The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 2, No 6
Articles in this issue
- A brief notice announces that the editorial rooms of The Wheel have moved to 187 Broadway, Room 12, New York, effective December 7, 1881, and asks correspondents and exchanges to update their mailing details.
- A lively miscellany of short items covering the John Keen–John Prince professional challenge race, the forthcoming 50-mile amateur championship at the American Institute on December 19th, a 54-inch nickel-plated 'Special Club' machine being raffled at Company B's Hoboken fair, the slow spread of tricycles in New York, and grumbling about Burlington, Vermont's hostility to riders.
- Reports four League of American Wheelmen mail votes (Nos. 12–15) forwarded by the Secretary to the Directors, covering the appointment of League Hotels, uniform hotel certificates and signs, a tariff for bicycle transportation, and printed route slips.
- A satirical piece imagining the grand Thanksgiving Day bicycle parade in New York that was cancelled by poor roads, describing a fictional procession of over 200 wheelmen from the New York, Manhattan, Mercury, King's County, Yonkers, Brooklyn and other clubs riding from Fifth Avenue out to the Kingsbridge Hotel.
- Club reports from Keokuk, Iowa (an indoor exhibition of trick and fancy riding by members including John Hartel, George Lourie and Jesse Eaton) and Germantown, Philadelphia (seventy riders at the third annual meet of the Philadelphia Bicyclers led by Captain Joseph Pennell through Fairmount Park).
- Results of the Columbia Athletic Club's first annual fall games at the Manhattan Athletic Club grounds on November 26th: a half-mile handicap won by E. G. Weber of the Lenox Bicycle Club in 1:31 3/4, followed by a 3-mile exhibition against time by English professional John Keen (9m. 43s.) over the soft track.
- Brief notices of current New York theatrical offerings relevant to wheelmen's social lives, including George R. Sims' 'Mother-in-Law' at the Park Theatre, 'The Passing Regiment', 'Patience' at the Standard, and the Amateur League's forthcoming performance at the Lexington Ave. Opera House.
- The fourth and concluding editorial instalment on the tricycle, arguing that while bicycle design has nearly exhausted its possibilities the tricycle still has scope for development in cranks, gearing, brakes and wheel size, and speculating that auxiliary power (springs, steam, compressed air or the Faure electric accumulator) may one day relieve riders on hills.
- Correspondent 'Handy Andy' describes the new club headquarters of the Boston Bicycle Club at 53 Union Park (cellar wheel-room, reading room with a cannel-coal fire, billiard room above) and the joint rooms of the Massachusetts and Crescent clubs at 194 Columbus Avenue, praising notable members including W. W. Stell, 'Champion' Frye and Louis Harrison.
- A Courier reporter's interview with English professional John Keen clarifies that he, D. Vesey and R. Patrick came to America on their own initiative rather than as Humber agents, that Keen has brought his own 52- and 56-inch machines, and that he is eager to race John Prince for any distance and any amount.
- A letter signed 'Grip Treadle' recounts the Thanksgiving Day washout at New York bicycle headquarters, lists the many wheelmen who turned up despite the weather, reports Louis Stearns winning a 2-mile handicap at the Manhattan grounds in 7m. 55s., and previews the December 19th 50-mile amateur championship at the American Institute where W. Smith, Gideon of Philadelphia and others are expected to start.
- Professor Miller reports a large hall on Second Avenue near Eightieth Street suitable for indoor winter riding and bicycle storage at about 30 cents per week if fifty names can be secured, and The Wheel urges all New York wheelmen—club members and unattached alike—to send in their names promptly.
- Full results and a lap-by-lap narrative of a British 20-mile handicap race won by H. Buckley (5½-minute start) from W. Peberdy and W. Parr, noting how scratch man R. Billson and several others retired before the finish; reprinted from the Cyclist.
- A standing directory of current New York theatrical attractions, listing the piece playing at each house—'Mother-in-Law' at Abbey's Park Theatre, 'The Passing Regiment' at Daly's, 'The World' at Haverly's Niblo's Garden, 'Esmeralda' at the Madison Square, and 'Patience' at the Standard, among others.