72 



RECREA TION. 



BICYCLING. 



HOW TO TRIM A TANDEM. 



English cycling papers are discussing once 

 more the proper position for a woman to oc- 

 cupy on a tandem mounted by riders of dif- 

 ferent sex. Here, in the larger cities, it has 

 this season become almost as common for 

 the feminine rider to occupy the rear seat of 

 a tandem as to ride on the front seat. Ad- 

 vocates of the " lady-front " position main- 

 tain that it is against all rules of etiquette 

 and chivalry to relegate the lady to the rear 

 where her view ahead is obstructed by her 

 companion. They argue, moreover, with 

 much more practical wisdom, that the male 

 member of the team, being the stronger, 

 should not drive the machine from the front 

 pair of pedals, where much of the efficiency 

 is lost in transmission through the extra 

 sprockets and chain, and that in case of im- 

 pending danger it is much more difficult for 

 him to dismount quickly, if seated in front, 

 and hold the machine back with his compan- 

 ion in her seat. Again, they say, the trouble 

 of mounting is much increased when the 

 man takes the front seat, since both riders 

 must mount simultaneously instead of allow- 

 ing the lady to mount first and get comfort- 

 ably settled before the man pushes the ma- 

 chine off and slides into the back seat from 

 the rear. 



These are good arguments, but the ad- 

 vantages of the " lady-front " position are 

 so greatly overbalanced by the comfort of 

 doing all the steering from the front seat that 

 the new style is almost certain to prevail 

 when the gentleman is not so large as to ut- 

 terly eclipse his companion when she is 

 seated behind him. At first, of course, every 

 girl has a natural prejudice against taking a 

 subordinate position, but when she has tried 

 it with an experienced rider, she invariably 

 prefers it to the reverse order. Perhaps she 

 will not tell why, but there is a lurking suspi- 

 cion that it is because, having none of the re- 

 sponsibility of steering, she is free to use 

 both hands to determine from time to time 

 whether or not her cap is on straight, to 

 keep her hair in order, to remove possible 

 accumulations of perspiration and dust from 

 her face with her handkerchief and to keep 

 an unruly skirt in place on a windy day. 



As for the male rider, he will tell you he 

 prefers steering from the front because it is 

 much easier to control the wheel than where 

 2 try to steer and constantly pull against 

 each other on the handle-bars. From the 

 front seat he can have an unobstructed view 

 of the road and can thus avoid sandy places, 

 ruts, glass, and such things. With a brake 

 fitted to the machine the front rider has it 

 under perfect control; and an expert wheel- 

 man can stop a tandem very short from the 

 front seat without a break by inserting the 

 toe of the shoe in the front fork and pressing 

 down on the tire. He can descend the steep- 

 est hill in perfect safety in this manner, when 



it would be impossible to do so if he were 

 riding in the rear seat. Another point in 

 favor of the male rider's taking the front seat 

 is that in event of a collision his more deli- 

 cate companion is in less danger of being 

 hurt and perhaps disfigured for life — an im- 

 portant consideration for the feminine 

 cyclist. Perry. 



PRICES OF '99 MODELS. 



There has been a great deal of discussion 

 in the newspapers this fall regarding the 

 probable prices of next year's wheels. The 

 general tone of these articles has been that 

 prices will be still further reduced. What 

 this opinion is based on it is hard to imagine. 

 as all indications point to a probable in- 

 crease in the price of high grade machines 

 if any change is made at all. The retail 

 prices of bicycles have been steadily declin- 

 ing for the past 5 years at the rate of about 

 $25 every two years. The selling prices now 

 are so low that few of the manufacturers 

 have been able to more than pay running ex- 

 penses of their plants, and retail dealers all 

 over the country have become more or less 

 discouraged in their struggles to make a liv- 

 ing out of the business. The numerous fail- 

 ures of large bicycle manufacturing houses 

 during the past few years are a certain indi- 

 cation that profits are reduced to a minimum. 

 It would be suicidal, then, to lower the lists 

 again, and, with the prospects of an era of 

 prosperity foreshadowed by the excellent 

 crops harvested this summer and the reports 

 of good trade by the country dealers in all 

 lines of goods, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that good chain driven bicycles will cost 

 quite as much next spring as they did this 

 year. Other reasons for thinking this will be 

 a fact are that the lists of bicycle tubing 

 were advanced about 15 per cent, in August 

 and the price of tires was increased from 50 

 cents to $1 a pair. Last winter it was a 

 common complaint among the makers and 

 jobbers of bicycle parts that there was 

 scarcely any profit in the goods, so an ad- 

 vance in these may be looked for. With all 

 the parts and fittings going up, it is hard 

 to see how the price of the bicycle complete 

 can come down. 



There is to be a reduction, however, in the 

 chainless machines. This was an experi- 

 mental year for them and few persons were 

 willing to buy a machine whose practicability 

 and durability had not been fully demon- 

 strated. In the hands of some perhaps they 

 have not been wholly satisfactory, but the 

 example of the indefatigable century fiend, 

 Teddy Edwards, riding a full 100 miles every 

 day of the year, over all kinds of roads, in 

 every sort of weather, on a chainless ma- 

 chine, will be proof enough to satisfy most 

 doubting ones that the chainless bicycle has 

 merit, is practical and durable. Unquestion- 

 ably more would have been sold this past 

 season if there had been less discrepancy in 



