The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 9, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Weekly miscellaneous column covering cycling news from across the U.S. and Britain, including Captain Riel's 109-mile Cheyenne-to-Denver ride, A.J. Wilson's English annual mileage record of 7,021 miles, Frank Elwell's planned Bermuda cycling tour with confirmed participants from Ann Arbor to Philadelphia, arguments against the flying start in racing, and the Scranton B.C.'s bicycle entertainment and hop at the Arcadian Rink.
- Boston correspondence describing the Massachusetts Club's recent athletic show—featuring boxing bouts between Ethier, Williams, Stoddard, and others—upcoming events including a February 26 home-trainer race open to all amateurs, and the contested club captaincy election pitting the popular Lieutenant Peck against Mr. Slocum; also notes a $2,000-prize bicycle tournament at the Highland Rink featuring professionals Hutchinson, Maltby, Tufts, and Marshall.
- Preview of the February 1886 issue of Outing magazine, highlighting Thomas Stevens's 'Around the World on a Bicycle' installment reaching Constantinople, John Hyslop's account of the Puritan-Genesta America's Cup races, and Colonel Norton's article on ice yachts.
- A letter signed '2073' correcting The Wheel's earlier report on the Chicago Bicycle Club election, asserting that Mr. Miller led from the first ballot and Burley Ayers only declined after three ballots made clear he could not win.
- A humorous narrative by the Velocipedestrians recounting a June Sunday cycling excursion from Pittsfield to Williamstown, Massachusetts, led by President Kennedy with Robbins, Pierce, Greenfield, and West, which ended in disaster when a violent storm overtook the party in the woods of New Ashford and forced them to push their wheels thirteen miles in the deluge.
- A review of the 1885 London bicycle racing season by 'Ubique' (from the Cycling Annual), profiling Percy Furnivall of the Berretta B.C. and J.F. Webber—who set the mile record at 2m.39s. and won the N.C.U. Five Miles Championship at Jarrow-on-Tyne—as the season's dominant riders, with capsule assessments of Adams, Speechly, Capern, Engleheart, Macbeth, and Ashbury.
- A letter reporting 1885 mileage records for seven members of the Orange Wanderers club, including three ladies (Mrs. Douglas at 2,276 miles, Mrs. Johnson at 1,986, Mrs. Porter at 1,695), with L.H. Johnson leading at 4,175 miles and a club total of 18,573 miles.
- Report on the Ixion Bicycle Club's annual ball at Standard Hall on January 20, 1886, attended by over 200 wheelmen and guests including delegates from out-of-town clubs, with a 16-number dance card and a committee of arrangements comprising Harry S. Jones, Fred C. Ringer, F.S. Stott, Francis Thayer, and M.G. Peoli.
- Letter from 'Independent,' secretary of the Independent Wheelmen of Brooklyn—a club of young men aged 16–19 founded May 1885—reporting 1,305 miles of touring in 1885 including trips to Queens, Freeport, Garden City, Hempstead, and Babylon, with two mishaps: the captain's broken nose on the Babylon run and a sprained ankle in October.
- Reprinted from the S.W. Gazette, a history of cycling in Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia, tracing the movement from the first bicycle club founded by W.J. Parry in June 1880 through the current Ramblers, Eaglehawk Athletic, and Sandhurst Cycling clubs totalling roughly 300 members, and describing road races and carnivals featuring amateur champion F.H. Shackelford, W.J.C. Elliot, Con Dwyer, and W.W. Bloomfield.
- Announcement of P. Harvard Reilly's plan for an organized American wheelmen's tour through France, England, Scotland, and Ireland, departing New York around July 1, 1886, and returning in time for the Hartford and Springfield bicycle tournaments in September.
- Summary of Captain F.V. Greene's paper to the American Society of Civil Engineers on traffic and accident observations across 36 streets in ten U.S. cities, showing asphalt pavements attract the heaviest traffic—St. Louis's asphalt Locust Street carrying 103 tons per foot per day versus 7 tons on adjacent granite Olive Street—and result in fewer horse accidents than granite.
- Club election results from Springfield—where the Springfield Bicycle Club chose Captain A.O. McGarrett and planned a February 22 ball and March minstrel show, reporting $3,964 in 1885 receipts—and from Detroit, reporting new Detroit Bicycle Club officers under President B.J. Holcombe and Captain H.M. Snow; also notes a testimonial letter from Prince David Kawananakoa of the Sandwich Islands praising his Victor bicycle.
- A letter from Abbot Bassett, Chairman of the L.A.W. Racing Board, defending the Board against Chief Consul Kirkpatrick's charge of inaction on 'makers' amateurs' (riders subsidized by manufacturers), citing existing rules G, H, and 22 that clubs can already use to exclude such riders, and announcing a proposed new rule requiring championship races to accept all entries and cap prizes at fifty dollars.