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How to Manage the Machine

First get your Bicycle, not any trumpery article for practice, but your "very own" spider, and learn on it; you will then sooner know its capabilities and your own. To mount the bicycle, practice is required, but a steady eye will here be of great assistance, for the eye will guide the hand, the hand guides the bicycle.

You must mount the machine as you would a horse, but from the tail! Throw the right leg over, and let your foot rest on the "pedal," then bring the other to the other pedal, and you are mounted. This reads vastly easy, but unless you are assisted either by a friendly hand or encouraged by the support of a neighbourly wall, you will surely come to grief. We think that to mount by the wall is as useful a way as any, unless you have a friend at hand who is capable of advising as well as assisting. Your friend in that case will put you right, set you going, and keep you straight as he walks beside you. To mount by the wall, place the machine upright beside the wall, grasp the outer side of the handle, and mount on the pedal; then, steadying yourself against the wall, gently push the bicycle into an upright position, set the outside crank to work first, and then the left as you move away, down hill, if possible, but not a steep incline.

In falling, which is the next thing to mounting, at first, be sure to go down with the machine; that is, on the same side as it inclines. By disengaging the leg nearest the ground, and extending it, you will in all probability come down gently on that foot; then disengage the other. To stop a fall, turn the wheel in the direction it threatens to go down.

The mounting is soon learnt. Put the left foot on the step, give the machine a little momentum, and then lift the right over; hold firmly, and drop the feet (left first) on the pedals gently. Keep as upright as possible. To dismount, you must let the machine run a bit, and then after a minute swing your right leg back over the backbone of the bicycle, at the same time dropping the left to the ground. This is not an easy feat, and requires steadiness, caution, and skill to fall nicely. When practiced, you can dismount by the step, but we will not recommend this to boys till they are good bicyclists.

There are many little feats which boys can perform which need not be enumerated here. First get a perfect knowledge of the machine, and learn by steady practice to ride it gracefully. Coolness is as necessary as in riding or canoeing. Do nothing in a hurry; keep your own side, be courteous to your fellows, polite to your inferiors, and, when running, look well ahead, not at the bicycle. If you conform to these suggestions, and possess the pluck we believe you all do, we have no fears about your turning out a gentleman rider, in the best sense of the term.

The cost of a good machine is from five to seven shillings an inch.