The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 10, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Editorial rebuttal to the LAW Bulletin's defense of the Racing Board's suspension of maker's amateurs, citing unanimous opposition from The American Wheelman, the Springfield Wheelman's Gazette, The Cyclist and Athlete, and prominent clubs including the Springfield B.C., Lynn B.C., Essex County Wheelmen, and Hudson County Wheelmen.
- Boston correspondent covers the collapse of the LAW meet Finance Committee (three members resigned without raising a dollar, now chaired by Mr. Merrill of the Massachusetts Club), ongoing maker's amateur controversy including John Williams' tricycle racer case and Chairman Bassett's stance, and the signing of race articles between Prince and Neilson for a best-of-three championship series at $300 a side with Abbott Bassett as referee.
- Report on the organizational meeting of the Lynn Cycle Track Association at the Lynn Cycle Club rooms on March 26, with T. A. Carroll elected president; contract for approximately $1,300 awarded to Mr. Tuttle for the track, expected complete by May 1 for a May 31 meeting featuring a planned Prince-Neilson championship race.
- L. D. Munger of Detroit covered 25 miles in 1h 24m 46 4/5s on an asphalt road in New Orleans on March 27, 1886, shattering the previous American record of 1h 54m set by W. A. Rhodes in June 1885.
- Brooklyn cycling correspondent 'Tattler' covers the new Prospect Bicycle Club, entries for the Seventh Regiment one- and three-mile bicycle races (E. W. Valentine, A. B. Rich, Hoffman, and an Ixion flyer), the K.C.W.'s team challenge against the Elizabeth Wheelmen road racers, and the failure of the Brooklyn Rink carnival which produced only seventeen wheels despite advertising five hundred.
- Gormully & Jeffery win first prize for their collective bicycle display at the New Orleans Exhibition; Humber & Co. show a tandem safety bicycle at the Speedwell Show; R. P. Gormully's Eastern trip took enough orders to occupy the G. & J. factories for three months; bicycle race results from Washington Rink, Minneapolis on March 27 include professional mile wins by Mlle. Armaindo and T. W. Eck.
- Report on the first Ladies' Night at the Ixion Club's new house on March 24, featuring the nine-piece club orchestra under O. L. Moses, zither solos by V. M. Muller, banjo solos by R. R. Brooks, and actor imitations by J. M. Young; every room and stairway was packed yet the entire audience stayed until eleven o'clock.
- The Big Four Bicycle Tour Association disbanded and reconstituted itself as the L.A.W. touring department under Tourmaster Burley B. Ayers; the September 1886 annual tour runs from Buffalo through the Shenandoah Valley to Harper's Ferry, with the country divided into Eastern, Middle, Western, and Southern touring districts each with a Marshal and distinguishing ribbon color.
- Miscellaneous notes: Cortlandt Wheelmen endorse George Bidwell for Chief Consul; the Springfield Wheelman's Gazette ceases publication and H. E. Ducker launches a new monthly The Wheelman's Gazette; English championship dates announced for June-August 1886 at Weston-super-Mare, Crystal Palace, Long Eaton, and Jarrow; the Vermont Bicycle launches as a new monthly at West Randolph, Vt.; Boscobel Bicycle Club of Lynn opens its season with a ten-mile amateur road race on April 8.
- Sixteen charter clubs formally organized the New York and New Jersey Team Road Racing Association at the Citizens Club House, adopting a constitution with $15 initiation and $5 annual dues; President E. J. Schriver (N.Y.B.C.) and Secretary-Treasurer M. L. Bridgman (K.C.W.) were elected, with a perpetual twenty-five-mile cup race planned for Decoration Day and Election Day each year.
- Compares the N.C.U. of England's approach to the maker's amateur controversy—sending informational letters to racing suspects rather than threatening suspension—with the American LAW Racing Board's harsher action; quotes racer Robert Cripps and Mr. Illston dismissing the N.C.U. inquiry and warning that suspensions would prompt formation of a rival Racing Cyclists' Association.
- Reprinted from the Cycling Times, a description of the 'Penograph' safety bicycle featuring a novel rotary pedal-action mechanism using parallel bars and connecting rods that pull the crank upward as well as driving it down, eliminating the dead-stroke problem of ordinary machines.