The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 1, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Full-page announcements from Pope Manufacturing Co. promoting the Columbia range — Expert, Light Roadster, Semi-Roadster, Safety, and Tricycle models — with prices and performance claims for the 1886 season.
- Outing, 'the gentleman's magazine of sport,' recruits club members as subscription agents and advertises its 1886 annual rate alongside a discount sale of American Sanspareil, Club, and Roadster bicycles from S. T. Clark & Co. of Baltimore.
- Bayliss, Thomas and Co. of Coventry advertise their Excelsior bicycles and the Harvard Safety, highlighting their suitability for American roads and inviting agents to apply.
- William Read and Sons promote the Royal Mail bicycle's six key improvements for 1886, including Grip-Fast rim and tire, ball-bearing head, and detachable handle-bars, supported by a press testimonial.
- William Read and Sons continue their advertisement, describing the Royal Mail Two-Track Tricycle as the best-adapted pattern for American roads and touting a companion safety bicycle's hundred-mile record time of 6 hours, 39 minutes.
- W. B. Everett and Co. of Boston advertise the Apollo light roadster and semi-racer, Singer's Straight Steerer tricycle, the Velociman hand-motor tricycle for cripples, and the Springfield and Traveller tandems.
- The inaugural editorial explains that the new Gazette succeeds The Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, tracing that predecessor's founding in 1883, its 1884 relaunch, and its collapse in 1886 amid a dispute with the Overman Wheel Company, before pledging to sustain its reputation.
- An analysis of the contentious debate within the League of American Wheelmen over the status of so-called 'promateurs' — paid riders who competed nominally as amateurs — and the difficulties of creating a fair intermediate class.
- A short editorial laments that American wheelmen must wait for Paris to decree a return to knee-breeches and silk stockings before the more comfortable old-fashioned cycling dress can come back into style.
- The editors state their own view on the amateur question: they support the L.A.W. racing board's rules except Rule H, arguing clubs should be allowed to openly pay a favored member's expenses rather than force riders to hide legitimate support.
- A Philadelphia correspondent, 'Chris,' reports on the new Invincible tricycle agency of George Gideon & Co., the merger of the Pennsylvania and Penn City Wheelmen clubs, and plans for L.A.W. headquarters and a Philadelphia Bicycle Club clubhouse near Fairmount Park.
- London correspondent 'Faed' describes a snowy start to the English season, previews the North Road Cycling Club's twenty-four hour and hundred-mile road races, and reports that the Cyclist and Wheel World Annual will not be issued this year.
- A column of short cycling-world items, including the Pope Manufacturing Company settling its suit with the Overman Wheel Company, Thomas Stevens's round-the-world ride reaching Teheran, and reports on the Stanley Show's 557 exhibited machines.
- Correspondent 'Stamson' shares local Stamford, Connecticut club gossip, noting new riders taking up the Victor and Star, the Solitary Club's congratulations on a member's new daughter, and preparations for the coming League meet.
- A correspondent surveys the cycling clubs of Stark County, Ohio, describing the founding and membership of the Massillon Bicycle Club (1882), the Canton Bicycle Club (1884), and the Massillon Wheel Club, plus plans for an Ohio division L.A.W. meet.
- A Woodstock, Ontario correspondent, 'Pedal,' profiles Canadian champion Herbert W. Clarke's racing record, previews the Woodstock Amateur Athletic Association's May 24 tournament, and reports on the coming Canadian Wheelmen's annual meet in Montreal.
- Karl Kron writes from New York to explain the continued delay of his book 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle,' describing its 450,000 words, subscriber lists, and pricing plans for the autographed edition.
- A lengthy advertorial from Stoddard, Lovering & Co. describes D. Rudge & Co.'s Coventry works and details the construction of the Rudge Light Roadster, the low-priced American Rudge, the Kangaroo-type Rudge Safety, the Rudge Racer, and the Rudge Humber Tandem.
- The American Sportsman, a Cincinnati weekly covering cycling, hunting, fishing, and the kennel, advertises a combined subscription with the Wheelmen's Gazette for two dollars a year.
- Freeman Lillibridge of Rockford, Illinois advertises his saddle as the only one adjustable in length, height, and width, with a bifurcated seat and coasting plate, fitting Safeties and the Star.
- Geo. W. Rouse & Son of Peoria, Illinois advertise Columbia, Champion, American Challenge, Facile, and Otto machines on installment plans, plus repairing, nickel-plating, and second-hand trade-ins.
- Club correspondents describe the Bay City Wheelmen's win over the Highland Park Wheelmen in a fifty-mile team road race near San Jose, L. D. Munger's record-breaking twenty-five mile ride at New Orleans, and notes from San Francisco and Reading, Pennsylvania clubs.
- A two-page illustrated supplement depicting the Expert, Light Roadster, Standard, and Semi-Roadster Columbias alongside the Racer, Racing Tricycle, Safety, and Two-Track Tricycle models.
- A comic serial opening with round-the-world cyclist 'Mr. Thomas' being taken captive by a band of black-tent Kurds after catching the eye of a Circassian woman named Zoelima, and plotting an escape from the jealous Hassan-al-Nadir.
- Short notes including the American Wheelman road race's prizes, the Big Four Tour Association's disbanding in favor of an L.A.W.-run annual tour from Buffalo to Harper's Ferry, and a list of current English cycling time-standard records.
- Lists the English National Cyclists' Union's 1886 time standards and record holders for one, five, twenty-five, and fifty mile bicycle and tricycle events, with the dates and grounds fixed for each championship race.
- Reports L. D. Munger's attempt at the world's fifty-mile road record at New Orleans on April 2, 1886, over the Calliope Street to Carrollton and Exposition course, naming the timers, checkers, and judges.
- Prints the full itinerary for the Indiana division's third annual tour from Rushville to Indianapolis in July 1886, including overnight stops, a twenty-one mile road race, and rules for riders joining the party.
- Announces the founding of the Albany Wheelmen as a new club devoted solely to cycling, distinct from the older Albany Bicycle Club, and lists its first officers and thirty-six charter members.
- A directory of newly elected officers for dozens of American and Canadian wheel clubs, from the Atalanta Wheelmen of Newark to the York County Wheelmen of Biddeford, Maine, plus notes on the Troy and Lynn cycle clubs' new tracks and clubhouses.
- T. B. Jeffery of Gormully & Jeffery explains in an interview the Champion bicycle's self-aligning cup-shaped fork bearing and rigid neck fitting, crediting these features for Schock's long-distance record ride.
- A list of United States patents granted in late February and March 1886 for cycling-related devices, including vehicle springs, a tricycle clutch, a saddle, a bicycle lock, and methods of wheel-making, compiled by patent attorney Shipley Brashears.
- 'President Merg' of a Fostoria, Ohio touring club gives a humorous account of the club's spring reawakening, its six-mile stretch of ridable road, and a Sunday run that ends with the club attending a country church service.
- A short romantic sketch about a shy journeyman house painter who falls for Katie Page, the banker's daughter, while repainting her family's mansion, only to leave for the East without a word of farewell when the work is finished.
- A satirical list of supposed rumors circulating about the L.A.W., including claims that it is an Eastern league, that the West has no voice in its government, and that the racing board will never rescind the current suspensions.
- A reprinted English essay from Wheeling weighs the arguments a suspended 'maker's amateur' might make in his own defense against the National Cyclists' Union's rules, and concludes that the amateur/professional distinction may be undermining the sport.
- An essay from The Cyclist proposes that national cycling bodies — the N.C.U., L.A.W., I.C.A., and others — federate to hold rotating annual international championship races, warning that ad hoc 'international' meetings like Springfield's will otherwise create rival claims to world titles.
- A Turf, Field and Farm piece reflecting on the trotting horse Maud S.'s record time-trial at Cleveland as an illustration of how racing against the clock, rather than another competitor, demands sustained effort with no chance to ease off.
- Wheeling reports that the Springfield Bicycle Club will offer $1,000 in prizes and pay the expenses of six English, two Scottish, two Irish, two French, and two German champions to contest the one-mile world amateur championship at its 1886 tournament.
- Outing's special correspondent Thomas Stevens writes from Ismidt, Asia Minor, describing curious Circassian refugees and khan-keepers he meets while cycling toward the interior on his round-the-world journey.
- The Boston Globe reports the Suffolk Wheel Club's planned three-day, one-hundred-and-thirteen-mile tour along the North Shore from Boston to Newburyport and Cape Ann in July, under Captain Gideon Haynes.
- An editorial surveys reaction to the suspension of makers' amateurs on both sides of the Atlantic, noting Henry E. Ducker's resignation from the L.A.W. racing board over a conflict with his Springfield Bicycle Club presidency, and predicting the suspensions will hold.
- The gazette lists combined subscription offers pairing cycling periodicals and reference books for club members at reduced rates, alongside agent recruitment notices.