Bicycle racing

“ Mass., who, in addition to being a builder of multicycles, is well known as a professional racing man. The development of paced races among the Michael-Starbuck class, paced by multicycles, has undoubtedly added largely to the popular interest taken in multicycles. They form a pretty picture indeed on a circular track, with their riders mounted in gay costumes, and the speed and skill with which they are handled arouses the spectators to greater enthusiasm than any other form of cycle racing ever introduced. ”

“ Look! If some one hasn’t been up here on a bicycle I miss my guess!”
“A bicycle!” exclaimed Bob. “Do you mean to say that the robbers rode a bicycle up here?”
“There are the marks of the rubber tires plain enough,” replied Jerry, pointing to them.
“That’s no bicycle track!” declared Ned.
“Why not?” the tall lad wanted to know.
“Or, if it is, the fellow rode on one wheel, or else is more expert than anyone I ever saw. See, there’s only one straight mark, and the best rider in the world turns his front wheel every now and then, making a separate track from the rear one. That’s no bicycle mark.” ”

“ This leaning to either side by the machine and rider gives rise to that delightful gliding which none but the bicyclist or the skater can experience. In this respect the bicycle has an enormous advantage over any machine, tricycle or Otto, which must at all times remain upright, and which must, therefore, at a high speed, be taken round a curve with discretion. ”

“ When you are riding along level ground, and do not touch the "brake," the gear is at 80. Soon you come to a hill. Then by pulling the "brake" handle up half-way the gear of the wheel is changed from 80 to 60, and thus you can go up hill, slower, to be sure, but much easier. After reaching the top of the hill you pull this rod up close to the handle-bar of the wheel, and the gearing is thrown off entirely, so that the bicycle will coast down hill without turning the cranks. Of course the rider can keep his feet on the pedals all the time. ”

“ Bicycling.—When ordered into position for a start the men shall mount their machines, and one assistant for each competitor will hold his machine with its front wheel at the mark; at the starting signal the attendants are allowed to push the machine forward but not to follow it up. Riders must pass each other on the outside, and be a clear length of the bicycle in front before taking the inside; the inside man must allow room on the outside for other competitors to pass. Any competitor infringing this rule will be disqualified. ”

“ A favorable place for a bicycle is along a railroad track—going in the centre or at one side. When suddenly attacked, my men can get out of the road like a covey of quail, and a bicycle can be trundled across the worst possible country as fast as a man can travel, for you see all the weight of the man’s gun and pack are on the wheel, which runs without any appreciable resistance, and all bike men know how to throw a bicycle over a [237] fence with ease, and my average march is eighty miles a day. Ladigo, remember—eighty miles a day. ”

“ Whether the cyclist elects to provide the motive force by his own efforts or prefers to call in the aid of the internal combustion engine is a question of personal choice. The pedal bicycle, as it is termed, provides exercise with recreation, and the motor is therefore scorned by some athletic enthusiasts. The dependability and speed of the motor cycle are, however, now an established fact, and the advantages of the mechanical propulsion cannot be overlooked where time is a factor. ”

“ Perhaps an engineer enamoured of his engine can understand the love of a cyclist for his wheel.
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The people around the Garfield Park Loop were beginning to get impatient. Most of them had stood for two hours holding their bicycles, and even a well behaved bicycle is an awkward possession in a crowd. Pedals scraped the shins of utterly strange riders, handle-bars got tangled in watch-guards, and front wheels got into mischief with unpleasant regularity. ”

“ We have now arrived at the stage when a high bicycle was regarded as dangerous, and, if the front wheel were too small, it detracted from the rider’s speed owing to the shorter distance covered by each turn of the wheel. What was the next move? The engineer’s mind turned towards a method of gearing by cogs or chains, by which one turn of the crank axle would cause the driven wheel to turn more than once. That is where we get our method of describing the ratio of gearing between the crank and the wheel of a modern safety bicycle. ”

“ George W. Rollins, Boston, Mass.—The best kind of training for a ten-mile bicycle race is to take short spins of a mile or two at speed on a track, and long rides of from fifteen to eighteen miles on the road, on alternate days, for two or three weeks previous to the date of the race. If you can ascertain what road the race is to be run over, it is well to become as familiar with it as possible; but do not try to ride the distance on time more frequently than once in ten days. ”

“ In point of speed there seems to be no limit to the bicycle. In a test made on the Long Island Railroad in the summer of 1899 between a wheel and an express train, the bicyclist, riding on a plank road between the rails and protected behind the train by a wind break, covered a mile in 574⁄5 seconds, and while going at top speed of more than a mile a minute, overtook the train, was caught by his friends on a rear platform and pulled on board, bicycle and all. ”

“ Boys on bicycles become extremely careless and fool-hardy. They cut in front of rapidly moving cars and weave from one side of the roadway to the other. They dart in from behind a parked car or from a side street. When moving not straight along the wheels are always likely to slip on wet spots in the pavement or catch in the flangeway of the street-car tracks.
The bicycle is in itself a very useful machine and, perhaps, the most economical vehicle built. ”

“ In the introduction to the ‘Indispensable Bicyclists’ Hand-Book’ this year we say; ‘The Ordinary bicycle, for the young and active, is the most delightful form of cycle to possess, and the youth of England147 and other active nations will ever select it in preference to its perhaps safer, yet more cumbrous rival. ”

“ If your machine does escape from your control, throw your legs over the handles, and "coast," as you are less liable to get a bad fall while in this position than in any other.
Keep to the right of the road as much as possible. Always keep to the right when you meet a team, foot-passenger, or other bicycle, and in overtaking any of these always pass to the left. Dismount and walk past any horse that becomes frightened at your bicycle.
Always carry a light when riding at night. ”

“ Hoopdriver rode swaggering along the Ripley road, it came to him, with an unwarrantable sense of comfort, that he had seen the last of the Young Lady in Grey. But the ill-concealed bladery of the machine, the present machinery of Fate, the deus ex machina, so to speak, was against him. The bicycle, torn from this attractive young woman, grew heavier and heavier, and continually more unsteady. ”

“ For a young man or party of young men who are traveling through Britain on a summer's vacation, the bicycle affords an excellent and expeditious method of getting over the country, and offers nearly all the advantages of the motor car, provided the rider is vigorous and expert enough to do the wheeling without fatigue. The motor cycle is still better from this point of view, and many thousands of them are in use on English roads, while cyclists may be counted by the tens of thousands. ”

“ The true definition of the bicycle is a two-wheeled vehicle, with one wheel in front and the other in the rear, and both in the same vertical plane. Its life principle is the physical law that a rotating body tends to preserve its plane of rotation, and so it stands up, when it moves, on the same principle that a top does when it spins or a child’s hoop remains erect when it rolls. ”

“ Everyone, including the writer, who rode the old high bicycle, can well remember the day when it was necessary continually to dismount on account of restive horses, and when cyclists were subject to much abuse from nervous drivers; but to-day it is an exceedingly unusual thing for a horse, or even the rawest unbroken colt, to pay the very slightest attention to a bicycle. ”

“ On meeting a team the rider must stop and stand at side of road between the bicycle and the team—the outer side of the road if on a grade or curve. In passing a team from the rear, the rider should learn from the driver if his horses are liable to frighten, in which case the driver should halt, and the rider dismount and walk past, keeping between the bicycle and the team.... ”

“ Roads must be, indeed, in a dreadful condition if space for one wheel to be driven easily over them cannot be found. The bicyclist can scorch in triumph along the tiniest footpath, while the tricyclist trudges on foot, pushing her three wheels through the mud or sand. Moreover, there is less resistance to the wind, and in touring, it is far easier to dispose of the small light safety than of the wider machine when you put up in a little inn at night, or are forced for a time to take the train. Many a night in Germany, Austria, and Hungary did my bicycle share my bedroom with me. ”

“ At the moment of entering each of these recurring spaces one may discern the fast uprising and darkening blue of distant mountains—and again the obscuring scrub envelopes bicycle and rider.
After the stories he will have been told, the cyclist, should he be a stranger and alone, will surely throw a glance to one side and to the other—ahead, too, as he turns each of the numerous sharp angles—in half-timid and half-hopeful expectation of seeing start out or up to intercept him a score or two of spear-brandishing and yelling bogie men. ”

“ Finally she gave in, and the burly gentleman began impelling the machine up hill by his own unaided strength. His face made a dot of brilliant colour among the greys and greens at the foot of the hill. The tandem bicycle was now, it seems, repaired, and this joined the tail of the procession, its riders walking behind the dogcart, from which the lady in green and the driver had now descended. ”

“ In places where the road became impassable from long use and wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally quite a long distance from the existing road in unenclosed surroundings.
A great charm of the bicycle is its noiselessness which, with its speed, affords peeps of wild creatures under natural conditions. Cycling on the Cotswolds I came upon two hares at a boxing match ”

“ On the other hand, the pedal bicycle is a restful and noiseless form of locomotion for those who do not care for the hurry and bustle of a motor cycle ride, and cycling, when undertaken in accordance with ones powers, is probably the most health giving form of recreation for the mind and body. ”

“ By thus providing the bicycle with a circular track engaging the driving-wheel the said track forms virtually the driving-wheel of the bicycle or velocipede, and as it is of very greatly increased diameter as compared with the driving-wheel of the velocipede, it enables the machine to be driven over rough and uneven roads without violent bumping and jolting, and without discomfort to the rider. ”

“ The objections to the high bicycle were many, and among its chief drawbacks were that owing to the disparity in wheel diameters and the small weight of the backbone and trailing wheel, also to the rider’s position practically over the centre of the wheel, if the large front wheel hit a brick or large stone on the road, and the rider was unprepared, the sudden check to the wheel usually threw him over the handlebar. ”

“ If going up hill be exhausting, why, then it is wise to walk. Going down, if the hill be long, the brake must be used from the start, and to know how to back-pedal is important. To back-pedal is to press on the pedal when it is coming up instead of when it is going down. Nothing could be more dangerous than to lose control of a machine on a down grade. Some of the most serious accidents have been the result of the rider's letting her cycle run away with her in coasting.
I have enumerated the virtues of the bicycle. ”

“ Too much of human effort consists of merely going through motions without ever getting forward:
Bicycle races without leaving the starting-place, which are said to be the latest craze in places of amusement in Paris, are described in Popular Mechanics. Says this paper: “The wheel is fixt in a frame fastened to the floor. When the rider begins to pedal, a belt from the rear wheel drives a small electrical generator. The current thus produced is conducted to a motor on wheels and carrying a flag. ”

“ My appearance in the saddle is greeted with wild shouts of exultation, and in their eagerness to come closer and see exactly how the bicycle is propelled and prevented from falling over, they close up in front as well as behind, compelling an instant dismount to prevent disagreeable consequences to myself. ”

“ A little experience will soon teach the rider how to exercise the care necessary to prevent falls. He will learn to lean well back in his saddle when descending a hill, when about to apply his brake, or upon striking a stone or other obstacle. He will learn to lean forward when ascending a hill, and to dismount rather than to try and force his machine through sand.
That bicycling is a healthy exercise is a fact beyond dispute, as any physician who has the slightest knowledge of the bicycle will assure you. ”

“ There was infinite pathos in the tales of helplessness of these drought-harried men.
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There are abundant proofs as we steer out of Carrieton towards Cradock that we are already on the outskirts of the kingdom of the bicycle. The horses—bony apparitions mostly—have for the machine none of that contempt which tells of its familiarity to the city horse. So the bell is handy. Not so much to warn the equestrian as to soothe the bicyclist's conscience. You ring your bell and by that simple act throw on to other shoulders the full responsibility for all the frightened horse may do. ”