short daily rides are far more beneficial than occasional long ones. He recommends keeping a cyclometer diary and calculates that ten miles a day yields a 2,000-mile annual record, attainable by ladies and gentlemen alike.
- The Cleveland Club held a fancy-dress carnival at the Le Grand rink on 31 March, opening with a grand entry of costumed wheelmen on machines ranging from a boneshaker to a tandem tricycle, followed by a mile race on safeties won by A. E. Sprackling in 3:20, a club drill, glee-club singing, and a half-mile race won by W. S. Upson in 1:38. Taylor Boggis closed with an exhibition of fancy riding that drew repeated applause.
- Three short verses — one teasing rival paper "Bassett's Bantling," one praising columnist "Daisie" as the paper's saving grace, and one sketching a scene of a shiny nickel-plated wheel — are followed by a brief note on Stuart C. Miller's return from six months abroad with a Humber-type Traveller tandem.
- The editor's miscellany column covers the opening of the riding season and Fast Day traditions, the Beacon Street cable-road fight, the Philadelphia Bicycle Club's new mileage trophy (the President's Cup), notes on the Pope v. Overman patent hearing, Belgium's abolition of bicycle import duties, the English championship dates for 1886, and various items on riders and clubs around the country.
- Club news from around the country records the formation of the East Cambridge Club (2 April 1886), the reorganisation of the South Boston Suffolk Wheel Club, and officer lists for clubs in Cumminsville (Ohio), Terre Haute (Indiana), Woodstock (Canada), and elsewhere. Massachusetts club notes include seventeen new members at the Massachusetts Bicycle Club and the election of tricycle captain John T. Williams.
- Racing notes report that John S. Prince is to meet Woodside and Eck in a series of races at the Washington rink in Minneapolis (10, 14, and 17 April), and that the first Prince–Neilson contest will take place on the Lynn track on 31 May. The newly incorporated Lynn Cycle Track Association has begun construction of its track with a capital of $3,500, targeting completion in time for the May races.
- Trade notes report that the Butcher Cyclometer Company has made the Kangaroo cyclometer its leading model for 1886; W. W. Stall has added twelve new Expert bicycles to his letting department; W. B. Everett & Co. are hiring machines briskly; and the Apollo bicycle is winning favour among leading Boston wheelmen. Also noted: the first edition of 5,000 copies of the Rudge Agents Guide has sold out.