The Bearings, Vol 11, No 16
Articles in this issue
- The Milwaukee Wheelmen's racing board decides to retain the historic Waukesha road race route after pressure from Waukesha business men and the Waukesha Wheelmen; the July 4 race will have a 10-minute limit and 250 entries expected, while Wisconsin Division officers press town chairmen to enforce the state's signboard law.
- The Associated Cycling Clubs of Chicago report 505 entries for the annual road race despite limiting eligibility to club members and outside-Chicago riders; the 33-club marching order for the May 26 joint run from the Lake Front is settled by lot.
- Racing Board chairman George Gideon tells The Bearings that John S. Johnson will be suspended but not declared a professional; Johnson and trainer Tom Eck travel from Syracuse to Philadelphia to answer charges, with Eck defending their non-appearances at Baltimore and Wilkesbarre as unavoidable railroad failures and denying any improper demands for money.
- Louisville Class B men react to Johnson's suspension by broadly endorsing a formal professional racing class with cash prizes; Sanger pledges to join Johnson if the class forms, and team managers argue it would draw larger gates and entice Zimmerman, Banker, and Wheeler back to America.
- The Bearings editorial reviews the unbroken growth of Chicago road racing from 41 entries in 1887 to 505 in 1895, arguing the sport has the sympathy of city authorities who have detailed 100 police to handle the expected 75,000–100,000 spectators at Lincoln Park.
- Editorial argues that two-inch rear and 1¾-inch front tires are optimal for the average road rider; smaller tires must be pumped hard, causing vibration and fatigue on anything but a smooth track, and the weight saving does not offset the easier running of larger sizes.
- Chairman Gideon tells The Bearings that trainer-manager Tom Eck faces possible suspension or being ruled off tracks for accepting money from race-meet promoters; mail votes have been sent to Racing Board members and strong evidence against Eck was found two to three weeks ago.
- Preview of the Chicago road race entry list analyzes likely time-prize contenders including J.P. Bliss, Arthur Gardiner, C.H. Peck, William Bainbridge, A.E. Lumsden, and James Levy; Handicapper Miles says sentiment will not influence marks, leaving no room for scratch men to loaf.
- Warning to the cycle trade that H.J. Winn has organized a new cycle company; The Bearings states that nearly every concern Winn has been connected with has defrauded its customers, calling him an unqualified dead beat who even defrauded his own lawyer.
- A tandem match is arranged for the Press Cycling Club meet on June 17 at Waltham: Titus and Cabanne (Spalding, world record 1:52⅗) against Heggerty and Williams (Orient); Mayo and Saunders will pace and a world record is expected.
- Twenty-five riders under sixteen start a 2½-mile race at North Edgewater, Chicago; D. Cusack wins the Thorsen silver time medal in 7:15 and takes third place, while Mitchell Thorsen (50-second handicap) wins the race overall.
- Paris dispatch reports Belgian champion Houben's first defeat in France at the Velodrome de la Seine; Barden wins two paced events while Lumsden wins the 5,000-meter scratch race in a romp; the report also covers the murder-suicide of former French champion Paul Medinger and his wife, which caused a sensation in European cycling circles.
- The St. Louis delegation of nearly 100 cyclists enjoys the annual Pike County boat-and-road tour to Clarkesville; the column also reports two local accidents including the death of ten-year-old Justin Brown struck by a wagon on Delmar Avenue, and the suspension and Class B transfer of Louis, Dave, and Will Coburn following an unsanctioned Smith Academy meet.
- Johnson shows remarkable early-season form at Kirk Park, covering a half mile in 1:01 after only five rides in six months; the Stearns squad includes H.R. Steenson, the Johnson brothers of Cleveland, Earl Kiser, Leonert, Weinig, and the Barnes Cycle Co.'s 'Four White-Rimmed Freds' (Fisher, Barry, Fellows, List), with Fred Fisher setting the fastest quarter ever on the circuit at :29.
- Cleveland Wheelmen's Club cuts the time limit for its May 30 twenty-five-mile road race to 8 minutes (4 less than 1894) and adopts a novel peer-handicapping system where each entrant submits marks for fellow riders; Glenville track afternoon events and a one-hour track record attempt are also planned.
- London county open amateur meeting at Herne Hill features exciting racing in wet conditions, multiple riders falling in the ten-mile scratch on a treacherous banked curve; the correspondent notes four cycling fatalities over Eastertide from brakeless machines, and profiles E.E. Parlby as a powerful new English racing phenomenon geared to 76.
- Three-day track meet at Castalian Springs, Mississippi (May 6–8) draws crowds of 2,000; Memphis riders W.H. Whitehead and Z.S. Oliver dominate open events while W.H. Pickens wins both Mississippi Division L.A.W. championships; rain cancels the third day and a second three-day meet is planned for mid-July.
- Rhode Island Wheelmen's semi-annual ten-mile road race on Reservoir Avenue; W. Keach wins almost unchallenged in 37:34 to determine eligibility for the club team, with W.H. Pennell second and F. Devlin third.
- Annual athletic games at Percy Field, Ithaca; Pennsylvania wins the two-mile bicycle race decisively after Cornell's E.P. Hinds falls in the final heat, with Pennsylvania's W.G. Douglas and W.D. Osgood finishing first and second.
- Long Island Century Association moves its annual century run to Saturday June 8 from Sag Harbor; Homer Butts suffers a fractured skull after being struck by a grip-car on Broadway while riding on the downtown cable slot; Columbia collegian George D. Ruppert Jr. wins the two-mile open at Columbia College Union, riding the final lap on a deflated tire.
- W.L. Sachtleben writes from Constantinople that he has uncovered a clue to the murderers of globe-girdling cyclist Frank Lenz, enlisting both a city detective and a native detective disguised as a peddler on the route where Lenz disappeared near Erzeroum; he believes Lenz was killed and has offered a reward.
- Springfield (Mass.) Club's fourteenth anniversary banquet at the Massasoit House draws Mayor Long, ex-Lieutenant-Governor Haile, and Sterling Elliott; Elliott urges L.A.W. members to vote only for good-roads candidates, while Governor Greenhalge again sends a proxy instead of attending in person.
- The Knights of the Wheel, formed in opposition to the L.A.W. from the Michigan Division–Bresler fight, has effectively disbanded after reaching only 160 members; the Detroit Wheelmen separately plan a new $25,000 clubhouse at a more central location.
- The southern circuit meet at Knoxville is rained out before the first race; Morgan & Wright riders Harner, Gardiner, and Anderson and Monarch's Steele and Barnett agree to stay over for a postponed meet, but further rain makes it impossible and the event is rescheduled as a local affair on May 30.
- Austrian cycling exchanges report a racing boom: Reninger focuses on sprints, Schmall targets Vienna–Constantinople and Trieste–Vienna road records with an $400 winner's prize, Haderer aims to lower 100-kilometer and 50-kilometer records, and Finder — twelve-time national champion — retires to manufacture bicycles.
- Humorous editorial narrative of a telephone call in which The Bearings editor persuades ex-racer and ex-National Racing Board member W.C. Thorne and his brother George Thorne to join the Hamilton–Cincinnati run after Thorne catches cycling fever again from watching street scorchers, illustrating that a true cyclist can never permanently give up the wheel.
- New Orleans spring games of the Southern Association A.A.U. at the New Orleans Jockey Club grounds; P. Casse of New Orleans and Geo. Quinn of Mobile split the four Class A events on a heavy track, with a protest against Quinn still pending before the referee.
- Official L.A.W. Racing Board notices: suspensions for six Phoenixville, Pa. riders lifted June 1; Buffalo postpones to September 5–6; Canadian circuit dates from Toronto (Aug. 24) to Montreal (Aug. 31) announced; referees appointed; seventeen riders suspended for competing at unsanctioned meets; Louis, William, and Davis Coburn transferred to Class B.
- L.C. Wahl of Colorado Springs rides 50 miles to Pueblo in 2 hours flat on May 10, beating Linton's world record by 12½ minutes; the Colorado Springs–Pueblo route has a 36-foot-per-mile average descent, two river crossings requiring dismounting, and a 16-mph tailwind; Wahl is entered for the Denver Decoration Day road race.
- L.A.W. President Willison and Vice-President Morrison spontaneously race a mile at Baltimore's park cycle track after inspecting facilities; Morrison covers the mile in 4:14¾ with Willison pacing the last quarter, the two finishing in a dead heat and Morrison carried off to a hotel in a wheelbarrow.
- Letter-carrier A.E. Smith on a Fowler Bantam reaches New York one hour behind R.P. Searle's Chicago–New York record, having ridden 500 miles to Westfield without rest and surviving a near-fatal fall on New York Central railroad ties; without pacemakers from Tarrytown he could not close the gap despite being ahead of record time at that point.
- The twelfth annual Illinois Division meet at Galesburg, June 19–21, under the Galesburg Cycle Club will offer $2,500 in prizes across three days at C.W. Williams' noted track where Alix set a world record last fall; all Illinois railroads grant reduced fares.
- The Century Road Club of America amends its constitution at a Chicago meeting and resolves to organize a relay ride between Chicago and New York; annual elections will be held at the L.A.W. meet at Asbury Park.
- Louisville agencies including Jefferis Bros. (Victor), Prince Wells (Rambler), Martin & Dressing (Munger), and Kentucky Cycle Co. (Stearns) are all unable to supply demand; R.C. Whayne Mfg. Co. sets up its own frame factory after a supplier broke its contract and sells a record 68 machines in one week.
- New York trade survey covers Cobb & Archer adding the Rival line, Bidwell-Tinkham on West 59th Street selling Yellow Fellows briskly with Tom Roe as riding-school manager, and Sidney Bowman selling an entire truckload of Cleveland bicycles in two hours at $20 per minute, leaving eight customers unsupplied.
- Georgia cycle trade correspondent reports from Rome, Ga.: Atlanta leads with W.D. Gash Co. as the dominant house (Stearns jobber for Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas) and Lowry Hardware Co. (Columbia, Rambler, Piedmont); Savannah proves a near-total disappointment with dealers unwilling to order 1895 models.
- Rival cycle firms have circulated exaggerated newspaper accounts of a Peoria factory fire to suggest Rouse, Hazard & Co. is crippled; in fact the plant runs at 30–40 wheels daily and three additional contracted factories are supplying orders, though the firm must decline new agents.
- London trade correspondent (Will o' the Wisp) reports on tandem head-tube safety concerns following recent fatalities, the new Trafalgar Club's commercial tie to Humber, a large run on ladies' safeties (32 sold by one Liverpool agent in two Easterday days), and a debate over small versus large ball bearings in road use.
- Technical article reprinted from the Irish Cyclist: S.F. Edge describes a three-tube reinforcement method for tandem steering posts — inner tubes brazed through the full length of both the steering post and handle-bar stem — to prevent the dangerous head-tube fractures that have caused recent serious accidents.
- Minutes of Cycle Board of Trade executive committee and directors meetings (New York, May 7–8) with A.G. Spalding, George Pope, E.C. Stearns, and L.A.W. president Willison; a joint L.A.W.–trade conference resolves to co-operate on good roads, expert-rider contracts, bicycle theft, and L.A.W. membership, with both presidents appointed to a continuing committee.
- Editorial note cautions that 1895 ladies' wheels now fit cranks so long that pedals follow an ungainly arc — the opposite extreme from 1894's too-short cranks; crank length should be chosen by intended road type, shorter for level roads and longer for hilly terrain.
- G.M. Worden — former American two-mile record holder (4:50 in 1891), now 217 pounds — visits the Irish Cyclist's office during a European continental tour on a 24-pound Remington of his own design; Anglo-American differences in bicycle design philosophy are observed.
- D.W. Caswell, formerly with A. Featherstone & Co., has organized the Sphinx Cycle Co. at 71 West Jackson Street, Chicago — the only exclusive tandem manufacturer in the country — with 40 orders already booked after just two months in operation.
- Brief trade items include A.A. Taylor resigning as Eclipse Bicycle Co. superintendent of agencies, publication of 'Zimmerman Abroad and Points on Training' (50¢ from J.M. Erwin, Chicago), M.E. Griswold's new frame-mounted cyclometer, and Indiana Bicycle Co.'s plans for employee dining and reading rooms with a benefit fund.
- Trade directory items from across the country: Central Cycle Co. incorporated in Kansas City ($250,000 capital), Crawford Mfg. Co. enlarging in Hagerstown, North American Rubber Co. commencing inner-tube manufacture at Setauket L.I. at 4,500 sets daily, and numerous new partnerships, store openings, and business successions nationwide.