The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 4, No 16
Articles in this issue
- A League of American Wheelmen recruiting circular setting out the organisation's objects — protecting riders' rights, regulating races, securing free carriage of machines on railroads, and aiding touring through local consuls — and quoting the English Cyclist Touring Club's address, via its late secretary W. D. Welford, on the power of organised cycling societies.
- Advises clubs wanting a position in League parades or convention representation to embody a 'League Membership' clause in their by-laws, with initiation fees and annual dues paid from the club treasury.
- Treasurer W. V. Gilman explains that the duplicated red figures stamped on this year's membership cards in error by the lithographers count for nothing — the true number is the one in the lower centre preceded by the letter 'D' — and that the misnumbered tickets cannot be reissued this season.
- Abbott Bassett and Frank E. Yates, one-third of the L.A.W. Racing Board, dissent from the board's recommendation to adopt the 18-inch track-measurement standard, arguing it would injure American racing men on horse-tracks and render records meaningless; they append supporting letters from racers John S. Prince and L. H. Johnson favouring the 3-foot standard.
- Reports the formation of the New Haven Ramblers on 9 April 1883 with G. R. Ackrill as captain and 25 active members, and of a Mauch Chunk, Pa. club on 6 July 1883 with nine members under president James Kalbfus.
- Lieutenant Hathaway, T. S. Beckwith, W. O. Beckwith, George Collister and F. P. Root of the Cleveland Bicycle Club set out at 4 a.m. on 10 July through Rocky River, Elyria, Oberlin and Newburgh, covering 113 miles in about 12½ hours' riding time despite bad roads and Collister breaking both his handle-bars.
- Under the 'Wheel Races' heading, the Columbus correspondent 'Buckeye' reports the Buckeye B.C.'s first race series at Recreation Park on 10 July, where W. A. Knoderer beat Captain J. P. McCune in the three-mile (12:25), Will Neil won the half-mile, McCune took the hurdle race, and T. T. Tress won the mile.
- An account of the Rochester Bicycle Club's formal opening of its Bicycle Park at Fall's Field on 4 July, where Canadian Fred Westbrook of Brantford won the open mile and the three-mile dash (11:59) against Springfield, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Rochester riders, followed by fancy riding and a banquet at the Waverly House.
- Race results compiled by 'Rueda' from three 4 July meetings: the Springfield Bi. Club races, where C. S. Fisk won the mile and Geo. M. Hendee the five-mile; the Pullman Athletic Club races near Chicago, swept by N. H. Van Sicklen; and the Lawrence Club street races, won by John Tacy and M. D. Currier.
- A touring account by 'Citron' of a 76-mile Sunday ride on a 52-inch American Club bicycle from Englewood, N.J. through Hackensack, Montclair, Orange, Millburn and Madison, with notes on the treacherous sand between Rutherford and Delawana, the fine stretch from Bloomfield to South Orange, and advice on courteously asking pedestrians to give way on sidewalks.
- The C.T.C. department announces that, with U.S. Chief Consul Frank W. Weston abroad for the seventh annual Harrogate Meet, applications should go to Massachusetts State Consul Henry W. Williams; it also notes the new club uniform, the 1883 Hand-book, recent applicants, and the appointment of H. N. Keys as consul for Ovid, Michigan.
- Treasurer W. V. Gilman warns League members that, under the contract between the L.A.W. and publishers Oliver & Jenkins, free copies of The Wheel cease with this number unless current-year dues are promptly paid to the Division Treasurer.
- An editorial on the duties and technique of the race time-keeper — starting the watch at the pistol flash rather than the push-off, taking intermediate mile splits, and comparing the three officials' watches — citing the 1882 Springfield Tournament where Moore's record-breaking five-mile run went un-split through incompetent timing.
- A humorous account of a Citizens' Bicycle Club party of seven who trained to Port Jervis and rode the famous shale roads of Pike County, Pa. to Bushkill (30 miles in about three hours), then pushed on over washed-out mountain roads to the Delaware Water Gap — recommending the Port Jervis–Bushkill section but advising riders to walk or train the final stretch.
- A letter from A. U. Wheeler advising New York riders on touring Long Island — the consuls Cobb of Flushing and Doughty of Jamaica, the route via Garden City, Babylon and Patchogue with its fine sidewalk past county estates, the country hotels charging fifty cents for meals and lodging, and the unavoidable sandy stretches.
- A correspondent signing 'Jim' reports on cycling in Poughkeepsie — 29 bicycles, two tricycles and a marine bicycle in town, two riders who rode to Boston the previous August, six current L.A.W. members, and a newly appointed C.T.C. consul at the Northern Hotel planning a run to Hyde Park.
- A column of editorial squibs noting Frank W. Weston's election as vice-president of the Harrogate Meet, Col. Albert A. Pope sailing for Europe on the Pavonia, the death of Dr. S. A. Marsden, Chief Consul for Connecticut, a report that Susan B. Anthony will ride a Victor Rotary tricycle, a Puck cartoon on cycling, and the Citizens' planned new brick club-house — closing with a tongue-in-cheek 'Minerva Owl' note about freezing lamp-oil.
- General news notes on the pending L.A.W. mail vote on track measurement, the Springfield Club's planned half-mile concrete track for its autumn tournament, a $10 reward for a stolen Standard Columbia (No. 3299), the League-meet photographs now being shipped, the Canada tourists' arrival in Cleveland, and Chief Consul Weston's departure for the Harrogate C.T.C. Meet.