Tricycle

“ The loop-frame, pedal-driven tricycle became very popular when Her Majesty the Queen of England purchased one and set the fashion to the upper classes, and caused them to pay attention to the sport of cycling. Some time before this, however, a ladies’ tricycle had been on the market with lever action driving one of the side wheels and front handle steering. Single driving rear steering tricycles became very plentiful, but they were in turn driven out of the market by rear drivers with clutches. ”

“ Once the machine ran into an old woman who was crossing the road, and was either deaf or blind, but there wasn't very much of her, and the tricycle went over her like a horse taking a low fence. If it hadn't been for the excitement of the ride, and the thought of what the consequences would probably be when Mrs. Van Wagener should come to know about it, the Professor would probably have dropped exhausted, for he wasn't a very strong man. ”

“ But about this hyer tricycle. When bicycles and tricycles came to New Berlinopolisville, the Professor was mightily interested in them. Not that he admired them, but because, as he said, they were unscientific. He demonstrated with not more than half a slateful of figures that it took more exertion to drive a bicycle a mile than it would take to run that mile with a man's own legs. ”

“ I had even hoped to give an impetus among conservative women to this new line of physical development and outdoor happiness; but that is quite another story and will come in later. Suffice it for the present that it did me good, as it doth the upright in heart, to notice recently that the Princesses Louise and Beatrice both ride the tricycle at Balmoral; for I know that with the great mass of feminine humanity this precedent will have exceeding weight—and where the tricycle prophesies the bicycle shall ere long preach the gospel of outdoors. ”

“ When I present myself at Powerscroft House, Faed is busily wandering around among the curves and angles of no less than three tricycles, apparently endeavoring to encompass the complicated mechanism of all three in one grand comprehensive effort of the mind, and the addition of as many tricycle crates standing around makes the premises so suggestive of a flourishing tricycle agency that an old gentleman, happening to pass by at the moment, is really quite excusable in stopping and inquiring the prices, with a view to purchasing one for himself. ”

“ Young and middle aged ladies can learn to ride the tricycle with the greatest facility, and they become excellently skillful. The tricycle is, in fact, now with me a not uncommon prescription, and is far more useful than many a dry, formal medicinal one which I have had to write on paper.”
The real enjoyment of the exercise is wonderfully in its favor. No finer sport can be found than the rapid spinning by green fields, through shady woods and along clear streams, lifted so far above the earth that you half believe you are treading air, so still and smoothly your “wheels” carry you. ”

“ The Tinkham Cycle Company also make in addition to their single tricycles a tandem tricycle, to which a [Pg 138] chair seat may be fitted to either the front or rear for invalids. And for those who cannot use either foot they produce a type of lever hand-power tricycle, and also a crank hand-power tricycle. They are remarkably easy running, and the makers say that any one with ordinary strength in the arms can propel them easily for fifteen or twenty miles over fair roads. ”

“ I believe I cried, but I didn't stop, and glad I was that I didn't; for in less than a minute I had come to a cross lane which led in the very direction the deer had taken. I turned into this lane and went on as fast as I could, and I soon found that it led through a thick wood. Down in the hollow, which I could not see into, I heard a barking and shouting, and I kept on just as fast as I could make that tricycle go. Where the lane led to, or what I should ever come to, I didn't think about. I was hunting a stag, and all I cared for was to feel my tricycle bounding beneath me. ”

“ The tricycle can be used almost anywhere nowadays, side paths and cycle paths having been so largely built, and they afford all the pleasure and exercise of bicycles without any of the nervous strain and inseparable danger, and thus a great many persons can obtain a needed amount of outdoor exercise on a tricycle who could not under any possible conditions use a bicycle. ”

“ From the days of the Humber Cripper tricycle this type of machine has advanced along very similar lines to the safety bicycle. Gradually the size of steering wheels increased, and driving wheels, once about 44 ins., decreased till they became all one size, 28 ins., then 26 ins., where they remain to-day. The side elevation of a modern tricycle is exactly the same as a safety bicycle, and the weight of the road racing tricycle is sometimes no more than an average roadster safety. ”

“ The tricycle is easier to guide, and safer to ride than the two-wheeled machine; there is however more friction, and its speed is much less rapid. It has, thus far, been found impossible to construct a three-wheeler with the pedal method of propulsion, that could compete with the bicycle in speed or pleasure of driving. Large wheels are necessary for speed. If a guiding wheel be applied to a tricycle of this kind large enough to run rapidly on the road, and to counterbalance the size of the other wheels, it would be unsteady of motion ”

“ The seven miles' coast to which we had looked forward for days, was to be a walk after all. Like the King of France and his twenty thousand men, we had marched up the mountain that we might march down again. Is it any wonder that we both lost our tempers, and that an accident was the smallest evil we wished the manufacturers of our tricycle? Because they cared more for lightness than for strength,—since record-making is as yet the chief end of the cycling,—the necks of people who ride for pleasure are forsooth to be risked with impunity! ”

“ Very few of our American makers devote any attention to producing a tricycle, the leading American makers of tricycles being the Tinkham Cycle Company of New York, who make a drop frame and a diamond frame tricycle, as shown in the illustration, and, as a matter of fact, these modern tricycles weigh less and run easier than some of the old heavy-weight bicycles of five years ago. ”

“ The generic tricycle, or three-wheeled velocipede, as used abroad, is not likely to meet with general favor in this country.
In its steering arrangements and mode of propulsion, its construction is similar to that of the bicycle. The rear wheels are large and light; the fore wheel is smaller, and serves to guide the machine, being acted upon by means of the steering bar or handle, which causes it to bend in the direction indicated by the rider. ”

“ Tandem tricycles and sociable tricycles are machines of the past. The latter were ponderous affairs weighing over 1 cwt. and mostly made by taking a front steering tricycle or a Rotary and coupling another wheel, crank axle and chain to the existing frame and extending it outwards to accommodate the seat or saddle of the companion rider. ”

“ Frankly, the bicycle is altogether too flippant for a man of my age, and the tricycle hitherto, with its two larger wheels behind and a smaller one in front, has been so indecently suggestive of a perambulator that really, George, I could not bring myself to it. ”

“ Hoopdriver’s head.
“I myself am a cyclist,” said the clergyman, descending suddenly upon Mr. Hoopdriver.
“Indeed!” said Mr. Hoopdriver, attacking the moustache. “What machine, may I ask?”
“I have recently become possessed of a tricycle. A bicycle is, I regret to say, considered too—how shall I put it?—flippant by my parishioners. So I have a tricycle. I have just been hauling it hither.”
“Hauling!” said Jessie, surprised. ”

“ Tricycling has become quite fashionable for men, and there is every reason to hope and believe that it will soon become so for women, for whom, as I have shown, it is a particularly suitable means of exercise, if only a sufficient number of ladies living in towns will cast off the fear of being stared at, and bravely mount the iron steed in public. Ladies in the country already largely patronize the tricycle. ”

“ Neglecting for the present the different modes of transmitting power from the pedals to the main wheels, it is possible now to consider the four typical builds of tricycle. The only advantage that a rider can find in a rear-steerer is the open front, so that in case of accident he can more easily clear himself of his machine ”

“ Topliff & Ely of Eleria, Ohio, patented February 23d, 1869, a tricycle, in which, by a simple [Pg 73] movement of a lever, the rear wheels can be run into one, and the vehicle instantaneously changed into a bicycle.
A gentleman of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., has invented a machine, in which both the hind wheels are drivers instead of the forward one. ”

“ Every minute we had to call out to citizens or peasants in front to let us by. The people at the windows and on the benches, waiting idly to see the end of the day’s solemn show, at once caught sight of the tricycle. ”

“ In the early ’eighties the bicycle and tricycle were frowned upon, not for boys only but for masters; and a lady living in Eton once received from Mrs. Hornby, who of course, was at the head of the Fashions, a message that to ride a tricycle was “not a nice thing to do.” Yet for the boys it was considered a nice thing to hunt and “break up” hares. I once witnessed the virtuous indignation of one of the masters, a clergyman, and a follower of the Eton hounds, when some rather “shady” incident of the hunt was reported to the headmaster ”

“ If I have overlooked anything typical in the modified bicycle class, I hope some one will afterward supply the omission, and point out any peculiarities or advantages.
That very peculiar machine, the center-cycle, seems to combine many of the advantages of the bicycle and tricycle. On it the rider can remain at rest, or can move backward; he can travel at any speed round curves without an upset being possible; he can ride over brickbats, or obstructions, not only without being upset, but, if going slowly, without even touching them. ”

“ Surely they will leave that! Alec never knew until now how much he loved his toys; but here they are again, and, yes! they are actually bringing out the tricycle. One sits on the saddle, one on each pedal, and all the rest on the handle-bar. Now the pedals go round, and, strange to say, the funny little men do not fall off. The tricycle seems to go of itself, as the horse did.
And now, oh dear! everything is gone, and Alec thinks he is worse off than the little girl who was carried away by the fairies.
Morning comes! Alec wakes and rubs his eyes; what has happened? Oh! the toys! ”

“ A lady's seat upon a tricycle is far less conspicuous than upon a horse, her bodily motion is less, and the movement of her feet scarcely more than is necessary to run a sewing-machine. She sits at her ease in a perfectly lady-like manner, and flies over the ground like a courser of the desert, if she pleases, or rolls quietly and smoothly along, chatting easily with the pedestrians who amble at her side.
Lady tricyclists attract no attention whatever in Oxford Street. Imagine one flying down Broadway! ”

“ Automobile tricycles were just then coming to the fore. I chose one, and rejoiced in its freedom from breakdowns. In my new enthusiasm for the type, I was the first to introduce motor-tricycle races in Paris. Renting the bicycle track of the Parc des Princes for an afternoon I organised the race and offered the prizes. "Common-sense" people declared that the event would end disastrously; they proved to their own satisfaction that the tricycles, going round the short curves of a bicycle track, would overturn and wreck themselves. ”

“ With its great flopping back wheel and its small, sensitive steerer, the machine might have been more handy, but it was a sound machine in its safety principle, and well built. Its stable companion was the Challenge tricycle, almost identical in design, except that two steering wheels were used, turned by Blood's patent gear. This was the first tricycle made with wire wheels and rubber tyres. More than one inventor has built a bi-tricycle, a machine combining the faults of the two- and three-wheeler, with the advantages of neither. ”

“ Tricars.—The tricar or motor tricycle was first made by removing the front wheel of a motor bicycle and replacing it by a frame carrying two side steering wheels and a seat. With a powerful engine this arrangement gives a light vehicle from which good performances are obtained on roads with easy gradients. On steeper gradients the power must be increased, and the belt drive with only one speed is inadequate. ”

“ TRICYCLING.—The tricycle affords both healthy and delightful exercise for women, for whom it is especially suited by the absence of jolting, and the manner in which the body is supported, which two characteristics render it more healthful for our sex than horse-riding. There are certain times, however, when both horse-riding, tricycle-riding, and other exercises should be avoided by women, but their own sensations and common sense should guide them in this respect. ”

“ At first the tricycle was adjudged the most promising form of man-motor carriage for the army, but latterly authorities have directed their attention to the more sensible and practical plan of adopting the Rover-type Safety. Some advantages could be named favoring the tricycle, but certainly, with the slight effort needful to master the rear-driver, if the cycle ever attains any prominent place in the military field, it will be in the form of a single-track machine. In all countries where reasonable roads can be expected the cycle must succeed in this warlike department of usefulness ”