The Bearings, Vol 11, No 18
Articles in this issue
- Front-page exposé alleges a secret understanding between the Cycle Board of Trade and L.A.W. Chairman George Gideon to purge Class B riders from the amateur ranks, clearing the way for controlled professional racing sanctioned by manufacturers.
- The committee for the national L.A.W. meet at Asbury Park in July has nearly completed its hotel list and is soliciting bids for prizes and badges; the parade is scheduled for July 9.
- Austrian Gerger wins the 368-mile Bordeaux-Paris road race in 24:12:15, surpassing the previous record; amateurs outperform professionals class-for-class, and Pittsburg's George Banker wins two events at the Velodrome de l'Est.
- Over 3,500 cyclists parade through Chicago streets in the Associated Cycling Clubs' annual Decoration Day union run despite threatening weather; the Chicago Cycling Club takes the best-appearance prize and the Illinois Club leads for numbers with 305 riders.
- London correspondent covers the inspection ceremony at the new Catford cement cycling track, a North Road C.C. 50-mile handicap, fashionable cycling in Battersea Park, and the dispute between the Scottish A.A.A. and Scottish Cyclists' Union over Class B riders.
- Niagara Wheelmen's 25-mile road race at Providence; C.J. Swenson wins both first place and time prize from the 2½-minute mark out of 41 starters.
- Editor's commentary argues that the Chicago Cycling Club's plain, disciplined uniform and good deportment won the best-appearance prize at the union run and offer a model for all wheeling clubs.
- Editorial mocks Chicago Alderman 'Bath House' John Coughlin's failed ordinance banning bloomers from public streets, which the city council laughed off and filed away.
- Lead editorial declares that cash-prize professional bicycle racing backed by serious capital is imminent in America and will surpass baseball and horse racing as a spectator sport.
- Manhattan Field's track resurfacing hints at professional racing; E.C. Bald is encountered at the Metropolitan Bicycling Academy; Zimmerman is sanctioned to pace Class B races at Asbury Park; Dirnberger sets a new unpaced third-mile flying-start record of 36-4/5 at Louisville.
- A collision during a tandem race in Madrid leaves rider Lacasa fatally wounded and Campos with both arms broken.
- Two-day Louisville race meet: Cabanne and Titus defeat Dirnberger on day one using Spalding team tactics; Gardiner wins the half-mile and open Class B on day two; Lee Richardson's backward riding exhibition, including a backward third-mile in 1:44, thrills the crowd.
- Fritz Lacy of the Bay City Wheelmen wins the 25-mile invitation race at the Los Angeles Athletic Park in 63:08, a new California record, outpacing Emil Ulbricht in close tactical battle behind the Stearns tandem.
- Suspended trainer T.W. Eck and rider John S. Johnson are released by E.C. Stearns & Co.; Eck writes to Chairman Gideon demanding formal charges and calls an American League of Racing Cyclists meeting in Albany for June 5 to challenge L.A.W. racing control; Class A meet results from Cortland, N.Y. included.
- A new quarter-mile board track opens on Toronto Island for the Queen's Birthday meet with professionals Starbuck, Bartholomew, and Waller competing; Harley Davidson sweeps all Brantford events and sets a new Canadian mile record at 2:24-4/5.
- Buffalo and Tonawanda riders sweep all open events at Woodstock, Ontario's Queen's Birthday meet; Charles Werick wins the Class A mile and the Callahan brothers break the Canadian tandem record with an unofficial 2:09-3/5.
- California state circuit meets at Santa Barbara and San Bernardino are repeatedly marred by team riding that forces races over the time limit, resulting in multiple reruns and disqualifications.
- Lawrence 12-mile road race: four riders including Eddie McDuffie are disqualified for cutting the course; Tom Butler wins the time prize in 34:05 from scratch.
- Plans emerge for a Washington/Oregon/British Columbia racing circuit; F. Waite of Colfax lowers the northwest mile record to 2:13-3/4 on a rough trotting track.
- San Francisco cyclists and local newspapers launch a campaign for better street paving, planning a mass meeting and torch parade of 1,000 riders; railroad companies are suspected of deliberately scattering tacks and broken glass to harass cyclists.
- Menominee, Michigan's bicycle ordinance is praised as fair: it requires lamps and speed limits but also fines anyone who drops debris on roads that endangers cyclists; the Wisconsin state racing board divides the state into five districts.
- Feature on the cycling boom in Marshalltown, Iowa, where 925 bicycles worth $75,000 are in use—one per twelve residents—with Sterlings, Columbias, and Ramblers predominating; ladies are adopting bloomers and the annual Varnum Hill 8-mile road race is the social event of the year.
- Central Pennsylvania wheelmen propose a 40-mile rolled-gravel cycle path from Williamsport to Lock Haven alongside the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, with a possible extension to Altoona.
- The Pittsburgh Athletic Club track has been rebanked and now holds world's half-mile and mile paced records; a summer meet by electric light is planned; friends of round-the-world cyclist Frank Lenz have given up hope for his survival.
- The Indianapolis Bicycle Club plans an all-day July 4 festival with cycle races; the new Protective Cycling Club, organized by Frank Staley of Indiana Bicycle Co., joins as a League club; Indiana Bicycle Co. has shipped 16,000 bicycles since January 1.
- Details of the newspaper-sponsored relay race from Chicago starting June 5, with Gen. Nelson A. Miles to receive the message in New York; Buffalo's Callahan, Foell, Goehler, and Buse are training to set a division record.
- Cleveland's second-oldest cycling club, home to Class B men 'Doc' Brown and the Johnson brothers, is likely to dissolve due to financial irregularities, with plans to form a new League-affiliated organization.
- San Bernardino's second state-circuit meet results include Cleaver's disqualification for back-pedaling; the new Edgewater Bicycle Club has been organized in Chicago.
- Homer Fairmon of the Chicago Cycling Club wins the Decoration Day road race (19¾ miles) from the 5:45 mark in 54:36; George L. Emerson takes first time prize in 52:14 from scratch before an estimated 100,000 to 125,000 spectators in Lincoln Park; full results for 461 starters and a statistical history of the race since 1887 are included.
- M.F. Dirnberger sets a new paced two-mile world record of 3:51-4/5 at Louisville's Fountain Ferry Park on May 29, paced by the Syracuse quad; F.G. Barnett equals the unpaced flying-start mile record of 2:07-1/5 in the same session.
- Dirnberger breaks the paced flying-start mile world record with a clocking of 1:45 at Fountain Ferry Park on May 30.
- Irvington-Milburn 25-mile road race on the hottest Decoration Day on record (110° in sun): F.J. Titus quits at 12 miles after his pacemaker E.T. Hand's tire fails; F.W. Richt wins outright; Monte Scott takes time prize in 1:12:03 before 50,000 spectators and 12,000 bicycles.
- National circuit opens at Plainfield, N.J. before 12,000 spectators in extreme heat; Cabanne wins both the two-third-mile and mile Class B events over Maddox and Helfert; Sanger makes his 1895 debut; Chairman Gideon tells the Bearings correspondent that all Class B men are equally suspect of prize-selling.
- Cleveland Wheel Club's road race won by J.G. Reedy from the 3-minute mark; W.S. Furman sets the best scratch time, nearly five minutes faster than last year's course record, with 28 of 88 starters beating the old mark.
- E.F. Leonert wins the Martin Road Race at Buffalo in 1:10:30, cutting seven seconds off L.A. Callahan's American 25-mile road record; W.H. Peckham wins the place prize among three scratch starters in a field of 200.
- Rome Cycling Club meet at Utica: Arthur Pendergast of Syracuse wins the mile, half-mile, and two-mile open, dominating a strong field of Central New York riders.
- Decoration Day race at Minnehaha Driving Park is ruined by mud; Chas. Hofer and W.B. Jackson take time prizes from scratch while James Hansen abandons his 100-mile record attempt after four miles due to track conditions.
- E.C. Bald wins the Class B mile at Manchester, N.H. in 2:13-3/5, a new state record, with McDuffie second; at Maine Division's tenth annual spring meet in Portland, J.P. Clark wins all open races and O.E. Towle takes the state championships.
- C.M. Murphy of Brooklyn sets a world competition mile record of 2:01-4/5 at the Waltham opening meet, paced by Thayer and Saunders; Zimmerman beats the Rich-Hutchins tandem in his 1895 season opener in 2:18-2/5 before 12,000 spectators.
- First L.A.W.-sanctioned professional cash races at Pittman Grove, N.J.: Jay Eaton of Elizabeth debuts by winning both the pro novice and mile handicap; Bartholomew beats Starbuck in the five-mile.
- J.E. Abernathy of Leavenworth wins Kansas City's Waldo Park road race from the 6-minute mark; local men Jacques, Wood, and Brunner sweep the time prizes.
- Ed Ewart of Colfax, Wash. wins a 5-mile handicap and W.H. Kimball wins the quarter-mile flat at Colfax's Decoration Day meet.
- Bay City Wheelmen's Decoration Day meet at Central Park cement track: W.F. Foster wins the Class B mile in 2:20 in a gale; G.X. Nessen takes the Class B mile handicap; 4,000 spectators present.
- Salt Lake City's new Beck's Hot Springs track opens for Decoration Day: Crall and Rishel lower the Class A unpaced tandem world's record to 2:06-3/5; M.B. Lawrence beats Lee Richardson's backward half-mile record; C.M. Evans dominates Class B.
- Annual Gray bicycle race around Cape Ann at Gloucester, Mass.: Francis Reid wins in 45:15 and David Frazier wins the time prize, both eclipsing the previous course record of 47:55.
- Asbury Park Wheelmen's Decoration Day Class A meet; Harrison wins the mile open; brief results also from the Lynn road race and the Philadelphia-area Neshaminy Falls 40-mile race.
- Bay City, Mich. Auburn 16-mile road race: McGibbon wins over a competitive field of Great Lakes-area riders.
- St. Louis Pastime Athletic Club spring race meet: Howard of the Pastime A.C. wins the featured events and draws attention as a rising Class B man.
- Los Angeles Decoration Day races: Fritz Lacy wins the mile and McAleer edges Jenkins in the half-mile in a close local meet.
- Denver's Decoration Day road race is struck by a violent storm with lightning, hail, and fierce wind; four riders including Sloan, Sims, Parrott, and Wilkinson collapse and are feared near death; Harry Himstreet wins from scratch.
- London tandem riders Holbein and Stocks cover 100 miles in 4:46:48, breaking the unpaced tandem road 100-mile record.
- Pittsburgh's George Banker wins a professional race at the Paris Velodrome Buffalo.
- Summary roundup of the day's major results: Cabanne's two wins at Plainfield, Leonert's American road record at Buffalo, Murphy's competition record at Waltham, Zimmerman's tandem win, Chicago Road Race results, and Hansen's abandoned 100-mile attempt at Minneapolis.
- Brief results from smaller Decoration Day meets: Toledo 19-mile road race (Ballentine wins), Green Bay-Fond du Lac relay, Lima (Ohio) 20-mile in which Lefevre breaks the course record, and various Illinois and New England road events.
- Editorial on the dysfunction of the bicycle trade in small interior towns, where local manufacturers bully dealers into refusing competing lines; illustrated with a darkly comic tale of two traveling salesmen stranded in a Wisconsin blizzard, arguing for fair open-market competition.
- Technical survey of new British bicycle frame designs from the Cyclist Year Book: New Howe road racer, Grossat complex frame, Rouxel & Dubois telephone frame, Bowley's Unia, Eclipse frames, Vanguard, Raleigh, and Lonsdale ladies' safety frames, North Road and Brooks' racing tandems, and the Prinetti triplet.
- Washington D.C. cycle trade notes: Moses furniture emporium opens a riding academy and Imperial bicycle department; C.C. McCormick opens a repair and second-hand shop; Gormully & Jeffery expands evening lessons by electric light; society cyclists include the Russian ambassador's daughter Princess Cantacuzene.
- London trade correspondent reports the Philpot vs. Rudge patent case outcome (Philpot awarded £2 damages), Raleigh's capital expansion to £28,000 for 500 wheels per week, Triumph's new factory, April cycle export figures, and trends toward larger top tubes and wood rims.
- Technical history of bicycle chain evolution from agricultural machinery through Perry's bushed rivets, Renold's roller chain, and the current quarter-inch race chain; the new Eadie/Cycle Components pivot-shaped rivet design is praised as the next advance.
- Sterling Cycle Works of Chicago has signed a contract to relocate to Kenosha by August 1; capital increases from $100,000 to $200,000 and a new 600×120-foot factory will employ up to 800 men.
- Cycling's impact on Denver street car revenues ($365,000 annual loss from 10,000 bikes) is contrasted with Washington D.C., where no effect is felt because cyclists are mostly social elites who never used horse-cars; Fred Sims rides an exhibition mile in 2:06-3/5 in Baltimore.
- Salt Lake City: the new $10,000 track is ready for Decoration Day racing with a $100 diamond for any world's record; nine local riders have been transferred to Class B by Chairman Gideon and four or five are expected to break two minutes within six weeks.
- National trade news briefs: company successions, new agencies, business openings and closings across cities from San Diego to Brooklyn; Monarch Cycle Co. purchases a new Chicago factory site; Demorest Mfg. reports orders for 20,000 wheels for 1896.
- Correspondent reports on the Texas bicycle trade: San Antonio improving steadily; Dallas transformed by Aultman-Miller's acquisition of Covey Bros. (largest retail deal in state history); Waco dull; Houston's Roy Spore runs a record Rambler trade and Wilson, Eyers & Co. plan a major three-day race meet.
- Summary of M. Charpy's research at the French Marine Central Laboratory on steel tempering: all significant mechanical changes occur in a narrow band around 700°C, making that the critical target temperature for hardening cycle frame steel.
- Official L.A.W. Racing Board notices: suspensions lifted for Fred Taylor and Lush; Phillips and Quinn suspended pending Class A investigations; William DeCardy self-transfers to Class B; Rau, Skelton, VanHerik, and Ulbricht transferred to Class B for rule violations; national circuit referees appointed and Waltham awarded Hartford's September 2 circuit date.