In the early days of gearing, few riders could be more easily offended than by intimating that they wanted a low-geared machine, say fifty to fifty-two; no less than sixty or seventy would satisfy their cravings for great speed, and in fact the writer has been asked seriously, “Why not gear her up to about a hundred?” But now that the idol of so many riders has been shattered, they will too complacently accept the word of the maker as to what they need, and hence there is a real substantial reason for investigating this matter. The advent of the gearing process has developed a new point, as a result of conditions spoken of, which is to make the machine suit the rider’s strength and physical peculiarities as well as to fit him in the length of leg,—a point to which insufficient attention has been paid. If one man wants a machine geared to fifty-six or sixty, there is no conceivable reason why another who happens to have the same length of inseam of his trousers should want the same; nor is it a matter simply of strength: if two men can make the same number of miles in a day, it is fair to presume that they are of nearly equal riding capacity, yet each may accomplish the work most easily on machines geared quite differently. An instance of this kind has occurred to the writer, in riding day after day on a machine geared to about forty-eight, with a man who preferred and could do his best work on a sixty. This difference held good on smooth or rough roads, and as a matter of my own experience it is a pleasure to ride a low gear, and distressing toil to use a higher. There are others whose experience is just the reverse, and it is useless to try to guess at what is wanted; it is best not to go to either extreme in buying unless you have proved the necessity by extended experience on the road. It would be well for all riders to avail themselves of any good opportunity to make a thorough trial of machines geared differently from each other, for it is possible to be unsuited and never know it. Even if you have been able to lead the van when you have been out on a run, you do not know but that you could have led it much easier on something else than that which you rode. The physical system in man may easily become adapted to a wheel which at first was not suitable, but there are those to whom certain gearing will always be wrong. It is safe to say that the prevailing mistake in the past has been the use of too high gears, though this has been much improved of late by the use of long cranks.