This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.
There is an important feature of bicycling which comes, or should come, to the attention of every rider about this time of the year; that is, the question of a thorough overhauling of the wheel itself. This is of the greatest importance, and should be done whether the bicycle appears to be in good running order or not. For example, you have been riding a wheel in the country, or near the sea-shore, and though you have kept the wheel in good running order, the spokes are a little rusty, and the bearings must be more or less filled with dust and sand. The rust on the spokes not only looks badly, but tends to weaken the wheel. A little grit mixed in with the oil and the balls of the bearings is quite enough to wear the bearings themselves as well as the balls, and in a short time render the wheel practically useless, unless an entirely new set of bearings is put in. Even if you have not been in the country, the fact that you have used the wheel a little each day, and only wiped off the outside of the machine and reoiled the bearings occasionally, is enough to prove that the machine should be taken apart before you begin the fall and winter season. This particular time, however, of the year applies rather to those people who are returning from the country with their bicycles, and who are likely to use them to some extent during the fall. But it is a good time for any one. If you are somewhat of a mechanic yourself, you can take the wheel apart and do the cleaning yourself; and in this connection the article on "The Care of the Wheel," published in Harper's Round Table for March 31, should be read before taking the wheel apart, and kept near by while the work is being done.
An extra caution, however, should be given to all those who take their bicycles apart—and that is, take the utmost care of the little balls; for if one of these, for instance, is lost from one side of the front wheel-bearings, the wheel may run easily enough for a time, but the strain on the others and on the walls of the bearing will soon wear both. If any of these do happen to lose themselves (and it is very probable that they will), the wisest plan is to go at once to the maker of your bicycle and purchase enough extra balls to make up the required number. To a great many people, however, the cheapest method for overhauling bicycles is to take them to the manufacturer and request him to go over every part of the wheel—clean it, polish it, and replace any weak point, straighten any bent cranks, supply nuts that are gone, and in every way renovate the wheel—which, by-the-way, he can do far better than any amateur. If the wheel is not yet a year old, the average manufacturer will do this without charge, but in any case a few dollars is all that a maker requires. The point of this renovation is evident. If the wheel is thus examined twice a year—in the fall and the spring—any little irregularity which may be wearing away vital parts of the machine can and will be corrected; whereas many a fault in a bicycle is not perceptible to the average rider until the injury has actually been done, when an entirely new part is necessary; and the larger the number of replaced or new parts, the less stable and firm is the bicycle. It therefore pays to have this renovation done twice a year, whether the wheel appears to need it or not.
An Irishman took his watch to a jeweller's to have it repaired. The jeweller, after examining it, said the mending would amount to eight dollars, and he asked if the man was willing to pay that much.