The Bearings, Vol 11, No 26
Articles in this issue
- Geo. A. Banker (Pittsburgh) defeats Belgian champion Protin in a two-out-of-three match race at the Velodrome de la Seine before 12,000 spectators and wins the mile handicap from scratch in 2:09, matching Zimmerman's time from the previous year; Lesna breaks the world hour record at Dijon covering 45.7 km (28+ miles), surpassing A.V. Linton's mark.
- Two-day Michigan state meet at Battle Creek: Tom Cooper (Detroit) wins the half-mile open Class B defeating E.C. Bald, and H.A. Caldwell wins both the ten-mile road race time prize and the one-mile open Class A in 2:07, announced as a competition record.
- Zimmerman reveals the full terms of his Australian contract—$5,000 in gold on arrival, three races a week through May 1896, guaranteed one-half the first prize if he loses; Liberty Wheelmen of Brooklyn run a five-mile road race on Merrick Turnpike in 96-degree heat; Overman Wheel Co. is pursuing W.C. Sanger's services.
- The annual Hilsendegen road race is announced for August 3 over the Belle Isle course in Detroit, with $4,000 in prizes (including $1,000 in time prizes alone) and an expected entry list topping 300.
- First ten-mile road race of the Pequot Club of South Boston draws 112 starters on a confusing four-lap circuit; many riders complete the wrong number of laps and the judges award prizes at their own discretion, sparking arguments.
- Editorial on the contest for the 1896 LAW National Assembly meet: Cleveland, Syracuse, and Louisville are bidding after Boston withdrew; The Bearings encourages more cities to enter and declines to name a favorite, praising the brisk competition.
- Editorial condemning women's bicycle racing: after Louisville and St. Louis were suppressed, Buffalo promotes four women's races; The Bearings calls the spectacle disgraceful and hopes the Buffalo meet will be the last of its kind.
- Editorial: the West Park Commissioners, pressured by public outcry, ban riders from Chicago boulevard road races in regulation racing costumes, halting the Morgan & Wright Cycling Club's race; The Bearings calls the order nonsensical, compares it to Puritan blue laws, and urges wheelmen to fight it.
- Detroit Wheelmen's fifth annual road race over the Belle Isle five-mile loop: Oscar Wanderer wins the race outright while L.A. Callahan (Buffalo), resenting his 30-second handicap, captures first time prize in 1:07:48; C.V. Dasey (Chicago) finishes ahead of the Grant brothers from scratch.
- London cycling news July 6–13: Wridgway wins Hillier's century cup at Herne Hill in 4:19:34; tandem Yeoman and Cooke set world hour records at the Anerley 100-mile handicap; T.A. Edge and G.P. Mills complete Land's End to John o'Groat's on a Raleigh tandem in 3 days 4 hours 46 minutes; professional Hal Berte covers 1,001 miles London–Edinburgh–Bath in 4 days 21 hours without pacemakers.
- First meeting of the National Cycle & Athletic Association at Manhattan Beach, July 20: Walter Sanger wins the professional one-mile open in 1:59⅗ and the mile handicap; a chaotic ten-mile professional race, marred by falls and a deflated quad tire, is won by J.F. Starbuck by one lap; 2,000 spectators attend.
- Cleveland team wins the 130½-mile team road race from Cleveland to Pittsburgh: Louis Gimm finishes first in 9:18:00 with G. Von den Steinen second (9:55:00); Buffalo's team collapses with broken wheels at Youngstown, leaving the contest between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
- Arthur Gardiner (Chicago, Class B) wins three of four events at Williamsport, Pa.—half-mile, one-mile open, and three-mile—but is edged by Charlie Murphy by two inches in the two-mile; Willie De Cardy wins the two-mile handicap for his first national-circuit victory.
- Louisville places four mounted police officers on Third Street to catch scorchers and enforce bell and lantern requirements; a proposed bicycle license ordinance is amended to strip the license-tax provision, but the question of a $2 fee remains contested, with wheelmen preparing to fight.
- Peter Berlo, paced by the Berlo quad (Cutter, Starbuck, Bartholomew, and Eaton), rides a flying-start mile in 1:55⅗ at Elkwood Park, Long Branch, breaking Zimmerman's world professional record of 1:57⅗ set the previous Friday at Asbury Park.
- Philadelphia correspondent reports speculation that Zimmerman rushed to Europe to represent the U.S. at the Cologne world championships against Johnson, though LAW chairman Gideon—who twice wrote to Zimmerman without reply—will not nominate him; Kitty Knox, who caused a furore at Asbury Park, visits Philadelphia and is entertained by the Meteor Wheelmen.
- Syracuse correspondent reports the city's campaign for the 1896 LAW national meet, backed by E.C. Stearns & Co., the Syracuse Cycle Co., and the Barnes Cycle Co., citing central location and three large bicycle factories as advantages.
- Boston's Associated Cycling Clubs formally declines to bid for the 1896 LAW national meet, feeling piqued at past rebuffs at two national assemblies; the correspondent predicts Cleveland stands the better chance over Syracuse given the east-west rotation custom.
- Riverside Wheelmen race matinee at Manhattan Field, New York, July 20: 2,000 spectators watch Class A events; G.B. Smith wins the five-mile open, but F.F. Goodman, who finished first, is disqualified.
- The Hill Cycle Mfg. Co. (maker of Fowler wheels since November 1892) reorganizes as the Fowler Cycle Mfg. Co. with Frank T. Fowler as president and James M. Davis (president of the Belfast Bank, Rochester, N.Y.) as secretary-treasurer, bringing new capital to fund 10,000 wheels for the 1896 season.
- Humorous editorial sketch: a red-headed manufacturer storms in to protest The Bearings' item about his firm experimenting with a brazing-free frame process; the editor disarms him by revealing the paper knows far more sensitive trade secrets—a $45 telephone bill and that the man actually sold $55,000 worth of goods last spring—that it has chosen not to print.
- Comic verse (reprinted from Bi-News) lampooning the sweating, blundering track judge who misplaces finishers and defrauds riders in every heat, ending with a call for competent officials brave enough to displace the local magnate.
- Minneapolis rider A.A. Hansen is training at Kirk Park in Syracuse for an attempt to break the 100-mile record (target: under four hours) and the 24-hour road record; over forty pacemakers stand ready on tandems, triplets, and quadruplets, with special lighting arranged for night riding.
- The Bearings announces $250 in reader-competition prizes: $50 for the best weekly paragraph (this week's $5 prize won by F.M. Goodhue of Lowell for a piece on cyclists' careless mechanical habits), $50 for best bicycle tour article (closes July 30), $50 for mechanical subject (closes Aug. 15), and $50 for selling bicycles on the road (closes Aug. 30); reader contributions include Mary E. Brooks of Sioux City warning against cyclists passing too close under horses' heads.
- Denhard Mfg. Co. runs a five-mile customer race and a twenty-mile open over Louisville's southern parkway in 96-degree heat: W.A. Rubey wins the five-mile on a borrowed wheel after puncturing, and E.D. Fichtner (scratch) wins the twenty-mile time in 54:05 with F.J. Burkel winning the place in 57:30.
- Atlanta, July 22: Dr. Hawthorne preaches that Satan—not love of pleasure—drives women to bicycle racing, citing as evidence a religious convention that concluded with a street bicycle race between 700 men, women, and preachers; local cyclists are up in arms.
- Accident underwriters meeting at Alexandria Bay, N.Y., debate bicycle insurance: eastern companies report nearly one-third of indemnity claims since January 1 are bicycle injuries (usually serious and long-disabling), while western companies find the risk average; a committee is formed to study reducing indemnity for bicycling, football, and baseball.
- Minneapolis, July 22: an estimated 5,000 cyclists parade along Franklin Avenue in a merchant-sponsored evening procession illuminated with red fire and reviewed by the mayor; first prize goes to a girl who transformed her wheel into a graceful swan; the crowd is estimated at 15,000–20,000.
- Women's race meet at the Buffalo driving park, July 20: 3,000 spectators watch Cora Stevens (Buffalo) win the mile open in 3:25, Mrs. Ida Brown (Rochester) win the five-mile open in 16:48¾, and Pearl Keyes win the twenty-mile state championship in 1:13:00.
- Trade editorial urges cycle dealers to place 1896 orders early: rubber and leather prices have nearly doubled, labor wages are advancing in iron and steel throughout the country, and manufacturers willing to give better discounts to early buyers will be unable to supply late orderers at any price.
- New York, July 22: the Union Cycle Mfg. Co. can produce no more wheels this year due to a steel-tubing famine; R.H. Macy & Co. is underselling cyclometers and lanterns to the alarm of specialist dealers; Maltby & Robley (Falcon and Keating) sell an average of 20 wheels daily from a 20-foot shop; the Barnes wheel has rapidly gained ground in New York via Cobb & Archer.
- Trade briefs: several new cycle companies incorporated across the country (Worcester Cycle, J.M. Linscott, Massachusetts Cycle, Puritan, Toledo Mfg., Enfield wooden-frame); the Barnes Cycle Co. (Syracuse) faces litigation as founders Lucien and Charles Barnes defect to start a competing 'Barnes Improved' firm in Buffalo; Crown Cycle Co. (LaPorte, Ind.) demonstrates rims made from hardened express paper.
- London, July 13: North British Rubber Co. sues Pneumatic Tire Co. (Dunlop), claiming the Clincher patent covers all detachable tires; Sports & Cycling Association introduces a boot-webbing tire with buttoned edges claimed nearly puncture-proof; M.A. Holbein covers 397 miles in 24 hours on a Swift paced by tandems to lower Fontaine's road record; Humber & Co. announces it will employ no more paid racing men after this season.
- Fixture notice for the LAW national circuit Canadian Loop, August 24–31: seven cities (Toronto, Brantford, Stratford, London, Woodstock, Peterborough, Montreal) each offer a uniform program of Class A and Class B events, with all prizes as unset diamonds except novice prizes.
- Editorial with illustration: the Northwestern Military Academy (Highland Park, Ill.) bicycle corps completed a 528-mile cross-country run to Springfield and back with each cadet carrying 30 pounds of equipment; commandant Major R.P. Davidson chose the Sterling after surveying the market, and 13 of the 15 corps members ride Solid Sterlings.
- Frenchman Jubel has invented an automatic coaster-brake mechanism built into the pedal sprocket: back-pedaling releases bearing balls to allow the rear wheel to freewheel, and further pressure applies the balls as a brake, with the mechanism resetting automatically when the machine stops.
- Two humorous squibs from the Irish Cyclist: a shortsighted Brussels cyclist rides into freshly laid creosote paving and loses his boot soles and tire covers getting free; in Paris, a cyclist turns on the discharge tap of a water cart, thoroughly drenching the anti-cyclist water-cart man who was clearing the pipe behind the vehicle.
- Department listing recent U.S. bicycle patents including a two-speed bicycle mechanism (Frank M. and James H. Goodhue / Two-Speed Co., Chicago), a tack-catcher (J.A. Wright, Indianapolis), a pneumatic tire (R.P. Scott, Cadiz, Ohio), a bicycle stand (N.B. La Fevre, Littlestown, Pa.), and a drive-chain wheel (John Moore, St. Louis).
- Wallace Sherwood of Indianapolis plans to travel by water bicycle—twin 15-foot hulls driven by a pedal-powered paddle wheel—down the White, Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf Coast, then up the Atlantic to New York, and back via the Great Lakes to Chicago; departure planned for September 1.
- Brief technical note (from Irish Cyclist) correcting the widespread belief that oiled nuts loosen under vibration: oil allows tighter fastening and actually keeps bolts more firmly fixed, a principle especially important for split-ended crank bolts, which should always be dipped in oil before tightening.