Dear Mr. Mackenzie,
I see a possibility for confusion in Alastair Wilson's excellent
notes, comparable to the use of "hood" when describing parts of a car.
In Britain, the "ordinary" was the name used for the kind of bicycle
with one wheel very much larger than the other. So the "high wheeler"
was then the "ordinary", and most histories use the term in this way.
I agree that Kipling would have owned what cycle historians call a
"safety", which would have had most of the characteristics of a modern
cycle.
Regards,
John Walker
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