The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 1, No 3
Articles in this issue
- Pope Manufacturing Co. presents the complete Columbia lineup for 1886, including the Expert, Light Roadster, Standard, Safety, and racing machines, emphasising their world record performances and interchangeable parts.
- Harry Etherington's London paper Wheeling is promoted as the foremost British cycling journal, with a combined subscription offer alongside the Wheelmen's Gazette for American readers.
- Stoddard, Lovering and Co. of Boston advertise for agents and dealers interested in selling the Rudge cycle range, offering full directions for sales on application.
- The Southern Cycler, the oldest cycling paper in the South, is introduced as a monthly publication offering advertising opportunities particularly suited to the southern and western markets.
- H. B. Harnum advertises Hold-Fast tire cement in two-ounce sticks, promoted as a reliable solution for securing rubber tires to bicycle rims.
- Frank B. Wilkins of Milford, New Hampshire advertises a novel bundle carrier that fits within the wheel without removing spokes, described as practical and impossible to damage in a fall.
- The American Inventor journal promotes itself to cycling readers interested in patents and manufacture, offering a free copy and advertising patent procurement services in the United States and all foreign countries.
- William Read and Sons detail the six key improvements to the Royal Mail bicycle for 1886, including the Grip-Fast rim and tire, ball-bearing head, wound spokes, and detachable handle-bars.
- An editorial lambasts the seventh annual League of American Wheelmen meet at Boston as a parliamentary failure, noting the racing board's expulsion of makers' amateurs was sustained by only fifteen votes out of a membership of nearly 10,000, while praising the Corey hill-climbing contest and the Friday-night minstrel show.
- Praises the Lynn Cycle Club Track Association for dedicating its new Glenmere park and track on May 31 and running its meet under American Cyclists' Union rules, though racers Hendee, Rowe, Prince and Neilson are criticized for erratic riding at the opening tournament.
- Reports the temporary organization of the American Cyclists' Union at Boston's Hotel Vendome on May 29, with Henry E. Ducker of Springfield elected president and A. O. McGarrett secretary-treasurer, and quotes the constitution's Article II defining amateur and professional standing.
- Describes a newly completed and tested lever-driven safety bicycle invented by Rev. Homer A. King of Clinton Street, Springfield, featuring a rear steering wheel, adjustable anti-friction bearings, and a new hollow felloe rim designed to prevent headers.
- Mocks L.A.W. racing-board chairman Mr. Bassett for repudiating N.C.U. racing rules he had endorsed while overseeing the Lynn races, and Charles H. Potter of Cleveland for suing the Lynn Cycle Track Association under the very rules for which he serves as America's N.C.U. consul.
- A London letter signed "Fred" covers the Surrey Bicycle Club meet at Kennington Oval (won by H. A. Speechley), the Irish Cyclists' Association tournament at Dublin's Hall's Bridge where R. J. Mecredy lost to A. J. Wilson on tricycles, and the coming International Tournament at Alexandra Park featuring P. Furnivall's Challenge Shield team.
- Philadelphia correspondence laments the thin turnout of local wheelmen for the Boston League meet, describes the fast "tearers out" of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's Lancaster pike set including new member Fontaine, and reports plans for a new Philadelphia Bicycle Club clubhouse.
- Recounts a December wheeling run from New York to historic Greenwich, Connecticut, passing General Putnam's house and "Put's Hill," the Rockefeller summer estate, and the old Tweed clubhouse on the Sound shore.
- Correspondent "Stamson" recounts a spring club run to Pemberwick and Glenville with J. L. Mead of the Leisure Hour Wheel Club of Greenwich, and complains of Stamford's poor macadam roads and a new sewer tearing up the streets.
- A letter from J. H. Allen of Clinton, Greene County, Alabama urges cycle manufacturers to send traveling agents into the Gulf states, arguing Southerners would take up wheels if shown they could replace a saddle-horse.
- Notes that Thomas Stevens has been barred from riding through Afghanistan and must reroute via Constantinople and India to complete his round-the-world journey, alongside an L.A.W. parade tally counting 283 Columbias against 116 Rudges among 653 machines.
- Details the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's new road-record medal program and the Orange Wanderers' five-mile handicap race at Newark, won by Henning on a Victor ahead of E. P. Baird, who later rode 126 miles in a Decoration Day twenty-four-hour attempt; also lists newly elected officers for dozens of clubs from Albany, Oregon to Wheeling, West Virginia.
- Publishes the federal court's final decree in Pope Manufacturing Co. v. Owsley (the St. Nicholas Toy Co. patent case), ordering $8,707.91 in unpaid royalties, alongside notes that Gormully & Jeffery skipped the L.A.W. meet to fill dealer backorders of American Ideal and Champion wheels.
- A poem by "Fifty-Three" describing two cyclist friends riding twenty miles to a village near Nashville, attending church, and escorting home "a sweet, pretty maid" before returning at dusk.
- Karl Kron defends the advance-subscription campaign for his forthcoming road-book "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle," reporting 3,300 pledges worth $3,540 and naming Colonel Pope among the skeptics who doubted he could reach even 1,000 subscribers.
- A fiction piece in which an engineer secretly builds an electric-powered tricycle to run on railway rails and, delayed by his father, finds himself racing an express mail train through a tunnel, covering two miles in 57 seconds.
- A dialect comedy piece, reprinted from the Elmira Tidings, in which Mrs. Murdocin describes her son Tammy being carried home by two policemen after taking a header off a bicycle he found standing on a pavement.
- A poem by "Fifty-Three" celebrating the bicycle's power to reveal the countryside's beauty and restore health to city-bound riders.
- Reports the New York and New Jersey Team Road-Racing Association's road race near Newark, won by E. M. Valentine of the Kings County Wheelmen in 1h 41m 5s ahead of C. A. Steuken of the Hudson County Wheelmen, with times listed for all sixteen finishers.
- A technical description of Stoddard, Lovering & Co.'s imported Rudge Safety, detailing its Morgan-patent chain drive, gun-metal hub, and 39-pound weight, aimed at combining tricycle-like safety with bicycle speed.
- Describes the budget-priced American Rudge, built with crescent steel rims and gun-metal hubs at D. Rudge & Co.'s Coventry works, pitched at wheelmen who want a first-class machine without the cost of the Light Roadster.