There are some strong opinions on the other side of this belt question, if the belts are of proper kind and rightly worn. Very few agree unconditionally with L. A. W. However, it is hoped that no alarm will be taken from the discussion of these subjects. They are not so serious as might appear, except in cases of gross negligence. But whatever danger there may be, it is best to be fully aware of it, and thus be forearmed. As to saddles and springs, let riders show the makers that they are alive to all improvements which will in any way eliminate causes for anxiety in this as well as in other respects, and thereby show that the fact of making a mile in a little shorter space of time, or that of getting one inch farther up a stiff hill, is not all that the modern cyclist proposes to consider. CHAPTER XII. HEADERS OR CROPPERS. “Taking headers,” or, in the parlance of our brethren of England, “coming croppers,” is perhaps a trivial heading for any article outside of newspaper or wheel periodical gossip, but it has a popular twang, and to the fraternity means a great deal. Every rider of the old Ordinary can give us personal experiences on this subject; among them will be found mishaps too serious to be chronicled in any jesting mood, a few so serious that we would fain forget them were not this forbidden by our sympathy and respect for the sufferers as fellows of our craft. From this sombre side of our story how joyfully we turn to the many humorous anecdotes which have been related in every club-room, in some of which “we ourselves were part of what we told!” The subject would ere this have been obsolete were it not for a large number who still maintain the supremacy of the “Ordinary,” and those others who, forming an intermediate class between the old and new, have unfurled their banner as doughty champions of the “Rational.”