Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/794

774 gravity over the base, the bottom of the wheel needs only to move to the right or left—whichever the machine is leaning—somewhat faster than these slow rates. There is no great difficulty in doing this, for, if the bicycle is going eight miles an hour, it is necessary to change its course only about seven degrees; if four miles, then only about fourteen degrees; if two miles, then about twenty-eight degrees. The greater the speed, the less the angle: at sixteen miles an hour, the wheel would need to be turned less than two degrees. From which follows the fact, well known to 'cyclists, that the slower the machine is traveling the more the handles must be turned, and the more difficult to keep from falling.

From the fact that the bicycle is kept erect by keeping its point of support under it, like a pole standing upright on one's finger, some curious and, to most persons, quite surprising results follow. I have here three rods, respectively one foot, three feet, and seven feet long. I hold the last, as you see, very easily; the second not so easily; and the first only with considerable difficulty. I now put a cap of lead weighing four or five pounds on the top of each, and then again support them as before. In every case it is now easier to keep them from falling. Hence, in a bicycle, the higher and the heavier the load, the less the danger of falling; and, as most of the weight is in the saddle, the center of gravity of the whole is very near it, and it is the height of that, and not the size of the wheel, that affects the lateral stability. A rider with a load on his back, whether a bag of grain or a man sitting on his shoulders, is by all that the more safe from falling either to the right or left, however it may be as to headers.

Experts sometimes ride for a considerable distance with both legs over the cross-bar. But there is nothing strange in this, for placing their legs in that position only raises the center of gravity, and hence really adds to the stability. If in some way they can manage to turn the cross-bar, they can ride without difficulty until the momentum is exhausted.

A much more difficult feat is to ride on one wheel. The small wheel—the rider holding the other in the air—is most easily managed. It is merely a case of supporting on a small base a long, upright body. One keeps moving the point of support so as to 'bring it under the center of gravity. It needs only a quick eye and a steady hand. It is much more difficult when the 'cyclist uses only the big wheel, the other having been removed, for he is liable to fall forward or backward, as well as to either side. To avoid the first and second, he leans forward a little beyond his base, and would pitch headlong, but that he drives the wheel forward by means of the treadles just fast enough to prevent it. We all do the same thing when we walk. We lean so far forward