“If you and your readers will permit me to speak of my object in making a centre at Coventry without denouncing it as merely a scheme whereby to benefit in a free advertisement, I would say that I have taken the liberty—almost a criminal one it seems here—of having a _hobby_ relating to an ‘ideal bicycle.’ This is from a _tourist’s_ stand-point; not that of a racer, or it would have been all right. “My hobby consists in the following hobbies in detail: 1. A bicycle with a large front wheel, because it rides smoother and steers easier than any other. 2. A bicycle in which you are directly over the work and do not have to reach out to do it, or lean over the handle-bar to get your centre of gravity over it. I should think the ‘Grasshopper’ good in this respect. 3. A bicycle in which the legs are _at rest_ on all down grades, or when work is unnecessary, _à la Star_. 4. A bicycle with a treadle motion, as I think power is more economically applied by the same. (This is largely theory, so far.) 5. A bicycle with no dead centre at any time, as I think it is a continual impediment in up-hill or rough roads (also theory). 6. A bicycle where one foot going down lifts the other positively, as in a crank; to lift by springs I consider bad. 7. A bicycle safer from headers than the common large wheel machines, say about comparable with the ‘Grasshopper.’ I do not aspire to the security of the small wheelers, nor do I like the other known safety devices (probably prejudice). 8. (Ordinary bicyclers’ pride suggests No. 8.) A bicycle as neat and trim in appearance as the common large wheel crank-machine without octopus-clawed walking beams, gear wheels, or chains swinging through the air in full view at long range. 9. A bicycle that brakes from the hind wheel, as there is less danger of headers. 10. A bicycle with some good sort of safety handle-bar that will be open to no objections found in those now used. This is to prevent injury in case of a header, and also to store the bicycle in less space.