Bicycling for Ladies / The Common Sense of Bicycling; with Hints as to the Art of Wheeling—Advice to Beginners—Dress—Care of the Bicycle—Mechanics—Training—Exercise, etc., etc.

by Maria E. Ward

Choose your direction, and assure yourself of plenty of room to work in, away from trees or stones or other objects that might prove a source of danger in case of collision. Then mount and go. Keep these two ideas well in mind. If you are uncomfortable, stop and get off; don’t try to adjust anything while in motion. When you get on, go. You cannot get on and keep still. Do not get on unless you are ready to go; keep going when you are on; and the mounting difficulty vanishes.

Steer steadily, and be quick without haste. A hurried change of direction can only be made without danger of a spill by an expert, and then only in an emergency or for track-work. Bicycling requires precision, and haste or hurry is out of place, while quick and alert movement is required.

Take the bicycle out and do as much as you can with it. Part of the fun is conquering difficulties, and each difficulty overcome is an achievement.

Another difficulty experienced is striking the saddle in mounting. This is usually due to springing from the ground to the saddle, or attempting to do so, instead of stepping on the mounting pedal, and supporting and holding the weight on the handle-bars. Of course, if the weight is not supported on the machine, and the machine is started, it cannot carry the weight forward. The saddle will strike, and push you over. Mount by means of the handle-bars; let them take you; shift the weight up by them on to the pedal. Then lower the weight to the saddle, step clear of the ground, and lean a little over the bars if necessary to clear the saddle.

In mounting a bicycle, you mount up on the pedal, and settle from that down to the saddle. If the pedal strikes the other foot, it is because the foot is not held up. Do not be in dread of that other foot; hold it well up out of the way, using the mounting foot to make the machine go.

MOUNTING—PREPARATORY POSITION.

Too great inclination of the machine will spoil the mount, and insufficient inclination will have the same effect. The front wheel must be held in line with the frame, and any wrong tendency corrected by the handle-bars after the weight is raised on the pedal, and the machine is upright.

Many good tires are ruined by ineffectual efforts to mount. The machine is pulled against the tire, and it is hard to understand why the tires are not torn off or ripped to pieces. The light wheels are not made to stand such usage; and it is a mistake to subject a new wheel to it. The rubber is pulled sideways (a proper way to pull a tire off), and the novice is fortunate if the bicycle is not all pulled out of true by being strained in directions not calculated to resist wear and strain. A twenty-pound wheel may be pulled out of true and so bent and untwisted by ineffectual mounting efforts that it cannot be restored without labor that amounts to practically rebuilding the bicycle.

In turning a bicycle, always lean in the direction the machine is inclined. Lean in the direction you want to go, and very little correction will be needed from the handle-bars. In turning, lean with the wheel, and meet it with the handle-bars. Meeting the machine is done continually, and is done by swinging the front wheel to meet the inclination of the bicycle on whichever side it has a tendency to fall. Bringing up is done by pulling the wheel around a little further quickly, and very quickly back again. The frame is lifted by the front wheel. This is explained in the principles of bicycle construction. When an obstacle, as a car track or rut in the road, is met, the obstacle must be crossed squarely; or if obliged to make a different angle, the angle should be met with the front wheel at the instant of contact, and a proper balance maintained with the pedals.