The Bearings, Vol 11, No 22
Articles in this issue
- LAW Racing Board Chairman Gideon suspends Walter Sanger and W.F. Sims for thirty days pending amateur-status investigation; Sanger immediately turns professional, Tyler voluntarily does the same, and Murphy, Titus, and Ziegler are all reportedly ready to follow before the Asbury Park meet.
- Harry Tyler, Walter Sanger, and John S. Johnson are matched for a three-heat mile race at Waltham on July 4 for a $1,000 purse marking Tyler's professional debut; the Quill Club Wheelmen of New York also propose a three-cornered match with a $2,000 added purse.
- At Birmingham the national cycling council voted down Sturmey's two-class scheme 31 to 13 and also rejected a road-racing ban, while the London Centre separately voted against organized road racing; tricycle championships were abolished following that day's race, by correspondent C.W. Hartung.
- W.S. Yoeman and J.B. Cooke at Catford lowered the one-hour tandem safety record to 26 miles 1,116 yards, beating the Scott-and-McNish Herne Hill mark by 391 yards; at Wood Green, W.J. Jones and Ridout also broke the ten-mile tandem world record in 21:25.
- R.L. Jefferson completed his cycling journey to Moscow and back, reaching Kennington Oval in 49 days 6 minutes, nearly a full day inside his self-set target, returning bronzed and well to a large welcoming party.
- Bicycle corps riders from the Indianapolis Light Infantry will carry a relay message from Indianapolis to St. Louis on July 1, divided into five fifty-mile relays from Indianapolis through Harmony, Martinsville, Dexter, and Pocahontas, with a schedule calling for completion in twenty hours.
- Charles S. Wells broke the five-mile coast record at San Mateo-San Carlos in 12:05, eight seconds faster than John E. Edwards's previous mark; Chris Sorenson also covered 200 miles on the road in 14:14:30, setting a new coast record for the century at 5:58:00.
- Emil Ulbricht broke the American standing-start paced fifty-mile record at Los Angeles Athletic Park in 2:07:51, over seven minutes faster than the previous mark, riding 24 miles 468 yards in the first hour and 48 miles 730 yards in two hours.
- The Masonic tournament and bicycle meet at Fountain Ferry track was marred by inefficient judges including a chaotic mile open with thirteen starters and ten fallers; George P. Fawcett won the mile open and Owen Kimble took the championship of Louisville from a field of eleven.
- The Century Road Club of America accepted new road records including J.R. Dunlop's thirty-one centuries in 1894, Fred Taylor's Texas state records (25 miles 1:46, 50 miles 3:48, 100 miles 8:21), and A.A. Hansen's Minnesota 100-mile (6:25) and 200-mile (18:09) records.
- New York City Council passed an ordinance compelling all vehicles, including bicycles, to carry lamps after dark; other towns across New York State promise to follow suit.
- Welsh prodigy Michael won the six-hour race at Paris's Buffalo Velodrome covering 239.940 kilometers (149¾ miles) and setting new records at every distance from 60 kilometers through six hours, including 100 miles in 3:52:48; Lucas finished second at 237.968 km after a game final-hour effort.
- The Victor Cycling Club of St. Louis again defied the LAW by running an unsanctioned Sunday meet at Belleville despite having suffered suspensions for the same offense the previous year; several clubs are watching the Racing Board's response, weighing whether thirty-day suspensions are worth the revenue.
- C.C. Fontaine won the Carwardine Cup 24-hour race for unlicensed riders at Putney, covering 474½ miles and beating the amateur record by fourteen miles; Peterson finished second with 466¼ miles, Shorland having chosen not to start.
- Editor Geo. K. Barrett uses a dawn metaphor to trace the growing professionalization of American cycle racing, from Zimmerman's early turn to the recent suspensions of Sanger and Sims and Tyler's voluntary professionalizing, arguing the era of open professional racing has now truly arrived.
- The editorial argues that American cyclists, while unmatched at short distances, cannot compete with Europeans like Michael, Fontaine, and Linton in long-distance events, attributing the gap to the near-total absence of prize money for long-distance racing in the United States.
- The Detroit Wheelmen's annual twenty-five-mile road race on July 20 is open to the world for the first time, with the highest bridge on the Belle Isle course replaced by a broad stone bridge and a short turn greatly improved; fast times are expected from crack riders across the country and Canada.
- U.S. Minister Terrill at Constantinople cabled that cyclist Frank Lenz was murdered near Uahar by five Kurds, whose names have been given; arrest and punishment have been demanded at the Sublime Porte, with British consul co-operation requested.
- E.F. Miller of Vineland won both the one-mile 2:10 class race and the mile handicap from 120 yards at the South End Wheelmen meet at Tioga, Philadelphia, beating Cabanne and Titus; Johnson rode an unpaced half-mile in :59⅖ as a professional exhibition, and Cabanne won the mile open in 2:32½.
- Arthur Gardiner dominated the Illinois Division meet at Galesburg and Herman Vogt won the run-over five-mile championship, but the event was condemned as a fizzle under F.R. Gadd's management, with inaccurate timing, a dangerous track with a six-inch dirt ridge, multiple disqualifications, and no entertainment provided for League members.
- Thatcher broke the world competition third-mile record to :41⅕ at Salt Lake City's Hot Springs track; Hyde won the mile open Class A in 2:10 — the fastest Class A competition mile ever ridden in the West — in a tandem-paced race against Collinson.
- Prize-winning poem by Mary E. Brook of Sioux City, Iowa — winner of The Bearings' inaugural $5 weekly paragraph competition — written in the voice of a relay cyclist who prepares confidently for a messenger run, only to finish cut, bruised, and nearly broken.
- E.S. Stone of Chicago, a non-racing everyday wheelman, advocates early-morning cycling of ten to fifteen miles as a cure for dyspepsia and a brain-clarifying tonic, crediting the wheel with restoring his health over two years.
- Max Miner of Charlemont, Massachusetts, recounts the amusement at a country race meeting when a rustic observer mistook a racer's witch hazel flask for muriatic acid and his Rubifoam bottle for tooth powder rubbed on legs.
- The joint meet of the Fredonia A.C. and the Ramblers B.C. of Buffalo opened with a twenty-mile road race won on time by Archie Le Jeal of Erie, who lowered Linneman's 1893 course record by over three minutes; track races at the Driving Park saw Jenny of Utica win the half-mile scratch Class B over Callahan of Buffalo despite a disastrous spill in the Class A mile handicap that injured several riders.
- The Havana Sports Club ran a five-kilometer race against time for the Verona premium, won by Gomez Pego in 7:41⅕ on a Humber; afterward the Club Biciclista de la Habana and the Sports Club merged into the new Club Velocipedico de la Habana.
- The Wilkesbarre meet produced outstanding performances including Eddie Bald winning the mile open in 2:07 over Cabanne and L.C. Johnson, and Sanger making his professional debut at a half-mile in 0:58⅘, breaking Johnson's Philadelphia professional record; complete race summaries for Class A and B events are included.
- Despite strong wind preventing records on the second day, Bald again won the mile open in 2:08 over Cabanne and Ziegler; Cabanne won the two-mile handicap from scratch, and Ziegler closed the meet with an exhibition mile behind the Syracuse quadruplet in 1:58⅖.
- At the Pittsburg Athletic Club meet, Zimmerman set a world record for a quarter-mile track by riding a professional mile in 2:00 flat on Saturday afternoon, having first ridden 2:03 under electric lights on Friday evening; Banker and Baker dominated the Class A and B open events respectively.
- Charles S. Wells dominated the Pilot Wheelmen meet at Santa Cruz, winning the half-mile final easily over Burke and Castleman at Vue de L'Eau Athletic Park; Terrill won the mile open Class A in a close sprint over Vincent and McFarland.
- Private Alfred Matthey of the U.S. Army completed a dispatch ride from Fort Hamilton, New York, to Chicago in 13 days, 7 hours, and 45 minutes, carrying orders from General Miles to General Merritt.
- Frank J. Jenny of Utica settled his long-standing rivalry with local champion Wallie J. Helfert by winning the half-mile invitation race by four to five lengths in 1:00¾, then also took the half-mile open Class B over Ziegler and Allen before 2,500 spectators at the Utica Cycling Club meet; a post-race altercation between Allen and Dirnberger added controversy.
- Harley Davidson of Brantford won both the half-mile and two-mile Class B events at the Ramblers' Cycling Club's first meet on their new Toronto track before over 2,000 spectators, with all mile events ridden in under 2:30 except the 2:50 class heat.
- Percy Patterson of Bay City rode a flying half-mile in 1:04, one second under Michigan state record, on the first day of the Ypsilanti Wheelmen's meet; on the second day he won a five-mile match race against W.L. Swendeman in 12:51, lowering the state record by six seconds.
- F.H. Allen of the Barnes team has formally challenged "King" Michael Dirnberger of Buffalo to a one-mile match race at any meet in New York State, preferring Kirk Park in Syracuse; W.E. Shaw, the Boston Class A whirlwind, is also set to relocate to Syracuse to ride for the local Athletic Association.
- A three-day cycle exhibition at the Kansas City Y.M.C.A. rooms June 19-21 drew large attendance, with dealers including Clark Bros., the Columbus Buggy Co., C.H. Rebensheid & Son, and the Egnew Bicycle Co. showing fourteen named brands including Cleveland, Crescent, National, Stearns, Columbia, Sterling, Monarch, Fowler, and Falcon.
- The Lozier company has decided to locate in Thompsonville, Connecticut, occupying the vacant Hartford Carpet Works factory and planning to employ 200 hands at the start, rising to 600 or more.
- Morgan & Wright write to correct the mistaken belief that their $700 gold unpaced-mile-record trophy is reserved for prominent racers; any rider who breaks the world unpaced mile record during 1895 receives a $25 gold facsimile, with the big trophy going to whoever holds the record at season's end.
- The Bearings New York correspondent, authorized to purchase 2,000 bicycles cash from a downtown jobber, found every one of more than a dozen stores unable to supply a single machine before September 1; the column surveys brisk business at Starr Cycle Co., Columbia Rubber Works, three Indiana Bicycle Co. Waverley stores, and others packed with machines or backed up on orders.
- A survey of the cycle trade in Gainesville, Texas, profiles dealers including John S. Fletcher (Syracuse and Columbia), Sam A. Cherry (Sylph and Overland), Rackley & Gerhardt (Gendron), and E.R. Thacker's thriving fifteen-wheel rental agency that draws customers every day including Sundays.
- London correspondent Will o' the Wisp reports the John Griffiths Corporation has lost $484,575 in eighteen months from a capital of $875,000, with directors blaming the American market; the column also covers growing ladies' safety sales at Humber, cyclometer demand for the Standard Watch Co. instrument, and notes on Bassett's puncture preventer and swing-frame machines.
- Condensed from the Gummi Zeitung of Dresden, a German rubber expert warns that wild-cat competition has driven pneumatic tire prices from 45-50 marks to 30-35 marks per pair, making genuine Para rubber construction impossible at those prices and flooding the market with inferior products whose paper-thin inner tubes last barely two weeks.
- Morgan & Wright tires won thirteen firsts, thirteen seconds, and seven thirds at the Illinois Division meet at Galesburg; Gardiner took four firsts, four seconds, and a third in Class B, while Repine won three firsts, two seconds, and two thirds in Class A, and Vogt won the five-mile championship run-over.
- LAW Racing Board Chairman Gideon's official bulletin records the suspensions of Sanger and Sims pending amateur-status investigation, class transfers of Church, Rumford, Buzzard, Quinn, and others to Class B, Leonard J. Berlo declared a professional, and suspensions of thirty to ninety days for riders in unsanctioned meets in Butler Pa., Eugene Ore., Concord N.H., Baltimore, and several Missouri cities.
- Wm. Martin reports from France his recent race victories including winning a handicap over Jacquelin and a large field at the Seine track in 2:00, lap prizes at Angers, and a ten-kilometer tandem international with Muringer in 15:30 in pouring rain, all aboard a Stearns bicycle.
- Six recently issued U.S. patents are listed covering pneumatic tires (Davies; Ives assigned to Mechanical Rubber Co.), a bicycle rim (Roehr brothers of Bucyrus, Ohio), a bicycle pedal (Kendall of Springfield), and two change-gearing or sprocket mechanisms (Belanger of Boston; Good of Dayton).
- Humorous fictional dialogue reprinted from the Chicago Daily News in which two young women recount the absurd social predicaments of publicly denouncing bloomers to please suitors who, it turns out, secretly admire girls who wear them on the wheel.
- Brief notes on new bicycle company incorporations including King B Cycle Co. of Chicago ($2,000), Binghamton Bicycle Co. ($10,000), Richmond Bicycle Co. ($60,000, to employ 75 hands by August 1 turning out fifty wheels daily), and David C. Wallace's $100,000 bicycle tube plant in New Castle, Pa., with capacity for 4,000,000 feet of tubing annually.
- Short trade items covering the Acme Puncture Proof Co.'s move to 713 63d Street Chicago, Gormully & Jeffery's illustrated ads in Harper's, Leslie's, and Town Topics, the Fairbanks bicycle beam scale reading from one ounce to fifty pounds, and J. & H. Duckworth of Springfield doubling floor space for 1896 chain production.
- The three Beaudry children — May (9), Ida (7), and Fred (5) — attracted as much attention as crack racers at the recent Syracuse meet with their custom Barnes Special bicycles, the youngest child's being the smallest high-grade bicycle ever built; all three are accomplished trick riders who can carry double, ride without hands, and sprint.
- President M. Vinegeron explains that a new Paris cycle trade association will admit all French builders, dealers, and accessory makers excluded by the old manufacturers' syndicate, which Vinegeron criticizes as a closed corporation that denied small builders access to shows and official recognition.