BICYCLES AND TRICYCLES. 



85 



Records. Some 

 remarkable feats 

 have been done 

 on bicycles. The 

 carriage - road on 

 Mount Washing- 

 ton has been re- 

 peatedly ridden 

 down, and a hill 

 in Boston nearly 

 one third of a 

 mile long, with 

 a grade in some 

 places of one foot 

 in seven, has been 

 climbed. The 

 longest " straight- 

 away " ride re- 

 corded was from 

 San Francisco to 

 Boston, over 3,000 

 miles. Two hun- 

 dred miles have 

 been done within 

 twenty-four hours 

 in this country, 

 and 260J miles 

 within the same 

 time in England ; 

 and 1,404 miles in 

 six days of eight- 

 een hours' riding- 

 time each, by one 

 rider. One hun- 

 dred miles have 

 been covered in- 

 side of ten hours : and 236 miles without a 

 dismount, on an English track. 



Below are two tables, the first giving the 

 earliest American records as far as obtainable, 

 the second giving the present records, English 

 and American : 



THE TRICYCLE. 



* Records marked * were made by professionals, the 

 others by amateurs. 



t These records were all made from a still or standing start. 

 The fastest quarter-mile, with a flying start, is 36|s , and the 

 fastest mile '2m. 31 |s. 



Trick-Riding. This has been carried on to 

 such an extent that there are professionals 

 whose sole business is to give exhibitions of feats 

 of this kind. Some of the most difficult and 

 graceful of their performances are : riding with 

 one foot on the saddle and the other on 

 the handle ; balancing, getting on and off, and 

 climbing all over the machine while it is stand- 

 ing still ; riding over obstructions, and up and 

 down flights of steps ; spinning around on one 

 wheel like a top ; riding with the small wheel 

 in the air ; riding with the small wheel and a 

 portion of the backbone removed ; riding 

 with the entire backbone removed, the only 

 points of support of the rider being the pedals 

 and handles. Besides these, many other diffi- 

 cult feats are performed by both single and 

 double trick riders. 



The Tricycle. This is a velocipede having 

 three wheels upon the ground for support, 

 traction, and steering. In the mechanical 

 means for propulsion by the feet and guidi'ng 

 by the hands, in the arrangement of the wheels, 

 and in other particulars of construction, it of- 

 fers so many varieties that a general descrip- 

 tion is impossible. There may be two large 

 wheels and one small one, two small wheels 

 and one large one, or the three wheels may be 

 all of different sizes ; the small wheel may be 

 in front or in the rear, may be in the center or 



