Three Men On Wheels Author:Jerome K. Jerome Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. —THE BICYCLE DOCTOR OF FOLKESTONE ON MONDAY afternoon Harris came around. He had a cycling paper in his hand. I said: " If you take my advice, you will ... more »leave it alone." Harris said : " Leave what alone ? " I said : " That brand-new, patent revolution in cycling, record-breaking tomfoolishness, what- ever it may be, the advertisement of which you have there in your hand." He said: " Well, I don't know; there will be some steep hills for us to negotiate ; I guess we shall want a good brake." I said: " We shall want a brake, I agree; what we shall not want is a mechanical surprise that we don't understand, and that never acts when it is wanted." " This thing," he said, " acts automatically." "You need n't tell me," I said ; "I know by instinct exactly what it will do. Going uphill it will jam the wheel so effectively that we shall have to carry the machine bodily. The air at the top of the hill will do it good, and it will suddenly come right again. Going downhill it will start reflecting what a nuisance it has been. This will lead to remorse, and finally to despair. It will say to itself: ' I 'm not fit to be a brake. I don't help these fellows ; I only hinder them. I 'm a curse, that's what I am.' And without a word of warning it will chuck the whole business. That is what that brake will do. Leave it alone. You are a good fellow," I continued, " but you have one fault." " What ? " he asked indignantly. " You have too much faith," I answered. " If you read an advertisement you go away and believe it. Every experiment that every fool has thought of in connection with cycling you have tried. Your Guardian Angel appears to be a capable and conscientious spirit, and hitherto she has seen you through ; take my advice and don't try her too far. She must have h...« less