The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 10, No 17
Articles in this issue
- Regular news column with short items covering remeasurement of Eldred's 20-mile record course by three cyclometers, the planned Cheltenham Beach exposition meet near Chicago, Pittsburgh's September race meeting at Exposition Park under the Keystones and three other clubs, E.A. Richwine and W.T. Fleming's 510-mile round trip to Luray Cave, Va., and R.P. Gormully's departure for Europe on the Etruria.
- The Wheel's editor defends his cycling credentials against attacks in Recreation magazine — noting the Recreation editor was still learning to ride under a Newark teacher — then criticises the League Racing Board for refusing to regulate road racing rather than directing it, and faults English cycling journals for inadequate race reporting at the Lewisham meet where Speechly's record was announced without context.
- L.A.W. President Beckwith and Ex-Chief Consul E.F. Hill were arrested on criminal libel charges brought by Daniel H. Renton of 229 Broadway, stemming from the Board's refusal to reinstate Renton after his expulsion; a preliminary hearing was set for Friday and warrants for additional signatories C.K. Alley and G. Carleton Brown were expected.
- Full three-day results (July 15-17) of the Southern bicycle tournament at Columbus, Georgia, where C.H. Dillingham of Columbus won seven firsts and seven seconds across seventeen events, P.W. Stone of St. Louis took the two-miles handicap and three-mile lap, and J.L. Polhill of Macon won the one-mile professional Southern championship; visiting wheelmen were banqueted at the Rankin House on the final night.
- Results of the second annual race meet of the No. Adams Wheel Club, July 5, where H.L. Burdick of Albany won the one-mile open (3:03 1-5) and the five-mile record race (17:10), C.D. Heath of Lee rode a Star Racer to take the three-mile county championship in 6:25, and W.J. Morgan on bicycle lost a five-mile race against a trotting horse.
- Results of the Avondale Club's long-postponed meet at Chester Park, Cincinnati, where Ed. H. Croninger of Covington won the two-miles scratch in 6m. 48 3-4s. and the half-mile dash, and B. Burroughs took the one-mile scratch in 3m. 06 1-2s.
- Belated report of the Binghamton (N.Y.) meet held July 5, where A.B. Rich of Brooklyn won the two miles in 5:56 1-2, J.H. Rheubotham took the State championship mile in 3:05 1-2, and the Binghamton Club won the team race with 15 points to the Genesee B.C.'s 6.
- Three members of the 38-strong "Blue Nose" bicycle touring party rode on the locomotive cowcatcher for nineteen miles between Aroostook Junction and Grand Falls, New Brunswick, during a thunderstorm, arriving thoroughly drenched and blackened with soot from the engine.
- Conclusion of a touring narrative by T.L.B., an English-resident New Yorker: after parting from companion B— at breakfast, the author meets L— at Ripley, is thrown by a black dog near Alton, visits Winchester Cathedral, encounters old friend Tom Hales nursing a broken machine in the New Forest near Ringwood, and covers the eighty miles back to London in one hard day after a Sunday excursion to Bournemouth.
- A boastful letter from racing man Eck reprinted from the Minneapolis Tribune, claiming his horse Prince can beat any man from 1 to 1,042 miles, that he made a private tricycle quarter-mile in 0:38 2-5, and that he expects Prince to do a full mile at Springfield in 2:29; his route runs through Akron, Mansfield, Ft. Wayne, Cheltenham Beach, and Little Rock before Springfield training.
- Extracts from a letter by around-the-world bicycler Thomas Stevens dated Meshed, Persia, May 17, 1886, describing how Persian soldiers strapped his Columbia to a horse's back breaking eleven spokes, and praising the machine's durability over 160 miles of Persian roads with five spokes still missing and tyres worn nearly to the rim.
- Regular gossip column noting Burnham's joining the Columbia team forming an "invincible quartette," the Springfield Caledonian Club's diamond collar button presented to Hendee, A.H. Overman and Col. Pope planning to tour the Continent together, the Racing Board's reinstatement of Fred Russ Cook, and the Cheltenham Beach Exposition's planned $5,000 tournament open to maker's amateurs.
- English racing results covering Speechly's world amateur records of 2:34 4-5 for one mile and 8:20 1-5 for three miles at Crystal Palace on July 3, F.J. Lees breaking the professional mile record with 2:38 at Leicester, F.W. Berridge's claimed 20-mile safety record of 58:59 on a Rover at Lillie Bridge on July 7, and Allard winning the Five Miles Tricycle Championship at Glasgow.
- Account of George B. Thayer of Hartford, cycling correspondent for the Evening Post, who left Hartford on April 10 and was joined at Omaha by J.A. Halsey of the Kansas City Bicycle Club; by July 7 they had traversed Colorado — ascending Pike's Peak — and were crossing Echo Canyon toward Salt Lake City, with expenses averaging under $1 a day and Thayer's Expert Columbia showing no breakdowns after 2,500 miles.
- League and club news noting V.C. Place's win of the one-mile L.A.W. championship at Cleveland on a 58-inch Rudge racer, Chas. Ware of Marblehead's four firsts at the Montreal Races and two firsts at Boston Common on a 55-inch Rudge, Crystal Palace results with Speechly winning the final in 2:42 1-5, and W.H. Langdown — described as Australian amateur champion from Christchurch, New Zealand — sailing for Springfield to contest the world mile championship.
- Boston-area club news covering the unofficial armistice in the A.C.U.-L.A.W. dispute with the Racing Board Chairman circulating revised rules, the Massachusetts Club's pending vote on joining the A.C.U., the Berkshire County Wheelmen's two-day September tournament at Pittsfield aimed at drawing all visiting English racing men, and E.I. Halsted of the Harlem Wheelmen breaking his own 24-hour club road record with 151 1-8 miles in 17h 25m.
- Annual Indiana Division meet at Indianapolis on July 15, with 57 men in a morning parade and afternoon races at Exposition Park where A. Hulman of Terre Haute won the five-miles state championship in 17:03 2-5, the two-miles in 6:28 4-5, and the 3:30 class mile, while Josh Zimmerman of Indianapolis took the handicap mile in 3:15 4-5 from a 15-second start.
- Alfred A. McCurdy of the Lynn Cycle Club attempted to beat Hollingsworth's 281-mile 24-hour record on a 12 1-2-mile course near Waltham, aided by pace-makers and brandy, but fell short by about two miles — covering 279 1-2 miles in 22h 29m 55s riding time — due to a rebellious stomach, high wind, and hilly terrain.
- Humorous account of three cyclists on the Brighton Road near Boston chased by a bull: the first fled at 2:30 pace, the second abandoned his machine and scaled a fence, and the third plunged through a thick hedge before a boy finally caught and led the bull away.
- Calendar of upcoming cycling events from July through late September, listing the Blue Nose Tour, Genesee B.C. tournament at Rochester, Interstate meet at Youngstown (postponed to July 29), Pennsylvania Division meet at Williamsport, Cleveland race meet, N.Y. State Division meet at Buffalo (Sept. 3-4), Connecticut B.C. races at Hartford, L.A.W. tour from Rochester to Harper's Ferry, Berkshire County Wheelmen's tournament at Pittsfield (Sept. 10-11), Springfield tournament (Sept. 14-17), and Lynn Tournament (Sept. 23-25).