I now come to the usual complaint about the bicycle. There is a fashion just now to call it dangerous and the tricycle safe. But the difference in safety has been much exaggerated. The bicyclist is more likely to suffer from striking a stone than his friend on three wheels, but then he should not strike one where the tricyclist would strike a dozen. Properly ridden, neither class of machine can be considered dangerous; an accident should never happen except it be due to the action of others. People, carts, cattle, and dogs on the road are liable to such unexpected movements, that the real danger of the cyclist comes from the outside; to danger from absolute collapse, due to a hidden flaw in the materials employed, every one is liable, but, the bicyclist more remotely than the tricyclist, owing to the greater simplicity of his machine. The bicyclist, though he has further to fall in case of an accident from any of these causes, is in a better position than the tricyclist, for he is outside instead of inside his machine; he can in an instant get clear.

It would appear that many tricyclists consider accidents of the kind next to impossible, for in several machines the rider is so involved that an instantaneous dismount without a moment's notice, at any speed, is absolutely impossible. There remains one objection, which, however, should be of next to no importance--the difficulty of learning the bicycle prevents many from taking to the light and fast machine, because they are afraid of a little preliminary trouble.

The chief objections to the bicycle, then, are the liability of the rider to go over the handles, the impossibility of stopping very quickly, and the inability to remain at rest or go backward, and the difficulty of learning.

The first two of these are, to a large extent, overcome in the safety bicycles, but not without the introduction of what is in comparison a certain degree of complication, or without the loss of the whole of the grace or elegance of the bicycle. On almost all of these safety bicycles the rider is better placed than on the unmodified bicycle, but though safer, I do not think bicyclists find them complete in speed, though, no doubt, they are superior in that respect to the tricycle. Though they do not allow the rider to stop without dismounting, the fatigue resulting from this cause is less than it is with a bicycle, owing to the fact that with the small machines the rider has so small a distance to climb. Of these machines, the Extraordinary leaves the rider high up in the air on a full-sized wheel, but places him further back and more over the pedals. The motion of these is peculiar, being not circular, but oval, a form which has certain advantages.

In the Sun and Planet and Kangaroo bicycles a small wheel is "geared up," that is, is made to turn faster than the pedals, so as to avoid the very rapid pedaling which is necessary to obtain an ordinary amount of speed out of a small wheel. In each of these the pedals move in a circular path, and their appearance is in consequence less peculiar than that of the Facile, which, in this respect, does not compare favorably with any good machine. The pedal motion on the Facile is merely reciprocating. Riders of machines where circular motion is employed, among them myself, do not believe that this reciprocating motion can be so good as circular, but I understand that this view is not held by those who are used to it. Of course, the harmonic motion of the Facile pedal is superior to the equable reciprocating motion employed in some machines where speed is an object, especially with small wheels.

If I have overlooked anything typical in the modified bicycle class, I hope some one will afterward supply the omission, and point out any peculiarities or advantages.

That very peculiar machine, the center-cycle, seems to combine many of the advantages of the bicycle and tricycle. On it the rider can remain at rest, or can move backward; he can travel at any speed round curves without an upset being possible; he can ride over brickbats, or obstructions, not only without being upset, but, if going slowly, without even touching them. As this machine is very little known, a few words of explanation may be interesting.

In the first place, the rider is placed over the main wheel, as in the bicycle, but much further forward. There are around him, on or near the ground, four little wheels, two before and two behind, supported in a manner the ingenuity of which calls for the utmost admiration. Turning the steering handle not only causes the front and rear pairs to turn opposite ways, but owing to their swiveling about an inward pointing axis, the machine is compelled to lean over toward the inside of the curve; not only is this the case, but each pair rises and falls with every inequality of the road, if the rider chooses that they run on the ground; but he can, if he pleases, arrange that in general they ride in the air, any one touching at such times as are necessary to keep him on the top of the one wheel, on which alone he is practically riding. He can, if he likes, at any time lift the main wheel off the ground and run along on the others only. The very few machines of the kind which I have seen have been provided with foot straps, to enable the rider to pull as well as push, which is a great advantage when climbing a hill, but this is on every machine except the Otto, of which I shall speak later, considered a dangerous practice.

Some of the objections to the bicycle to which I have referred were sufficient to prevent many, especially elderly men, from dreaming of becoming cyclists. So long as the tricycle was a crude and clumsy machine, there was no chance of cycling becoming a part, as it almost is and certainly soon will be, of our national life. The tricycle has been brought to such a state of perfection that it is difficult to imagine where further progress can be made.

Perhaps it will be well to mention what is necessary in order that a three-wheeled machine may be made to roll freely in a straight line, and also round curves. At all times each wheel must be able to travel in its own plane in spite of the united action of the other two. To run straight, the axes of all the wheels must obviously be parallel. To run round a curve, the axis of each must, if continued, pass through the center of curvature of the curve. If two wheels have a common axis, the intersection of the two lines forming the axes can only meet in one point. To steer such a combination, therefore, the plane of the third wheel only need be turned. If the axis of no two are common, then the planes of two of the wheels must be turned in order that the three axes may meet in a point.