The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 1, No 8
Articles in this issue
- Pope Manufacturing Co. advertises that its Columbia riders claimed every League of American Wheelmen bicycle championship from half a mile to ten miles, plus all American Cyclists' Union titles except the tandem, and the greatest distance ever ridden within an hour (22 miles, 150 yards).
- The Blair Camera Co. of New York and Boston advertises the Lucidograph, a portable field camera for outdoor photography with sliding front and instantaneous shutter, priced from $22.50.
- D. Rogers and Co. of Newark advertise the Cunard Convertible Tandem, emphasising its automatic steering, balanced wheel load in both single and double forms, and folding handle-bar for easy storage.
- Outing magazine promotes its forthcoming year of content covering exploration, mountain climbing, hunting, tennis, yachting, bicycling and tricycling under editor Poultney Bigelow, priced at three dollars a year.
- The Coventry Machinists' Co. advertises that the Marlboro' Tandem set a 24-hour record of 250 miles and 140 yards, ridden by a lady and gentleman team, beating all previous records by over thirty miles.
- Punnett, Merchant Tailor of Rochester, New York advertises Jersey cloth knee-breeches, long cycling stockings, and belt hose supporters tailored for cyclists at moderate prices.
- An advertisement claims the Hub Stove's wire gauze oven door revolutionises cooking by maintaining circulating fresh air in the oven, preventing re-absorption of gases and keeping bread fresh longer.
- The Gazette recaps a run of autumn 1886 record rides, including W. A. Rowe's hour record of 22 miles 150 yards at Springfield and S. G. Whittaker's 300-mile 24-hour road record at Crawfordsville, Ind., and airs a dispute over English visitors Fred Wood and Robert James being fined for 'loafing' at the Springfield tournament plus a running debate with the Bicycling World and the Cycle over the A. C. U.'s seven-days'-notice rule for record attempts.
- J. R. Hogg of North Shields, England, argues for abolishing cycling's amateur-professional distinction, contending a true amateur races for honor regardless of a rival's prize money and citing North Road rider R. H. English as proof that expelling suspected makers' amateurs while ignoring impoverished 'genuine' amateurs is inconsistent; reprinted from Wheeling.
- The American Wheelman rebuts the Cycle's claim that public opinion favors keeping the amateur rule, pointing to its own April article, headed 'Does Labor Dishonor?', which had already denounced the rule as rotten and superfluous.
- Writing as 'Faed' from London, the correspondent describes R. J. Mecredy's thirty-rider tour from Dublin to Killarney, rates Furnivall the season's fastest path rider and Fenlon best at distance, reports the N. C. U.'s suspension of Engleheart, Oxborrow and Hale on suspicion of riding as makers' amateurs, and covers the North Road Club's open road races along with a controversy over a faulty stopwatch used to time Furnivall's and Gatehouse's disputed mile records.
- Philadelphia correspondent 'Chris' reports the Association for the Advancement of Cycling's successful local race meeting, where Crist of Washington beat Wilhelm, the 'Star' pacer from Reading, and describes the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club's 46-rider closing run to Wayne under Captain Roberts and the new Philadelphia Bicycle Club house rising by Fairmount Park.
- The Paris correspondent covers the amateur-status debate roiling French clubs, the Minister of War's praise for military cyclists at the autumn maneuvers, and the Union of France's long-distance road championship at Longchamps, won by ex-champion F. De Civry ahead of J. Dubois, Charles Terront and Wick of Bordeaux.
- The Rev. J. H. Watson, a Hartford, Conn. clergyman and enthusiastic tricycler on a Columbia two-track, contributes an alliterative tribute to bicycling for 'biblical brain-workers,' reprinted from the Boston Globe.
- Chicago correspondent 'Verax' previews the Chicago Club's Thanksgiving Day hare-and-hounds chase to Pullman, with Kluge and Crennan running as hares for the Chicagos and Bowbeer and Davis for the Illinois Cyclers, and reports N. H. Van Sicklen's denial of a track comeback though he may attempt road records at Crawfordsville the following spring.
- A tongue-in-cheek squib claiming a racing man with a flea's relative muscle strength could ride a mile in one minute is volleyed between the American Sportsman, the L. A. W. Bulletin and the Gazette itself, ending with a jab at English champion George Lacy Hillier's disbelief in American hour records.
- Signed 'Crayon,' this season-recap column tells the cautionary tale of Jim Slote's dared winter ride, notes the Ixion Bicycle Club's steep ten-dollar initiation fee, criticizes Editor Ducker's defense of promateur racers now that Rowe and Hendee have turned full professional, and details a betting swindle worked on rural visitors at cycling tournaments.
- George D. Gideon's letter, reprinted from the L. A. W. Bulletin, defends his resignation as chairman of Pennsylvania's State Racing Board over the Association for the Advancement of Cycling's insistence on racing at an unsafe West Philadelphia track; a closing note from the Bicycle South mocks English critic George Lacy Hillier for repeatedly disparaging American riders and records.
- In the concluding chapters of this serial by President Hayes, tricycler Innocente Baudry is cleared of a theft framed by Owen Barfell when the Rev. Pyromander Sadiron, guided by a vision, rides through the night from Scotten to Millfall, Ontario to testify he saw her on the Coignleigh hill at the moment of the alleged crime, and hotel maid Jeanette Ricot confesses Barfell's plot before the pair marry.
- An excerpt from Karl Kron's forthcoming book recounts his narrow escape on June 22, 1886, when a horse and buggy collided with his bicycle at a railroad crossing near Somerville, N. J., flinging him under the horse's hooves without serious injury.
- In the fourth installment of his cycling-tour narrative, P. C. Darrow describes battling sandy Ohio roads from Cleveland through Elyria, Norwalk and Napoleon to Fort Wayne, then riding on toward Indianapolis via Roanoke and Kokomo, where he learns Hollinsworth is attempting a new twenty-four-hour road record on the National Road.
- A column of short cycling-trade items reports that W. M. Woodside is now champion of America after Prince forfeited his title, that George D. Gideon has quit the cycling business and turned Gideon & Co. over to Kirk Brown, and that Outing editor Poultney Bigelow defends correspondent Thomas Stevens against claims a bicycle manufacturer controls his round-the-world reporting.
- Signed 'Stamson,' this correspondence urges Stamford, Conn. officials to accept a contractor's offer of a trial stretch of macadam road, and recounts a Solitary Club run to Danbury over hills so steep the writer coasted them on a Facile while a courting couple ahead walked their carriage up and down.
- This Brooklyn column reports the Brooklyn Bicycle Club's move into its new three-story clubhouse on St. Felix Street, F. B. Hawkins's 202-mile 24-hour record for the club being topped by president A. B. Barkman's ride of just over 205 miles, and the Independent Wheelmen voting to disband and join the Ilderan Bicycle Club.
- Karl Kron, writing from West Springfield, Mass., updates readers on the nearly finished manuscript of his mammoth book '10,000 Miles on a Bicycle,' noting 554 of its pages are already electrotyped and comparing its half-million words to the length of General Grant's Memoirs.
- Results are given for the Wyoming (Pa.) Wheelmen's September 21 race meeting before 2,000 spectators, where J. R. Schlager and Ed Siebecker won several of the mile events, plus the officer roster of the newly formed Vermont Wheel Club of Brattleboro under president O. A. Marshall.
- The official League of American Wheelmen outfitter advertises regulation caps, helmets, shirts, and hose at set prices, with orders required to include the rider's League number.
- The Ames Manufacturing Company advertises the Rev. Homer A. King's lever-driven safety bicycle, built in Springfield, Mass., with testimonials from riders Charles Quimby and Harry R. Hitchcock and from the Rev. Dr. O. P. Gifford of Boston's Warren-Avenue Baptist Church praising its hill-climbing power and header-proof design.