The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 9, No 15
Articles in this issue
- Wide-ranging department of short news items covering Phil Hammell's rumoured turn professional in Chicago, the break-up of the Prince-Eck Combination in Minneapolis, plans for a 24-hour professional race at Chicago's Exposition Building, Emil Kiderlen's 215-mile Dutch record from Rotterdam to Leeuwarden, Italy's new policy of carrying bicycles free as traveler's luggage, and anecdotes about riders including H. H. Morris, Louis Lueders, and Frank A. Egan.
- Boston correspondent reports on L.A.W. Chief Consul Henry E. Ducker's visit to arrange the upcoming national League meet, with dates set for May 27–29 at Beacon Park; covers Ducker's proposed three-man executive committee drawn from the Massachusetts club, Boston club, and state division, plus local news including the Charlestown and Wakefield club balls, Rhode Island division committee appointments, and Richard Beazley's reinstatement as an amateur.
- Brief editorial notice reviewing the January 1886 issue of Outing magazine, highlighting Agnes Fraser Sandham's illustrated archery history, J. R. W. Hitchcock's hunting sketch 'In the San Francisco Forests,' and the continuing Thomas Stevens narrative 'Around the World on a Bicycle' through Bulgaria and Turkey.
- Fourth instalment of a historical reminiscence about early New York cycling, recounting the 1882 founding of the Ixion Bicycle Club at 791 Broadway by Frank A. Egan, Benj. Sanford, Frank Howard, and Capt. Will R. Pitman, and the colourful career of English professional James Reveli in Gotham cycling circles.
- F. A. Elwell of Portland, Maine, announces a sixteen-day cycling tour party departing New York on March 2nd for Bermuda, praising the island's hard coral roads, tropical scenery, and favourable winter climate for wheelmen.
- Bull and Bowen of Buffalo announce a medal competition for the best one-mile time on their Buffalo Home Trainer during January through March 1886, with Fred Jenkins of The Wheel serving as referee; all six governing rules are set out and all weekly scores will be published.
- Essay reprinted from the S. W. Gazette arguing that English bicycle race timing is demonstrably unreliable — professional records show implausibly round-second times across dozens of distances — compared with the scientifically precise split-second methods used at the Springfield tournament, accusing English editors of accepting times they could never repeat.
- Full race report of the 26-hour professional bicycle race between Tom W. Eck and William Woodside at the Washington Rink, Minneapolis, on December 29–30, 1885; Woodside covered 266½ miles to break Josh Young's record while Eck (riding a 53-inch Columbia after his Rudge failed to arrive) stopped at 223 miles, and Woodside set new professional records from 52 to 66 miles inclusive.
- Karl Kron's bibliography of American cycling publications is reprinted, listing titles, prices, and ordering details for works including John S. Webber's 'In and Around Cape May,' J. G. Dalton's 'Lyra Bicyclica,' Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell's 'A Canterbury Pilgrimage,' and Kron's own forthcoming 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle.'