The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 2, No 8
Articles in this issue
- Editorial miscellany noting that the fastest mile in the American Institute fifty-mile race was the thirtieth (Gideon and Smith both in 3m 14s), the coming Keen-Prince ten-mile match on 14 January, the Vesper Boat Club's planned Philadelphia clubhouse, a call for New York wheelmen to push for Central Park access, and Frank W. Weston's notice inviting Americans into the Bicycle Touring Club.
- Continuation of a serialised adventure narrative in which the narrator and his companion Jack, stranded at a ruined French chateau during a snowstorm, rescue a Miss Harland and her aunt whose carriage wheel was smashed by a snowslide near Chamonix; the host's sister 'Juno' then secretly warns the narrator that her brothers plan to rob the ladies' jewel-case that night.
- Editorial by J. W. reflecting on winter as a period of forced idleness for American wheelmen, weighing Chicago's newly opened park drives and New York's forty rideable miles against Washington's fifty miles of asphalt, then expanding into a sustained argument for road reform that attacks the incompetent rotating 'road master' system and urges wheelmen to agitate for properly engineered highways.
- Two formal race challenges: Louise Armaindo of Chicago challenges Elsa Von Blumen, or any lady rider in the world, to a 25-100 mile race for $100-$250 a side for the Female Bicycle Championship of the World; and Robert Patrick of Wolverhampton offers to take 100 yards of John Prince (American champion) in five miles, or to ride F. Rollinson of Chicago level, for $50 a side.
- The editor reports progress in securing the 'Bellvue Garden' hall at 80th Street and the East River (96 x 100 feet, nearly fifteen laps to the mile) as an indoor riding venue for New York wheelmen at $15 per week, noting about ten names have been received and urging readers to send theirs so a committee can be appointed.
- Readers' letters: 'London W.' argues that the Champion City Bicycle Club's vote to discountenance racing breaches League rules and that racing has driven machine improvement; Capt. C. W. F. of Farmdale, KY describes a home-made stationary trainer (a notched plank holding the front bearings), proposes a hollow one-inch front tyre, and reports meeting Louisville track riders Anderson and Schimpler; and C. K. Munroe (L. A. W. Commander), writing from Tampa, recounts a long canoe cruise down the Suwanee and along the Florida coast.
- New York city-letter by A. G. Rowler reviewing the American Institute fifty-mile amateur race (Gideon's opening ten miles in 36m 13s were faster than Howard's closing ten in 37m 46s, and prize values were misrepresented), criticising the League 'racing committee' for its inaction, relaying Vesey's challenge to any American amateur over fifty miles, reporting the May-Wright wedding of New York Bicycle Club captain William Merritt Wright, and noting John Ennis leasing the Institute for a series of bicycle races.
- Theatre and entertainment column covering New York venues: the postponed opening of Wallack's new theatre with 'The School for Scandal' (a box fetched $300 at auction), Mary Anderson in 'Romeo and Juliet' at Booth's, Augustin Daly's $3,500 purchase of Sardou's 'Odette,' the Comley-Barton Opera Company's 'Olivette' at the Fifth Avenue Theatre under Alfred Cellier, and the announced 1882 Charity Ball at the Academy of Music.