The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 7, No 13
Articles in this issue
- Year-end leader closing a prosperous 1884 and predicting a brilliant 1885 season, with a Christmas trade review praising Pope Mfg. Co. (Expert), Stoddard, Lovering & Co. (Rudge), Sam T. Clark (Sanspareil), the H. B. Smith Machine Co. (Star), Geo. R. Bidwell & Co., Ira Perego, and the Duryea saddle.
- Boston correspondent W. I. H. reports the Charlestown Bicycle Club's annual election (President F. S. Nelsen, Captain J. W. Vivian) and George E. Hutchinson's fancy and upside-down unicycle riding at the Institute Rink, then pleads that the League of American Wheelmen must show its 5,000 members tangible benefits.
- A Philadelphia letter rebuts Boston correspondent W. I. H.'s claim that Chris Wheeler slandered the Springfield Bicycle Club in the L. A. W. Gazette, flatly denying it and challenging him to produce the offending paragraph.
- New York correspondent X. Y. Z. recalls the Citizens Club's corner-stone laying a year before and its completed 60th Street club house, then preaches a Christmas 'sermon' urging smaller clubs to build permanent quarters, issue bonds, and develop social life.
- Reprinted from the Wheeling Annual, Miss Davidson reflects on the growing acceptance of women tricyclists and advises on machine choice (the Royal Salvo, not a rear-steerer after a tumble from a Coventry Triumph), costume, and the health benefits of moderate riding.
- Tour secretary H. F. Fuller tabulates the ages, weights, wheel sizes, daily riding times, distances and speeds of the Chicago Bicycle Club's 1884 Niagara-to-Boston tour, noting the Western men were youngest but heaviest yet gained the most weight.
- 'Jonah' describes the Elizabeth Wheelmen's first public cycle exhibition at the Temple Rink, with a hastily-drilled eight-man squad on Stars and cranks, a tricycle parade by Miss Vincent, Miss Suydam and others, and trick riding by Tommy Finley and Harry Tufts; the New Jersey Wheelmen, Plainfield Bicycle Club and Hudson County Wheelmen attended.
- Karl Kron reports 2,233 advance subscribers to 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle' and reprints the article the League Gazette rejected, urging League officers to personally enroll local hotel keepers in his road-book's appendix rather than rely on mail circulars.
- New Year column of 'May the...' wishes for the League, clubs and trade, with notes on Thomas Stevens's forthcoming bicycle-tour papers in Outing, the Chicago Bi. Club's peace-pipe evening, and John S. Prince's six-day Chicago race win (889 miles) on a Duryea saddle.
- A southern Vermont correspondent signing 'The Tramp' reports four rink exhibitions, including Prof. John Wilson the 'Champion Trick Star Bicycle Rider of the World' and the acrobatic Speedwell Bros., who performed back-somersaults and shoulder-mounted riding on a single machine.
- The Junior Wheelmen of Baltimore (353 Druid Hill Avenue) report their annual election, naming J. C. Guggenheimer President, C. B. Hight Secretary-Treasurer, and C. P. Brigham Captain.
- A short fiction piece reprinted from the Wheeling Annual in which Derby lawyer Andrew Stebson, lost in dark December fields, overhears three dismissed mine workmen digging a road-trap to wreck his friend Fred Rivington's nightly tricycle ride, and helps him escape up a steep hill.
- Clipped items from other papers, notably the Memphis, Tennessee Bicycle Club's planned spring races on a half-mile suburban track (secretary W. L. Surprise), plus an anecdote about an absent-minded cyclist.