Bicycling for Ladies by Maria E. Ward

I have found that in bicycling, as in other sports essayed by them, women and girls bring upon themselves censure from many sources. I have also found that this censure, though almost invariably deserved, is called forth not so much by what they do as the way they do it.
It is quite natural to suppose, in attempting an unaccustomed exercise, that you have to do only what you see done and as others about you are doing. But to attain success in bicycling, as in other things, it is necessary to study the means as well as to look to the end to be attained, and to understand what must not be attempted as well as to know each step that will be an advance on the road to progress.
A great deal has been said against attempting to study a little of anything; but when a slight knowledge of several important branches of science that bear directly upon a subject under consideration, and that a subject concerning the health and safety of many individuals, will render one intelligently self-dependent, and able at least to exercise without endangering one’s own health or the lives of others, the acquisition of such knowledge should not be neglected.