The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 9, No 23
Articles in this issue
- Editorial arguing that the bicycle provides superior whole-body exercise to horse-back riding and recommends it as a cure for sedentary habits and dyspepsia, noting the rapid growth of clubs and the expected boom in ridership for the 1886 season.
- Editorial urging manufacturers to establish ladies-only riding schools, contending that the absence of a suitable place to learn away from public gaze—not the machine's construction or dress concerns—is the chief impediment to the tricycle becoming fashionable among women.
- Chapter 4 of the serialized romance by Harry Myrtle: Ethel and Gertie untangle the confusion between old and young Percy Harrington, and Ethel later reunites with the younger Percy—fellow exhibition bicycle rider—in Buffalo, where they agree to practise a joint fancy-riding display.
- Weekly miscellany covering the death of Star Wheel Club captain Will. A. App in Memphis, the disputed 10-mile Minneapolis race between E. A. Savage and S. G. Whittaker (accusations of collusion, Whittaker's spirited denial, time 31m. 51¾s.), French champion prize tallies led by M. de Civry with 50 firsts, and cycling growth in Kansas, Illinois, and Brooklyn.
- Boston correspondent C. S. H. reports on the Massachusetts and Boston clubs' Washington's Birthday rides to the Newtons and Chestnut Hill, the planning meeting at Hotel Marlboro for the 1886 LAW meet (proposed Commonwealth Avenue parade route, races likely at Union Athletic Grounds), and a Massachusetts Club athletic evening at which Gideon Haynes set an American home-trainer mile record of 1m. 41s.
- A. A. McCurdy of Lynn, twice holder of the 24-hour road record (233 and 255 miles), emphatically denies Joseph Butcher's charge that his pacemaker Woodman inflated the cyclometer reading during the November machine change, and predicts the 24-hour record will reach nearly 300 miles by the close of the 1886 season.
- A cable to Outing reports that Thomas Stevens—cycling around the world as the magazine's special correspondent—safely left Teheran for Calcutta and is confident of penetrating China; a brief accompanying note records the death in Carcoar, Australia, of 28-year-old Dr. H. L. Cortis, who in 1882 lowered the one-mile record to 2m. 41 3/5s.
- Correspondent 'Patsy Bolivar' surveys Bay Area cycling: a 50-mile Washington's Birthday team road race from Gilroy to Menlo Park among Bay City Wheelmen, Oakland Wheelmen, Oakland Ramblers, and Highland Park Wheelmen; the merger of the San Francisco Bicycle Club with the California Cycling Club; and the opening of the Golden Gate Riding Hall in Oakland by E. T. Ezekiel and H. S. Lord.
- Trick-riding champion D. J. Canary writes from Bristol to rebut 'Wheeling' magazine's puff for rival N. E. Kaufmann at London's Royal Aquarium, noting Kaufmann performs in a spacious annex while Canary was confined to the cramped 20-foot main stage; the editor endorses fair play and acknowledges Canary's honestly-won laurels.
- A correspondent signing as 'Independent' recounts a comic winter ride in which extreme cold contracted their bicycle frames to an uphill pitch, convincing the two riders they were climbing an endless hill for an hour until they dismounted and warmed the machines at a farmhouse.
- Correspondent 'Jonah Dotlets' of Elizabeth, N. J., proposes an annual wheeling parade through Central Park, citing the 1883 parade of 800 riders that more than doubled local membership, and estimating that 500–1,000 uniformed riders could be mustered from New York, Staten Island, Westchester, Connecticut, and New Jersey clubs.
- Brief club dispatches: the Ixion Club's well-attended ball in New York, the Ilderan Club's entertainment at Brooklyn's Fifth Ave. R. S. Academy (full account deferred), and the annual officer elections of the 71-member New Jersey Wheelmen of Newark, with H. E. Littell elected president and Geo. P. Williams captain.
- Notice of the imminent publication of the LAW road book covering New York to Philadelphia, Boston, and the Delaware Water Gap, compiled by Brooklyn consul A. B. Barkman and the Brooklyn Bicycle Club; the book features detachable large-scale cycling maps and flexible-cloth pocket binding, priced at $1.
- Standing editorial column acknowledging reader letters, describing a seven-person propulsion tricycle model submitted for review, noting Karl Kron's 'X M Miles on a Bicycle' has reached Chapter XXXI with interesting matter about veteran riders, and confirming that Indiana's road survey is underway.