The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 12, No 13
Articles in this issue
- The editor endorses English press calls for the L.A.W. to regulate road-racing, commends the New Jersey Division's July 4 meet at Roseville, and praises the Kings County Wheelmen's upcoming event; also notes the Ilderan Club's Canadian tour plans and a Kentucky road-hog (Drinkenberg) fined fifty dollars for running down wheelman Watcher.
- Detailed report of the Maryland Division's spring meet opening with an elaborate lantern parade of 140-plus riders through Baltimore on June 20, followed by a business meeting at Arlington (R.M. Lockwood re-elected Secretary-Treasurer), races at Arlington Driving Park won by W.E. Crist (1-mile, 2m. 45½s.) and H.L. Kingsland (3-mile lap), and a theatre party at Harris' Academy of Music.
- Club runs in Pittsburgh have been sparsely attended, though the Cyclers Club plans a July 4 ride to the New Castle races and a twenty-mile road race on the Butler Plank road; the Keystone Club reports twelve members rode 2,319 miles in May, led by E.C. Stiefel at 330 miles in 15 days.
- Miscellany of cycling news: W.F. Ball rode twenty miles in 59m. 59 2/5s. at Paignton, England; the Overman Victor won at Crawfordsville with Rhodes riding; New York's Board of Aldermen ordered cyclists to carry a light and bell at night; Spain's crack rider José Ribera wins every race on a 54-inch Howe.
- Calendar of upcoming cycling events for June–July 1887, listing meets from Maryland and Vermont through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, including the Ilderan B.C. Canadian Tour (July 9–22) and two-week Canadian Tour from Boston (July 17).
- The Vermont Division L.A.W. met at Montpelier on June 17 with about seventy-five members; a committee was appointed for a State road book and convict labour endorsed for road improvement; S.W. Kirkland of Brattleboro won the 3-mile road-race championship (Waltham watch) and C.C. Fletcher took the 1-mile.
- Humorous poem reprinted from the Baltimore Argus mocking the long delay in delivery of Karl Kron's cycling book, comparing the waiting subscriber's dollar to aging currency and the eagle on it to a bird too feeble to fly, concluding he has the book but has not yet read it.
- Notice that a 54-inch Premier bicycle, full nickeled except for enameled felloes and in first-class order, was stolen from the Manhattan Athletic Club grounds on June 11; readers and dealers are asked to contact The Wheel office with any information.
- The Lynn Cycle Club's third-anniversary 15-mile road race on Saturday June 18 was preceded by time trials by W.A. Rowe (5 miles in 14m. 24s., 2 miles in 5m. 30s.); Bergholz won the road-race in 1h. 1m. on a 5-minute handicap, Barnett second in 59m. 45s., with McCurdy disqualified for riding on sidewalks.
- Notice of the New Castle Club's July 4 race meet at Wheelmen's Park, listing twelve events from 1-mile novice to 3-mile lap race with gold medals and bronze art pieces as prizes; a hill-climbing contest begins at 11:30 a.m. and entries close July 1 with Secretary C.L. White.
- Pennsylvania's Third Annual Meet at Wilkesbarre on July 4 features a parade commanded by Chief Consul George A. Jessup, a business meeting with a welcome address by Gen. W.H. McCartney, thirteen racing events at Lee Park including the state and L.A.W. championship miles, and an evening minstrel show by the Scranton Bicycle Club.
- Programme for the Illinois Division's July 3–4 tour from Peoria: a Sunday ride to Chillicothe (20 miles) with dinner at the Will House, and a Monday parade to Prospect Hill for a free Fourth of July picnic dinner followed by a five-band concert and fireworks over Peoria Lake.
- Results of the San Francisco Bicycle Club's spring meeting at Bay District track on May 30: C. Adcock (Bay City Wheelmen) won the 1-mile (3m. 7 1/5s.) and 5-mile L.A.W. championship (17m. 41½s.), while Alexander Ireland (San Francisco B.C.) won both quarter-mile events and the 2-mile in 6m. 36 1/5s.
- Results from the Hagerstown Bicycle Club meet on June 16: W.E. Crist (Washington) and Harry Schwartz (Reading, Pa.) tied the 1-mile at 2m. 54 2/5s.; Schwartz won the ½-mile heats in 1m. 24¼s.; H.L. Kingsland (Baltimore) took the 2-mile lap race in 6m. 54½s. and M.K. Crenshaw (Washington) the 2-mile handicap in 6m. 41½s.
- Cycling in Stamford, Conn. has declined due to terrible street conditions and the marriages of several club luminaries; the Y.M.C.A. B.C. has formed with bi-weekly early-morning runs, and Captain Hurlbutt of the Solitary Club plans a European tour starting July 6 with his Pope-overhauled 55-inch Light Roadster.
- G.W. Nellis Jr. narrates his transcontinental bicycle tour in progress: after enduring inhospitable conditions and deep sand in Sturgis, Michigan and White Pigeon, he rides through Indiana (South Bend, La Porte, Valparaiso, Hammond) before finally striking a macadam road into South Chicago and riding up Michigan Avenue to the Pope Company's Wabash Avenue office.
- New Jersey correspondent "Jonah" discusses road-racer Charley Stenken's pacing tactics in the big race, previews the N.J. Division July 4 Roseville meet, reports Tom Stevens was feted at Elizabeth Wheelmen's house, and urges an enterprising club to organise a 10–25 mile handicap over the Irvington-Milburn course.
- The New Jersey Division L.A.W. (about 780 members) will hold its annual meet in Orange on July 4, organised by the Orange Wanderers, with morning runs to Short Hills, Eagle Rock, and through the Oranges, followed by a business meeting, dinner, parade, and afternoon races on the Roseville track.
- The Avondale Bicycle Club of Cincinnati plans a race meeting at Carthage Fair Grounds on June 25, featuring a championship-of-the-three-cities 1-mile with a 3:10 time limit; Al. M. Watcher and the Croninger brothers will represent Kentucky against Ohio riders Burroughs, Belding, Muhlhauser, Andress, and Wayne.
- "Norb" reports that B. Drinkenberg was fined fifty dollars and costs by Esquire W.P. McLaughlin for running down A.M. Watcher on the Lexington pike near Erlanger — the justice drove out to view the scene before ruling — and Watcher will follow with a civil suit for the value of a new wheel.
- "L.B.G." writes from Minneapolis on June 16 that extended rains have made roads impassable and may delay the L.A.W. tour; Hale bicycled the 15¼ miles from Minneapolis to St. Paul in 1h. 2m. in 95-degree heat, and Morrill and Bartlett covered the same route on a Columbia Tandem in 1h. 20m.
- Description of the British Roads Improvement Association's mission to circulate road literature, press highway boards for better maintenance, and supply steel ring gauges (from Lucas and Son, Birmingham) to cyclists for reporting oversized road stones; reprinted from the CTC Gazette.
- "Bi." details the full legal proceedings against grocery wagon driver John Gray, who twice pulled his mule across George H. Dwyer's path on May 23 and damaged his bicycle by $31; Recorder Keller fined Gray twice, committed him to criminal court on assault charges, and stated that had Dwyer been killed, Gray would have been guilty of murder.
- Karl Kron's letter from West Springfield, Mass. updates The Wheel on distribution of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle": 2,592 copies shipped to date to Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Chicago, with Australian and Cincinnati shipments imminent; 50,000 circulars of six different patterns have been printed, including critical press remarks alongside praise.
- Review of the new Excelsior cyclometer invented by Frederick Jenkins of New York: a worm-screw instrument registering up to 999 miles with a double Geneva lock movement readable from the saddle, adapted for 42- to 57-inch bicycles with axles up to ¾ inch, priced at $10 and available directly from Jenkins at 291 West Eleventh Street.
- Boston correspondent "Stylus" muses on the increase of lady tricyclists and tandem riders in the suburbs, deplores Medford's terrible roads and conspicuous anti-bicycle signs, advocates wheelman seashore summer colonies and picnic runs to Middlesex Falls, and reports growing rumours that the Massachusetts Bicycle Club will dissolve with a small, exclusive successor occupying the old club house.
- Lists fifteen confirmed participants in the Ilderan Club's July 9–22 Canadian tour (principally from Brooklyn and Jersey City), with entry closing July 1; also includes a commentary on how internal dissension over club-house costs caused the downfall of the once-powerful Massachusetts Bicycle Club.
- Reprinted from The Field, a description and favourable assessment of Mr. Phillips' electric timing apparatus tested at the London Athletic Club grounds, Stamford Bridge: a split-seconds chronograph in a soft-iron case connected to the starter's pistol and winning tape via electromagnets, automatically proof against tampering, and tested on both runners and bicyclists.
- Legal memorandum submitted by Isaac B. Potter and Charles E. Pratt (counsel for the L.A.W. N.Y. State Division) to Governor Hill, arguing with case law from Brooklyn, Georgia, Philadelphia, and Michigan that New York's park board has no legal authority to exclude bicycles as pleasure carriages from Central Park and that the bill would not create a favoured class.
- The New York and Ixion cycling clubs merged on Thursday evening, June 23, at the New York Club-house on Fifty-eighth Street; E.J. Shriver was elected President, O.G. Moses (Ixion) Vice-President, and the combined club of nearly 100 members plans to build a new house near Riverside Drive.
- Reprinted from The Journalist, crediting the American press and the Pope Manufacturing Company's lithograph campaign for popularising Saturday half-holidays; Pope's offer to send its early-closing card free to any store on receipt of a two-cent stamp is described as "the first instance of philanthropic advertising on record."
- Brief note that G.L. Temple (not Woodside) is now English champion Howell's most dangerous American opponent: Temple beat Howell at a quarter-mile in 39 seconds on Monday but Howell reversed the result at a mile (2m. 52s.) on Tuesday in England.
- Report on the Western Lawn Tennis Association's annual meeting in Chicago setting the first annual western tournament for August 10–13 at the Kenwood Lawn Tennis Club, open to all comers with diamond medals for singles and doubles winners; officers including President Frank Obear (Knickerbocker Club, St. Louis) were re-elected.
- H.W. Slocum (Yale '83, Westchester Club) won the New England lawn tennis singles championship at New Haven on June 15, defeating Thatcher (Yale '86) 1–6, 6–2, 6–4, 6–1 after trailing a set; Thatcher and F. Beach of the New Haven Club won the doubles handily.