The Wheel Cycling Trade Review, Vol 3, No 9
Articles in this issue
- Editorial on the venue for the 1889 L.A.W. annual meet, publishing a personal letter from a Baltimore cyclist arguing why Hagerstown, Md. (July 2-4) is preferable to Baltimore, citing road quality, novelty and local enthusiasm.
- Examines the new L.A.W. racing rule allowing clubs to pay a member's entrance fees and travelling expenses only with the Racing Board's special sanction, and how it affects men competing for both a wheel club like the Elizabeth Wheelmen and an athletic club like the New Jersey Athletic Club.
- The editors revive a proposed ladies' cycling tour along the Hudson, noting the only bad stretch could be avoided by training from Tarrytown to Garrisons, and dismiss New York Press rumors of a consolidation of the city's leading wheel clubs.
- Correspondent 'Atol.' reports three iron posts obstructing the Bath road sidepath, the Cyclists' Union of Long Island's intervention, the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's new mileage-medal scheme, and Schoefer and Class riding at the Harvard meet at Cambridge.
- Items from the New York Bicycle Club including Geo. M. Nisbett and W. E. Findley's planned Psycho tandem record run from Tarrytown, members sailing for England, and a fifty-three-inch New Mail to be raffled at the May club meeting.
- Albert Mott, Chief Consul of the Maryland Division L.A.W., writes from Baltimore reassuring members that the division's hospitality for the Hagerstown League meet will be generous, and urging those publicly preaching economy to desist for the present.
- Philadelphia correspondent 'Argus' notes glorious Easter weather, many lady cyclists, a petition to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad over wheel-transport charges, the Century Wheelmen's record thirty-two membership propositions in April, and a proposed fifty-mile inter-club road race.
- Stamford correspondent 'Stamson' reports the spring cycling revival, Thos. Cumming repeatedly climbing Put's Hill near Greenwich on a Pope Light Roadster Safety, a new cycling column in the New Canaan Messenger, and a run of New Canaan cyclers to Stamford.
- 'Jack's' rambling column muses on Poe's poverty and posthumous fame, the contrasting builds suited to the ordinary versus the safety (citing Whittaker and Thomas Stevens), the coming 25-mile Milburn-Irvington race, and a satirical riff on prison labor and Diogenes.
- 'Ithukiel' reports the formation of the St. Louis Bicycle Track Association ($2,000 capital, President Geo. K. Andrews) racing to build a track for the Stone-Lumsden race, a proposed illuminated parade, and rival base-ball nines of the Missouri and Cycle clubs.
- 'Zo.' reports the Ramblers and Buffalos debating new club uniforms, a dealer selling fifty-four safeties to five ordinaries, Buffalo's growing ranks of lady riders (the Misses Ducker, Mrs. A. H. Stevenson), and the Ramblers weighing an annual tournament to rival Springfield and Lynn.
- 'Fenton' defends his earlier criticism of 'Jack,' trading literary jabs with Falstaff and King Henry IV quotations, and notes the Sheehan boys' tandem-safety riding, the Manhattans' new uniform, and the New Yorks' informal 'Brannigan Club.'
- A British Medical Journal essay reviewing Dr. Oscar Jennings of Paris on cycling's health effects, arguing it does not cause the ailments often blamed on it and may relieve gout, obesity and constipation, while warning against over-exertion and the 'bicycle back' in growing lads.
- Reports the Pennsylvania Senate's passage of an act giving bicycles, tricycles and hand- or foot-propelled vehicles the same rights on public highways as horse-drawn carriages, pending the Governor's signature, with the full text reproduced.
- 'Snohomish' reports cycling booming in Tacoma under Prince Wells, a postponed Puyallup run, Eastern newcomer Halsted being 'done up' by local riders, new clubrooms on St. Helen's Avenue for the Tacoma Wheelmen, and preparations for a twenty-mile road race; precedes a notice of the death of H. C. Spaulding Jr. of Elmira.
- A detailed patent description of Herbert S. Owen of Washington, D.C.'s safety-bicycle frame, whose downward-curved tubular bar adapts it for ladies and children, with notes on its rear-wheel carrying arms, brake mechanism and flexible spring seat.
- A Scientific American piece arguing the old New England makers (Hartford, Boston, Chicopee Falls) still lead in fine bicycle manufacture through accumulated skilled labor, while predicting the West will eventually equal them, as Birmingham overtook Sheffield.
- Announces a meeting of local clubs at Knickerbocker Cottage to organize A. B. Barkman's 25-mile handicap road race (May 30, Irvington-Milburn course) with several hundred dollars in prizes, and prints the official entry-blank form.
- A report on the rain-soaked Harvard-Tech semi-annual fifteen-mile road race over twenty hills, won for Harvard 29-26 with J. W. B. Greenleaf first in 57m 31 3-5s after a close finish against Norton of Tech and Bailey of Harvard.
- A dated calendar of forthcoming races and meets from May to July 1889, including the Chicago tournament, Stone-Lumsden match races, the Maine and Kansas Division meets, the Pullman road race and the Hagerstown League meet.
- Describes the Exposition Building venue and the Tournament Racing Committee's full schedule of events for May 13-18, including the substitution of a 100-mile race for a 24-hour race and the addition of a one-mile road-wheel handicap.
- Announces the Kansas Division's annual meet at Forest Park, Ottawa, Kansas (June 4-6), with twenty events, two State and two National L.A.W. championships, $500 in prizes and a recently improved track.
- Previews the Rhode Island Wheelmen's Memorial Day athletic exhibition at Narragansett Park, headlined by the 2-mile national championship, with the H. B. Smith Machine Company (Star Bicycle) donating a race medal through agents Campbell & Co.
- A satirical verse signed 'Jack' mocking the rival correspondent Fenton's writing and his misuse of Latin and Carlyle English, before offering to shake his hand again.
- A trade write-up of Merwin, Hulbert & Co.'s new cycling catalogue, with A. C. Banker heading the department, listing their Gormully & Jeffery agency lines and other wheels including the Victor and Singer safeties and tricycles and the Volant Safety.
- Describes E. I. Horsman's spring catalogue and bicycle department under Mr. Chapman, detailing the Horsman bicycle and boy's safety, Gormully & Jeffery lines, and a stock of children's bicycles, tricycles and velocipedes.
- Notes on F. A. Elwell's European cycling party, with A. J. Wilson ('Faed') guiding through England and Ireland, the last enrollee C. B. Shannon of Los Angeles, and an invitation to dine with the Birchfield Club of Birmingham.
- A trade feature on J. K. Starley & Co. of Coventry (successors to Starley & Sutton), describing and pricing their rear-driving Rover safeties (New Light, Popular, Universal, Ladies', Socket-Steerer, spring-frame and Rational Rovers), with U.S. agents including the Pope Mfg. Co. and Overman Wheel Co.
- Correspondent 'Marguerite' gives an account of the Middlesex Cycle Club's enjoyable spring-season meeting at F. L. Washburne's residence in Wyoming, with a musical and literary programme and a full list of those present.
- 'Marguerite' recounts two drenching cycling trips on the Massachusetts North Shore (one returning from Gloucester, one on the Ladies' North Shore Tour from Magnolia), arguing the advantages of ladies' safeties over the heavy tandem tricycle.
- A practical touring essay by Fred J. Shepard of the Buffalo Bicycle Club, advising on party size, daily mileage, minimal baggage, drying clothes at League hotels, drink while riding, touring by women, and the need for regional touring hand-books.
- A correspondent ('F. T. B.' in Bicycling News) offers simple formulae for estimating cycling speed from crank-axle revolutions for various gears, and discusses why low gears tire the rider at higher speeds.
- A comic verse (by 'F. F. S.' in Bicycle News) on the danger of safeties (dwarfs) racing among ordinaries, prompted by a 'no mixing' document being prepared by Synyer & Co. to bar the smaller machines from the track.
- An official notice from Chief Consul W. S. Bull listing the New York State Division L.A.W. officers and committee appointments for 1889, covering the executive, rights, rules, highway-improvement and road-book committees.
- A Boston Herald report on the formal opening of the riding season, with Captains Cubberly, Newman and Robinson leading a combined run from Somerville to Salem and Gloucester joined by many Boston-area clubs, and hill-climber Worden racing a horse near Lynn.
- Reports the Union accepting E. K. Austin's resignation as president and electing M. L. Bridgman of the K.C.W. in his place, and instructing committees to clear Cobblestone Hill and oppose the posts on the Brooklyn-Bath road.
- A trade note on Ira Perego & Co.'s 'Hercules' revolving folding pocket stool, a neat twenty-five-ounce sketching, fishing and camping seat priced at $1.
- A short list of recently issued cycling patents, reported for The Wheel by C. A. Snow & Co. of Washington, D.C., including H. Kunath's ball bearing and S. Curlin's marine velocipede.