The Bearings, Vol 11, No 6
Articles in this issue
- Race report from Mexico City's Rancho Auzures track on February 24: Callahan's powerful sprints have frightened local competitors out of the handicaps; Dr. Brown wins the quarter-mile and mile open, while Nicolet dazzles the crowd with trick riding at Orrin's circus.
- Milwaukee interview with Class B star Walter C. Sanger, who declares he will turn professional in 1896 rather than ride for prizes worth a third of their advertised value; also covers Milwaukee's planned Decoration Day relay race from Green Bay, the Marinette Cycling Club formation for the state meet, and Western Union mounting messenger boys on bicycles.
- Boston dispatch on the L.A.W. Bulletin impasse: Sterling Elliott proposes to publish it at 25 cents yearly for 25,000 copies, tied to restructured League dues of 75 cents plus a 25-cent registration fee; Chief Consul Elliott departs for the adjourned National Assembly carrying state delegation proxies.
- Cleveland Light Guards Company F of the Fifth Infantry decides to purchase military bicycles and train according to new U.S. Army infantry cycling regulations, with each man eventually owning his own mount.
- German champion Lehr went on a professional tour to Italy without seeking permission from the Deutscher Radfahr Bund; the International Cyclists Association demanded he be classified as a professional, embarrassing the German federation before the cycling world.
- Editor G.E. Barrett argues that if Sanger joins the professionals at least half a dozen of America's fastest men will follow—citing Cabanne, Johnson, and Bliss—and asks whether the League should finally foster professionalism under a national circuit modeled on Class B.
- Editorial exposing chaotic enforcement at a recent Los Angeles race meet where a drunken referee suspended every racing man present before half the programme was over, while riders openly auctioned prizes on the track; calls on Chairman Gideon to investigate and appoint a Californian to his cabinet.
- Illinois good roads bill introduced by Representative Ely is defeated in committee because farmers suspected cyclists were behind it; the Illinois Division plans to renew the fight with fresh vigor after this embarrassing setback.
- Editorial praising new Racing Board chairman George D. Gideon for his strict, impartial approach, noting he already suspended fellow Cincinnatian Taxis for a year for selling a prize; quotes his first bulletin warning riders the rules will be enforced to the letter.
- Baltimore cyclists are forming Asbury Park savings clubs—each member contributing weekly until the national meet—so the city can attend as an organised contingent; the Iroquois Club's theatre party for 'Brownies' raised track funds, and President Willison attended as guest of honor at the Baltimore Club banquet.
- The old panorama building in Rue de Berri, Paris, is to be converted into a three-story spiral cycle track 1,625 feet long and twenty-four feet wide, divided into up and down lanes with the latest exercise facilities.
- Fourteen leading American racing cyclists—including Sanger, Johnson, Bliss, Lumsden, Bald, Cabanne, Dirnberger, Baker, Blauvelt, Searle, Gunther, and Peck—respond by mail to questions on ideal road and track wheel weights and frame specifications; most favor 20–22 pounds for road and 17–18 pounds for track use.
- William L. Sachtleben departs New York aboard 'La Champagne' on a relief expedition sponsored by the Outing Publishing Co. to search for missing round-the-world cyclist Frank Lenz, believed held captive by Kurdish tribesmen in Turkey; a U.S. minister's letter reveals investigators cannot enter the region until Armenian atrocity inquiries are concluded.
- The fourth annual 25-mile Martin road race will be held Decoration Day (May 30) over the same course as previous years, with at least 75 prizes, new time prizes for the three fastest finishers, and entry blanks available from H.C. Martin or D.H. Lewis.
- Belgian racer Houben defeats Medinger in Brussels in a three-heat match: disqualified in the first heat (2,000 meters), he wins both the 5,000-meter second heat and the final 2,000-meter heat as Medinger abandons, receiving a great reception on his return.
- Asbury Park Wheelmen confirm July 8–13 for the L.A.W. national meet after conferring with Chairman Gideon; Philadelphia cycler William McWade recounts cycling Jamaica's limestone roads from Port Antonio to Kingston, praising the island's roads built from a £600,000 annual government revenue.
- Louisville's Keating Wheel Club escorts the funeral of charter member Clarence O. Watts with honorary pallbearers riding bicycles beside the hearse and leading the deceased's draped wheel; the city also passes an ordinance banning street-sprinkling on asphalt and vitrified brick paving after wheelmen lobbied the general council.
- At the adjourned National Assembly in New York, the Bulletin contract is awarded to Sterling Elliott at 25 cents yearly; Willison unexpectedly resigns as L.A.W. president citing financial fears, then agrees to withdraw the resignation if state divisions pledge emergency levy support, while Elliott volunteers to absorb Good Roads office expenses personally.
- Salt Lake City dispatch explores a Pacific coast proposal for annual intercoast championships between Pacific and intermountain state (Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada) champions; Utah riders Evans and Weiler and Peoria transplant Conibear are expected to defend the region on a new fast Salt Lake track.
- Extended interview with Colonel Albert Augustus Pope, born 1843 in Boston, who recounts his farm-boy youth, Civil War service with the 35th Massachusetts Infantry (South Mountain, Antietam, Petersburg, Knoxville wound), and his founding of the Pope Mfg. Co. in 1877, importing the first English bicycles and placing the first U.S. manufacturing order with the Weed Sewing Machine Co.
- Buffalo cyclists debate four rival schemes to build a cycle track rivaling Waltham or Louisville: a land company's muddy suburban site is rejected by Henry Ducker; a Delaware Boulevard picnic-park company finds no takers; a third private plan by well-funded wheelmen appears most promising.
- Springfield dispatch: Massasoit Club holds a popular two-night side show; the Ladies' Bicycle Club chooses gray bloomers; Vermont Wheel Club and Mt. Kilburn Wheel Club (Bellows Falls) plan active seasons; road improvement agitation intensifies; President Willison names Raymond, Potter, and Brewster to L.A.W. standing committees.
- Columbus, Ohio trade notables including representatives of E.C. Stearns & Co. and H.A. Lozier & Co. attend the spring opening of Oscar S. Lear's cycle show; Rogers & Adams open a new Columbia show on East Spring Street drawing immense crowds despite inclement weather.
- Havana's Club Biciclista de la Habana escorts Chicago cyclist Mrs. A. Coleson on a seaside run to the Vedado clubhouse, followed by luncheon with a party of Cuban ladies and gentlemen.
- E.C. Stearns of Syracuse explains his innovation of tapering bicycle fork-tubes in gauge as well as diameter—thicker at the crown where stress is greatest, thinner at the hub—eliminating brazed-in reinforcements that can anneal or brittlize the steel and add unnecessary weight.
- A Bearings reporter tours Chicago's West Side dealers at Ashland Boulevard and Madison Street: Graham Cycle Co. (Thistle, Munger, Monarch), Sterner Cycle Co. (Stearns, Remington), Geo. E. Lloyd & Co. (Cleveland, Waverley), Mason & Mason (America, Columbia, Soudan at 18 lb./$100), and Horn & Hughes (Victor, March); 100 wheels sold the previous week at full list prices.
- Trade news briefs from cities across the country including Jacksonville, New York (L.C. Jandorf & Co.'s Broadway emporium, Humber & Co. at 318 Broadway under Elliott Burris), Syracuse (Cullman Tubular Hub Co. incorporated), Hagerstown (Railway Cycle Mfg. Co.), and numerous southern hardware dealers adding bicycles.
- The Barnes Cycle Co. will race in all-white wheels and suits this season; former world road-record holder William Van Wagoner is now superintendent and chief designer, with salesmen Bert Scoville, Charles Batcharie, and Malcolm Faulkner on the road; Cobb & Archer contracted as New York retailers.
- Houston correspondent surveys the 1895 Texas bicycle trade: Dallas's Covey Bros. (Rambler, Columbia, Stearns), Chas. Ott (Sterlings, Victors, Fowlers), and new entrant Aultman Miller & Co.; Sherman's Chief Consul Hope handling Munger, Victor, Spalding; Cleburne's Mrs. Kate Thacker running an expert-wheelwoman bicycle agency selling Stearns wheels with a repair shop.
- London correspondent reports ironmonger publications teaching non-cycle agents how to enter the trade at established agents' expense; British cycle exports for January reach £426,350, up from £415,105; the Boudard variable gear disappoints investors; Manchester dealers seek to suppress public quoting of wholesale prices.
- Thorsen & Cassady Co. of Chicago acquires the Victor bicycle agency for Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin plus all-northwest Victor sporting goods rights, closing the Overman Wheel Co.'s Chicago branch; capital increased to $100,000.
- The patent examiner rules in favor of Huss in an interference case with John F. Palmer over three claims in the Palmer tire patent relating to single-ply thread fabric construction; Palmer vows to appeal to the Supreme Court, insisting the ruling does not affect his tire commercially.
- Minneapolis correspondent reports excellent St. Paul trade outlook: Bird Bros. Cycle Co. formed by popular riders Tom and Birney Bird to sell Syracuse bicycles; F.M. Smith & Bro. busy with March and Rambler; Kennedy Bros. pushing Fowler and Columbia; the local club of 65 planning a Como Lake road race.
- Article explaining the aluminum alloy (96% pure aluminum, 4% hardening agents, cold-rolled) marketed as 'lu-mi-num' by the St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co. for bicycle frames, with technical commentary from engineer Albert E. Hunt on the metal's malleability, ductility, and corrosion resistance.
- Profile of W.A. Parker of Waco, Texas, holder of the five- (11:18½), ten- (24:16⅖), and twenty-mile (50:08) world road records recognized by the Century Road Club, who also holds unpaced quarter-mile (:26) and half-mile (:55) road marks riding a Stearns Yellow Fellow with Morgan & Wright tires.
- The Bidwell-Tinkham Cycle Co. of New York introduces the Tourist Carrier, a tricycle delivery wagon modeled on the English Marriot but forty pounds lighter, already used by Harlem butcher Richard Weber and the New York Syndicate & Trading Co.; priced at $150 with cushion or $160 with pneumatic tires.
- Humorous account of a small fire on Chicago Cycle Row: while Cy Barr rescued bolts of cloth, 'Sherry' How dashed into his office and emerged clutching only one-twelfth of a dozen soiled socks, becoming the butt of jokes for the rest of his stay in the building.