The racing wheelman has adopted a position that has received much censure—a position accepted as the one enabling applied power to produce the greatest speed. If this position is analyzed and compared with the erect position, several interesting features may be noted, and by comparing the two positions, important information may be gathered.

The bicyclist seated upon the saddle, not against it, has little power for work. The thrust is downward; there can be no forward push or backward thrust, unless the hands grip the handle-bars and pull against the push, if the push needed is greater than can be resisted by the weight of the body.

The power of the stroke is all in the downward direction; there can be but little power in the forward thrust; the most important part of the stroke in hill-climbing is that given by getting behind the pedal and pushing it down. If the saddle be too far forward, power is again lost in the push and thrust, and the up-and-down motion must do the work, and power is lost on the down thrust, though added in the upward and backward push.

We may conclude that a proper position has much to do with the work of bicycling; that there is more than one correct position, different positions being adapted to different work. The racing position on the bicycle is the position for speed, and is the position of the running athlete. It is not adapted to moving at a moderate pace or to being maintained for any length of time. It is the position in which power may be most readily converted into speed; where the leverage may be applied with the greatest efficiency, and the greatest amount of work accomplished in the least possible time.

The drop position also takes the strain off the upper leg muscles, and is desirable on that account, apart from the fact that more power may be exerted from that position. The leg does not straighten out, and is always ready to give a powerful stroke and maintain an increased or even speed. It is a position of continuous movement; and if the weight and all the muscles are not directed to propel, the weight is improperly supported on all fours.

The position for speed where the weight is distributed between handle-bar, saddle, and pedals is not suitable for road work, nor can it be maintained for any long period without injurious results. It is the position where power is best converted into speed.

For prolonged work a different position is demanded. Here speed is not a necessary factor, but ease of movement and continuous movement are essential. We are not anxious to convert power quickly, but rather to reserve our powers, and use them slowly.

For pleasure riding and ordinary exercise, the erect position is the best. The drop position is the racing or running position; the erect position, the position of ease.

Here the saddle question presents itself. The saddle should support the weight while seated, or, in the racing position, hold the weight; it should not hamper movement, and should be comfortable for coasting. In moving over the ground, the relative position for the balance of the cyclist changes according to the grades; and the seat should be adjusted so as to be adaptable to the different positions required to enable the bicyclist to change the balance for the work of the moment.

There is also the position adapted to quick work and exercise. Change in adjustment of the application of power varies with the amount of work done by the bicyclist in covering a certain distance. The resistance caused by change of speed and varied wind resistance have also to be taken into the calculation. People of different lengths of leverage must study the different adjustments of the machine to produce the best results for the different kinds of work required of the machine.

When a hill is to be surmounted, the climb should be made without effort, that is, effort understood in its technical sense. The position should be such as to permit of work being done by the foot, and the power should be applied at the right time and place. Assistance by a pull on the handle-bars means lessened power on the stroke. Effort succeeds effort. The work should be done by the foot, the pelvis being the fulcrum. The saddle should be the real fulcrum. If the hands are used to do the work by pulling, the pelvis becomes the only fulcrum, and the bicycle saddle is not used at all for the application of power. The weight should be made to do as much of the work as possible, and the added resistance of lever pressure made auxiliary.

To obtain leverage for the hands, it is necessary to use a fulcrum. Where is that fulcrum located? Each set of muscles pulls on its point of application—the hand on the arm, the arm on the shoulder, the shoulder on the thorax, the thorax on the pelvis. If more power is needed, it must require effort.

In hill-climbing, effort is a physiological phenomenon associated with great expenditure of force. In making an effort, exerting force, the air-passages of the lungs are closed, the air in them making of them an air-cushion, as it were, which acts as a fulcrum for certain extra muscular combinations. This accounts for the feeling of suffocation experienced in severe hill-climbing, which should never be prolonged. The hill should be climbed with the hands held easily, not gripping the handles; and gripping and pulling on the handles, it should be remembered, lessen the power for prolonged work. Squeezing the handle-bars induces involuntary lung compression, and pulling on them adds to the strain. Lean forward, if need be, to balance and maintain the equilibrium, but do not maintain the centre of gravity by pulling on the handles.

The fixed position of the arms, when sitting with spinal column erect, certainly prevents a full, free inflation of the lungs; the shoulders are held fixed, and between the saddle and the fixed shoulders there is no up and down lung-play. In running, the forearms and shoulders permit free chest expansion. In the racing position on a bicycle, the arms and shoulders take the same relative position as in running, and a full, free lung expansion is obtained.

No rigidity is maintained between shoulders and saddle in the racing drop-position.

For speeding and work of that kind, the position that allows of the greatest flexibility as well as the greatest leverage is the position to be chosen.

In travelling and in every-day wheeling, the position should be one permitting the minimum expenditure of power; the weight should be supported, yet the position should be such as to permit the weight to be used as a propelling power. The hands should be held where they are supported and in the position where they can most easily control the wheel under any change of conditions. The saddle should be placed where the foot can act most effectively at all parts or at as many parts as possible of the circle that the pedal describes. The height of the saddle should be calculated to permit of extension of the leg without supporting the weight on the saddle, which causes compression of the larger veins and arteries. The foot should at all times be fully on the pedal; that is, the position should permit of throwing all the weight on to the pedals, whatever the position of the cranks at the moment. The handle-bar should be adjusted; also length of arm and relative position; and the weight, height, and curve of bar adapted to suit individual build.

Length of crank, gear, height, position, and adjustments of saddle may be used as factors in adjustment of position for ease of movement and prevention of fatigue. Each individual has different combinations of lever power, varying with the lengths of the different parts of different limbs. One may have a long thigh-bone with short lower leg; another may have just the reverse combination—short thigh-bone and long lower leg.

The crank is the lever of application of power; the gear, the power in resistance. The gear determines, in a sense, how much force is needed; the length of crank, combined with the levers of foot and leg, the proper or most comfortable lever for overcoming that resistance. Long-limbed people do well on long cranks, short-limbed people on short cranks,—the question of length of limb to be determined, not by actual measurement, but as to the proportions in weight and length of limbs generally. Either too long or too short a crank will produce numbness and fatigue. The leg and foot on the crank as it works form a crank lever movement. The crank of a bicycle should be of such length as to permit of the greatest amount of force being conveyed along the lever movement with the least resistance.

The sprocket-wheel is the weight to be moved by the crank; but the crank is only one of a series of levers.

The knee, the ankle, and the pedal-pin must revolve in a circle or a part of a circle; and each individual must find out the size of circle that is determined by the crank that will best move in adjustment with his individual lever combination. A small circle on the pedal may mean cramped or uncomfortable movement for a long-limbed cyclist; or a large pedal circle too great distance to traverse on the stroke for a short-limbed cyclist. A stout person working on a high gear, with a crank adapted to his requirements, makes fewer strokes of the pedal for distance traversed, but expends more power at each stroke; therefore, when wishing to reduce weight, he should use a low gear, working rapidly, and when wishing to travel easily, a higher gear. A thin person should be careful to choose such a length of crank and such a gear as will give ease, so that undue fatigue may be avoided.

The position of the saddle should be most carefully considered. It should be just far enough back to permit of getting a forward pressure on the pedal against the crank, as it were, at the top of the stroke, and yet have something to work against in hill-climbing. The tilt or inclination should be studied as well as the build of the saddle; its height from the pedal should allow the foot, when on the pedal, at its most distant point from the saddle, to press with the ball firmly on the pedal; and yet the saddle, when the leg is extended, should not press so as to compress the large blood vessels of the inside of the leg as it rests against the saddle.

The handle-bar adjustment permits of individual preference to a certain extent. The handles should be within easy reach of the hands and below the line of the elbow. If above the level, power is lost, and the controlling sense of direction as well. The grip on the handles is instinctive, and as there is much work for the hands to do, they should be able to grip easily and quickly, and to move easily in all directions that the handles take, retaining their controlling power undiminished. A position with the hands reaching down a little gives more power than a position with the hands reaching up; and in this position the leverage of the elbows and the power of the shoulder and upper arm may be more effectively exerted.

Speed work should be done only on a track or a place set apart for that kind of work; and the most delicate adjustment and balance of weight and pressure should be studied to produce the proper results. Scorching, also, to be effective, should be done only on a track, and the position for the work should be planned most carefully. High speed over rough surfaces on even well-made roads may prove disastrous if the position for the work is not a correct one. Serious injury may result to the bicyclist working incorrectly, with wheel out of adjustment.

Scorching and racing, however, are not properly part of the subject of bicycling, but are a sport, and should be separately considered.

The adjustment of position may be changed for rest or for any particular purpose; but for practical purposes it is well to adopt a fixed adjustment of handle-bar and saddle and length of crank and gear, and adhere to that, endeavoring to acquire the best form on a machine adapted to suit your individual requirements.

A bicycle should be used only by the person for whom it has been adjusted; for comfort on a bicycle depends on such infinitely small adjustments. Never lend a bicycle or a tool, and never make any change in adjustment by guess. For ordinary use, the saddle should be a little back of the pedals and not too high, and the handles within easy reach. This will allow of the balance and adjustment of weight and balance to suit changing conditions of surface and grade.

Sprinting is often tempting, and comparatively harmless. Scorching is a form of bicycle intoxication, and the taste once acquired, the bicyclist craves its excitement, caring little for the other pleasures of the sport. The scorcher sees little, hears little, and is conscious of little but the exhilaration of the moment, and seems to be imbued with the idea of consuming a certain amount of tissue in a given time. Scorching is a form of bicycling hardly to be commended, and reckless scorching is to be condemned at all times. Sprinting consumes a large quantity of material in a limited time, and though it is well at times to practise speeding, still the getting up of speed involves considerable expenditure of power and greatly increased momentum, and should be indulged in only by those who understand the limit of their powers and know what they hold in reserve.

The wheel of to-day was evolved on the race-track and for the conditions determined thereon; and the amateur bicyclist owes much to the professional wheelman. Improvements in construction, in detail, and in adaptability have reached a certain limit, a limit of possibilities in certain directions. It behooves us now to accept the machine and to adapt ourselves to its requirements and to avail ourselves of all that it offers.

The elasticity of the machine, the resiliency of the tire, rigidity of frame, position, vibration, and concussion should be next considered.

On a bicycle fitted with a rigid saddle and with hard tires, well blown up, the vibration that is conveyed through the entire machine is very perceptible, even on a smooth wheeling surface. Over uneven country, Belgian blocks, or other rough or corrugated surfaces, the vibration produces concussion; and if too erect and rigid a position is maintained, fatigue, if nothing worse, is sure to result.

On a horse the position, while erect, is studied to lessen the concussion; the weight is carried well under to avoid it. The flexible curve of the spine is there, though not perceptible, as the body is held erect and in balance. The lower part of the body becomes part of the saddle, the upper body flexible from above the hips. The concussion comes as each of the horse’s feet is placed on the ground; while concussion on the bicycle is produced by the change caused by each inequality of surface. The pneumatic tire lessens this to a degree, if not blown up too hard; for inequalities sink into the yielding surface that would make a wheel with a hard tire bump.

The frame should be stiff to hold its direction, and the saddle elastic enough to interrupt the vibration of the frame. The position on the saddle should be studied to prevent tension or compression of any of the joints, large or small; and the spine should be easily erect, not stiff and rigid, but flexible.

The sense of balance and the adjustment required to balance the bicycle tends to keep the body flexible. The danger to be avoided is concussion induced by a rigid position—a position where, the bones being held closely against each other by tense muscles, shock is easily conveyed over the entire body.

Let the weight come well on the saddle, in such a position that it can be shifted to the pedals at will; and let the whole trunk be flexible, elastically flexible, equally in all directions. Then the bicycle may be controlled almost unconsciously and from the saddle, the hands being used only in an auxiliary manner. The front wheel may be steered and controlled from the saddle by means of the power over the front wheel gained by the bicycle frame construction.

Bicycling can be thoroughly enjoyed only when the machinery ceases to require constant and concentrated attention. The rhythmical movements of a bicyclist at ease, master of the conditions, comes only with confidence and the persistent practice which causes all the muscles to move easily together in uninterrupted combinations, and the bicycle no longer to require conscious attention.