The Bearings, Vol 5, No 12
Articles in this issue
- Front-page humor column of cycling wit and wordplay: squibs on the reinstated 'reformed' professional threatening the editor, a photographer's snapshot of Windle 'taking the $1,000 pianos from Zimmerman' at Springfield, the unknowable algebra of how long one repairer takes when two can do it in one hour, and a farmer who cannot tell himself apart from his prize hog.
- William Twinkle's comic column from a fictional Midwest town sarcastically prescribes exact trouser lengths for racing men (measured to 'the Long Saphenous nerve') in response to the Racing Board's new costume rule, and argues for one-piece racing suits—with pieces 'brazed together before the start'—to prevent shirt-and-trouser rebellions mid-race.
- Profile of Louis Block of the Social Wheel Club, considered Denver's fastest amateur track rider, who won the 1891 Colorado 50-mile safety state championship and rode all three Rambler-Social road races; his best track mile is 2:40 in training and 2:44 against Dolson in competition, and he plans a very light racing wheel for the coming season.
- Reports strong public excitement for The Bearings' planned Chicago-to-New York relay bicycle ride carrying a government message from General Nelson Miles, who himself learned to ride so as not to be bested by his young son; lists all ten division managers from Tom Roe (Chicago–Goshen, 111 miles) to L.C. Boardman of the New York Recorder (Albany–New York City, 975 miles), with A.E. Lumsden and E.C. Bode to lead the first relay and Van Sicklen to 'scorch' the final 25 miles into New York.
- E.E. Bald of the Press Cycling Club, Buffalo, wins four consecutive races at an indoor Arsenal tournament on a Century Columbia, covering twelve miles before winning the five-mile in the remarkable time of 14:43; also covers A.B. Rich's transfer to the Riverside Wheelmen, Sioux City's new 30-acre athletic park, upcoming events at Merchantsville N.J. (May 14), Memphis century riders led by Deupree, Charley Dorntge's training at Tonawanda for the national championships, and the Capital City Cycle Club's new Springfield, Illinois half-mile track.
- House notices and recurring features: the 'Lucky Word-Hunters' misspelled-word contest (the word 'on' misset as 'onr' in the Coventry Machinists' Co. ad, B.E. Kellerman of Flint, Mich. the winner, with a thank-you letter from Chas. W. Davis of Jamestown, N.Y. praising Merrick's pen-and-ink sketch prize), free cycling-law advice via 'Our Lawyer,' and subscription premiums of bicycles, gold stop-watches, and agent commissions.
- Brief editorial column arguing that cycling's political strength is wasted without organized ballot use, that the L.A.W. needs an active official editor, and that the current amateur prize limit enables 'pot-hunters' and must be reduced while fakir professionals are ostracized.
- Editorial on the failure of a London cyclists' club house at Queen Anne's Gate—gutted by fire (suspected arson from a neighboring social club), hampered by inconvenient location and high whisky prices—concluding that English cyclists prefer the saddle and the wayside inn to luxurious club rooms, and that they 'lack the ducats or inclination to soar' compared to their American counterparts.
- Main editorial arguing that uninstructed proxies allow a handful of delegates to 'corral the whole shooting match' at L.A.W. constitutional conventions; proposes the Washington meeting transfer amendment power to the national board or mandate instructed proxies, and decries Bicycling World as an inadequate official organ—noting much of its editorial work is done by New York's Frank A. Egan, while associate editor Cartwright 'is not a cyclist.'
- Main editorial news column: hackman Murphy convicted in Helena, Mont. for running down a cyclist; Windle attends a boxing imbroglio with the Albany Wheelmen; S.A. Miles re-elected Pullman handicapper over Van Sicklen; Parkside track likely saved from real-estate sale; the Queens County Wheelmen's Long Island club house praised; L.A.W. wins a $525 damages case for C.E. McCadden in Minneapolis despite an anti-cyclist jury selection; J.E.L. Bates posts 5:26:36 for 100 miles on a geared Marriott and Cooper ordinary at Herne Hill, beating Newland's record of 5:30:12; Zimmerman loses a half-mile scratch to an unknown Englishman at Brighton; Detroit forms the Detroit Cycle and Track Association with $25,000 capital for a quarter-mile board track; Philadelphia clubs revolt against the Racing Board's L.A.W.-only championship rule; and W.C. Thorne seeks Century Road Club control over road racing.
- Feature profiling eighteen Pullman road race entrants from the Lincoln C.C. and Chicago C.C. (C.C.W.): Frank Chase ('tumbles readily, finishes less readily'), Tom Roe ('generally seeks last position'), Freddie Tilt ('great on anything, loves a scorch' on his Ormonde), Frank Schmidt (winner of the Hawthorne 25-mile, 'proud of his club'), O.E. Barnett ('never smokes, drinks, chews or swears'), C.D. Cutting (training at Y.M.C.A. gym, 'very likely to over-train'), and Robert Slusser ('greatest leg in Chicago, never gives up').
- Short illustrated note on an English chain protector made partly of leather that provides a dust-proof, noiseless cover over the chain and can be easily removed without tools.
- Department of personal notes: Birdie Munger and Harry Hanford arrive in Chicago; Frank G. Lenz of Pittsburgh plans to cycle the globe for Outing starting about May 1, riding to Baltimore, New York, Boston, then west to San Francisco and by steamer to China; Clarence Shadbolt of the Brooklyn Bicycle Club has ridden over 12,000 miles since May 1891; L.C. Boardman of the New York Recorder is arranging special trains for 500 cyclists to the Washington national meet; the Capital City C.C. of Springfield presents Thomas F. Sheridan with a gold-lettered watch charm bearing the club's red-triangle emblem.
- Column of short paragraphs: Chicago's street-cleaning in progress; Omaha's 500 riders, one-fifth L.A.W. members; The Bearings voted the most popular cycling paper at a recent New York club stag; the spread of the geared ordinary in Liverpool; the Sioux City Sunday street-car enforcement fight; Fletcher & Co.'s new Chicago day-storage rooms for business riders (10 cents per day); Missouri Division's Pike County steamer tour (May 8); and Charles A. Underwood's sixth edition Boston road book, 102 pages, 25 cents.
- Portrait and profile of trainer Willis B. Troy, who coached Zimmerman, Campbell, Banker, and other racing lights, now managing the Rockaway Mfg. Co.'s New York Liberty store; Troy has challenged all New York athletic clubs to team races for the Riverside Wheelmen and plans weekly cycling tournaments in New York modeled on Paddington and Herne Hill.
- Club-gossip column: Englewood Club moves to temporary quarters at Seventieth and Yale; Cook County Wheelmen purchase land on Robey Street; Capital City C.C. (Springfield) elects Chas. Robinson president; Utica Cycling Club elects Geo. C. Hodges to a third term (presented Ben Hur in two volumes) and has grown by 37 members to 82; Riverside Wheelmen of New York boldly challenge all athletic clubs to team races at any distance, losing team to buy prizes; and Moffat wheels dominated the Illinois Club's Pullman run, eight of fourteen finishers riding Moffats.
- A French cycling shoe gaining favor in England: its buckle-and-strap fastening is claimed more graceful and better ventilated than lacing, and horse skin is praised as cool and durable (reprinted from Cycling).
- Race and tour calendar for May–September 1892: Bordeaux-to-Paris road race and Memphis 100-mile southern championship (both May 14), The Bearings relay ride start (May 18), Pullman road race (May 30), and the national L.A.W. meet in Washington D.C. (July 18–20), alongside division meets for Ohio, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Missouri, California, and local Chicago club fixtures.
- Lead of the trade supplement: salesman C.H. Plumb of T.D. Ganse's 508 State Street store reports being 'crowded with orders' for the Reform wheel and other brands, attributing the surge entirely to The Bearings' distinctive layout and word-finding contests; followed by brief notes on Russell & Co.'s wooden repairer's stand ($3.00), the Speedy Cycle Mfg. Co. expanding to 60 wheels per week, and C.F. Stokes Mfg. Co. receiving a consignment of Ladies' No. 2 Union wheels for Hawaii.
- Technical editorial column: Stover's position that frame flaws should declare themselves within two months of purchase; the frame-strengthening benefits of greater front-fork rake (widely adopted in 1892); inconsistent saddle leather quality among manufacturers; and a plea for match-scratchers to be fitted to bicycle lamps, ending the difficulty of lighting a match on a damp shoe sole.
- Brief editorial notices of new trade catalogues: the Geo. R. Bidwell Cycle Co. (Tourist, Student, and Psycho wheels, Bidwell-Thomas tires, new Tourist lamp with ball-bearing bracket); A.M. Scheffey & Co. of New York (Road King, Queen, and Crawford); and J.B. Kaerchner of Pittsburgh (wheels adapted for Pittsburgh hills, including Rambler, Sylph, and Star lever safety).
- Trade profile of Rouse, Hazard & Co. of Peoria, Ill., the country's leading job-lot bicycle firm run by the restless Harry Rouse; they have over 3,000 wheels in stock (new and second-hand, cash or easy time payments), trade with makers and dealers across the country, and have entered manufacturing through the Rouse-Duryea Co.'s spring-frame Sylph.
- The Monarch Cycle Co.'s newly placed agencies: Butler Hardware Co. for New York and New Jersey (sale of 200 Monarchs), C.W. Dalson Cycle Co. of Philadelphia (100 machines), H.G. Huston & Co. of Boston (50 ordered), and George Hilsendegen of Detroit (50 ordered).
- The Taylor Cycle Co. of Chicago's first shipment of 60 Psycho machines—light roadsters, road racers, and the ladies' Psycho—is on the water from England, to be fitted at New York with Bidwell pneumatic tires; the roughly 28-pound road racers are commended to Pullman road-race competitors as a mount worth examining before deciding.
- James safeties will be scarce in Chicago this year: agent James Bridger, who came over with a ten-year contract, reports that after fifty dollars in unanswered cables to Henry James he can obtain no more than four machines a week, as English makers diverted all available stock to France before the bicycle tariff was raised on March 1.
- Chicago trade notes: Morgan & Wright now making a 26-inch, 1¾-inch pneumatic tire; L. Danziger of Spooner-Peterson Co. dropping his law work entirely to focus on the cycling trade; the Derby Cycle Co. building a special racing safety for John Taylor; E.C. Bode testing a 32-pound Speedy over rough Pullman roads while weighing 180 pounds; brisk demand for Quadrant and Columbia; and the Moffat Cycle Co. running night-and-day manufacturing gangs.
- The Overman Wheel Co. reports employing 1,200 people and asks 'How is this for a record?', while R.D. Garden puts Pope Mfg. Co.'s total at about 1,215 across all branches; both forces drop to around 600 in the dull season—figures offered as proof of cycling's industrial strength.
- Historical and technical article (reprinted from Bi. News) tracing the rear-driven safety's frame evolution from 1886's Rover quadrilateral through 1887's cheap cross-frames (prone to backbone breaks just ahead of the stay attachment point), 1889's semi-diamond type popularised by Holbein and the Catford Club on the Rover, Singer, Success, and Premier, the 1890 Referee-type open diamond with early pneumatic tires, and finally to 1892's universally dominant straight-tubed diamond frame with rear wheel set four to five inches further back.
- A Brighton correspondent (reprinted from Cyclist) reports on Mr. Feldwicke's electric bicycle lamp: praised as a good light-giver in a polished mahogany case 'like a camera,' costing about two pounds, but inconvenient because the owner must repair to an electric station before each ride to have it charged.
- Reprinted from the New York Recorder: a party of New York cycling journalists guided by Charles Richards and Elliot Mason tours the Pope Mfg. Co.'s Hartford factory on the old Weed Sewing Machine site, observing frame assembly, brazing (consuming 18,000 cubic feet of gas daily), case-hardening, polishing, and forging rooms where trip hammers press hot steel into hubs and sprockets; 800-plus workers produce 100 Columbias a day, with over 700 parts per machine.
- Milwaukee trade notes: McMullen of Parkhurst & Wilkinson visits local factories; H.J. Evans of Menasha orders a line of 'Telegram' cycles; Terry Andrae returns from a successful state selling trip; and the new Milwaukee cycling monthly The Pneumatic runs an illustration of the Lightning Messenger racer in the space where the Ladies' Telegram is described, leaving Milwaukee ladies wondering what costume they would wear to ride a racing machine.