William M. Meeker
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Clubs
Bay City Wheelmen, Captain
W. M. Meeker, the Captain of the club, is considered the best road rider in California to-day. Riding a wheel well within his size with a long crank, he can climb almost all the hills known to the local riders. One of his recent feats was the riding down the two hills on Golden Gate avenue without using his hands on the handle bar. He did this to prove to a timid rider that the latter should not be afraid to ride down the hill with hands on handles and brake also. In the early part of the year he visited Mt. Hamilton in company with several riders on "safeties." Coming down the hill the safety riders tried to leave him, but could not do so, as he would ride on his tall wheel as fast as they dare go on the smaller ones. His best performance was the arranging and carrying out of the 100-mile run of the club in 1887. He made a number of trips to San Jose, the result of which was a schedule that made it possible for any rider of ordinary ability to make the round trip. This was a most successful run, as seventeen of the nineteen starters finished, while the only two that did not broke their wheels before they had gone twenty miles. The members of the club presented him with an elegant badge to commemorate the affair. He raced a little in 1885, his best performance being in a five-mile race at Benicia, when he beat W. G. Davis from scratch, allowing the latter seventy-five yards, and winning one of the finest medals ever offered here.
A very enjoyable trip for wheelmen to take is the one made by S. H. Knapp Jr. and W. M. Meeker on Sunday week. Leaving San Mateo they took the Spanishtown road as far as Wylie's on the summit, from where they rode along the ridge of the mountains to Pelarcitos and returned by Lake San Andreas. The same day C. A. Howard and R. M. Thompson rode to Spanishtown and back.
The Wheelmen. - San Francisco Chronicle, 27 May 1889
Chief Consul Thompson, with W. D. Sheldon, W. M. Meeker and S. H. Knapp Jr., left Saturday night on the theater train for Menlo Park, from which they wheeled to Saratoga by moonlight, riding to Santa Cruz yesterday via Bowlder Creek and Felton.
W. D. Sheldon 11 Nov 1889, Mon San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com
Several parties are being formed to wheel to the Yosemite this year, one consisting of W. M. Meeker, Walter D. Sheldon, S. H. Knapp Jr. and R. M. Thompson, who expect to go in May. Ed Landis, C. N. Langton and H. A. Spalding will go the latter part of June. F. W. Ray, J. G. Cox, E. W. Adams and others will go to Lake Tahoe. Sanford Plummer, George P. Wetmore, Thomas H. Doane and C. W. Hammer will probably do the Yosemite some time during the season.
31 Mar 1890, Mon San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California) Newspapers.com
