The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 10, No 15
Articles in this issue
- The regular news column covers A.H. Fletcher's new 24-hour tricycle road record of 251 miles from Biggleswade, LAW Racing Board suspension recalls for nine riders including C.E. Tracy and F.B. Kimball of Meriden, and a Cincinnati meeting at the Gibson House where over eighty wheelmen protested Chief Deitsch's bicycle-riding ban, with Mayor Smith and Governor Foraker assuring wheelmen their rights were safe.
- The editor surveys the ongoing conflict between the League of American Wheelmen and the American Cyclists' Union, noting that Racing Board Chairman Bassett remains uncompromising despite the ACU's adoption of a promateur class, and reports on the controversy surrounding President Beckwith's summary removal of Massachusetts Chief Consul Ducker.
- Col. Pope sailed for England on the ship Aller for an eight-week business and pleasure trip alongside Rev. H.W. Beecher.
- A visit to Pope Manufacturing Company's New York headquarters at 12 Warren Street found shipments of Columbia bicycles going to Australia, London, France, and South America, with each consignment generating new orders.
- Representatives of the American Cyclists' Union met at H.E. Ducker's Springfield office on June 30th and adopted constitutional amendments establishing a promateur class — a wheelman who violated amateur standing by receiving expenses for public riding — as a distinct intermediate category between amateurs and professionals.
- The Boston correspondent reports that President Beckwith's dismissal of Massachusetts Chief Consul Ducker has stirred fierce debate and that Ducker intends to fight the removal, having called a meeting of Massachusetts wheelmen for July 17th; also notes that the Boston Bicycle Club has relocated from 87 Boyleston Street to new quarters at 36 St. James Avenue, with plans for a large clubhouse modelled on the New York Athletic Club.
- Fred A. Eldred won the Springfield Bicycle Club's twenty-mile handicap road race on July 5th in 1h. 19m. 50s. — now the American road record for that distance — with Adams second in 1h. 25m. 17s. and Wadsworth third in 1h. 29m. 30s. on the Suffield course.
- At the Caladonian games at Hampden Park, Springfield, on July 5th, George Hendee rode a one-mile bicycle handicap from scratch in 2m. 34s., beating the world's amateur mile record by 1 2/5 seconds and the three-quarter-mile world record by 2/5 seconds.
- The Pittsfield Bicycle Club's race meet at North Adams, Mass. produced wins by H. Lee (one-mile novice, 3m. 13s.), C.D.D. Heath (county championship and three-mile open), H.L. Burdick of Albany (one-mile scratch, 3m. 3s., and five-mile lap, 17m. 10s.), and closed with a five-mile man-vs-horse race won by the horse in 17m. 37s.
- The Canadian Wheelman's Association annual meeting in Montreal from July 1st–4th drew 190 riders from across Canada for racing at the Shamrock Lacrosse Club grounds and a business meeting that elected W.A. Karn of Woodstock as President; Fred Foster of Toronto won the five-mile championship in 18:56 and set a new three-mile scratch record of 9:55 1/5.
- The Connecticut twenty-mile team road race from Meriden to New Britain and return on June 30th was won individually by H.E. Bidwell of East Hartford in 1h. 25m. 30s., with the Meriden Wheel Club taking the team championship with 26 points over Hartford's 21.
- The annual Fourth of July races on Boston Common produced wins for F.W. Perry of Massachusetts Club (one-mile novice, 3m. 26s.), C.W. Ware of Marblehead (two-miles scratch, 6m. 55s., two-mile lap, and three-mile scratch), and H.G. Crocker (one-mile tricycle, 3m. 55s.), though the track was in a miserable state.
- The Cleveland Bicycle Club's July 4th race meet at Athletic Park drew over a thousand spectators, with V.C. Place of Greenville, Pa. winning the two-mile LAW championship in 6:15 and J.T. Huntington of Cleveland taking multiple handicap events; the section also covers the Cambridge University races where W.A. Illston won the mile scratch in 2m. 49 1/5s. and P.T. Letchford set a new two-mile tricycle world record of 5m. 58 3/5s.
- W.A. Rowe broke the world's ten-mile bicycle record before 3,000 spectators at the Lynn Cycle Track Association's third meet, finishing in 28m. 3 2/5s. to beat his own previous record of 28m. 37 4/5s. set at Springfield, eclipsing all existing records from four miles upward.
- Massachusetts Chief Consul H.E. Ducker's open letter to Division members denies any vacancy in his office, recounts his unanswered correspondence with President Beckwith about his pro-ACU stance, and declares he will submit the question of remaining in office to Massachusetts wheelmen at a meeting on July 17th.
- The North Road Club's fifty-mile road race on June 18th attracted 44 competitors; Golder and Buckingham on a Premier tandem finished first overall in 3h. 0m. 25s. (a new record for forty miles after a course error reduced their distance), while Liles and Wilson were first to complete the full fifty miles in 3h. 16m. 58s., believed to set an English record.
- Club president Merg gives a humorous account of a moonlight ride to Bascom, Ohio in fall 1884 in which wheelmen Dwight Lloyd and editor Frank Hays purchased wild bronchos that proved spectacularly uncooperative, turning a simple club excursion into a seven-hour ordeal of coaxing, whipping, and burning straw to cover eight miles.
- Thomas Stevens, cycling correspondent for Outing magazine on a round-the-world bicycle tour, writes from Constantinople on June 16th about being expelled from Afghanistan by the Governor of Herat on Col. Ridgway's orders, noting he could write a sensational account of frontier conditions but chooses not to risk aggravating the geopolitical situation.
- A detailed description of Foote's anti-header device — a rubber spool on stout wire that momentarily clamps the front forks when a wheel strikes an obstacle — which prevents the rider from passing the centre of gravity and taking a header, also stopping backward wheel revolution and enabling safe pedal mounting; retails at $1.50 from the Overman Wheel Co., 182 Columbus Ave., Boston.
- Calendar of upcoming cycling events from July 9th through September 17th, including the Indiana Division meet at Indianapolis, Orange Wanderers ten-mile road race at Newark, Wheeling W.Va. hill contests, Trojan B.C. race meet at Rensselaer Park, Cleveland Bicycle Club meet, New York State Division meet at Buffalo, Connecticut Bicycle Club meet at Hartford, and the Springfield tournament.
- Itinerary for the Clerical Wheelmen's Tour from August 3rd–14th, routing from New York City through Yonkers, Tarrytown, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Troy, Saratoga, Amsterdam, and Cooperstown over twelve days.