heavier, and suffers more from air resistance than the small wheel. For
racing purposes a little wheel, geared up of course, is certainly better
than a high wheel; for comfortable traveling, and in general, the high
wheel is preferable. Though this is certainly the case, it does not
follow that large wheels are worth having on a machine when there is
already one little wheel. If the rider is to be worried with the evils
of a little wheel at all, it is possible that any advantage which large
wheels would give him would be swamped by the vibration and mud-sticking
properties of the small steering wheel. One firm, in their endeavors
to minimize these evils, have designed machines without any very small
wheels; all three wheels are large, and a steadier and more comfortable
motion no doubt results.

High and low gearing are the natural sequel to high and low wheels. Of
course the lower the gearing the greater is the mechanical advantage in
favor of the rider when meeting with much resistance, whether from wind,
mud, or steepness of slope. In spite of this, for some reason which I
cannot divine, the machines with excessively low gear do not seem to
obtain so great an advantage in climbing hills as might be expected. To
make such a machine travel at a moderate speed only, excessively rapid
pedaling is necessary, and the rider is made tired more by the motion of
his legs than by any work he is doing. The slow, steady stroke by which
a rider propels a high-geared machine is far more graceful and less
wearying than the furious motion which is necessary on a low-geared
machine. The height up to which the driving-wheels are usually geared
may be taken as an indication of the ease with which any class of
machines runs. A rider on a low-geared machine can start his machine
much more quickly than an equal man on one that has high gearing, and
therefore in a race he has an advantage at first, which he speedily
loses as his rapid pedaling begins to tell. For ordinary riding the