Bill Mills, who investigated the claims for the British weekly, The Bicycle, wrote: Zimmerman, known as "Zimmy" or "Zim", was a lean, athletic-looking man who stood 5 ft 11 in.

He won the League of American Wheelmen national half-mile championship, setting a world record of 29.5 seconds for the last 440 yards.

The cycling mathematician, Dave Lefèvre, says that according to whether that was exactly 12 seconds or closer to 13, and depending on the precise size of the wheel (which could have been larger then), Zimmerman may have pedaled at 170 to 185 revolutions a minute.

[8] The historian Peter Nye says: Zimmerman told The Newark Evening News in 1912 what it had been like, racing as an amateur from 1887 to 1893: Cycling had become a widespread sport in the 19th century but there were no world championships.

[11] Zimmerman dominated them, although the distance from the center of world cycling in Europe limited the number of riders and Americans won two of the three gold medals.

The American champion George M. Hendee, from Springfield, Massachusetts, although an amateur, profited from the crowds and therefore the ticket sales he could bring to cycling tracks, or velodromes.

In just one race, the Springfield College Diamond Jubilee mile in 1892, Zimmerman won two horses, a harness and a buckboard, total value $1,000 or more than twice the national annual wage.

In 1893, he won 15 bicycles, 15 jewellery rings, 15 diamonds, 14 medals, two cups, seven studs, eight watches, a tract of land, six clocks, four scarf pins, nine pieces of silverware, two bronzes, two wagons and a piano.

[5] In 1892, the British NCU invited him to ride in London, where he rode in the jersey of the New York Athletic Club, its badge of a winged foot on the chest.

The British had been in no position to query Zimmerman's status because the League of American Wheelmen had recognized him as amateur.

The NCU assumed that Zimmerman had been paid, which offended the agreement it had made with the International Cycling Association that an amateur is "One who has never engaged in, nor assisted in, nor taught any athletic exercise for money, nor knowingly competed with or against a professional for a prize of any description... Or who is recognised as an amateur by the ruling body of his country.

The first long-distance race, from Paris to Rouen in 1869, included a Peter the First, Johnson of Brussels, several identified only by initials or a first name, and a British woman who called herself Miss America.)

Peter Nye says: Zimmerman rode without great success in Europe in 1896 but his charisma and following was such that, even no longer his former self, he was invited back to France for exhibition races until 1904.

In 1902, he made a solo appearance at a meeting in Asbury Park, riding a mile behind motor-pace in 1:49 to please local organizers.

In 2003, a battered black-and-white Raleigh poster proclaiming his status as world champion – 'over 2,300 prizes during 1892' – sold for $800.