The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 10, No 14
Articles in this issue
- A digest of cycling news: E. Oxborrow lowers the safety record to 2m. 53s., James Lennox rides Land's End to John O'Groat's 885 miles in 6 days 8½ hours beating the record by seven hours, Colonel Pope departs for a two-month European business trip, and L.A.W. suspensions are issued against Lynn riders who competed against professionals on June 17th.
- Editorial discussing the A.C.U.'s proposed three-tier classification of pure amateurs, promateurs (salaried makers' amateurs), and professionals, with quotes from A.C.U. member A.L. Atkins arguing the League has tired of controlling racing and that a peaceful settlement between the L.A.W. and A.C.U. is within reach.
- L.A.W. President Beckwith removes Henry E. Ducker as Massachusetts Chief Consul for helping found the rival A.C.U.; Massachusetts members are outraged and threatening to leave the League, while Ducker insists he was never formally charged and plans to appeal the 'star-chamber' action.
- Full report on the New York State L.A.W. Division board meeting at the Grand Union Hotel: W.S. Bull elected Vice-Consul, Buffalo Bicycle Club's invitation to host the September 3–4 annual meet accepted unanimously, and committees appointed for constitution revision, a road book, a Touring Board, and road improvement.
- The Connecticut Division L.A.W. annual meeting at Hartford elects D.J. Post as Secretary-Treasurer, reports membership grown from 307 to 555, and hears Chief-Consul C.G. Huntington criticise the National Racing Board's recent rulings as damaging to tournament success.
- Profile of the Buffalo Bicycle Club—founded February 22, 1879, now over 125 members at its new clubhouse at 881 Main Street under Captain C.F. Hotchkiss—and its successful bid to host the New York State Division annual meet on September 3–4, with a guarantee fund subscribed and an arrangements committee named.
- Results of the one-mile tricycle and 25-mile bicycle championships at Weston-super-Mare on June 16, 1886: P. Furnivall won the tricycle final in 3m. 5 2-5s. over Langley and Letchford, while J.E. Fenlon won the 25-mile bicycle in 1h. 19m. 29 2-5s., beating B. Ratcliff by ten yards.
- Humorous mock-advice column responding to a boy's letter about bicycles, poking fun at tricycles ('no good kind, three wheels, painted red'), explaining the difference between a Duplex Whistle and a Screatcher, and closing with a plug for The Wheel's combination subscription offers.
- Miscellaneous short items: the Meriden Wheel Club's $750 cycle-track fund, the Philadelphia Bicycle Club's new $18,000 clubhouse corner-stone laying at Twenty-sixth and Perot streets, the New Hampshire Division meet at Portsmouth on July 5th, P.C. Barrow's Boston-to-Indianapolis road ride completed June 20th, and a dog-nuisance remedy using a rubber ball filled with ammonia.
- Excerpt from Thomas Stevens's round-the-world bicycle journey (reprinted from Outing) describing his charming encounter with grape-bearing village maidens near Jas-chi-khan, followed by a Teheran dispatch reporting that Afghan authorities arrested Stevens for 19 days near Herat before expelling him back to Meshed.
- Racing notes: William A. Rowe rides 5 miles at Lynn in 14m. 1 4-5s.; Michigan Division races at Detroit won by Taylor Boggiss and Charles J. Keyes; A.B. Rich wins the 4-mile American championship at Staten Island in 13m. 22 4-5s.; and Con Dwyer emerges as Australia's new champion, beating the long-dominant F.H. Shackleford at 10 miles in 30m. 27 2-5s.
- Comic poem by 'Georgides' recounting the misadventures of a wheelman's first spring outing, ending when a wayward lamb jumps into his wheel and sends him bumping his head eighteen times.
- Letter from J.C. Wetmore, Secretary of the Elizabeth Wheelmen Race Committee, announcing the mutual cancellation of the planned team road race against the Kings County Wheelmen over the Irvington-Milburn course, due to the E.W. team being crippled by illness and absence.
- Racing Board chairman Abbott Bassett agrees to lift suspensions of riders—including Lewis A. Miller, John A. Hubbard, Henry H. Stockder, and G.B. Buxton of Meriden—who certify they were misled into competing at New Haven under A.C.U. rather than League rules.
- Brief items: the A.C.U. Boston meeting adopts a badge designed by Jens F. Pedersen and favours a makers' amateur class; Abbott Bassett lifts A.B. Rich's 30-day suspension in deference to Rich's club; Rhode Island's 20-mile road race won by James Dawson of the Pawtucket B.C. in 1h. 43m. 26s.; and an appreciation of the crayon portrait of the late Cola E. Stone at Clover and Finkenaur's.
- Itinerary for the Clerical Wheelmen's Tour, August 3–14, running from New York City through the Hudson Valley, Albany, Saratoga, Amsterdam, Sharon Springs, and Cooperstown.
- Race and meet calendar for July–September 1886, including the Illinois State Division meet in Chicago (July 3), Caledonian Club races at Hampden Park Springfield (July 5), Orange Wanderers 25-mile road race (July 10), Wheeling W.Va. road races under Captain Wilbur L. Wright (July 13–14), and the Springfield tournament (September 14–17).