The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 8, No 16
Articles in this issue
- A column of short cycling news items from July 1885, covering the CTC's membership of 18,713, George W. Baker's 454-mile ride from St. Louis toward Boston, the Troy Bicycle Club's Fourth Annual Race Meet at Island Park, the Capital B.C.'s planned outing from Baltimore to Boston and Springfield, and the programme for the forthcoming Hartford meeting.
- A note on the emerging sport of homing pigeons in America, describing government interest in military communications use and the publication of The Homing Pigeon journal, edited by Federation of American Homing Fanciers secretary E.S. Starr; W.N. Oliver & Co. of 12 Vesey Street become publishers and a combination subscription with The Wheel is offered at $1.75 a year.
- A product notice for the Patton Cradle Spring, a new bicycle accessory from Zacharias & Smith of Newark, N.J., designed expressly for the Star bicycle but adaptable to the ordinary, with adjustable eye-bolts to raise or lower the saddle horn to suit individual riders.
- An account of a Fourth of July century ride by H.J. Hall Jr. and A.C.D. Loucks of the Kings County Wheelmen from Brooklyn to Patchogue and back; Hall was forced to retire after a crank broke past Babylon, while Loucks completed the 122-mile round trip in thirteen hours one minute including stops.
- A report on H.R. Goodwin of the North Manchester B.C., who rode from Land's End to John O'Groat's and back to London on a Facile bicycle, covering 2,054.5 miles in nineteen days — described as the greatest bicycle feat yet recorded, completed on a worn-down tire with two loosened spokes as the only mechanical trouble.
- Coverage of the third annual meeting of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association in Woodstock, Ontario on July 1st, where about 300 wheelmen paraded through the town and J.S. Brierly of Simcoe was elected President; the association reported 905 members and re-elected H.B. Donly as Secretary-Treasurer with a $100 grant.
- A humorous account by two Elizabeth Wheelmen (one riding a Star, one a crank machine) of a Fourth of July holiday run from Central Park up the Hudson to Tarrytown, featuring a header on King's Bridge road, a missed steamer, and a night row across the river to Nyack before reaching their destination at Grand View.
- A narrative by C.S.H. of the Big Four Tourists' journey from Batavia to Rochester by special train, then by steamer across Lake Ontario to Coburg and on through muddy Ontario roads to Belleville and Kingston before reaching Round Island, including hops, banquet menus, and races on a half-mile clay road won by H.S. Wollison and a fat men's race taken by Geo. R. Bidwell.
- A full account by W.I.H. of the Big Four Tour's 100-mile road race from Coburg to Kingston, Ontario, won by Cola E. Stone of St. Louis in 8h. 28m. on a 58-inch Rudge; L.D. Munger of Detroit finished second and George Weber of Smithville third, while H.D. Corey of Boston and N.H. Van Sicklen were eliminated by borrowed-fork trouble and a horse-caused crash respectively.
- A comic poem in two stanzas by Francis P. Prial, contrasting the cocksure wheelman's pre-race bravado — his lemon knee-pants and sea-green shirt — with his chastened humiliation at being beaten by the local crack and vowing to pot-hunt never more.
- A heat-by-heat report on the N.C.U. five-mile amateur championship at Newcastle-on-Tyne on June 27th before 10,000 spectators, won by M. Webber of the Veetis B.C., Isle of Wight, in 14m. 22.4s., beating Laing by four yards and Chambers by two yards in the final.
- An introduction to the numerous Fourth of July race meetings reported at the office, with results from Chelsea, Mass. (R.E. Burnett winning the half-mile), Salem, Mass. (C. Abbott taking the mile in 2m. 54s.), Waltham, Mass. (C.E. Tracey in the half-mile), and Springfield, Ohio (P.N. Myers of Covington, Ky. winning the mile).
- Race results from the C.W.A. meet on the quarter-mile asphalt track at the Driving Park, Woodstock, Ontario, on July 1st before 3,000 spectators; H.W. Clark of Woodstock won both the one-mile and five-mile Championships of Canada, A.T. Lane of Montreal the one-mile tricycle championship, and E.P. Burnham of Newton, Mass. the open mile and five-mile races.
- Results of the Akron, Ohio B.C. annual races at Fountain Park on July 4th, where C.E. Stone of St. Louis won the open mile in two straight heats, W.H. Wetmore of Cleveland took the half-mile, and W.F. Knapp of Cleveland won the two-mile event.
- A profile of the rising English amateur champion M. Webber of the Isle of Wight, comparing him favourably to former idol Cortis and to R.H. English, and noting how Webber won a London handicap as a novice by running away from the scratch men and has since dominated every race from one to five miles.
- A fixtures calendar and closing-of-entries notices listing upcoming cycling events for July–September 1885, including the Dorchester B.C. road race on July 25th, the New Jersey Division L.A.W. meet at Orange on July 18th, the Scranton B.C. meet on July 23rd, and the Hartford Connecticut B.C. meet on September 2–3.