Cycling notes: snobbery, female riders and dispensing with a brake – archive, 1895

The increasing popularity of cycling among the ‘aristocracy’ is remarkable. Among recent recruits may be mentioned Lord Zetland, Lady Havelock Allan, Sir Joseph Pease, the Earl of Camperdown, the Duke of Westminster, and two of the daughters of the late Earl of Iddesleigh. Heretofore the only objection urged against the pastime has been its vulgarity. The bicycle was looked upon as the poor man’s horse, and those who patronised it were considered very ordinary people. The utility of the bicycle as a means of conveyance, its capacity for causing harmless and elevating pleasure, and its undoubted health-giving qualities were all ignored at the dictates of the fashionable world. The said fashionable world have suddenly discovered the virtues of the cycle, and, ignoring the fact that even butchers’ boys may derive pleasure from the same source, they have taken to it in numbers. The middle class, a large proportion of whom are born snobs, will, now that the only objection is removed, join the ranks in thousand. It will have an effect also even on those who are not snobs.

Heretofore many professional and business men have been afraid to appear in public on wheels simply because it would damage them from a business point of view. I have known leading doctors who have made a practice of rising in summer at 5am, to enjoy a long ride before breakfast simply because they dared not appear in public except in the irreproachable brougham. For such as these the bar is being removed.

Pneumatic saddle
A paragraph for lady riders. A lady says she has found the Guthrie-Hall pneumatic saddle very satisfactory, and all of her feminine acquaintances who have tried it appear to like it too. I know a good many men who do not care for it, but that is beside the mark in the present case. I should recommend the Guthrie-Hall people to push it specially for feminine use.

The use of the brake
Except for absolute road-racing or record-breaking, there is nothing gained – I cannot underline this too strongly – by dispensing with a brake. From one to one and a half pound is about the weight saved, and this is not felt in ordinary riding. The diminution of labour that is undoubtedly noticed when the mud-guards are removed is due far more to the free running of the unrestricted wheel than to the small weight of those accessories themselves, and in the case of the brake there is not this excuse for removal. Its retention actually adds to the speed of the ordinary cyclist, for there are very few riders outside the ranks of the experts who care to let a machine run very fast down hill if they have no means of immediately checking its speed. It also saves much fatigue in the way of back-pedalling when long or steep hills are encountered; there is nothing more exhausting than the anxious effort to control one’s machine down a steep slope that may prove too much for one’s powers at any instant.

Of course I do not recommend cyclists to get into the habit of constantly using the brake; it should be kept as a last resource, and only used in case of sudden necessity or danger. But the mere fact of having it there should it be required adds tremendous confidence to the nervous rider, and we are not all of us constructed after the daredevil pattern. The silly fashion of removing both guards and brake in order to imitate a road-racing class to whom the rider could not belong if he would, and possibly would not if he could, has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

A lady’s riding powers
A correspondent who thinks of following my route through the Ribble and Lune valleys with a lady at Easter asks whether I consider the road through Gargrave to Malham too heavy with hills for a lady’s average riding powers, and if decent inn accommodation is to be had at the latter place. The last time I went that way I found good accommodation at an inn at Malham, hard by Gordale Scar, but in any case there is no lack of good inns at Settle. As to taking a lady that way I should not hesitate for one moment. My experience is that the average wheel woman is quite as good at hill work as her husband or brother, since she often rides in far better style, which counts for much in hill climbing.

Cycling in Hyde Park
The opening of Hyde Park to cyclists under certain conditions will be a boon to London riders. They will henceforth be allowed to use it before 10 in the morning and after seven at night in “the season,” and between the hours of 10 and four at other times of the year. This concession has been gained by the Cyclists’ Touring Club, and will be announced in the approaching issue of their Gazette. I trust the time is not far distant when we in Manchester shall be strong enough to insist upon similar privileges being granted us by the Parks Committee of the Corporation.

Cheap machines
Once again I would raise my voice against cheap machines. They are dangerous to life and limb, they are heavy to drive, and they are not in reality cheap. The margin of profit to the maker of even the highest-grade machine is really small, and a reduction of one-third in price is only accomplished by the sacrifice of good material and workmanship. If riders were content with 40lb mounts they could get them cheap and sound at the same time, but with the popular weights of the day nothing but the very best material and workmanship will ensure durability. The lower the initial cost of a very light machine the dearer it will be in the end. The repair bill will be more heavy, it will become a total wreck sooner, and even when in good order the second-hand selling price will not be half as high as that of the best grade in similar condition.