The Wheel World, Vol 3, No 13
Articles in this issue
- The outgoing editors' preface marking the close of the second volume after six months of joint editorship, describing efforts to raise the magazine's literary tone and pointing to a pleasing rise in circulation as the third volume begins.
- Announces that The Wheel World has changed hands to Iliffe and Sturmey, proprietors of The Cyclist, and will now be edited by Henry Sturmey and C. W. Nairn, who promise new features including touring articles and monthly road routes.
- An editorial attacking bicycle and athletic clubs that try to exclude working-class competitors as not being "gentlemen," pointing out the hypocrisy of clubs whose own members work in retail trade, and citing similar arguments in the Referee and Bicycling News.
- Charts the Bicycle Union's growth despite years of hostile opposition, noting its Executive is being enlarged from fourteen to twenty members, and reviewing the secessions and returns of the Wanderers, West Kent and Temple clubs.
- Reflects on the friendships and even marriages formed through club membership, illustrated by an unnamed Bicycle Union councilman who arrived in London friendless, alongside notes on new tricycles from Harrington and the veteran maker Grout.
- London club gossip covering the Rovers' and Cyclists' Dramatic Club's theatrical performances ("Bicycle or Bride" and "Velocipedeia", with Miss M. Mumford praised), the Canonbury Club's Assault at Arms, and the Stanley donating ten guineas from its exhibition profits towards danger boards.
- A comic poem, signed "Aout", anticipating the Wheel World's May meeting at Hampton Court on the fourteenth, picturing club cracks and racing men converging in their club uniforms.
- A requested article on training for bicycle races, extolling cycling's evenly-distributed exercise and health benefits over other sports and warning against the stooped "bicycle back" caused by riding hunched forward.
- Racing-season notes on the disputed Butler handicap win, the L.A.C.'s refusal to pay the Bicycle Union's handicapping fee, the Sporting Mirror's tip of Griffiths, Liles and Hillier as 1881 champions, and Monsieur Albin's trick-riding display on his giant bicycle at the Alexandra Palace.
- Illustrated reviews of the season's new tricycles, including the Coventry Machinists' Company's Cheylesmore Club Tricycle, Bayliss, Thomas and Co.'s Double Excelsior, the Caroche Tricycle Co.'s Lady's Caroche, and the Rudge Tricycle.
- Eastbourne notes signed "Beachy Head" covering a dispute over the club's attendance medal between Adams and Wadey, injured rider Clarke's sprained ankle, and the poor state of the roads round Eastbourne.
- Reports Harry Carr Gibbs's Bicycle Union-backed prosecution, at the Wimborne Petty Sessions, of toll-house keeper Jane Brake for refusing to open the Lytchett gate to his bicycle, resulting in her conviction and a nominal fine.
- Club notes including concerts by the Lombard and Belgrave clubs, the Alert's change of captaincy to Jno. Gardner, the Hanley's renaming as the Crouch Hill, and new officers elected at the Christchurch, North Bucks and Blackburn clubs.
- Midlands notes signed "Hereward" on a dubious lecture-ticket appeal from an Armagh society, a family of six cycling brothers, and the postponement of the Midland Show for a year.
- Irish notes signed "Athaliah" reporting the Phoenix B.C.'s annual meeting under captain W. Merry, rumours of a hundred-mile Dublin race, and hack-car driver William M'Donagh's conviction for damaging a cyclist's tricycle.
- West of England notes signed "Spanks, Junr." on "Ab Initio"'s ride to Sherborne and Yeovil, 270 boys of Sherborne School taking up cycling, and the Blandford B.C.'s Good Friday run to Sturminster.
- Reprints Bicycle Union circulars announcing H. L. Cortis's appointment as Handicapper for the coming season and setting new uniform entry-form requirements for club handicaps.
- Concluded from the previous volume: Astyanax's touring diary of a ride from London to Land's End, through Launceston, Bodmin, Truro and Redruth to Exeter, covering 455 miles in total.
- Notes the Tricycle Association's monster meet at Ealing Common and the Tricycle Championship's new 50-mile course from Hounslow through Maidenhead to Marlow, plus a reader's letter proposing tricycle-hire depots for lady riders.
- By "Faed": a comic tale of a wood-engraver who dreams he rides out to Tally-ho Corner to race "Jarge" and his Humber tricycle in the 50-mile championship, only to wake and find his engraving block still unfinished.
- Reprints county surveyor C. H. Howell's report to the Surrey Quarter Sessions on the state of the main roads in the Croydon, Dorking, Epsom, Egham, Farnham, Godalming and Guildford highway districts.
- A technical department listing new applications for letters patent and abridgments of cycling-related patent specifications.
- Corrections to the April club directory, including the Druids B.C.'s entrance fee and new honorary secretaries for the Carnarvon Amateur, Market Drayton and Hull Amateur clubs.
- Brief editorial replies to readers on club-run listings, dismounting technique, and the newly published Tricycle Handbook.