The record-union., 1896-03-14
CYCLE TOPICS.
The Risk on Bicycle Riders is Not a
Hazardous One.
What the Statistics Show-The Wheel
Not in the Race With
the Ostrich.

| The CAPITAL City Wheelmens Club
has now about 160 members. OF these
about seventy-five are active in the
work of the club, and the others are only
more or less so, but retain membership
/ and do duty when called upon. The
club has club room that fairly answers
| its purpose 1t wants better accommo-
| dations however. 1t needs a house of
| at least five rooms, that the parlors,
smoking, wheel and exercise and dress
ing rooms may be separate.
| To secure such quarters it is neceS-
sary that the club should have a larger
| membership. San Diego, with less than
! half the population of Sacramento, and
| with a membership in the local club
very much greater, has an ideal club
| house, with accommodations for guests,
| members, male and female, a reading
room, bath room, wheel room, smoking
room and assembly chamber The
| Capital City Club feels that with twice
| the number of wheelmen and wheel
/ women in this city that there is in San
Diego it should have better support
and better accommodations.
/ The advantages of a club are the same
| here as everywhere. There is a fra
| ternity in the wheel ranks that ought to
| be cultivated. Club membership en-
| ableS one to avail of road privileges, in
/ duces to membership in the American
| League. which is a sort of insurance
and fully repays, for instance, against
| loss of wheel by theft etc. Club or
| ganization also tends to maintain the
ethics of the wheel and to keep the
sport of wheeling genteel, and to prevent
| the exercise being brought into disre-
pute.
| 1t is conservative of good road con-
/ struction and maintenance. 1t gives
good companionship on road runs trips
and pleasure excursions. It is especially
| helpful to amateur riders and beginners.
In short, it is largely fraternal without
any special burdens or duties.
| There are in this county about $500
wheels on the road, and of that number
at least 800 owners or users ought to
be members of the local club, for home
pride if for nothing else. The club meets
every Monday evening and is always
| glad to have wheelmen drop in, whether
they are prepared to unite at once or
not. This is a statement of the Execu-
| tive Committee, in effect, which is
body of well-known gentlemen of ex-
cellent social standing and good busi-
ness relations in the community. We
hope that the desire of the club will be
realized, and the number of it's men,
bership be enlarged as it wishes.
AT a meeting recently held of the rep
resentatives of the mutual accident in
surance companies it was declared that
cycling was an extra hazardous insur-
iSll and
suring those who rode the deadly bicy-
Gle should be increased over what it had
formerly been.
We do not believe that cycling is
guilty of the charges thus brought
against it by these insurers
! To prove that the Boston meeting was
not warranted by facts in their declar-
ing against the bicycle we have exam
ined a list of 1000 accident claims al
lowed by one of the largest insurance
companies in the world, with the fol-
lowing results: Falls on pavements,
531; carriage and wagon accidents, 243;
cut with tools and glass, Ill: fall of
weight on person, 96; bicycle accidents.
76. Taking these as a basis, we find
that person is seven times as liable to
injury while walking upon the side
the street; he is more than three times
as likely to be injured by riding in a
carriage or wagon. nearly twice as liza
bic to be cut by glass and edged tools.
and almost half again is his liability of
injury from a falling weight found to
exist. Despite these facts the insurance
companies would have us believe that
cycling is more dangerous than car
riage riding, for example.
Studying the figures further we find
that horses kicked and bit within one of
the number of people whose claims for
damages We're due to the bicycle, IS
accidents being charged d. these causes,
| while falling down stairs claimed 72;
machinery, IS; ball and tennis playing
and horseback riding each claimed ex-
actly AZ accidents. Compare the num-
ber of those who are brought in contact
with horses in any way with the number
of those who ride bicycle, and then dis
| cover if you can the extra percentage
Of danger in the case of the bicycle.
In comparison with ball players, ten
mis- players and equestrians surely the
bicycle has 100 followers where each of
| the others has one, yet the number of
accidents from these sources are more
than half as great as those from all
/ cycling. Where, then, is the suddenly
discovered hazard of cycling? We COM
mend these figures, of whose existence
| the gentlemen present at the Boston
meeting must have been aware, to those
| gentlemen with the request that they
duly study them, and, after so doing,
twist them into proofs of the danger of
riding the bicycle if they can-WheeI.
/ A queer race was run in South Africa
a few weeks ago. For some time the
question of the speed of an ostrich has
been a subject of some discussion, and a
noted cyclist determined to test his
/ speed against the powerful bird A
smooth course was selected and the
chase began. The wheelman drove the
pedals around with great velocity and
came abreast of the bird. No sooner
did it perceive the man than it started
at a headlong gait, and although the
wheelman was covering ground at the
rate of mile in two minutes, the ostrich
| swiftly 0istanced him. A stern chase
is long chase, and no doubt the powers
of the rider would ena BILE him to over
take the ostrich in the end, but he could
GO nothing in mile race.
Some Of the racing teams might do
well fo S15bStifllta 0Strfehac for e11ade