The Bearings, Vol 11, No 7
Articles in this issue
- The All America racing team reports from Guadalajara, Mexico, where Leonert wins his first race of the trip at the Occidental Cycling Club's meet on a third-of-a-kilometer tippa-taddy track; a second-day dispatch describes Brown's wins, Leonert's training injury requiring five stitches, and Nicolet and Levy's tandem victory.
- San Jose, California is preparing for a major race meet on April 15 to open the Garden City Cyclers' new one-third-mile cement track, with Bald, Ziegler, Edwards, MacDonald, and Sims among the star riders expected; Otto Ziegler speaks with The Bearings' representative about his ambitions.
- San Francisco correspondent reports the recent bicycle show has boosted trade beyond expectations, riding schools stretched by beginners; Wilbur Edwards' record attempt at Livermore was halted by wind, and the annual 100-mile relay race for the $500 Rambler cup is set for April 7.
- Editorial revealing that Myrtle Hopkins, supported by over $700 in wheelmen's donations after being injured by a tandem team, squandered the money on riotous living; the remaining $300 sits with The Bearings and readers are asked whether it should be donated to the depleted LAW treasury.
- Editorial on the N.C.U.'s long fight against maker's amateurism in England — licensing, now professionalization of trade agents — arguing the fight is hopeless and predicting England will be forced to adopt the American two-class system.
- Short editorial using the word "if" to speculate on who would have contested the racing championship had Sanger's typhoid proved serious, naming Johnson, Tyler, Bald, MacDonald, Ziegler, Murphy, Titus, and Cabanne as potential contenders.
- Editorial on A. C. Willison's surprise resignation as LAW president — attributed to alarm over the League's finances — and his subsequent decision to remain, expressing relief that the League avoided a leadership vacuum.
- Editorial praising Chief Consul Sterling Elliott's proposal to offer $500 accident-death insurance to every Massachusetts LAW member as a membership inducement, calling it the best recruitment scheme yet devised and urging other chief consuls to follow suit.
- Minneapolis correspondent reports that A. A. Hansen's 1894 mileage record of 21,053 miles has been recognized by the Century Road Club of America with a duplicate medal; the Minneapolis Cycle Club, Ltd. has 125 members, plans a new four-lap board track, and the Limited will hold a race meet with $3,000 in guaranteed prizes.
- Milwaukee correspondent reports that Walter Sanger is recovering from a mild typhoid fever attack and will join the Spalding team on April 1; also notes that Milwaukee architects Elmer Grey, Peter Brust, Frank Bader, Herman Lammers, and George Fernald plan a four-month European bicycle tour in July to study architecture.
- New York correspondent covers the June 15 opening of the Brooklyn cycle path to Coney Island, Isaac Potter's speech enrolling the Manhattan Athletic Club wheelmen in the LAW, the Seventh Regiment's new fifty-man cycle corps, and a New York Assembly guideboard bill championed by Potter.
- Medical note warning that cyclists who ride immediately after eating divert blood from the stomach to muscles and nerves, hindering digestion and leading to chronic dyspepsia if repeated.
- French exchange article speculating that the current lull in bicycle design may precede a revolution, drawing a parallel with the period just before the safety bicycle and pneumatic tire upended the high-wheeler.
- Boston correspondent reports strong early-season trade running 66 percent ahead of the prior year, and relays Sterling Elliott's detailed plans for the new L.A.W. Bulletin and Good Roads, which will first appear April 4 with thirty-two pages and a colored cover at 25 cents per member.
- The Springfield Club announces September 10–12 for its annual diamond tournament at Hampden Park, directors overriding members who thought it a financial hazard; a good-roads banquet committee of Miller, Haskins, and Bosworth is also progressing.
- London correspondent reports the N.C.U. has professionalized S. F. Edge of the Dunlop Tire Co. after letters offering training-expense subsidies to rider J. West Jr. were traced to him; directors R. J. Mecredy and Arthur DuCros also face action, and the Bordeaux-Paris race on May 11 will allow both amateurs and professionals.
- London correspondent reports the end of exceptional cold and resumption of cycling; covers the surprise sale of Bicycling News to Sport & Play Publishing Co., the collapse of the Tufnell Park track scheme, and the CTC's victory in gaining cyclist access to Hyde Park before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m.
- Buffalo correspondent reports that the Park Commission's compromise scheme — a shared racing park for cyclists and horsemen at the old parade ground — was rejected by all parties at a public hearing; the board will now provide both a cycle path and a straightaway trotting track; local club racing plans for Press C.C. and Rambler B.C. are also covered.
- Cleveland correspondent reports the city council has passed resolutions asking the park board to provide cycle paths, covers the Cleveland Wheel Club's planned "silver potpourri" bazaar, and describes the proposed four-mile Euclid Road boulevard with a street-car median and flanking driveways.
- Oakland correspondent reports fifteen riders broke the former Pacific coast record in the California Associated Cycling Clubs' third annual 25-mile road race on the San Leandro triangle; Walter Foster won the scratch time prize in 1:12:55, with August Schwall and Henry Egeberg finishing first and second on handicap.
- Philadelphia correspondent describes exceptional spring cycling turnouts on Broad Street including women in bloomers, and reports that LAW chairman George Gideon must seek a Racing Board waiver to hold the national championships during the week of July 8, outside the prescribed July 15–October 15 window.
- Louisville correspondent reports the proposed southern racing circuit is nearly dead — only six cities remain committed, too few to mount prize lists large enough to attract class riders — with a final decision deferred to April 15.
- Boston trade letter reports sales 66 percent ahead of last year, colorful storefront rivalry on Columbus Avenue threatening a clash of peacock blue, vermilion, and bottle green, Chandler & Barber appointed New England Monarch distributors, and comedian John Drew and his wife taking lessons at the Columbia riding school.
- Washington D.C. trade letter covers the Washington Cycle Co.'s store refitting, the District Cycle Co.'s thirty-wheel order from the Capital Bicycle Club, and the Gormully & Jeffery branch's flourishing riding school attended by the highest classes of society including the Swedish minister.
- Multi-city trade notes recording new store openings and agency changes in San Francisco, Binghamton, Chattanooga, Plymouth, Marinette, Lockport, Fort Wayne, Allegheny, and over a dozen other cities; includes a note that James Dunlap of Allegheny was killed by a gas explosion.
- New York trade correspondent covers the American Bicycle Co.'s job-lot bargain stock, the Starr Cycle Co.'s trade-in scheme, Western Wheel Works reporting triple the agency applications targeting 100,000 Crescents in 1895, Lyndhurst's planned Class B racing team, and W. C. Hodgkins' new $85 Hodgkins Special built on Humber lines.
- Kansas City correspondent surveys the local cycle trade and finds conditions the best ever, with high-grade $100 wheels moving briskly; a department store's announcement of 250 Tuxedo wheels at $50 is described as the sensation of the week, and nine local agencies are profiled.
- Bardstown, Ky. anecdote about bicycle thief Chester Wilson, who borrowed a Sisco & Co. pneumatic wheel for a test ride and fled, was chased twelve miles by buggy on icy roads, caught, and identified as also wanted in Ohio under the alias Will Martin.
- Self-promotional editorial arguing that The Bearings employs professional paid correspondents rather than casual contributors, citing simultaneous Eagle Bicycle coverage in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Cincinnati in a single issue as evidence of thorough national journalism.
- List of recently issued U.S. cycling patents including a bicycle saddle by Arthur Garford of Elyria, pneumatic tires by Clarence Bowlinger and Robert Scott, a polishing machine for the Pope Mfg. Co., an ice velocipede by Parsons and Jones, and pedal and brake-arm attachments.
- R. Philip Gormully of Gormully & Jeffery argues that national and local cycle shows both benefit the trade, and advocates that dealers in cities without a national show should jointly rent halls, admit the public for a charge, and run modest local exhibitions with a band and stage performance to stimulate business.
- Philadelphia spring trade letter reports unusually large numbers of new riders and old riders buying new mounts; used wheels from one to twelve years old are available cheaply due to glut, and Howard Tuttle of Stearns visits the local agency reporting strong local sales.
- Announcement of a 25,000-franc "City of Paris" prize for an international bicycle race, with 15,000 francs from city funds and 10,000 from the organizer; winner takes 15,000 francs, with an additional 4,000 francs to French factory workers if the winning machine is made in France and ridden by a Frenchman.
- French exchange article explaining the physics of bicycle balance — how a rider instinctively steers into a fall to shift the base of support — and discussing the stabilizing roles of base length, centrifugal force, and saddle height.
- Brief note reporting that Charles A. Chambers of Red Bank, N.J. rode a 21½-pound Stearns Special more than three-quarters of a mile across a railroad bridge over the Shrewsbury River, between the rails on ties 6½ inches apart, without difficulty.
- The Associated Cycling Clubs of Chicago names Thomas F. Sheridan as referee and Dr. P. L. Clark as starter for the Decoration Day 19-mile road race; Clark also explains the Illinois bicycle-dealer licensing bill controversy, in which a legislative error inadvertently included cycle manufacturers alongside repair men.
- Report on a new North Side society cycling club being organized with Bryan Lathrop as president and J. W. Scott of the Times-Herald as vice-president, to have a Pine Street clubhouse and a Sheridan Drive retreat, with membership drawn from Chicago's most prominent families including the Ely, McCormick, and Peabody households.
- Trade notes covering Louis Callahan signing with E. C. Stearns & Co., Birdie Munger placing his wheel with A. H. Revell & Co. in Chicago, Spalding opening a new incandescent-lit riding school for Chicago's 400, Morgan & Wright racing tires priced at $25 per pair, and the Eclipse Bicycle Co. of Beaver Falls paying 500 workers over $5,000 weekly.