The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1886-04-27 00:00:00

THE CYCLING WORLD.

Cycling enthusiasm never dies down entirely at any
period of the year. There ar.. inemlwns of the
Cyclists Touring Chili, soil p•di it. of other chile
too. who m ski. a p.int of turning 'nit all through the
year. wet or dry.
An extremely interesting phase of .110 social life is
this cycling development. It is interwstior; in many
nays. The rapidity of it as hewn very remarkable.
Sleet of its who ran look back 30 years can remember
the coirime. pilule., interest with which we saw the
first bievelist wobble by int Ili• precarcins.looking
perch. Practically •xithin 1:1 y.wrs a new in.litstr
hassming up, aft wiling .mm1.4114.'1, it •inputa,
for not di lew than 110,000 people in •oie way or
' another. Coventry, it is hardly an extravagance to
sair, haa illooTiroil 3 new lease .4 commercial life from
its ha. ing had the irood tontine to have been the first
to take up the manufacture of the !Sew machines. It
is 'slier...l that there are nor not lowa th In half a
.4 liieveln• and trivccles in the United
Kingdom, awl there at.. somewhere about '2.110
nilif.u-titrers of tte-n. Not only ha. a mei'
important new industly tlilis 1.0.11 mate I. hut a loi°ll
remarkable ..rgmisation liv. sprung tin for the !brr,.
iie,tion and dimelopnwsit of this novel system of
travelling. Cyclist,, Cr.. now a powerful holt
mind ,'ring among them of all ranks in
society, awl car dile 4 exerting at least one
eon, important iiiitience thr-ugh mat the counuy.
irailually lent very effectually they aptse ir to lei
taking the plaisio of the islol co:whine sy.t..m. as
regard. the In %int.,' mee .if rowls all over the king.
den. Inrbesl it Li more tlisti limitable that they will
exert a no,re earen.ive indoence than the coaches (1,4
respect. since their wanderings are not confined
to the main highways. Th.. coaching system is ar
doubt dead anil ii • with. The attempted rranicita•
tion ituirin recent years has been nothing more than
a pleasant fail; and even as a fad it is not fionriNhialt
AA this year's list of coaches shows. With the
.icmilonment itf the roof,. by the r iaches road.
making and road-repairing has become in many parts
~4 the kingdom almost • lost art. It is said th it lipt
recently, in a locality not a great way from Itirmra.
ham,
there MOOT found be to in charge .4
several " surveyors" who hail never heard of Mao
whim By the way it throws a very intmast.
ing light on the merits of our local govern•
nwmt learn that in the 001.11.11., of the
inquiry which brlmght thew. fossil surveyors to
light it was found that • mat three miles

long was in chaste .If no less thsn six separate
authorities. In all parts of th.• country the
condition of the littliw,vs lis.. s,eine,l an importanto
such as it seemed prob.-dole it would never again
pwiess after the obi coaclon .Isys. ito many of the
roa Is newt fospiented iiy eyeliets tinier-pod. giving
directions and cautions liar, been -stablisleel for
their esie,cial lenelit. and in not a few instances the
C mintry leen reoiscitsted int., little.
thing of th-ir old activity suet prosperity by this new
development.
It is reckoned thst th..re are About sOn Cycling
nub scattered oVsa 01.• kingdom. By far the
: lamest is the Cyclist.' Touring f Nish. This, Formed
:Ii Ist7it, now otimboirs Orpr 31,0110 itininliers, and ha•
leconie not unly a very estnnsi,,s, lint a most
elabors'tely•orgranitel institution, with 'tenches in
the :testes, Prance, Germany, Belgium,
Holland, Osnsda. Ileninarh, and dwitserland. In
nil the iirincibsl towns it this kingdom. and in many
~1 the chief towns of the foreign countries mentioned,
' they hire their " consols," who are to ii,, for niem•
sri.if tho chili arriving in their vicinity pretty
Inns+ what our Governmental Clonsuls for Britons
elinsel—give them, that is hussy, whatever help or
direction they may n.ssl. Beside. this, tho, kingdom
is mapped rut into so many districts, Purl at the bead
of each district is a chief consul. In every imp,r•
tant two they have also• ripen...rot/chilly appointed
for setting right anything that may he amble with
machines; and the members of the club h•ve their
own hotels at which, it tin y chose to resort there,
they inayget accomitiodatign st a hoed and moderate
tent,.
This club is an sasocistien of individuals. The
National Cyclists' Irnima is an association of club.,
and 11111116.1.4 about 10,000 inembera. In friendly
conjunction with each other these two societies look
alter the cyclists' Interests in every ;awash. we
The Union—which, by the way, hem • con4i4erable
eyehole' library at its hearlquarters in 11,4nm/hall.
street—has lately been tithing counsel'. 14j/11,4 as to
whmlirigg'. rights on highways, and they are prepared
to enforce aletri and is) protect their inembeni when-
ever and wherever their rights may be infringed in
tie, course of their peregrinations. The two
associations usually manage to snake their
influence felt in the framing of all heal bye-laws
affecting their number% who but fur this united
action would often had themselves in serious
difficulties. For instance, not • great while ago souse
of the Genial magnates sought to lay down the law
that no cyclist should presume to ttavel over their
roads without carrying a bell at least four inches in
diameter, and which he was to ring at all titans
both by day and night. The represientatives of the
two leading assocthtions had an opportunity of expres-
sing their opinion upon this ingenious byelaw when
submitted to the Local Government Board for
approval, and of amuse got it inildied. 'Union in
thew matters Sal in nrst others' la strength, and the
strength of the wheeling wield SINII4I 10 I.* •Frowing in
tn.sy. way,.
past tire years have witnessed vary rentark•
*idit")" this
r.t"ust. u 1 to fine
years
ago,
although
_greet things h n ime with bicycles,
the tricycle was in a vet, crude and unworkable um,
The Coventry Machine Ounipany had nothing thet
weighed less than 190Ih. or 1110 N, and the things
were constructed ,in a principle now admitted to be
vary faulty. The ounseqnence was that those who
could not venture to mount the bicycle had nothing
but • heavy and laborious machine at command—
heavy and laborious, that ia toaay, u.op with
what has since be a produced. But tricycles are now
not very greatly inferior in power to the bicycle, nor
are they very much heavier. They are now made
from 70 to SO Its. in weight, and it is said that
practiced wheelmen can 20 230 miles in 24 home,
the corresponding bicycle run being silamt 204 miles.
In the early days of tricyclse there clung to
them I Ind deel uf the prejudice that had attached
to the st/c1 velocipede, and something 'whale of the
ridicule that carioaturista had thrown at the h°
horse. They were too undeniably hard to work,lt
for a long tune walking seemed on the whole prefer.
able. 'l'he prejudice has. however, of late very rapidly
given way, and tricycles are now in greater request
than bicycle', in which also wonderful improventmta
have berm elected. The bicycles makers used to think
they did well if they kept their weight down to a
pound to the inch. in diameter. A bicycle with a
wheel itt inchns in diameter that is Inlay, would weigh
5111). Now they have niachines 50 inches Di diameter,
weighing 211 b. they are their lighteat ricing bicycles,
wish which, on a peed trick, • man may run at 211
miles Boactidera, of couria orisue surnewhit
Mailer.' bid e%eit in these lq one "fey and nnother
they have uninformed the nature of the machine a
1 .10 YeAl4. ' y illitstreting the 'Arenas the*
.44 basal 'hash. in %cling, we may joint .qt that not
very long ago the holioqi Fed ist lilbbibio from
Land's End In John o' (frost." ordinarily took the
heat wbeelman about three weeks. hush is the ito.
movement in machines and in the capthilitim of their
riders that the journey ia now ennetimes made in •
little Over six days.