The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 7, No 1
Articles in this issue
- The editor's front-page column on the growing political prominence of wheelmen, noting racing man Victor C. Place's $600,000 Blaine-vs-Cleveland election bet, the Ixion Club's forthcoming invitation art exhibition, the decline of the Boston Ramblers, and Buffalo as the likely next League meet city.
- Frank and Edgar Tuxbury of the Amesbury Bicycle Club completed the club's first century on a 54-inch Expert and 56-inch Standard, covering 104 miles from Amesbury through Newburyport, Salem, Lynn and Boston in 13 hours 30 minutes total.
- R. H. English of North Shields B.C. won the fifth Crystal Palace fifteen-mile challenge cup race at Sydenham, London on September 11, beating every record from two to twenty miles and bettering Cortis' hour record by covering 20 miles 560 yards in the hour.
- Day-by-day report of the three-day cycling tournament on Boston's Union Athletic grounds, where Englishmen R. Chambers and H. W. Gaskell met Americans D. E. Hunter and C. F. Haven and professionals Woodside, Prince and James; a financial failure but closely contested, with Hunter winning the $1,500 Columbia prize cup in the twenty-mile race.
- Report of the Essex County (Mass.) Wheelmen's tournament at Lawrence riding park on September 27, attended by clubs from Salem, Lynn, Beverly and Amesbury, with F. P. Ingalis of Salem winning the one-mile and three-mile record races before about 800 spectators.
- Results of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society bicycle races at Waverly on September 19, with Dr. Edwin Field of the Monmouth County Wheelmen winning the two-mile open and Geo. Wenzell the one-mile open amateur, plus championship events of the Elizabeth and New Jersey Wheelmen; reported by "Jonah."
- The Troy Bicycle Club's annual races at Rensselaer Park on September 25, with T. B. Collins taking the two-mile championship and a one-mile race, Kavanagh of Cohoes winning two heats, and Ross of Albany the closing three miles; reported by secretary L. Herman.
- The route published for the Boston Bicycle Club's 100-mile road race, running from So. Natick at 6.30 a.m. through Wellesley, Newton, Cambridge, Lynn, Salem and Ipswich to a turning point near Rowley and back to the Club House at 87 Boylston Street.
- An anniversary history of The Wheel from its 1880 founding by three cyclists in Wm. M. Wright's Fulton Street office, through its 1882 change from bi-weekly to weekly and its role as official organ of the League of American Wheelmen, as it opens its seventh volume.
- An editorial leader reflecting on why bicycle race meetings cannot be made to pay even in a cycling centre like Boston, holding that the Union grounds races were well managed, closely contested and offered the costliest prizes yet, but drew too few riders and spectators.
- At the National Association of Amateur Athletes' annual games at the Williamsburg Athletic Club, Brooklyn, Lewis Hamilton beat Wm. Wait and A. B. Rich in both the two-mile (6m. 58s.) and five-mile bicycle races, though the L. A. W. had withdrawn its sanction from the events.
- Results of the Youngstown Bicycle Club's races at the Mahoning and Shenango Valley Fair half-mile trotting track on September 24-25, with W. C. C. Gumfory winning the half-mile and I. Grove the one-mile on a track left very heavy with mud.
- A. S. Roorback of the Elizabeth Wheelmen describes his four-day solo tour from Elizabeth, N.J. across the mountains to the Delaware Water Gap and back, August 15-18, 1884, giving detailed road notes over 67 1/2 miles through Morristown, Hackettstown and Hope.
- A poem by "Juvenis," "'Sweet Home' recast in full," celebrating the joys of the wheel over all other travel, with the refrain "Wheel, wheel, fleet wheel! There's no seat like wheel!"
- Editorial notes department covering the League's quarrel with the N.A.A.A.A. over racing rules, proposed additions to League rules (record, ride-and-run and hands-off races, starter authority), Capt. Pitman's Boston road-race entry, Karl Kron's "X. M. Miles on a Bi" subscription pledges, and the unsettled Sellers-Hendee rivalry.