Bicycle Boom

Still careful never to employ so coarse a word as "legs," Manchester's inimitable Guardian published recently the following despatch, dated not from "London" but meticulously from "Fleet Street" in London:

"Mr. George Lansbury [Leader of the Labor Party] opened at the Royal Horticultural Hall, Westminster, today, the Lightweight Cycling, Hiking and Camping Exhibition. . . . In his speech Mr. Lansbury declared that it would be a bad day for us when we ceased to use our limbs. It was a good thing that some machinery should be so adapted that men and women could use their own limbs, and he was glad to see this rebirth of interest in cycling."

Over the Exhibition the Guardian glowed: "The surprising bicycle 'boom' of the last 18 months is shown here in all its glory, from midget machines to luxurious tandems with no fewer than eight gears which can be changed with a flick of the wrist while the cyclists are actually pedaling. There is thus no need on these machines to freewheel while slipping into another gear. . . .

"Mudguards are now made in a detachable form and can be removed in good weather as easily as taking off one's collar and tie. Handlebars are now all made with a downward curve, since it has been found that this adds to comfort as well as to speed in pedaling.

"As regards speed, it is claimed that the new tandems, supplied with six or eight gears, are capable of anything from 40 to 45 miles an hour. Many of the machines on view, it is interesting to note, are of the 'made-to-measure' model, and can only be obtained after a consultation between cyclist and cycle-manufacturer.

"Although motorists may hardly credit it, the tricycle is coming into vogue again, this time as a racing machine. Racing cyclists today were surprised to learn that these new lightweight three-wheeled machines are capable of doing as much as 23 miles an hour on an ordinary road."

Woman's Shaving Tackle. Not forgetting its pedestrian readers the Guardian reported: "The most striking exhibit, from the hiker's point of view, is an 'ultra-lightweight week-end kit,' comprising rucksack, sleeping-bag, tent, a four-peg coat-hanger, a petrol-stove, frypan, water-bucket, a plate, cup, receptacles for food and drink, knife, spoon and fork, and electric torch, a pair of shoes, a tent pole, swimming suit, complete change of clothes, towels, soap, facecloth, shaving tackle, and toothbrush, the whole weighing slightly over ten and a half pounds.

"This outfit was designed and tested by a woman hiker, who found that by means of it she was able to do a fortnight's tramping in the Austrian Alps without any additional equipment. A special feature of the outfit is the tin-opener, which has been especially constructed so that it leaves no rough edges on the tin. which may afterwards be used as an extra saucepan. The tent pole can also be used as a walking-stick."

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