CTC Gazette, Vol 1912, No 5
Articles in this issue
- The Secretary outlines a proposed twelve-day August motor-cycle circular tour taking in Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Keswick, Bradford and Leicester, reports that Flintshire County Council has cut season-ticket tolls for cycles and motor-cycles crossing the Jubilee Bridge at Queen's Ferry, and laments the poor response to the Club's Roll of Honour recruiting scheme.
- Reflections on an 800-mile French and Spanish tandem tour made without a single puncture, comparing the bumpy pave and voies nationales of France to the roads found around San Sebastian in the Basque provinces, and noting the rising cost of hotel meals in France.
- Fred Horsfield reports on the Easter opening camp of thirty-five tents, including Captain Hopkins's arrival by A.C. tri-car and E. A. Strugnell's family walking from London with a home-made hand-cart, then reviews carriers, tent-pole materials, and G. Spyer's ultra-light tent-lawn panniers, plus the Amateur Camping Club's kit-hire charges.
- Mabel Richards weighs curved versus straight-tube frames for women's bicycles, citing R. J. Mecredy of the Irish Cyclist's preference for curved tubes, discusses tyre inflation and vibration, describes Mr Bidlake's handlebar cape-clips (and G. P. Mills's inflatable cape tube), and laments the stalled rational-dress movement for women cyclists.
- F. T. Bidlake dismisses correspondents' proposals for propeller-driven or auxiliary-motor bicycles as impractical, weighs the wasted energy of hill-braking, examines a Chater Lea tandem's B.S.A. three-speed hub under double load, and advises thawing a frozen lamp with a lit match rather than walking home.
- Notices Consul C. E. Trimmer's Guide to Winteringham and District, the Humber Motor-Cycle Catalogue's account of the Junior Tourist Trophy race, the Mead Cycle Catalogue's reprint on Mr Planes's 34,366-mile year on a six-year-old machine, and the Roads Improvement Association's annual report noting the Club's twenty-five-pound subscription.
- 'Archer' recounts losing his way on the Cheviots between Rothbury and Hounam and being taken in overnight by an old couple by the Kale Water, alongside notice of a Garden Cities of France cycling tour from Auxerre to Carcassonne and a four-strong party's Easter tandem tour from Cherbourg to Mont Saint Michel, plus readers' queries and replies on routes in the Alps, Scotland, Belgium and America.
- A. J. Heighway describes his roughly 1,000-mile circuit of Ireland, from the Giant's Causeway and Donegal's Barnesmore Gap to the Blacksod Bay whaling station near Bellmullet, Kylemore Castle, and Galway's Claddagh fishing quarter, warning tourists always to ride south to north against the prevailing south-west wind.
- J. Ll. Warden Page describes a camping party on Inchanghoill island in Lough Corrib, visiting the ancient Teampull Phadrig church and the Lia Lugnaedon stone, a steamer trip to Galway to see Mayor Lynch's grave and on to Cong Abbey, and cycle rides round Lough Mask and Lough Corrib by way of Oughterard, Recess, Kylemore and Leenane.
- M. Adeline Cooke cycles the 'Switzerland of Normandy' from Falaise through Pont d'Ouilly, Clecy and Le Vey to Thury-Harcourt and Caen, quoting the quaintly mistranslated English guidebook a Frenchman pressed on her party at Falaise.
- Two short notes: 'C.E.' argues May outranks April as the best touring month, recalling a May 1909 snow blizzard on Helvellyn's Striding Edge, while 'Cue' describes learning to tour on nothing stronger than water after early years of brandy-and-soda and cheap wine abroad.
- C. Edwardes recounts three Irish dentists, in Cork, a market town and a country house, who treated his toothache free of charge, refusing all payment and instead pressing whiskey and hospitality on him.
- Turn-by-turn cycling directions from Kilburn Station to Harrow-on-the-Hill via Neasden and Kingsbury (No. 19), and on to Watford via Kenton and Oxhey Lane to avoid the tram-laden Holyhead Road (No. 20), noted as the last of this reprinted route series.
- 'L.A.M.' argues that horse-drawn drays and fixed tramlines, not motor traffic, are the chief cause of London's congestion, contrasting London favourably with the still under-motorised, horse-clogged streets of Paris.
- J. Hingley catalogues curious English inn names and buildings, from Dean Swift's rhyming jibe at the 'Four Crosses' in Staffordshire to a converted canal-barge pub near Rochdale and the subsided 'Siden House' at Himley, Worcestershire.
- Trade notes report a Humber motor-cycle climbing Edinburgh's one-in-four Arthur Street, Rudge's clean sweep at the first British Motor-Cycle Racing Club meeting at Brooklands, Joseph Healy's daily Dublin-Cork-Dublin rides, and Francis Birtles's record circuit of Australia on a laden B.S.A. bicycle.
- Douglas Leechman advises on lighting motor-cycle side-car combinations safely, compares magneto-mounting methods used by Humber, Singer and Puch, details the new Louis Coatalen-designed Singer engine chasing the 500cc hour record, and describes a new Bosch spring contact-breaker to stop sticking points.
- 'No. 8613' describes rejoining the C.T.C. after switching from pedal to motor cycling, recounting how he restored a neglected second-hand 1.5hp Motosacoche into a smooth-running light motor-cycle doing about 120 to 150 miles to the gallon.
- W. A. Watton recounts the bureaucratic runaround of reclaiming petrol duty on 40 gallons used in his motor-boat, from a suspicious Customs officer demanding dated certificates to a six-week wait before a ten-shilling rebate finally arrived.
- Letters debate the value of District Association reports, H. R. Reynolds cites the tram-line death of Lilian Hatcher in Lower Clapton Road in a dispute over the R.I.A. and tramcars, and correspondents discuss bad roads at Warrington and in Hampshire, Lahmann cotton-wool underclothing, light bicycles for light riders, and lever-action pedals.
- Monthly reports and run schedules from ten District Associations, including the Earl of Derby's and Lord Sefton's permission for members to ride through Knowsley and Croxteth Parks, the proposed Sheffield District Association, and Whitsuntide tour arrangements at Bristol, Metropolitan and elsewhere.