The Bearings, Vol 6, No 14
Articles in this issue
- Editorial criticizing the LAW's system of publishing applicants' addresses in its official organ, making it impossible to know how many dubious names are enrolled among the 30,000 members.
- Editorial opposing a proposed Chicago ordinance that would tax vehicles with tires less than 24 inches wide at $5 per ton on actual weight, which would adversely affect bicycle manufacturers.
- Editorial criticizing the LAW's belated scrutiny of racing men's amateur status for a proposed southern trip, noting the objection is rooted in the trip advertising a certain journal rather than genuine amateur concern.
- Editorial on gossip-mongers in cycling circles who talk on both sides of the fence, ultimately damaging clubs, firms, and individuals before inevitably being exposed and moving on.
- Seasonal editorial urging cyclists to seize the remaining autumn days and ride the countryside before winter roads become impassable.
- Firsthand account by 'William Twinkle' of the 1892 western racing circuit through Peoria (Ill.), Louisville, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and Evansville, noting poor attendance in Jacksonville and Evansville due to inadequate advertising and criticizing the mixing of horse-show and bicycle-racing interests at Peoria.
- The Illinois Highway Improvement Association circulated a questionnaire on road improvement to all legislative candidates; 42 responses from Republican, Democratic, and Prohibition candidates were received, all unanimously favorable to improved roads.
- Profile of Charles G. Kilpatrick, Chicago's one-legged fancy and trick rider who recently returned from a successful Pacific Coast and Northwest tour promoting cycling interests and claiming the one-legged riding championship.
- London correspondent C. W. Hartung reports J. W. Schofield of the Speedwell B.C. lowering Zimmerman's flying quarter and half-mile records at Putney (31 1-5 and 1:02), and covers the Stanley C.C.'s Bohemian Concert for London clubs and Holbein's attempts on Shorland's twenty-four hour record.
- Zimmerman defends George Lacy Hillier in conversation at the Chicago Club house, calling him 'a gentleman' of a higher type than his detractors and dismissing claims that Hillier had been leading Osmond by the nose.
- George Lacy Hillier is awarded the MacDougall Brisbane medal by the Royal Scottish Society of Arts for his lecture 'Cycling—Past and Present,' which he will repeat during the upcoming Stanley Show.
- Editorial arguing that the flying start should be adopted as standard for time trials and scratch races, as it eliminates the tangles and falls caused by push-offs while having produced the impressive cycle times that now impress the public.
- Editorial calling for an entirely new, short LAW constitution with details relegated to by-laws, replacing the unwieldy current document that has become misshapen through years of patchwork repairs to the amateur rule, notably the failed 1892 Columbus convention attempt.
- Complete list of League of American Wheelmen members with ten or more years' continuous standing and their original ticket numbers, from Charles E. Pratt of Boston (No. 1) through Elmer G. Whitney of Boston (No. 317), provided courtesy of Secretary Bassett.
- Department covering Minnesota's Good Roads convention set for January 25-26 in St. Paul; the Century Road Club's formal organization in Chicago; cyclist Henry Hollister's fatal heroism saving a boy from a train in Vernon, Mass.; New York wheelwomen organizing a club with Mrs. M. L. Peck as president; and French bicycle taxation at six francs per rider.
- Portrait feature on 'Arry (Harry Leeming), the English trainer who prepared Gatehouse, Furnival, Sellers, Howell, and several leading American riders.
- Racing department addressing the Sanger-Chicago controversy (with Richard Fails's implausible claims challenged), Windle's likely retention of the regular mile record another year, the Berlin-Vienna cavalry horse race as evidence of cyclists' superior endurance, and the Irish Cyclist's candid acknowledgment that America will hold short-distance supremacy.
- Race results from the Capitol City C.C.'s two-day meet in Nashville, Tenn., where local riders won all events; J. S. Johnson, conceding 600 yards in a mile, rode only the first quarter in 30 1-5 before retiring, finishing third in the two-mile handicap.
- A. L. Baker of Columbus swept every race he entered at the Hocking C.C. meet in Logan, Ohio on October 21; fourteen-year-old Wilbur Oaks placed first in the juvenile half-mile and third in the five-mile Hocking County handicap.
- Beloit Cyclers' first annual handicap road race covered thirteen miles from Beloit to Roscoe and back on October 28; despite a forty-five mile-per-hour gale, Ed Newton won in 55:20 with Harry Pratt second in 55:28 and Geo. S. Whitford third in 58:12.
- Bert Harding of St. Louis rode the 92-mile De Soto course round trip in 9:25:00 on an Imperial, breaking the previous record of 11:56:00 despite a strong south wind, a broken frame on the return, and only about 20 miles of pacing.
- Melbourne correspondent reports on the first round of Australian inter-club road contests on August 20, with times woefully slow (fastest 1:48:00 for 26.5 miles) owing to team tactics, while a cyclists' theatre night the previous evening was a social success.
- The English Road Records Association formally accepted several new records including R. L. Ede's 50 miles in 2:24:44, Shorland's 366.5 miles in twenty-four hours, Lawrence Fletcher's Land's End to John O'Groat's in 3 days 23 hours 55 minutes, and Holbein's 100-mile tricycle record of 5:54:44.
- Miscellaneous department including a humorous anecdote about the very tall W. A. Skinkle (ex-president of the Chicago Cycling Club); the South Dakota Division growing from 3 to 100 members in four months; a LAW membership ticket dishonored at a Washington Park race gate; and the marriage of Bearings correspondent William P. Laing in St. Louis.
- A Washington correspondent (signed W.A.M., War Department) vigorously defends Isaac B. Potter, editor of Good Roads, against a cycle paper's attacks, arguing Potter has earned a first-rank national reputation for the magazine and the critic lacks standing to judge editorial competence.
- Two-day race results from the Chattahoochee Valley Exposition at Columbus, Ga.; M. J. Baird of Charleston dominated most first-day events; on the second day Johnson won all events he entered, taking the two-mile open in 5:50 to prolonged cheers, while Rhodes rode poorly due to indisposition.
- Feature on John Palmer's newly developed non-deflatable pneumatic tire, now being marketed by B. F. Goodrich Co.; Palmer's novel fabric application eliminates the stiffness and puncture vulnerability of earlier tires while keeping racing tire weight to five pounds per pair.
- Congressman Wilson recounts a story in which an American buyer was quoted $135 for a bicycle at home while the same manufacturer offered the wheel delivered in London for $98 (twenty-five percent discount), used as a campaign argument about tariff inequity.
- Essay predicting aluminum will define the next generation of cycle construction; credits M. Clement of France for proving it practicable with 17-pound safety cycles, and forecasts that future racers will weigh about 16 lbs while road riders reach 30 lbs as the metal becomes cheaper.
- News item reporting that a pneumatic-tired horse omnibus is in use in Glasgow, with tire covers stretched over ordinary omnibus wheels and secured by bolted rims, running smoothly in service.