The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 11, No 5
Articles in this issue
- A gossipy editorial column from New York's cycling scene covering the Citizens' Club's contentious new clubhouse on 60th Street, professional cyclists and cycling journalism, the Manhattan Bicycle Club's revival by juveniles, and the Ixion Club's upcoming winter concert under Lee Moses.
- Stillman G. Whittaker rode 50 miles at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 2h 55m 46.5s without a pacemaker, beating Geo. Weber's American record by nine minutes and Golding's English record by eleven, then completed 100 miles in 6h 43m 59s to shatter McCurdy's record by over an hour, all on an American Champion bicycle.
- W.A. Rowe set a new world record of 2:29 4-5 for the mile at Hampden Park, paced by Woodside, Crocker, and Hendee, completing his world records from a quarter-mile to twenty-one miles; Crocker simultaneously took professional tricycle world records from two to ten miles on a Columbia Cripper tricycle.
- Detailed account of Rowe riding 22 miles 150 yards within the hour on Hampden Park on a raw, gusty day, cutting his own world records from four miles onward and averaging 2:43 per mile, paced by Hendee, Woodside, and Crocker, with full split times presented.
- The New York and Ixion Bicycle Clubs sent a formal letter to the Board of Park Commissioners arguing that cyclists' three-year accident-free record on Riverside Drive and the West Drive justifies opening all Central Park driveways to wheelmen, citing precedents in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia and Druid Hill Park, Baltimore.
- Results of the Camden, N.J., Wheelmen's inaugural meet at their new quarter-mile track at Stockton, featuring nine events won by W.I. Wilhelm of Reading, J. Potter, and L. Powell, with fancy riding exhibitions by T.R. Finley and G.S. Hart drawing competitors from Philadelphia and vicinity.
- The Springfield Republican explains that Rowe and Hendee were compelled by the Pope Manufacturing Company to resign their promateur standing in order to pace-make for professional record attempts, with Woodside also signing with Pope and Hendee bitterly forced to give up his Springfield Bicycle Club membership.
- The N.C.U. records committee rejected Furnivall's quarter- to mile bicycle records from Long Eaton, Engleheart's four- and five-mile records at Coventry, Fenlon's eight-mile record at Paignton, and Gatehouse's tricycle records, with no reasons yet given publicly, prompting the editor to call on the L.A.W. and A.C.U. to separate the wheat from the chaff.
- W.J. Morgan and Louise Armaindo completed a 24-hour tandem record ride at the Lynn track with 250 miles 140 yards in 18h 48m 18s actual riding time; T.W. Eck then set new American tricycle records from four to twenty-five miles, covering ten miles in 33m 48.4s.
- A testimonial race meet for Mlle. Louise Armaindo at the Lynn track included a professional handicap mile won by Armaindo in 2:45 2-5 from a one-lap start, a five-mile tandem tricycle record attempt breaking the four- and five-mile marks at 12:39 2-5 and 15:47 2-5, and a twenty-mile tandem attempt by Eck and Morgan setting records from six to twenty miles.
- Miscellany column reporting Welsh postmen using Rover safeties, Prince Wells purchasing an American Champion for fancy riding exhibitions, T. Battensby setting tricycle records at Coventry from one to ten miles, E. Clark winning the Northern Division Hudson County Wheelmen's 10-mile road race at Irvington-Millburn in 40:45, and debate on the promateur system's standing in the sun-light versus the reporters' stand.
- Thomas Stevens, making his bicycle tour of the world under Outing editor Poultney Bigelow's sponsorship, has reached Calcutta after 1,400 miles of monsoon-drenched Indian roads and a Russian arrest near Meshad, and plans to push through China and Japan aiming to reach America by Christmas or New Year's.
- A Wheeling magazine correspondent describes meeting Stevens at Allahabad on 29 August 1886, accompanying him to the Ganges ford where he crossed by boat toward Benares, and reflects on the hardships Stevens endured crossing Asia on rice and stale chappaties through monsoon heat, mosquitoes, and districts swept by malignant fever.
- Reprinted from Recreation, a witty female spectator's account of a bicycle race meeting remarks on racers' physiques and stooping posture, the audience's disdain for the Star bicycle, and the motivations of promateurs, noting that one symmetrical young beautiful rider won many times without his grace handicapping him.
- Miscellaneous column noting Harry Walcott and L.H. Johnson of the Orange Wanderers setting tandem path records from one to ten miles (34m 19.4s for ten miles) on the Roseville track, the Massachusetts Bicycle Club's theatre party to see Adonis, the L.A.W. presidency debate between New York and western divisions, and a pointed editorial reply to the Wheelmen's Gazette on President Beckwith's four years of service.
- Comprehensive multi-page tabulation of current world cycling records covering American amateur, English amateur, American promateur, and professional bicycle and tricycle distances from the quarter-mile to twenty miles, citing holders including W.A. Rowe, P. Furnivall, G.M. Hendee, and Gatehouse.
- Brooklyn club column reporting A.B. Barkman's new 24-hour L.I. record of 205.5 miles beating Hawkins' mark by 2.75 miles, John M. Schoeffer's severe header near Jamaica spraining his elbow, the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's Saturday tour to Hempstead via the Jericho Pike and Garden City, and the Ixion Club's private concert under O.L. Moses.
- Calendar notice of the Inter-Club Road Racing Association's twenty-five-mile road race on Election Day, November 2nd, at Roseville, N.J.