Vol 1, No 1

Articles in this issue

• To Our Readers (opens in a new tab)

  The editors introduce the first issue of The Wheel World, explaining its aims to serve the rapidly growing cycling community.
• Bicycle Mems (opens in a new tab)

  A collection of humorous and punning cycling jokes and observations.
• Northern Notes (opens in a new tab)

  A round-up of cycling club news, races, and events from Scotland and the north of England.
• Popular Pedal Pushers: Herbert Liddell Cortis (opens in a new tab)

  A profile of amateur cycling champion H.L. Cortis, describing his racing style, achievements, and widespread popularity.
• Scraps from the South (opens in a new tab)

  A gossip column of short cycling notes, rumours, and observations from the southern counties.
• Street Riding (opens in a new tab)

  Practical guidance for cyclists navigating the hazards and etiquette of riding bicycles through busy urban streets.
• Midland Whispers (opens in a new tab)

  Midlands club gossip noting the Sheffield Bicycle Club's planned move from the Pomona to the Crown Hotel, a Brunswick Bicycle Club quadrille ball, and a Sheffield rider who broke his arm crashing into a wall near Bastow.
• Metropolitan Mems (opens in a new tab)

  London club notes on a mis-fired bugler election, plus news of departing I Zingari members E. W. P. Cambridge (tea-planting in Assam), E. York (bound for South Africa) and Tobias and Porritt (emigrating to Manitoba).
• Reflections on Meets (opens in a new tab)

  T. Cowell-Berington criticises poor mounting, uneven pace and inadequate marshalling at the annual Hampton Court meet and proposes stricter starting and marshalling rules.
• Chips from Chaos (opens in a new tab)

  A column of short cycling anecdotes, news items, and witty observations by the columnist Mephistopheles.
• Tricycling Topics (opens in a new tab)

  A new tricycling column reporting the Kensington Tricycle Club's seventeen members (including four ladies) and printing the staff poet's comic verse "Sold" about a proposal made on a double tricycle.
• Suggestions for a Musical Farce (opens in a new tab)

  A comic playlet mocking a policeman near Esher who threatens lampless cyclists with prosecution until one of them quietly slips him a bribe.
• Cycling After Dark (opens in a new tab)

  Practical advice for club runs after nightfall, urging every rider to carry a good lamp and clubs to keep two clear bicycle-lengths between riders to avoid pile-ups on loose stone.
• Kernels from Many Nuts: Club Etiquette and Behaviour (opens in a new tab)

  "W.S." laments bicyclists' declining manners towards suburban hotel-keepers and fellow riders, followed by a letter from "Indignant" about a clergyman careering on a tricycle down Winchester Road on a Sunday.
• Manifesto of the University Athletic Clubs on the "Amateur Question" (opens in a new tab)

  The Oxford and Cambridge University Athletic Clubs, signed by presidents B. R. Wise and E. Storey, declare that bicyclists who race professionals for no prize may still be counted as amateurs.
• The Bicycle Union (opens in a new tab)

  An editorial reviews the Bicycle Union's rocky start, including its failed railway-charges campaign, and welcomes the universities' new amateur-status compromise as a coming reconciliation.
• Danger Spilling Spots (opens in a new tab)

  A new column inviting readers to report dangerous hills, illustrated by a cyclist heeding the Bicycle Union's warning board versus one who ignores it.
• Makers' Ideas (opens in a new tab)

  Reviews of the Arab Cradle Spring saddle-spring and Mr. Butler's newly invented Pedal Slipper, an iron plate that grips a rubber pedal to stop feet slipping off in the wet.
• What the Makers Are Doing (opens in a new tab)

  "Adze" surveys the trade: Carver's Nottingham works, Humber, Marriott and Cooper's new Beeston factory employing 112 men, and Hydes and Wigful's popular hollow-forked "Stanley" model.
• Amongst the Clubs (opens in a new tab)

  A directory of club runs for 10 and 17 April listing dozens of clubs, Alert, Temple, Kensington, Star, Lee Rovers and more, with their destinations and recommended inns.
• Coming Sensations (opens in a new tab)

  A calendar of forthcoming race meetings and social events through June 1880, including the Surrey B.C.'s spring meeting at Kennington Oval and the Hampton Court meet on 22 May.
• An Easter Tour (opens in a new tab)

  "Doctor" of the Star B.C. recounts a solo Easter run from London through Romford, Chelmsford and Colchester to Ipswich and Felixstowe.
• Gravel and Cinders (opens in a new tab)

  Racing notes on Easter meetings at Coventry, the Border City B.C.'s Carlisle sports, Gravesend, and the Newcastle six-day professional race won by Cann riding 1001 miles.
• Review: Romances of the Wheel (opens in a new tab)

  A brief notice of W. T. C.'s illustrated shilling booklet "Romances of the Wheel", published by Iliffe and Co. of Coventry.
• Inns for Outings: The Forest Hotel, Chingford (opens in a new tab)

  The first in a series recommending touring inns praises the newly built Forest Hotel by Epping Forest, with its Watteau, Spanish and Japanese rooms.
• Bicycle Touring Club (opens in a new tab)

  B.T.C. notes on the secretary's list of recommended hotels and Mr. Bryant's committee's efforts to bring tariffs down to a reasonable level.
• The Iron Horse (opens in a new tab)

  An essay reprinted from "One and All" traces the bicycle's likely descent from an eighteenth-century pedal-driven contraption shown to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Versailles.
• "Velocipedeia" (opens in a new tab)

  A review of the Rovers B.C.'s comic bicycling burlesque "Velocipedeia", performed at Hackney Theatre with "Jupiter" as Handel Barr and "Arthur Grey" as Sir Cycle Backbone.
• Pars for the Parlour (opens in a new tab)

  A column of fireside jokes and verse, including "The Mournful Legend of Ten Little Bicyclists" and the staff poet's mock hymn for a cycling Sunday-school anniversary.
• Spokes to Adjust (opens in a new tab)

  A puzzle page of cycling-themed acrostics, a diamond puzzle, transpositions and decapitations, contributed by "R. C. N. Brittan" and "Harry E."
• Makers' Latest Telegrams (opens in a new tab)

  "Adze" reports brisk trade at Hillman, Herbert and Cooper, Baylis and Timms, and Baylis, Thomas and Co., plus the coming match pitting Derkinderen against Keen and Cooper.