Bicycling for Ladies - With Hints as to the Art of Wheeling, Advice to Beginners, Dress, Care of the Bicycle, Mechanics, Training, Exercise, Etc.

Mary E. Ward

Description

"Bicycling for Ladies" constitutes a comprehensive instruction manual originally designed specially for women. It includes advice for beginners, information on training, an exposition of mechanics, and chapters on etiquette, technique, possible dangers, appropriate attire, and much more. Although old, this volume contains much information that will be of utility to those learning to cycle, and it would make for a fantastic addition to collections of vintage sporting literature. Contents include: "Possibilities", "What the Bicycle Does", "On Wheels in General and Bicycles in Particular", "For Beginners", "How to Make Progress", "Helping and Teaching; What to Learn", "A Few Things to Remember", "The Art of Wheeling on a Bicycle", "Position and Power", "Difficulties to Overcome", "Dress", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in a modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on the History of the Bicycle. "Bicycling for Ladies" was first published in 1896.

Sujets

• Sport
• Sports fitness
• Cyclisme

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473342064
• Langue: English

Extrait

WHEELING FROM THE PEG-SHOWING INCLINATION OF WHEEL .
T HE C OMMON S ENSE OF B ICYCLING
B ICYCLING FOR L ADIES
W ITH H INTS AS TO THE A RT OF W HEELING -A DVICE TO B EGINNERS -D RESS -C ARE OF THE B ICYCLE - M ECHANICS -T RAINING -E XERCISE , E TC ., E TC .
BY
MARIA E. WARD
Copyright 2013 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
A History of the Bicycle
As means of human transportation go, bicycles (vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider), have a relatively short history. They date back to the early nineteenth-century, with the first model, the German draisine , dating back to 1817. Despite their short history, bicycles have become immensely popular, and there are now over one billion worldwide - twice as many as automobiles.
The first bicycles are more properly termed velocipedes ; a word first coined by Frenchman Nic phore Ni pce in 1818, to describe his version of the Laufmaschine, which was invented by the German Karl Drais in 1817. Otherwise known as the dandy horse and the draisienne , this contraption was the was the first human means of transport to use only two wheels in tandem. Its rider sat astride a wooden frame supported by two in-line wheels and pushed the vehicle along with his/her feet while steering the front wheel (hence the name laufmaschine - directly translating as running machine ). Apart from use on a well-maintained pathway in a park or garden, this early velocipede had extremely limited use however, and riders soon found out that their boots wore out surprisingly rapidly!
Nevertheless, Drais s velocipede provided the basis for further developments. In fact, it was a draisine which inspired a French metalworker around 1863 to add rotary cranks and pedals to the front-wheel hub; to create the first pedal-operated bicycle as we today understand the word. Though technically not part of two-wheel bicycle-history, the intervening decades of the 1820s - 1850s witnessed many developments similar to the draisine, even if the idea of a workable two-wheel design, requiring the rider to balance, had been dismissed. These new machines had three wheels (tricycles) or four (quadracycles), and came in a very wide variety of designs, using pedals, treadles and hand-cranks - but these designs often suffered from high weight and high rolling resistance.
The first mechanically-propelled, two-wheeled vehicle may have been built by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839 - although this claim is often disputed. He is also associated with the first recorded instance of a cycling traffic offense, when a Glasgow newspaper in 1842 reported an accident in which an anonymous gentleman from Dumfries-shire . . . bestride a velocipede . . . of ingenious design knocked over a little girl in Glasgow and was fined five shillings. In the early 1860s, Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement took bicycle design in a new direction by adding a mechanical crank drive with pedals on an enlarged front wheel. In 1869, bicycle wheels with wire spokes were patented by Eug ne Meyer of Paris. The French v locip de, made of iron and wood, developed into the penny-farthing (historically known as an ordinary bicycle , a retronym, since there was then no other kind). It featured a tubular steel frame on which were mounted wire-spoked wheels with solid rubber tyres.
These bicycles were difficult to ride due to their high seat and poor weight distribution however - and extremely dangerous. They were fast, but unsafe. The rider was high up in the air and travelling at a great speed. If they hit a bad spot in the road they could easily be thrown over the front wheel and be seriously injured (two broken wrists were common, in attempts to break a fall) or even killed. Taking a header (also known as coming a cropper ), was not at all uncommon. The rider s legs were frequently caught underneath the handlebars, so falling free of the machine was often not possible. The dangerous nature of these bicycles (as well as Victorian mores) made cycling the preserve of adventurous young men. The risk averse, such as elderly gentlemen, preferred the more stable tricycles (most popular in England) or quadracycles.
The dwarf ordinary addressed some of these faults by reducing the front wheel diameter and setting the seat further back. This, in turn, required gearing - effected in a variety of ways - to efficiently use pedal power. Having to both pedal and steer via the front wheel remained a dilemma. J. K. Starley, J. H. Lawson, and Shergold solved this problem by introducing the chain drive (originated by the unsuccessful bicyclette of Englishman Henry Lawson), connecting the frame-mounted cranks to the rear wheel. These models were known as safety bicycles , dwarf safeties , or upright bicycles for their lower seat height and better weight distribution, although without pneumatic tyres, the ride of the smaller-wheeled bicycle would be much rougher than that of the larger-wheeled variety. Starley s 1885 Rover, manufactured in Coventry is usually described as the first recognizably modern bicycle. Soon the seat tube was added, creating the modern bike s double-triangle diamond frame.
Further innovations increased comfort and ushered in a second bicycle craze; the 1890s Golden Age of Bicycles . Since women could not cycle in the then-current fashions for voluminous and restrictive dress, the bicycle craze fed into a movement for so-called rational dress, which helped liberate women from corsets and ankle-length skirts and other encumbering garments, substituting the then-shocking bloomers. In 1888, Scotsman John Boyd Dunlop introduced the first practical pneumatic tire, which soon became universal. Soon after, the rear freewheel was developed, enabling the rider to coast. This refinement led to the 1890s invention of coaster brakes. D railleur gears and hand-operated Bowden cable-pull brakes were also developed during these years, but were only slowly adopted by casual riders. By the turn of the century, cycling clubs flourished on both sides of the Atlantic, and touring and racing became widely popular.
The bicycle s invention has had an enormous effect on society, both in terms of culture and of advancing modern industrial methods. Several components that eventually played a key role in the development of the automobile were initially invented for use in the bicycle, including ball bearings, pneumatic tires, chain-driven sprockets, and tension-spoked wheels. Today s bicycle is used as a mode of transport, entertainment and as a sporting endeavour that has provided countless people with a practical, as well as fun means of travel. Although it has a relatively short history, its development has occurred rapidly, and continues to see technical improvements in the present day. We hope the current reader enjoys this book on the subject.
BICYCLING FOR LADIES
PREFACE

I HAVE found that in bicycling, as in other sports essayed by them, women and girls bring upon themselves censure from many sources. I have also found that this censure, though almost invariably deserved, is called forth not so much by what they do as the way they do it.
It is quite natural to suppose, in attempting an unaccustomed exercise, that you have to do only what you see done and as others about you are doing. But to attain success in bicycling, as in other things, it is necessary to study the means as well as to look to the end to be attained, and to understand what must not be attempted as well as to know each step that will be an advance on the road to progress.
A great deal has been said against attempting to study a little of anything; but when a slight knowledge of several important branches of science that bear directly upon a subject under consideration, and that a subject concerning the health and safety of many individuals, will render one intelligently self-dependent, and able at least to exercise without endangering one s own health or the lives of others, the acquisition of such knowledge should not be neglected.
There are laws of mechanics and of physiology that directly concern the cyclist; it has been the author s aim to point out these laws, showing, for instance, the possible dangers of exercise, and how they may be avoided by the application to bicycle exercise of simple and well-known physiological laws, thus enabling the cyclist to resist fatigue and avoid over-exertion. The needs of the bicyclist are an intelligent comprehension of the bicycle as a machine, an appreciative knowledge of the human machine that propels it, and a realization of the fact that rider and bicycle should form one combined mechanism. For this, a knowledge of the laws that determine the limits and possibilities of both mechanisms is necessary. The cyclist is limited, not only by laws physiological and laws mechanical, which determine when and for how long he may travel, but he is restricted by the laws and ordinances of county, town and village as to how and where he may travel. A knowledge of these laws is also necessary.
While not attempting to treat any of these subjects exhaustively, the author has endeavored to place them comprehensively before her readers, hoping to prepare the enthusiast to enjoy all the delights of the sport, to encourage the timid, and to assist the inexperienced to define and determine existing limitations. The subject of the care of the bicycle has been carefully treated, some of the means at hand suggested, and the necessary tools, and their uses explained. Other topics considered are how the bicycle is propelled, and why it maintains its balance; what the cyclist should learn, how correct form may be attained and faults avoided, and what should be the essential features of the clo