The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 1, No 4
Articles in this issue
- Pope Manufacturing Co.'s recap of Columbia riders' victories through the opening of the 1886 season — A. B. Rich sweeping the L.A.W. bicycle and tricycle championships at Boston, W. A. Rowe, Geo. M. Hendee and Chas. E. Whitten dominating at Lynn, and a clean sweep of every open event at New Haven — plus T. W. Eck's world tricycle record and E. H. Valentine's inter-club road race win in New Jersey.
- A roundup of Columbia riders on extended tours: Thomas Stevens crossing the continent and then riding around the world, Karl Kron logging 10,000 miles, Hugh J. High riding from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and back, F. E. Van Meerbeke and S. G. Spier each en route from New York to San Francisco, and P. C. Darrow riding from Lynn to Chicago.
- An Indianapolis dispatch reports that S. P. Hollinsworth of Russiaville, Indiana, shattered the American 24-hour road record on June 19, covering 281½ miles (21 hours 23 minutes of actual riding time) at Greenfield on a 58-inch Columbia Light Roadster, beating Munger of Detroit's previous mark of 259¼ miles and nearing the English record of 266.
- Outing magazine promotes itself to cycling club members as the premier illustrated magazine of outdoor sport, offering agent commissions for club subscriptions.
- S. T. Clark and Co. of Baltimore advertise a final clearance sale on American Sanspareil, Club and Roadster bicycles from $60 to $90, backed by rider testimonials including Wm. M. Feisbie of the New Haven Bicycle Club and N. K. Noyes of Manchester, N.H., with machines sent on approval and money refunded if unsatisfactory.
- William Read and Sons report continued strong demand for the Royal Mail bicycle and urge cyclists to see the wheel before buying, offering second-hand models and bargain pricing.
- The Connecticut Bicycle Club announces its third annual tournament at the newly improved Charter Oak Park, Hartford, for amateurs and professionals on September 8 and 9, offering over $2,000 in prizes as the opening meet of the big New England racing circuit; entry blanks are available from secretary George H. Burt.
- The Springfield Bicycle Club, whose officers include Henry E. Ducker, Sanford Lawton, William H. Selvey and William C. Marsh, advertises $7,500 in prizes for amateurs, promateurs and professionals at its Hampden Park tournament, September 14-16, 1886, entries closing September 7, and dares racers to beat the current mile record of 2.31⅜.
- An editorial celebrates July 5 racing at Springfield's Hampden Park: the season's first road race produced a new 20-mile record of 1:19:50, and George M. Hendee ('Our George') broke the one-mile track record with a 2:34 despite a rough surface, while Caledonian Sports competitors also broke the hammer-throw record with throws past 125 feet.
- A pointed editorial rebuts G. Lacy Hillier of the English Bicycling News for branding Wheelmen's Gazette editor Henry E. Ducker 'Mud' over the L.A.W. racing board's suspensions, defending Ducker and dismissing Hillier's journalistic standing among his English peers.
- An editorial invites English racing men to the fall American circuit at Hartford, Springfield and Lynn, assuring them that a forthcoming L.A.W.-A.C.U. settlement will let them compete without jeopardizing their amateur standing under the N.C.U. back home.
- Reports that Rev. Homer A. King has settled on the front-steering design for his patented King Bicycle (his fifth and sixth patent applications), with new anti-frictional bearings and power-and-speed gearing, and is now supplying sample machines to agents.
- Previews the fall 'Cyclists' Jubilee' circuit — Hartford, Springfield and Lynn racing a combined $14,000 in prizes over three weeks, with entries closing September 1, 7 and 16 respectively — and needles Karl Kron for timing his '3,000th advance subscription' announcement to coincide with George Hendee's new 2.34 mile record.
- The magazine's Paris correspondent surveys French cycling: De Civry (champion of France), Terront, Duncan, Dubois, Medinger, Pagis and Eole racing at Bordeaux, Orleans and Auch, with Charlie Terront upsetting De Civry and a dark horse named Charron beating Duncan and Dubois at Orleans; Duncan is expected to race at Springfield this autumn.
- New Zealand correspondent 'Pakeha' reports a dry season hampering the roads but notable tours by Mr. Langdown (Wellington to Wanganui, about 600 miles) and Messrs. Lowry, Parker and Painter (Christchurch to Hokitika, about 300 miles), plus New Zealand Cyclists' Alliance championship results won by T. C. Fisher of Dunedin, Mr. Stewart of Auckland and Mr. Webb of Dunedin, and the growing popularity of Kangaroo-pattern safety bicycles over tricycles.
- London correspondent 'Paed' covers the Alexandra Park tournament — W. A. Illston setting new bicycle records, A. E. Langley's 2:55 tricycle mile, and P. Furnivall winning the International Challenge Shield — plus the Hampton Court tricycle meet, the patched-up North Road/Ripley Road Club feud, C. W. Brown's 206-mile ride in the North London Tricycling Club's 24-hour trial, and P. L. Breysig's win at the Canonbury Cycling Club's Muswell Hill climb.
- Philadelphia correspondent 'Chris' reports on the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's Fourth-of-July tour, the new Philadelphia association for the advancement of cycling, ongoing debate over Sunday riding among the city's wheelmen, and the Philadelphia Bicycle Club laying the cornerstone of a roughly $50,000 clubhouse that will admit lady members.
- San Francisco correspondent 'Rocks' covers a Bay City Wheelmen banquet honoring California L.A.W. chief consul R. C. M. Welch, racer F. R. Cook's expulsion by the League racing board, close-fought Bay City Wheelmen-Albion Athletic Club races between F. D. Elwell and H. G. Kennedy, and a trick-riding exhibition by 'Malty.'
- The New Orleans correspondent describes a boom in local cycling — nine new applications to the New Orleans Bicycle Club and touring rider Van Merbecke's stopover — and details the Young Men's Gymnastic Club's tournament, where W. L. Hughes overcame a header to beat G. McB. Nathan and Bicycle South editor W. W. Crane in the mile handicap.
- 'Stamson' describes a moonlit night run on a Facile bicycle without a lamp, the Stamford Wheel Club's planned Coney Island run and shore dinner, the Solitary Club's coming New Jersey trip, and three touring Meriden cyclers en route to Tarrytown, Albany and Howe's Cave.
- Brooklyn club notes cover the Bedford Cycling Club's refurbished rooms, Captain Pettus's new Royal Mail, the Wayside Wheelmen merging into the Kings County Wheelmen, road-race wins by Hawkins and F. L. Ray of the Ixion Bicycle Club, rising rider E. Valentine's close race with state champion A. B. Rich, and the Kings County Wheelmen's inter-club team victory with veteran captain Ed. Pettus finishing fifth.
- The Connecticut Division L. A. W.'s annual meeting in Hartford (June 29) reports membership growth from 307 to nearly 550, work on a roughly 3,000-mile state road book, D. J. Post's election as secretary-treasurer over F. H. Crygier, and chief consul C. G. Huntington's sharp criticism of the national racing board's treatment of 'makers' amateurs.'
- A nationwide race-meeting digest for the July 5 holiday: George M. Hendee's 2:34 mile at the Springfield Caledonian Sports, F. A. Eldred's Springfield Bicycle Club 20-mile road race, the Canadian Wheelmen's Association meet in Montreal (Fred Foster, H. W. Clarke), Binghamton's meet (A. B. Rich, C. E. Titchener), and W. A. Rowe's new ten-mile record of 28:03⅖ at the Lynn Bicycle Club meet.
- An essay by 'Stamson' extols solo cycle touring — the freedom to set one's own pace without a 'scorcher' companion — and the particular pleasure of a moonlit summer ride filled with the sound of katydids and crickets.
- A tall tale, signed 'Independent,' recounts a wheelman's implausible 1883 escapes — vaulting over a farm wagon at speed, riding a loose plank across an unfinished bridge, crashing clean through a haystack, and recovering his still-rolling runaway bicycle by throwing a stone at it.
- Karl Kron gives a wry update on his perpetually-delayed book 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle' — 6,200 copies of the first 544 pages already printed and 3,796 subscription pledges banked — while poking fun at the Gazette's standing offer of a $15 rifle to whoever guesses its actual publication date.
- 'Independent' weighs in on the paper's running debate over Sunday cycling between correspondents 'Dash' and 'Cycle,' arguing that whether a wheelman rides or abstains on the Sabbath is a matter of individual conscience that neither side should try to dictate to the other.
- A detailed itinerary for the Iowa Division L. A. W.'s August 9-14 tour from Des Moines to the division's Spirit Lake meet — via Adel, Jefferson, Fonda, Storm Lake, Sioux Rapids and Spencer — covering about 184 miles in the saddle for an estimated cost under $10, organized by chairman J. F. Rall.
- A comic travelogue signed 'One of the Four' follows four Faribault, Minnesota riders nicknamed Prince, Stuff, Jack and Schock as muddy roads force them onto the railroad ties en route to Owatonna, where Jack gives an impromptu one-wheel trick-riding exhibition and Stuff is later thrown and injured coasting down Cedar Street hill.
- A digest of items reprinted from other papers: the Springfield Union hailing Henry E. Ducker as cycling's 'most illustrious pure amateur,' a Sporting Journal item on champion W. M. Woodside's Minneapolis lady admirer, and a Boston Globe anecdote of two tricycling 'dudes' outpaced by lady riders at Chestnut Hill reservoir.
- Reprinted from the Philadelphia Times, this analysis lays out the core dispute between the League of American Wheelmen and the American Cyclists' Union over 'makers' amateurs' who take manufacturer money, and proposes mutual concessions so the League could hand racing oversight to the Union.
- Reprinted from Bicycling World, 'President Bates' argues that racers like Hendee, Rowe and Weber need financial backing to beat British records, and proposes splitting amateurs into a self-funded 'Class A' and a club-or-manufacturer-funded 'Class B' rather than banning makers' amateurs outright.
- Excerpted from Outing magazine, Thomas Stevens describes staging a bicycle exhibition ride at Angora (Ankara) before thousands of spectators, escorted by mounted zaptiehs and the city's mayor, Suleiman Effendi, while a local blacksmith, Mustapha, examines the machine hoping to copy it.