The Bearings, Vol 5, No 20
Articles in this issue
- William Swinkle writes humorously about the wretched road conditions at Johnson's Corners and the L.A.W. banquet for President Burdett at the Chicago Auditorium, lampooning good-roads apostle Isaac Potter, describing Pullman road-race men Sloan and Lumsden at table with General Miles, and noting Col. Pope's manuscript speech on bicycle growth.
- Short news paragraphs: the Chicago Colored Cycling Club moves to incorporate, Buffalo eyes the 1894 national L.A.W. meet, the Century C.C. of Syracuse opens its new club-house to 800 guests, Harvey Stewart of the Chicago Club drowns while sounding in Lake Michigan, and the Kankakee-to-Chicago relay ride is contemplated.
- Reviews George P. Mills's 875-mile John O'Groat's-to-Land's End ride in four days, four hours, and forty-five minutes on only six hours' sleep, then reports that T.A. Edge of British Sport has beaten the record by covering Land's End to John O'Groat in four days and forty minutes before turning for London.
- Bert Harding rides from St. Louis to De Soto, Missouri—forty-six miles on a sixty-inch Imperial with Morgan & Wright pneumatics—in 3:50:00, beating Hal. Greenwood's five-year-old record by twenty-nine minutes without pacemakers or special training; J.W. Cox started with him but was delayed by punctures.
- C.W. Hartung's London dispatch covers Zimmerman's victory in the Polytechnic three-mile team race and ovation at Paddington, S.F. Edge of the Anerley Club lowering the London-Brighton-and-back record to 6:51:07 despite a Piccadilly fall, F.J. Osmond's disappointing form in Scotland and Ireland, and the spreading road-racing panic forcing the Essex Wheelers, Kilburn Ramblers, Anerley C.C. and others to abandon fixtures.
- Frank Waller of the Acme Bicycle Club, Oakland, rides 363 miles and 1,590 yards in twenty-four hours on the newly opened Alameda Bicycle Club's four-lap track modelled on Herne Hill, breaking M.A. Holbein's world record; he covered the first ten miles in 30:46.
- Several Zimmerman items: his thirty-second London quarter was done with a flying start; his reported 1:04 half-mile at Berlin on June 6 awaits authentication; he won the open mile at Herne Hill in 2:24 1-5; and the Press C.C. of Buffalo's cablegram offering expenses to the state meet was declined as he was too busy in Europe.
- The M.A.C. circuit team of Berlo, Banker, McDuffee, Arnold, and dark-horse newcomer Carl Hess—formerly billed as champion of Germany at Madison Square Garden—under director B.B. Moneypenny is predicted to win most races, with a satirical aside recalling how the club left predecessor director George Bidwell personally out $200 in unpaid team expenses.
- The Syracuse Cycling Club will hold a race meet on Labor Day, September 5, on the celebrated Kirkwood track, promising its best-ever prize list and royal entertainment from its well-known membership.
- An editorial jab at 'Little Foudry,' managing editor of Bicycling World, for spending every Friday canoeing on Boston Bay rather than editing, and an invitation to take The Bearings along and hide it before Mr. Hodges can see it.
- Critiques Elliott W. Johnson's progressive team-racing scheme from the Staten Island Athletic Club, calling the recent Saturday contests tedious and not understood by an otherwise enthusiastic audience, and declaring the system too complicated to ever succeed in its present form.
- The editor reflects on the forty-six-mile De Soto road's thrilling but bone-scraping grades—half a dozen wild sprawls down Frisco and other paralyzers—admiring those who cover it in under four hours at dangerous speeds, while issuing a formal warning that record-seekers who come to grief will have their skin off their own bones.
- Notes how Springfield, Missouri's board of trade secured the state Division meet for July 4 to prevent the usual exodus of citizens to smaller towns, and praises the Illinois Division's plan to self-fund its Glorious Fourth meet at Kirkwood rather than soliciting donations from manufacturers and trade.
- Chief Consul A.B. Choate of Minnesota Division describes his effort to insert a good-roads plank into the Republican platform at Minneapolis, finding committee sympathy including from Senator Ingalls, but encountering resistance from delegates committed to the shortest possible platform; a Democratic road-reform candidate is suggested as a potential winner.
- Reports that Mayor Washburne's enforcement of the Chicago lamp ordinance resulted in twenty-one riders arrested on a single Saturday, and details Alderman Potthoff's proposed $2 bicycle license patterned on dog-tag regulations, which The Bearings argues would be legally void as discriminatory against private road vehicles not used for hire.
- House notice advertising at a moderate salary for a young writer to analyze and punctuate correspondence in a terse, sprightly style; celebrities not preferred.
- The Bearings will give each rider in the recent Chicago-to-New York relay ride a watch-charm souvenir engraved with the Latin motto 'Animo et Fide' (courage and fidelity); prizes for the most meritorious work will be announced once difficulties east and west of Buffalo are analyzed.
- Announces that W.I. Holt of Burlington, N.C. found the misspelled word in the American Ormonde Cycle Company's advertisement; the week's new contest hides 'wheel' misspelled in another advertisement, with the first correct postal drawn July 2 winning a framed pen-and-ink drawing.
- Previews lively competition for the June 25 lantern-parade prizes, with Pope Mfg. Co.'s John Thiele—a past prize-winner—and employees of the Chicago Bicycle Co. among those setting their wits to work on displays.
- Major multi-page investigative feature presenting member interviews from Chicago, Milwaukee, Louisville, Minneapolis, Toledo, Sioux City, and elsewhere on three grievances against the L.A.W.'s official organ: omission of applicants' street addresses, Bicycling World's monopoly on the membership mailing list at $5 per thousand, and chronic late delivery of six to eleven days after publication date, with nearly every respondent condemning all three practices.
- W.C. Rands of Detroit, who won two wheels at the K.O.T.M. races in Jackson, Mich., last year, finds the Maccabees sold the wheel held as security for his entrance fee even though his fee was guaranteed by a responsible party; Chief Consul Bresler has taken the matter up.
- A News Record reporter is organizing an independent cyclists' regiment in Chicago, and Chief Consul F.W. Gerould endorses the idea, citing General Miles's belief that a purely cycling body would be stronger than infantry or cavalry and predicting Miles would personally detail a staff officer to instruct the men if a serious move is made.
- The fastest relay ride yet—carrying humorous political verses from the Columbus Dispatch to the Indianapolis News over 200 miles each way—beat schedule both directions (11:39:12 westbound, 10:13:00 returning); the Zig Zags won the News's silver cup and the Columbus C.C. the Dispatch's banner, with rider A.H. Kennedy crashing at night after puncturing in darkness near Brighton and being rolled roadside by two ladies in a buggy.
- Defends the all-Chicago temporary officers of the Century Road Club as a practical expedient, reports that the constitution and nominating committees are at work, and invites members nationwide to send The Bearings their candidate preferences for president, vice-presidents, and secretary-treasurer.
- A toll-gate man on the lake shore drive to Whitefish Bay chained the road and charged Milwaukee wheelmen a nickel apiece; The Bearings calls it apparently unconstitutional under Wisconsin law since the road was not authorized for vehicle tolls by the legislature at Madison, and promises a legal opinion next week.
- Of 468 starters in the Newark-to-Philadelphia century run, over 200 finished including the ladies Mrs. Martin Bursness and Miss Nellie Boyle, who rode a tandem with James Bevan and finished with the leaders; the Century Wheelmen took the banner with thirty-five finishers, and a Trenton vandal punctured the wheels of two Century Wheelmen officers who rode the final thirty-one miles on their rims.
- Supplementary notes on the Newark-to-Philadelphia run: the Park Avenue Wheelmen also won second last year, the pace often hit twelve miles an hour, mince pie at Blaumburg had noticeable later effects, and the checking system was inadequate causing delay and missed finishers.
- Jeff Tucker, who attacked Louisville cyclists with rocks last autumn and hurled W.W. Kling from his sixty-inch ordinary, was prosecuted by Kentucky Division Chief Consul G.E. Johnson and Secretary-Treasurer W.W. Watts, and sentenced by Judge Thompson to $25 fine with fifty days hard labor—effectively four months making little rocks out of big ones.
- The Massachusetts Division summer meet runs July 28-30 at Cottage City via special L.A.W. trains from Boston, with a water excursion, run to Vineyard Haven, coasting match, base-ball game, torch-light parade, and grand ball.
- About twenty-one Englewood Y.M.C.A. members rode without lights last Saturday evening and, fined after a police station visit, paid sums that would have purchased their lanterns.
- California Division's board of directors chose Stockton over Sacramento—whose only track was pre-empted by a circus—for the July 4 meet; the Bay City Wheelmen will manage it at Goodwater grove alongside the Native Sons, arriving by chartered steamer from San Francisco.
- Mrs. S.B. Sanderson of Menominee, Michigan, cycling on vacation near St. Louis, earns the painfully-won honor of first wheelwoman on the DeSoto hills by reaching Bulltown on a Rover pneumatic before her front tire punctured on the treacherous Kimmswick downgrade, sending her through a clump of bushes; she then walked to Bulltown and took a farm wagon six miles through the wilds.
- A detailed survey of asphalt and gravel road surfaces available to wheelmen visiting Washington for the national L.A.W. meet—from the Mall and Capitol grounds (3½ miles asphalt, 6¼ miles gravel) to Garfield Park, Arlington Cemetery, Fort Meyer, Soldiers' Home, Rock Creek Cemetery, and St. Elizabeth's grounds.
- Alderman Potthoff introduced a Chicago ordinance on June 13 requiring a $2 annual bicycle license similar to a dog-tag, a six-mile speed limit, and a lamp and bell audible at 200 feet, with fines of $5 to $50; The Bearings reports the judiciary committee dare not recommend it.
- The Ohio Division meet is set for July 4-5 in Dayton, with a parade, souvenir badges, and thirteen races at the fair-grounds half-mile track including seven championships and six open events, with five high-grade safeties as first prizes.
- The Vineland (N.J.) Lady Cyclers, claiming to be the first League club in New Jersey, will take entire charge of the lunch at the Division meet in Vineland on June 27, where an excellent prize list and handsome souvenir programme have been prepared.
- A relay is to carry a message from New York's postmaster to Boston's over 265 miles in about fifteen hours, organized via the Recorder in Park Row; riders named include Frank Ives, Geo. C. Smith, Hoyland Smith, Windle, and Tyler.
- Two Philadelphia road hogs who attacked two North West Wheelmen with beer bottles during a Fairmount Park club run on Decoration Day—after indulging too freely at a wagon picnic—were sentenced to nine and three months respectively.
- Bad roads curtailed most Chicago club runs; George Greenburg pluckily made the first strictly road century of the season over the terrible Elgin-Aurora course, while Oak Park, Windsor, and Cook County clubs reached Glen Ellyn and Wheaton over the railroad tracks, and thirty-five Lincoln men braved the heat to Fort Sheridan.
- Captain Hart swore in the members of the First Regiment Cycle Corps last Monday evening; most had ridden in the Pullman road race, including Captain Hart himself.
- Philadelphia wheelmen, while willing to accede to reasonable requests, will fight vigorously any attempt to pass an ordinance compelling lamps and bells, which some regard as objectionable.
- Reuben Dailey of Jeffersonville, Indiana, unaccustomed to Cincinnati's steep hills, lost control of his wheel on a hill in Burnet Woods Park, ran into an embankment, and fractured his left leg.
- The Toledo C.C. planned a lantern parade and a June 28 boat ride on the new steamer City of Toledo, with the Glee and Mandolin clubs providing entertainment for the evening.
- Complete list of prizes distributed in winner's order at the Pope Mfg. Co.'s store—from J.B. Woolas's Moffat medal through bicycles, gold medals, watches, a Kodak, and merchandise—with E.L. De Camp disbarred after the Cook County Wheelmen disclaimed him as a member, and a note that someone alleged Randall was moved back from twenty-sixth to ninety-sixth for not riding a Pope wheel.
- At the New York Division circuit meet in Rochester on June 15, E.A. McDuffee of Lynn won the two-mile safety handicap in 4:59 4-5, less than a wheel's length ahead of L.D. Munger of Chicago; P.J. Berlo took the half and mile opens, G.A. Banker the quarter-mile state championship in 0:35 1-2, and Thomas Relph of England the 2:50 class mile.
- Handicap and open safety races over half, one, two, and five miles will be run at Parkside on Saturday June 25 at 3 p.m.; entries at twenty-five cents per race close that day with R.D. Garden, F.W. Gerould, or W.C. Thorne.
- The Associated C.C. of Chicago meets specially next Thursday night at 108 Madison street regarding Pullman road race matters.
- A western party taking a special B. & O. train from Chicago July 16 to the Washington national meet is being equipped with uniform white coats and caps; total cost $43.50 including sleeper, hotel, meals, specially racked baggage cars, and repairer John Thiele.
- Ben Cason, Jr., from scratch, won a five-mile Division race on the Washington and Carrollton roads near New Orleans last Saturday in 17:15, with A. Abbott second in 17:15 3-5.
- A dated calendar of Chicago-area cycling events for June 18-25: club smokers and road-race prize distributions on the 18th, the Illinois Club annual century and Washington C.C. run to Wheeling on the 19th, Lincoln Club at St. Joe Michigan, Oak Park at Delavan Lake, and road races for South Chicago and Washington Club on the 25th.
- Full race summary from the Century Cycling Club's circuit opener at Syracuse on June 12, where C.W. Dorntge won the L.A.W. state championship mile in 3:08, Banker was thrown and protested after crowding in the state championship, and G.F. Taylor's paced attempt at 2:21 yielded only 2:26 4-5.
- Toronto's twenty-five-mile handicap—called the greatest cycling event in Canada's history with sixty-one entries from across the Dominion—was won by R. Jaffray of Toronto on a thirteen-minute handicap in 1:28:15, while scratch man A.W. Palmer of Hamilton rode the fastest time, passing thirty-six riders before Nash, the favorite, punctured.
- Full prize-list for the Illinois Division meet at Springfield, July 4-5: high-grade safety bicycles for handicap winners, gold watches and medals for open events, state championship gold medals for half-mile, quarter-mile, one-mile, and two-mile events, and a Monarch Cycle Co. silver cup for the two-mile team race.
- Melbourne correspondent describes the Carlton B.C.'s dissolution after a final twenty-mile road race with a black-bordered handicap list marked R.I.P., the Melbourne B.C.'s rained-out sports meeting, and a match race between visiting T. Warwick of London—of libel fame—and local E. Elliott on the Exposition asphalt track that drew the most excited cycling crowd the writer had ever seen.
- W.F. Peironnet won the second annual ten-mile handicap of the Cook County Wheelmen over Washington Boulevard to Oak Park in a stiff west wind; Charlie Cutting, riding for the record, turned in 30:30, but his rivals Schmitt fell and Young ran off course, judges being P.D. Fenn, J.J. Storan, and E.J. Marrow.
- The Illinois Cycling Club's five-mile weekly handicaps, split into fast and slow classes, saw B. Fick win the slow class by a full-quarter spurt in a close race with Edington, while I.D. Wilson took the fast class; Wm. Rhodes rode seven laps on his rim after breaking a tire yet still gained a lap on Ulbrecht.
- Thirty-five Ramblers Club members rode Erie to Buffalo for the annual century in intense heat, twenty-seven finishing in twelve hours; Klipfel completed a 200-mile double century Buffalo-to-Erie-and-back in 21:30:00 after Ashby's wheel broke and Sugnet fell ill.
- Grandin broke the two-mile college record by 19¾ seconds, running 6:34¾, at the Princeton College athletes' games on June 11.
- Buffalo will field three fast tandem teams this season—Wm. D. Banker with brother George of the Manhattan A.C., Charles Dorntge with Austin Crooks, and Frank Brinker with Eddie Bald—with predictions that their familiarity and combined speed will challenge New York and Philadelphia pairs for national tandem honors.
- The good crowds drawn to the Illinois Club's Saturday five-mile contests at the West Side ball park lead The Bearings to suggest a weekly race meet with nominal prizes funded by gate receipts might succeed this summer.
- Corrects last week's report: Coffin won the New Jersey 100-mile race on a No. 5 Humber road racer geared to sixty-three, not an Ormonde as stated.
- The King's County Wheelmen of New York voted that any member scoring twenty points this season earns remission of next year's dues; Steves, winner of the Irvington-Milburn, is a member.
- The Kings County Wheelmen's June 25 meet at Manhattan Field will feature several fine pneumatics as prizes, Maltby for trick riding, the twenty-third regiment band, and entries from all the best eastern men; Durant McLean of Brooklyn handles entries until June 18.
- Thirty-six men entered the Prince Wells ten-mile handicap road race in Louisville on June 24, among them Tuttle, Spooner, Lumsden, Van Sicklen, and Barrett of Chicago; Bert Myers of Peoria; Gardner of Memphis; Anderson of Cincinnati; and Jefferis of Louisville.
- Riders in the Cook County high school field day at Parkside, including E. Frear who won the mile in 3:24 and J.W. Thorne the five-mile, stand suspended because no L.A.W. sanction was secured; a brother of W.C. Thorne is among the unfortunates.
- New records noted: the Scottish five-mile at 13:50 2-5, the German mile lowered 3 4-5 seconds to 2:31, and the Irish quarter flying-start at 0:32, held by McCredy.
- The New Jersey Athletic Club will hold several cycling events with good prizes at its Bayonne City grounds on July 4; entries close June 27 with J.E. Sullivan at 2541 Broadway, New York.
- The Chicago C.C. will run one-, two-, five- and ten-mile handicaps and a handicap team race at Parkside tomorrow, with Chas. P. Root, W.B. Young, and Tom Roe on the committee; weekly open Saturday meets in July and August are planned.
- The Asbury Park (N.J.) Wheelmen offer gold watches and other costly prizes for their June 30 meet of thirteen races, three days after the Vineland Division meet; handicap entries close June 23 with A.C. Atkins.
- At the Ansonia (Ct.) Wheel Club's second annual field day, J.F. Brewster won the 3:20 class mile in 2:43 1-5 and Taxis captured the mile open in 2:44 4-5, with F.C. Graves second.
- Gus Steele, a scratch man and mere lad, won the Lake View Cycling Club's first five-mile handicap over the Edgewater course in a record 15:10—bettering the course record by 1:05—with thirty-two entries, twenty-eight starters, many smash-ups, and over 300 witnesses; Pullman winner Woolas finished third.
- A comical novelty race by the Columbia Wheelmen in Humboldt Park—none of the contestants owned their wheel or had been allowed to train—was won in a canter by scratch man Rommerdahl before half a thousand spectators, with two collisions adding to the general comedy.
- Notes that to challenge the Lyon & Healy Club to a team race the Montgomery Ward C.C. must agree to bar the Thorne brothers; the Wards have arranged contests with Thorsen & Cassady and A. Featherstone employes and are taking an increasingly aggressive position among commercial-house clubs.
- Short department items: Osmond lost his first two races of the season in poor form; Theo. Cox won the Yonkers B.C. five-mile in 17:46; Tom Jefferis received a Victor safety for winning the Memphis hundred-mile road race; George Banker moved from the Riverside Wheelmen to the Manhattan Athletic Club; and a new one-mile college record of 2:54 3-5 was set by A.B. Holmes of Hopkinson College.
- The Bearings reprints mockingly a protest letter from Monarch Cycle Co.'s C.S. Merrill objecting to a competitor's advertisement claiming to sell the 'only high grade bicycle with a practical pneumatic tire' at $135, and responds that the proper reply to such advertising claims is counter-advertisement, not the firm's 'self-important correspondent' publicly denying cast metal and guaranteeing puncture-proof tires.
- The Ormonde bicycle is rapidly advancing among American riders: first, second, and time prizes in the Denver-to-Plattsville thirty-three-mile race from sixty-seven starters; sweeps at Terre Haute and Wilmington; and Isaac Baird of Charleston, S.C. winning the fourteen-mile Belfast road race from a half-minute mark on a model D. racer.
- In the twenty-five-mile Cleveland road race six riders including first, second, and fourth finishers used the N.Y. Belting & Packing Co.'s protection-strip tires; the winner of the Memphis 100-mile ride also used this tire.
- The Marble Cycle Co. of Plymouth, Indiana, will soon open a store at 275 Wabash Avenue in Chicago's cycle row, introducing a very light, high-grade wheel as yet unnamed, to be managed by a long-experienced Chicago cycle trade veteran.
- A.J. Marrett's New York meetings with Coventry Machinists' Co. secretary Grenyer are expected to produce a decision on siting an American Swift wheel factory employing up to 500 hands, with a Michigan city currently leading in large bonus offers.
- The Stover Bicycle Mfg. Co. notes that Frank Waller broke the world's 24-hour record on a full roadster Phoenix, and that six Phoenix wheels ran the Pullman race without the least trouble—two went through the Irvington-Milburn race without a scratch—despite the Phoenix being a roadster of about thirty-five pounds, not a racer.
- In the window of the Stokes Mfg. Co., Chicago, is exhibited a perfect working model of the Union 2:10 with a six-inch wheelbase, large rubber tires, and sufficient size to be ridden by a very small person.
- Praises the Bidwell (Thomas) tire's record of carrying riders through road races reliably, contrasting its dependability with the thirty collapsed pneumatics reportedly counted at the Newark-to-Philadelphia century run.
- A new Yost bicycle company was organized June 11 in Toledo by ex-mayor Hamilton, J.M. Yost, Fitch Dewey, and other wealthy citizens who have purchased the abandoned Wire Nail Works; immediate enlargement for 200 workers is planned with output expected before the holidays, making it Toledo's fourth bicycle factory.
- Praises E.O. Blake, the road salesman for Luthy & Co. of Peoria, as courteous, pleasant, and shrewd—making friends by the score and losing none.
- Harry Hanford, lately of the Pope Mfg. Co., has joined the Moffat Cycle Co. and will travel regularly on the road with E.C. Bode to represent them.
- Mr. Rudolph's new nickeled bicycle tire heater—producing five times more heat than any other, adjustable in position, and detachable in two seconds—is available at 75 cents retail through Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co. of Chicago, who will make liberal trade discounts.
- John F. Palmer showed a Bearings correspondent his improved non-deflatable tire: laced on the inside, designed to be cemented into a rim, inflatable to sixty pounds, weighing three pounds, and far more resilient than his earlier design; his Akron, Ohio company will market road and racing versions at the earliest possible date.
- Tom Roe, long connected with The Bearings and patient manager of the big Chicago-to-New York relay ride, will travel the West for the Humber-Rover Cycle Company.
- The Spooner-Peterson Company won a replevin suit against South Side Chicago repairer A.D. Barnes, recovering a freshly repainted and disguised Liberty wheel from a shop where an employee was under bonds for cycle stealing and two other stolen wheels were found.
- E.T. Theobald of the Toledo Bicycle Co. reports a deal under which the Buckeye Cycle Co. of Cincinnati will probably establish a Chicago cycle-row agency for the Dauntless and other wheels.
- The Gormully & Jeffery scorcher saddle has grown so popular since its introduction that demand now exceeds supply, requiring increased manufacturing facilities; the clip arrangement for attaching to the saddle post is described as simple and effective.
- A factory survey finds all Toledo cycle plants running behind demand: the Lozier Mfg. Co. produces 10,000 Cleveland wheels under C.J. Moore and is expanding; the Gendron Iron Wheel Co. under Mr. Fisher employs machinery that pierces forty spoke holes and rivets forty spokes at one stroke; the Toledo Bicycle Co. under treasurer N.C. Stevens is introducing its first ladies' wheels.
- Short trade items: the Speedy Cycle Co.'s new pound-and-a-half scorching saddle with turned steel clip; Ralph Temple averaging one wheel sold per day since early spring; the Moffat factory with over 100 men doubled in space with a new valve on its pneumatic; T.D. Ganse managing Chicago prospects Roy Keator and Joe Stillwell who will race on tandem; and a local manufacturer catching an employee stealing parts in the seasonal rush.
- Descriptions and rewards: a 'King of Scorcher' bicycle with Dunlop tires, geared to 63, No. 22,184, stolen June 9 at Cleveland from James Josephi; and a Phoenix pneumatic No. 3829 with Thomas tires and Brooks cyclometer, stolen from Edw. S. Walton of Chicago.
- O.W. Lawson is arranging a tour to the Kentucky Division meet at Lexington; interested riders should write him at 1716 Second Street, Louisville.