The Bearings, Vol 5, No 26
Articles in this issue
- William Twinkle's comic column recounting the Early Rose Wheelers' train journey to the L.A.W. national meet in Washington, D.C., including a terrifying cab ride on engine 877 at 62 mph, and the delegation's grand arrival to the Overman band on Pennsylvania Avenue, welcomed by the Arlingtons, Columbias, and Chesapeakes wheel clubs.
- Profile of Miss Laura W. Wiley, a Washington government clerk hailed as the capital's best wheelwoman, who rode 24 miles over hilly terrain in just over two hours on a 52-pound solid-tired wheel and was a leading entertainer of the Four Leaf Clovers of Columbus during the League meet.
- Wire dispatch from New York, July 27: Zimmerman's return from England aboard the City of Paris was met by 200 friends on the steamer Crystal Stream with the Seventh Regiment band; Mayor Cannons and 10,000 people greeted him at Asbury Park, where a gigantic parade and public reception at Ocean Hotel were held.
- Editorial satire on promateurism: a racing man who had built and sold a fast home-made wheel tried it again at Washington, only to have Mr. Trainer remove his saddle and forbid him to ride it—all while the paper maintains there are positively no paid amateurs in this country.
- Endorses President Bunnell of the Park Avenue Wheelmen, Philadelphia, for his positions that time limits on L.A.W. championships are permissible (tested at Washington with good results) and that scratch men should be spared preliminary heats; credits him with securing the Tioga track.
- Editorial scrutinizing Joseph S. Dean, chairman of the L.A.W. Committee on Rights and Privileges, for simultaneously serving as employee or stockholder of rival cycling paper Bicycle World, arguing the incongruity of his dual role is visible with the naked eye and undermines League policy-making.
- Backs chairman Raymond's barring of suspended Boston men from the Linscott road race, and reprints a senior League official's letter condemning Bicycle World's editorial stance that competing with professionals does not jeopardize amateur standing—branding the paper the 'anarchist of cycling.'
- Criticizes Bicycle World editor Cartwright over the mishandling of L.A.W. member mailing addresses, citing the Massachusetts Division's $200 yearly losses from unupdated addresses and vice-president Sheridan's dissatisfaction with Bicycle World's address 'concession.'
- Preview of the Milwaukee Wheelmen's July 30 road race to Waukesha under chairman F. Schroeder, listing all 100 entrants with handicaps from scratch (N.H. Van Sicklen, H.A. Githens of Chicago) to 13 minutes, with an express wagon to follow for breakdowns and a judges' stand erected at the finish.
- Character sketches of four leading U.S. track racers: Berlo (inverted-L position, burly, no sentiment), Munger (fog-horn voiced, forces his way through packs with his front wheel), Tyler (secretive, now 'the coming man'), and Taylor (college man off the track, electrically fast spurt on it).
- F.W. Shorland wins the 24-hour Cuca Cup race at Herne Hill on a geared ordinary, riding 248 miles in the first 14 hours to beat that distance record by 1:58:00, ultimately breaking every record above 90 miles and surpassing Holbein's 24-hour mark by 54 miles; the Cuca Cocoa Challenge Cup weighs 206 ounces.
- S.F. Edge rides a M.&C. geared ordinary at Herne Hill on July 11 to lower all records from 64 to 100 miles, setting the new 100-mile mark at 5:06:51—the target George Thorne of the Chicago C.C. must beat; M.A. Holbein separately cuts the tricycle 100-mile record to 5:54:44 at Hitchin despite a strong headwind.
- Report on the Pennsylvania Club meet at newly-resurfaced Tioga track, Philadelphia: Tyler beats Munger in the half-mile final; Taxis makes a sensational last-lap surge to win the world's record piano race run-off in 2:38 after Berlo's earlier foul claim was unanimously rejected; Smith wins the quarter-mile scratch in :33 3-5; about 2,000 attend.
- Correspondent C.W. Hartung reports that Zimmerman was over-managed in England and prevented from meeting Osmond; Stephane rides 631 km in 24 hours in Paris, beating both the English and American records; J. Rowley wins the Stanley Cycling Club tricycle championship at Herne Hill in 31:00 1-5; M.D. Rucker lies critically ill with typhoid.
- Statistics compiled by A.C.C. Chicago secretary Erwin showing the bicycle makes ridden and prizes won by the 242 starters in the Pullman Road Race; Columbia led with 31 starters, Moffat with 29, and Columbia, Humber, Imperial, and March-Davis were among the top prize-winning brands.
- The land under Philadelphia's Tioga Athletic Association three-lap cycle track has been sold to builder Schoch for over $300,000; when the two-year lease expires the track will likely be demolished for housing, a serious blow to cycling in a venue served by two railways with five-cent fares from the city centre.
- 77 of 80 starters finish the Illinois C.C.'s second annual century run over the Elgin-Aurora course under Captain Gray; C.S. Merrill, starting at 4:30 a.m., is first home at 2:15; President Sloan unexpectedly rides the entire course and the members are raising money for a gold medal in his honor.
- The World's Athletic Association, a $500,000 corporation, has leased 80 acres at Windsor Park between 75th and 79th streets for a permanent cycling and athletic ground featuring a half-mile track 50 feet wide, a grand stand, and a moat; the scheme was presented at The Bearings office by president F.J. Short.
- Racing cyclist George K. Barrett's wife died suddenly from illness aggravated by the excessive heat, leaving him grief-stricken with a newborn son; she was well known among George's friends in the cycling community.
- Letter correcting The Bearings' claim that Springfield introduced the piano prize, asserting that Peoria was first with the first, second, and third piano prizes and has also offered the most valuable prize lists; Peoria plans a $2,500 prize list for a one-day meet; editor's note confirms Peoria also gave the first typewriter prize at a race meet, won by Barrett.
- Results from the Portland Wheel Club midsummer meet at Woodford Park: McDuffie rides a mile in 2:31 attempting the track record; F.M. Brown wins the P.W.C. championship in 2:40, breaking the state record; Lynn, Mass. defeats the Pine Tree Wheelmen of Portland in a two-mile team race in 5:56 2-5.
- Reports of a rumored boycott of the Hartford meet by racing men over race manager Joe Goodman's inflexible policy of never changing printed programmes; The Bearings defends Goodman's professional approach, contrasting it with the wheeling done for 'nabob racing men' at Springfield and Peoria.
- At the Herne Hill 50-mile championship that Zimmerman won, M.B. Fowler's father attacked the American in measured terms for refusing to set pace during the race; Zimmerman listened quietly and walked away without reply.
- C.W. Dorntge and W.H. Penseyres of Buffalo set the world five-mile tandem record at Baltimore in 12:14 4-5, simultaneously establishing new world marks at two miles (4:47 3-5), three miles (7:15 1-5), and four miles (9:45), lowering records previously held by Taylor and Osmond.
- Short items: the Acme Club will present Frank Waller a diamond medal for his 24-hour Alameda ride; Utica C.C. accepts Syracuse's relay race challenge; Gus Steele rides the Lake View five-mile course in 13:45, potentially breaking the American road record; Schaefer defeats Potwin in a 25-mile Parkside match; Zimmerman confirms attendance at Peoria's September 27 meet; Springfield adds $50 diamond studs at the quarter, half, and three-quarter marks of its world's record mile.
- After Col. Burdett, chief consul Gerould, ex-president Dunn, and General Roy Stone lobbied Congressional committees during the Washington meet, the House committee authorized a favorable report on Rep. Post's H.R. 9575 bill to create a national highway commission to investigate road conditions and maintenance; the bill subsequently passed.
- The Second Regiment, Illinois National Guard Cycle Corps, organized by George G. Greenburg just days before camp at Springfield, performed excellent dispatch service; Private Duckgeischel broke the First Regiment's orderly record and Greenburg later reduced it to 19 minutes flat over five and three-quarter miles.
- Feature on the remarkable diversity of cycling in Washington D.C., where officials of all ranks ride: a prominent department chief commutes on an 1885 wreck despite a large salary, while an elderly Black man earns good money operating three freight and passenger bicycle vehicles hauling oysters, iron, and passengers along the city's asphalt at 25 cents per trip.
- A Bearings man returns after the League meet to cycle Washington's environs, praising the forest roads of Soldier's Home and a fine Shenandoah Valley stretch where 21 miles are covered in 1:15; notes that Mrs. C.C. Candy became the first woman to ride down Pike's Peak on July 15, dressed in men's clothing and surviving a near-fatal fall.
- The San Francisco Bicycle Club has called a statewide meeting of delegates to form an associated cycling clubs organization similar to those in Chicago, New York, and Brooklyn, though skeptics doubt its viability given California's vast territory and scattered cyclists.
- Open war has broken out between the Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco and the Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club, whose rival Division meet deliberately aimed to wreck the official meet; other California clubs have sided with Bay City and nominated a Division ticket that ignores the Alameda club; L.A.W. authorities may have to intervene.
- The Metropolitan Association of Cycling Clubs ran its inaugural century from Newark to Princeton and back, starting at 4:10 a.m.; despite severe heat 100 men finished, arriving in Princeton at 10:44 a.m. and Newark at 7:45 p.m.; the Atlanta Wheelmen won the club prize for the greatest number on the run.
- Buffalo claims the distinction of having the fastest tandem riders in the country: Banker and Brinker hold the one-mile (2:28 2-5), half-mile (1:08), and two-mile records, while Dorntge and Penseyres now hold the five-mile tandem record at 12:14 4-5.
- The U.K. comptroller-general rules in Dunlop Tire Company's favor on their patent amendment application against eight opposing firms, modifying only two minor technical points; the decision is considered important for both strengthening Dunlop's specifications and supporting their novelty claim relative to Thomson's 1845 patent.
- A widely-travelled trade insider tells The Bearings in Washington that fewer than six or seven U.S. manufacturers have made money in 1892: one western maker holds nearly 10,000 unsold machines, another has 300 cushion-tired wheels at $50 each in stock, and most Boston dealers (Pope and Overman excepted) are selling wheels below list price.
- A Bearings man road-tests an elliptical sprocket wheel on the Cabin John road and Belgian block hills of Baltimore and Washington, corroborating manufacturer claims that it eliminates dead-center clawing and delivers smoother power transfer on a 72-inch gear, predicting that its universal adoption will lower the mile record.
- A fire destroyed the block containing Fred T. Merrill's bicycle repository in Portland, Oregon; with the aid of friends he saved his entire stock of 400-plus machines, had them piled in the street within 10 minutes, and was open for business in a new store by daylight.
- Reprints a Stover Bicycle Mfg. Co. pamphlet passage defending women's cycling against opposition, comparing the prejudice to ridicule once aimed at Fulton, Stephenson, and the inventor of the umbrella, and asserting there is nothing bad, immodest, or unladylike in riding a bicycle.
- The Swift bicycle is winning many races in Tennessee, taking the only race at Cumberland Park on the Fourth and sweeping the half- and one-mile state championships, plus handicaps and the middle and eastern Tennessee championship, at the League meet in Jackson.
- Short trade notes: the Quadrant Scorcher is selling in large numbers; Fred Schmitz of Sercombe-Bolte will introduce a new racing saddle; Henry Kasten of Milwaukee is developing a new pneumatic tire; the Chicago Bicycle Co. is expanding its plant for next year; and Fenton Fox reports W.F. Murphy endorses the Lightning Messenger for rider positioning.
- Photo-illustrated report on the Smith tour party—including Clarence Smith, J. Elmer Pratt, and J.E. Gates—who cycled from New York to Washington July 8-18, resting at Gettysburg (where bullets struck the rocks); Smith asserts the route will become the established cycling road between the two cities.