The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 11
Articles in this issue
- Regular weekly miscellany covering A. L. Atkins's arrival in Los Angeles, the Pequonnock Wheel Club's Thanksgiving road race in Bridgeport (won by W. M. Richardson in 1h 32m), Richard Weber's new dynamo-powered electric bicycle lamp, and the Philadelphia Bicycle Club's house-warming at its new $17,000 building.
- Reports on the failed committee meeting between representatives of the New York and Ixion clubs and the Park Board over cycling rights in Central Park, with Commissioner Crimmins ultimately agreeing to propose opening the park as a trial experiment.
- Editorial urging New York wheelmen to stop coasting on Riverside Drive and racing with vehicles, arguing these violations are the Park Commissioners' chief objection and the main obstacle to winning broader Central Park access.
- Editorial observing that cycling clubs are growing more class-conscious, prompted by the Capital Club's house-warming, and arguing that expensive club houses like those of the Citizens', Capital, and Massachusetts clubs ultimately serve as a big advertisement for the sport.
- Editorial lamenting that cycling journalism has exhausted its topics and defending The Wheel's humorous style against a contemporary's criticism that it should publish more serious archival material rather than 'alleged funny business.'
- Editorial arguing that long seasons of rigorous athletic training keep a man keyed at concert pitch too long, leaving him vulnerable to disease from even slight exposure, responding to Mr. Morgan's contrary contribution.
- Reports on the Lakin Cyclometer Co. annual mileage contest, with 15-year-old schoolboy Gilbert J. Loomis of Hampden County leading at 13,498 miles on a 52-inch machine, followed by A. B. Norton (10,706) and newsboy Emerson Burt (10,002 on an amateur 42-inch Ideal), all without interfering with school or business duties.
- Account of the L.A.W. Massachusetts Division dinner and meeting at Young's Hotel, Boston, covering a treasury balance of $824.87, plans for a 1,600-copy road book estimated at $700–$800 for the 1887 season, a proposed encampment at Cottage City, and a move toward monthly meetings championed by Chief Consul H. W. Hayes.
- Describes the New Orleans cycling club's planned Norman-style pressed-brick building on St. Charles Street, featuring a wheel room with lockers, lavatory, two parlors, a billiard room, and stained-glass windows, with work to commence without delay.
- Profiles the pioneer New York Bicycle Club at 58th Street and 8th Avenue, noting its decision to waive the initiation fee during winter months and open Thursday whist evenings to attract new members and re-establish its public profile after years of quiet activity.
- Detailed account of the Capital Bicycle Club's house-warming in Washington, D.C., attended by about 400 guests; the $20,000 Norman-style building opposite the Treasury features oil paintings by Max Wehr and Meling, water colors by Holmes, Gill, and Hatch, and members wore blue jackets and knee-breeches with steel buckles.
- Report on the St. Louis Ramblers' 100-mile season-closing Century Club Run on November 28 under Captain R. E. Lee, with 15 of 16 starters finishing in 11 hours 34 minutes of actual riding at an average 8¾ miles per hour via the Olive Street road, Creve Coeur Lake, and Baldwin, with only four falls taken.
- Touring advice drawn from Bicycling News prize competition entries on the best daily schedule for a cycle tour, recommending a 4 a.m. start and ten hours of riding with three meal-and-rest breaks, adapted for American summer conditions without England's long twilight.
- Practical tips from multiple contributors—Thos. H. Hall, R. P. Tweed, and S. Powell—on truing a bicycle wheel using a spoke tightener, chalk marking to locate the fault, and wire binding of loose spokes as a field repair for very loose wheels.
- Results of two bicycle races before nearly 5,000 spectators at the Seventh Regiment armory: E. Valentine won both the one-mile handicap (3m 9 2-5s from 40 yards) and three-mile handicap (10m 20 4-5s from 125 yards), with S. H. Rich also winning the half-mile novice run in 2m 21 2-5s.
- Feature article by 'The Solitary Club' arguing that cycling on bicycle or tricycle is vastly superior to carriage riding for health and enjoyment, with the writer citing personal rides of sixty miles through sandy hill country and contrasting the invigorating freedom of wheeling with the cramped fatigue of carriage travel.
- Humorous first-person narrative by 'The Owlet' recounting how four wheelmen scaled the Central Park wall at 11 p.m., evaded a park policeman at a three-minute pace, and enjoyed an hour's clandestine cycling on the East Drive before escaping through the 72nd Street gate, 'highly elated with their success.'
- Brief notice that the Binghamton Bicycle Club held a successful ball last Friday evening with an artistic dance order, organized by a committee of A. S. Bump, Jno. B. Rogers, C. E. Titchener, and W. H. Hecox, Jr.
- Brooklyn cycling column by 'Independant' covering the Ilderan Bicycle Club's rainy Thanksgiving outing to Prospect Park, the Bedford Cycling Club joining the Long Island Wheelmen, W. F. Miller's magic-lantern cycling lecture to 60 attendees, the L.I. Wheelmen disbanding rumor rebutted, and the Ilderan Club's 1887 officer elections with president H. Greenman.
- Letter from W. J. Morgan, a racing man of five years' experience, rebutting the editor's view that rigorous training is dangerous, citing the Columbia and Victor teams' successful six-month season ending with Rowe covering over 22 miles in the hour, and arguing George Weber's death resulted from careless cooling-off habits at Woodstock, not from training.
- Satirical miscellany column of short humorous observations, touching on A. Kennedy Childe's move from England to represent Pope Mfg. Co. across America, the League's dispute with the N.C.U. over its stolen badge, the promise of better racing if pro-amateurism is annihilated, and racing man Wilhelm's plan to build a 30-pound machine for 1887.
- Humorous feature by 'Juno' profiling four eccentric wheelman types—the racing-fever obsessive who forces mental arithmetic on bystanders, the dandyish 'masher' in a silk hat living on a rich 'Governor's' money, the compulsive club kicker, and the political wheelman who harangues acquaintances about road rights while never taking his bike out of the stand.
- Trade note announcing that all 1887 Star bicycles will feature a front wheel half the diameter of the driving wheel, designed to greatly reduce the vibration that was a notable defect of the original model on rough roads.