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

A pause, to be recuperative, need not be prolonged; fifteen minutes’ rest after exertion should be sufficient; and during a day’s work, this fifteen minutes’ rest between changes of occupation, not including the quiet necessary for digestion, will keep one fresh. A pause longer than fifteen minutes prepares or readjusts the processes. Do no work, mental or muscular, for at least an hour after a meal; and sleep in a cool—not cold—well-ventilated room.

Low tension power usually accomplishes its object without waste. Work done at high pressure, that might be done at low pressure, indicates waste of effort under strain. The intense concentration of effort when the beginner is struggling with a bicycle is made at high pressure. The excitement of the unexpected probably has something to do with this, as well as the novelty of the situation. If all bicycle work required the same state of tension, however, it could not be long endured; the strain would be too great.

There is a certain amount you can do, or think you can do; this is one measure of your capacity. The work you do is done by stored energy. How may that energy be applied to give the best results? The intricate workings of the mind we may not attempt to analyze: what we do, we do because we wish to, or because we ought, or because we must. Concentrated effort, persistent effort, continuous effort, all consume force. When you dread anything you have undertaken as too difficult of accomplishment, just so much more force is required to overcome that idea. If, mounted on your bicycle, you wheel along in a state of apprehension, you induce a high nervous tension that requires a great reserve of power to resist and supply. Fear, or a sense of insecurity, or a lack of confidence, produces the same result. A bicycle is run by the direct application of power; and power diverted is power wasted.

In wheeling, after the invigorating freshness of the exercise has reached a certain point, the benefit derived lessens with the amount of power drawn from the reserve. Bicycle exercise, moreover, to be really beneficial, should be alternated with other exercise. The bicycle freshens and brings into good condition muscles already developed, but it is an exercise that must be taken with judgment. It is not a panacea for all human ills; it can be generally beneficial, or, immoderately indulged, may become most harmful.

Wheeling for long distances should not be undertaken without proper training. For the sedentary, and for all others tempted by the fascinations of the sport to over-exertion, caution is most necessary. Reaction from over-exertion will bring about a physical condition as detrimental as that caused by lack of exercise—general lassitude and unfitness for work, if nothing more serious.

Persons who are naturally timid cannot accomplish in the same time as much as the more courageous, for their powers are actively at work overcoming their dread of collision and fear of falling; and the distance covered, for power expended, must consequently be less than when no other exertion is required than is needed for propelling the bicycle.

Learn to work without strain or effort; practise where fear is not likely to be aroused, for fear induces a state of tension, and bicycling cannot be enjoyed or prolonged if this drain of the power-supply is allowed. Confidence will come with the knowledge that you are no longer at the mercy of the machine, that it is in your power.

No one make of bicycle is acknowledged the best, and no one is absolutely perfect. The selection of a bicycle, therefore, is a matter of knowledge and nice discrimination, and its use opens a wide field of opportunity before you—touring and cruising, and expeditions of all kinds; travel and sight-seeing; means for study and investigation.

The possible cost of cycling may be quite appalling to consider; but in cycling, as in other things, you may choose between the demands of necessity and the suggestions of luxury. One—almost the chief—fascination of the sport is its simplicity as a mode of travel; the possibility of doing away with all impedimenta. The bicyclist soon learns to dispense with every accessory not positively necessary and to know every possible use of indispensable articles.

The bicycle bestows and restores health; it has its limit, though it does so much that more seems always possible. Take the bicycle as it is, use it intelligently, enjoy it, and become an enthusiast.