There remains one machine which must be considered separately, for it cannot be classed with any other. This is the Otto bicycle. My opinion of this machine is so pronounced that I do not care to state it fully. I shall merely give the reasons why I prefer it to anything else, and in so doing I shall be taking the first step in the discussion, in which it will be interesting to hear from riders of other machines the reasons for their preference.
In the first place, the evils of a third or little wheel, the cause of trouble in all tricycles, are avoided. There is none of the vibration which makes all other machines almost unbearable to Ottoists, vibration which tricyclists have learnt to consider a necessary accompaniment of cycling, but which has, no doubt, been diminished by the use of the spring support of the front steering Humber. It would be presumptuous in me to make any remarks on the effect of this vibration on the human system; we shall all be anxious to hear what our Chairman has to say on this point. By having only two wheels, we have only two tracks, so that we can travel at a fair speed along those places in the country called roads, which consist of alternate lines of ruts and stones, where a three-track machine could not be driven, and where, from the quantity of loose limestone in the ruts, a little wheel of a two-track tricycle would be likely to suffer. By having no little wheel, we can ride in dirty weather without having the rest of our machine pelted with mud, so that cleaning takes less time than it does with anything else. As I have already remarked, the small wheel is the culprit which makes the bicycle and tricycle drive so heavily on a soft road. The ease with which the Otto can therefore be run through the mud astonishes every one. Having no little wheel, we can obtain the full advantage of the high 56 inch wheel, which almost every one prefers. As I have ridden all combinations, from a 50 inch geared up to 60 inch, to a 60 inch geared level, I can speak from experience of the increased comfort to be derived from these large wheels, though for speed only they do not compare with the smaller and lighter wheels geared up. A further point gained by the use of two wheels only is the fact that the whole weight of machine and rider is on the driving-wheel, as it is also on the steering-wheel, so that by no possibility can the wheels be made to slip in the driving, or to fail in steering from want of pressure upon them.