The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Regular department of short cycling notes covering the A.C.U. elections, G.P. Mills' remarkable 6,430-mile 1886 season (1,382 miles in August alone), the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's ladies' night with Col. Albert A. Pope in attendance, the Anfield Club's ultimatum to the N.C.U. over amateur-status rules, and Stanley Show novelties including the new anti-vibratory spring handle-bar reported by a Cyclist correspondent.
- The editor defends the conduct of the L.A.W. Board meeting against charges of trickery, offers character sketches of officers including Pratt, Luscomb, Harris the Fearless, and Chief Consul Hayes of Massachusetts, and comments on the prospects for Brooklyn Long Island road repairs, Stevens' imminent arrival, and the growing list of American cycle manufacturers at the Stanley Show.
- Account of Thomas Stevens' arrival in San Francisco aboard the steamer City of Pekin from Yokohama, with his own description of rock-throwing in the Dasht Naumid desert, generally excellent treatment in Japan where American-educated young men already owned bicycles, and the survival of his original Columbia bicycle through the entire round-the-world journey.
- List of recently filed U.S. cycle-related patents including C.A. Bruck's bicycle (New Carlisle, Ohio), W.L. Fish's lantern supporter for bicycles (Newark, N.J.), G.E. Whitmore's tricycle (New Haven, Conn.), and D.C. Wilgus's combined oil-can, wrench, and bicycle tool (Los Angeles, Cal.).
- Boston correspondent 'Spokes' reports A.H. Overman's departure for Liverpool for the Stanley Show, Columbia's move to Franklin and Arch streets, the Springfield Roadster planning a 3,000-wheel season at $75, Wm. Read & Sons building their own wheels at the Ames Plow Co. in Chicopee, and trick-rider Ralph Friedberg's spectacular debut at the American Team's farewell tournament at Columbia Rink—including an impersonation of 'Mile. Zinga Zihoff' that deceived the entire Boston audience.
- The New Orleans Wheelmen invite visiting cyclists to bring their wheels and join the planned lantern parade during Carnival week (approximately February 17–23), requesting that participants register with H.H. Hodgson at 8 Carondelet Street; Southern railroads transport wheels free when accompanied by owners.
- Correspondent 'Bon' proposes a $100 scheme to repair the worst sandy stretches of the Brooklyn-to-Jamaica road via New Lots—detailing specific problem spots from Flatlands Neck Road to Liberty Avenue—and urges Brooklyn clubs to share the cost; also reports the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's crowded January 19th medal-presentation evening at which Captain Slocum addressed members despite a prolonged illness.
- Geo. R. Bidwell, writing for the L.A.W. transportation committee, announces plans to consolidate wheelmen from New York, New England, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and the South into a single special-train party with buffet sleeping-car service for the annual meet in St. Louis, and invites clubs and individuals to apply for rate information.
- Short notes on Brooklyn cycling: the Brooklyn Bicycle Club awarded 20 medals on January 19th to members including A.B. Barkman (8,086 miles, road-record medal) and F.B. Hawkins (5,000 miles, 207-mile 24-hour record); the Ilderan Bicycle Club installs a home-trainer and plans indoor races; elevated railroad construction on Flatbush Avenue threatens the wheelmen's thoroughfare to Prospect Park.
- Minutes of the January 15th Board meeting at the Grand Union Hotel: stamped envelopes approved for Division officers, the St. John's N.B. club rejected as outside the constitution, up to $350 authorized to send sufficient representatives to cast New York's full vote in St. Louis, and Barkman reported 20 pages of the road book already in type.
- Letter from George B. Thayer describing his bicycle ride through the hollow interior of the 'Father of the Forest,' a fallen giant sequoia at Calaveras, California—112 feet in circumference at the base—navigating nearly 200 feet in charcoal darkness between two holes in the trunk.
- Letter from E.A.B. of Somerville, Mass., reporting that he and a member of the Nashua Cycle Club witnessed a 96-inch Kangaroo-geared bicycle ridden by a foreign visitor at Niagara Falls in September 1886, drawing such a crowd as to impede traffic; corroborated by members of the Niagara Falls Bicycle Club.
- Trade news covering Singer & Co.'s new 'Victoria' four-in-hand tandem, Sparkbrook Co.'s new safety and front-steering tricycle for the Stanley Show, Starley Brothers' Rover vibration fix, the Coventry Machinists' compressed-air auxiliary motor for tricycles, Rudge's revised 'Bicyclette,' Singer's new Otto corrugated-wire-core rubber tyre, E.A. Savage's victory in the Minneapolis 10-hour amateur championship (143 miles on January 16, never dismounting), and notes on the Cunningham Co. stockholders' meeting.
- Essay by N.L. Collamer of Washington D.C. arguing that run captains should pace themselves to the slowest healthy rider, drawing on his experience of being left breathless at the 1886 L.A.W. tour from Old Point Comfort; illustrated with a cautionary tale of a club that voted out two less-wealthy members by tripling dues and subsequently disbanded within five months.
- Instructional article by N.L. Collamer correcting a Cycle correspondent's advice on wheel inclination during the pedal mount—the machine must lean away from the rider, not toward—and describing a popular Washington D.C. variant in which the rider jumps directly to the pedal without a skip, while warning that its wrenching strain on light wheels makes it inadvisable until the basic mount is mastered.