The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 9, No 26
Articles in this issue
- The editors argue forcefully against the L.A.W. Racing Board's suspension of suspected 'makers' amateurs,' urging suspects to appeal and quoting the Mirror of American Sports in calling for a broadened, liberalised amateur definition that ends the absurd distinction between prize money and prize goods.
- Boston correspondent reports on widespread condemnation of the Racing Board suspensions, C. O. Danforth of the Cambridge Bicycle Club successfully clearing his name, champion John S. Prince's rivalry with Robert A. Neilson, and the surprise news that Abbott Bassett is resigning from the Bicycling World to launch a new independent weekly, The Cycle, on April 2; closes with short 'Points' items on Boston club news including George Hendee's forthcoming switch to a Columbia racer.
- Burley B. Ayers writes from Chicago announcing the 1886 Big Four tour — departing Rochester, N.Y., on July 5 and travelling via Seneca Lake, Elmira, New Jersey, Old Point Comfort, and the Shenandoah Valley to Harper's Ferry — and inviting all interested wheelmen to a planning meeting at the Genesee Hotel, Buffalo, on March 28 to consider merging the association into the L.A.W. Touring Department.
- Roundup of domestic cycling news: Kansas City counts forty-four riders; Richard K. Fox offers a $500 professional twenty-mile championship medal; Spalding Brothers lose a consignment of machines in the sinking of the Oregon; F. J. Lees sails to compete in the Minneapolis six-days contest; the Pope Manufacturing Co. presents Wm. Woodside with a gold medal for his Springfield record-breaking rides; and the New York and New Jersey Inter-Club Team Road Racing Association adopts a constitution and perpetual challenge cup for a fifteen-mile team race.
- Brooklyn correspondent 'Tattler' covers the Kings County Wheelmen annual meeting and unanimous re-election of officers (R. F. Hibson, President), the K.C.W. fifth-anniversary dinner at the Deiter Hotel with fifty guests including a poem by club poet T. B. Hegeman, the Bedford Cycle Club's rejected merger proposal, and the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's grievance at being excluded from the Inter-Club Road Racing Board despite being the oldest league club in the city.
- Report on the Citizens Bicycle Club annual meeting, which elected John C. Gulick as President with Dr. N. M. Beckwith as Vice-President, showed a treasury balance on an annual income of $2,500, and accepted an offer from member Richard Nelson to lease his four-storey brown-stone at 328 West Sixtieth Street to be converted with a wheel room, billiard room, locker rooms, and bachelor apartments for non-resident members.
- Notice of the new 175-page A. G. Spalding & Bros. illustrated catalogue, with twenty pages covering cycle goods including the Spalding, Kangaroo, American Premier, American Challenge, Ideal, and Hecla models, plus an extensive range of sundries from the McDonell Cyclometer to various saddles and uniforms.
- A member of the Elwell Bermuda party writes from Hamilton, Bermuda, March 8, describing the voyage on the steamer Trinidad through a sixty-mile gale, arrival among the coral islands, and a first nine-mile cycling excursion to Spanish Rock over hilly but smooth roads under the guidance of the Governor's private secretary.
- Technical discussion reprinted from the C.T.C. Gazette weighing laced/tangent against radial/direct spoke systems, concluding that while tangent spokes theoretically transmit leverage more efficiently, in practice they make little difference on tricycles, but on bicycles a tangent-spoked wheel functions as a near-solid disc and requires a tire at least one-eighth of an inch larger than a radial wheel for equivalent comfort.
- Equipment note reprinted from the C.T.C. Gazette describing Rimmon, Clayton & Sons' (Brock Street Cycle Depot, Lancaster) patent binding ring — a No. 13 spoke wire ring soldered to spokes eight to twelve inches from the hub — which the makers report has eliminated buckled wheels and broken spokes, including on a 54-inch racer previously prone to collapse under a heavy rider.
- Announcement of the Indiana L.A.W. Division touring committee's planned summer tour departing Rushville, Ind., on July 9 and running through New Castle, Pendleton, Noblesville, Tipton, Kokomo, Lafayette, Crawfordsville, Lebanon, and Indianapolis over six days, including a 21-mile handicap road race from New Castle to Pendleton on the second day.
- Detailed description of the Coventry Machinists' Company's new Marlboro Club automatic-steering tricycle, featuring two 40-inch driving wheels, a double axle with balance gear, butt-ended V-steel spokes, a fully concealed front spring, adjustable plated handle-bar, and dual hand-and-foot brake — praised as equally suitable for ladies and gentlemen.
- Letter from Robt. Ed. Phillips M.I.M.E. (reprinted from the C.T. Gazette) responding to queries about the Matchless rubber-cushioned bicycle, affirming that the rubber insulation markedly reduces vibration and nervous fatigue, that the square-shanked handle-bar is fully rigid, and that weight objections are beside the point for riders who value comfort over scorching.
- The Pope Manufacturing Company wins its three-year patent suit in the U.S. Circuit Court for northern Illinois against the St. Nicholas Toy Company of Chicago, obtaining a final injunction, dismissal of the defendants' cross bill, and a judgment of approximately $11,000, with every contested point — patent validity and extent of licence — decided in Pope's favour.
- Interview with Thos. B. Jeffrey of Gormully & Jeffrey explaining how the American Champion's spherical fork-bearing cases self-align under rider weight and handlebar pull, eliminating the friction that distorts fixed bearings on rival machines — the key feature Jeffrey credits for enabling Albert Schock to cover 1,009½ miles and win the world's long-distance record at Minneapolis without a single mechanical adjustment throughout the six-day race.
- Summary of a lecture by Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, director of the Harvard College Gymnasium, arguing that professionalism corrupts all sport through gambling, pool-room manipulation, and press sensationalism, that Harvard's athletic budget has grown to $20,000 and is now raised on a money-making basis the university authorities object to, and that only the co-operation of press, colleges, and influential men can rescue athletics before cycling follows boxing and rowing into decline.