I now come to the usual complaint about the bicycle. There is a fashion
just now to call it dangerous and the tricycle safe. But the difference
in safety has been much exaggerated. The bicyclist is more likely to
suffer from striking a stone than his friend on three wheels, but then
he should not strike one where the tricyclist would strike a dozen.
Properly ridden, neither class of machine can be considered dangerous;
an accident should never happen except it be due to the action of
others. People, carts, cattle, and dogs on the road are liable to such
unexpected movements, that the real danger of the cyclist comes from the
outside; to danger from absolute collapse, due to a hidden flaw in
the materials employed, every one is liable, but, the bicyclist more
remotely than the tricyclist, owing to the greater simplicity of his
machine. The bicyclist, though he has further to fall in case of an
accident from any of these causes, is in a better position than the
tricyclist, for he is outside instead of inside his machine; he can in
an instant get clear.

It would appear that many tricyclists consider accidents of the kind
next to impossible, for in several machines the rider is so involved
that an instantaneous dismount without a moment's notice, at any speed,
is absolutely impossible. There remains one objection, which, however,
should be of next to no importance--the difficulty of learning the
bicycle prevents many from taking to the light and fast machine, because
they are afraid of a little preliminary trouble.

The chief objections to the bicycle, then, are the liability of the
rider to go over the handles, the impossibility of stopping very
quickly, and the inability to remain at rest or go backward, and the
difficulty of learning.