The Angling Cyclist 
that the machine you ride does not steer well, 
or when the rear wheel tire gives forth a pecu- 
liar swishing sound when being ridden over a 
dusty surface, you are safe to*suspect that the 
wheels do not track, and an early visit to a 
competent repairer is advisable. 
No tyro should buy a wheel except under 
advice or personal guidance of an experienced 
person. The market is being flooded with 
machines, and it is well, not only to take the 
above-named precaution, but to buy only the 
best, and from the factory of an accredited 
manufactory. 
Experts differ as to whether the mud on a 
machine should be removed when wet, or 
whether to let it dry first before attempting to 
get rid of it. Of both plans the one most often 
adopted by the experienced rider is to allow it 
to dry. Then take a cloth which has been 
slightly oiled, pass it around each tube of the 
frame in turn, holding an end in each hand, 
draw it backward and forward until the mud 
has vanished. A painter’s dust brush will be 
found an excellent tool to aid you in properly 
cleaning the wheel. Be careful to avoid rub- 
bing the dirt into the bearings. The ad- 
vocates of the wet system of cleaning use a 
bucket of water and a stiff brush, first thor- 
oughly wetting the mud to loosen it, and then 
rubbing it off, following its removal by careful 
wiping the machine dry and polishing the 
nickel portions thereof. If the bearings have 
been well oiled, and some care is taken, the 
water can easily be prevented from finding its 
way inside the bearings. This plan is less 
likely to scratch the enamel than the dry pro- 
cess is. 
Always clean your wheel in the yard, and if 
you are so unfortunate as to be a flat tenant, 
bribe the janitor to let you do it in the base- 
ment. If you do not, your delightful pastime 
will be frowned upon by your housewife, even 
if she happens to be your wheel companion. 
An English cycle insurance company has 
a reference department, which should be of 
great value to the intending purchaser of a 
second-hand wheel. If the machine has been 
insured in the company, the would-be buyer, 
upon the payment of a fee of 25 cents, will be 
given all particulars of the age, make and orig- 
inal price of the machine, and whether any or 
what accidents the company has been called 
to pay upon it while it was insured with them. 
By this means the purchaser is in a large 
measure protected against buying a stolen or 
misrepresented wheel, a protection well worth 
much more than the 25 cents it costs him to 
gain. 
Beneficial and enjoyable cycling depends as 
much on the knowledge of breathing as upon 
muscular strength. The greater the capacity 
299 
to breathe the greater the vital capacity and 
the more riding becomes easy and rapid. But 
breathing must be instantaneously regular, 
and not done by shocks and blows like the 
puffs of a bellows. Persons whose nostrils are 
obstructed breathe through the mouth, and 
when they are tempted to augment speed in- 
halation is inevitable, and may be the cause 
of heart and lung troubles. But rapidity of 
movement does not suffice to bring on inhala- 
tion; it must be accompanied with intensity of 
muscular effort, and it thus may be considered 
as the result of general muscular fatigue. At 
the beginning of this muscular fatigue, the 
rider must go slower or dismount and rest, and 
make a regular practice of regular breathing 
through the nose, with slow exhalations through 
the mouth. With precautions such as these, 
the exercise of the wheel is beneficial for the 
development of the lungs and thorax, and one 
can even further assert that it may cure cer- 
tain pulmonary affections, provided they be 
not acute. 
When an ordinary-sized dog desires to as- 
certain how it feels to be run over by a bicycle, 
and you are unable to prevent yourself accom- 
modating him, proceed at it in this fashion: 
Get a firm grip on the handles, put an extra 
push on the pedals, rise slightly in the saddle 
as you do when surmounting an ordinary ob- 
stacle, and the result will be more satisfactory 
to you than it will be comfortable tothe canine 
investigator. 
The Tyro and the Master. 
Cycling has, in the flood of its new devotees, 
become burdened with more than a fair pro- 
portion of the half-baked variety, whose knowl 
edge of the pleasure possibilities of the machine 
they ride is limited, most limited. 
One would think that when a man was pre- 
pared to spend a hundred dollars for almost 
anything, writes the editor of 7he Wheel, he 
would carefully investigate the article to be 
purchased before he bought it, and afterward 
would more carefully study its possibilities. 
But such seems not to be the case with a great 
number of riders. They buy a wheel without 
any thought of whether it is suitable for their 
needs, they mount it regardless of the proper 
adjustment of saddle, handle bars or cranks, 
and then ride it with no more attention to its 
care than they would give to the running gear 
of a trolley-car which carried them to and from 
business. 
