The Bearings, Vol 6, No 2
Articles in this issue
- Lead cover-page humor: a verse parody of the nursery rhyme in which the cow jumps over the moon after seeing a racer's ill-fitting suit, followed by a column of short cycling jokes, squibs and verse including 'Her Beau-Ideal,' 'Mighty Indeed is He,' 'Repairer's Patron Saint,' and a mock English advertisement aimed at Zimmerman's critics.
- A humorous trade-satire column, signed William Sivinkle, likening a grocery clerk's sworn loyalty to rival tobacco brands ('Sunrise' and 'Golden Threads') to the cycle salesman's claim that whichever wheel he is currently selling is the only one on which a rider can risk his life.
- Obituary with portrait of Sanford Lawton, a prominent early American cyclist and former L.A.W. treasurer of Springfield, Mass., born 1858 in Pittston, Pa., who married Bessie Homans and managed the Talcott Axle Works before his recent death.
- A satirical list of cycling misconceptions the editors dispute, touching divided skirts, married men's Sunday tours, piano prizes going to married men, and whether big road events like the Pullman, Milburn and Waukesha always go to dark horses.
- Sketch of Albert Mott, 'chief hustler and general high cockalorum of cycling in Maryland,' who despite gray hair and middle-age is indefatigably active, dresses in black, and rides more miles annually than any man in Baltimore in a distinctive combination trouser-legging-gaiter garment.
- Illustrated feature describing the proposed 55-acre World's Athletic Association grounds at Windsor Park, Ill.: a half-mile electrically-lit, canvas-covered Portland-cement cycle track with 50-foot turns, an 80-foot water course serving as natatorium in summer and skating rink in winter, a 750-room hotel, and seating for 50,000, possibly to host World's Fair sports from October 14-15.
- G. Lacy Hillier's July 28 letter from London to F.E. Spooner, holder of the American 24-hour record, recognizing his ride, asking for his photo for the London County Cycling and Athletic Club, inviting him to the 1893 Cuca Cup, and praising Shorland's extraordinary cheerfulness throughout the race.
- Editorial crediting Hillier with introducing on-call pace-makers at the Cuca Cup 24-hour race—where any competitor could summon a fast tandem pair for any desired pace—arguing with Cycling's support that pacing would quell loafing in scratch events of sufficient length.
- Editorial attacking the arrangement whereby the L.A.W. official organ is relegated to leftover rear pages of Bicycling World while its semi-official front-page editor dictates League policy, as when chairman Raymond's rule construction was publicly overruled; calls for a genuine official editor.
- Editorial on English and Irish papers blaming an absent 'somebody' for Zimmerman receiving no public send-off in England, concluding via Cycling's verdict 'We Are Not Too Hospitable' that he was scoffed at, idolised, and vilified by turns and is unlikely to race there again.
- Editorial defending Milwaukee cyclists against a rival journal's charge of inhospitality, attributing the hissing of Chicago racing men on the Milwaukee track to the audience being unused to their apparent trickery, not to any failure of Milwaukee hospitality.
- Editorial on Albert Mott, Guy P. Wilson and others struggling to secure three-dollar track-association memberships from a stingy Baltimore cycling public to fund the fine new quarter-mile track at Pimlico, already successfully opened with a record-breaking meet.
- Editorial demanding that the secret contract between the L.A.W. and the Wheelman Company of Boston—routinely invoked as a 'bugaboo' to block League actions, including an alleged unfulfilled bonds provision—be published in the official organ or read to the next National Assembly.
- Editorial notice announcing that artist A.T. Merrick has been succeeded by Charles A. Cox, a man of industry and system, and restating the paper's policy: news always supersedes pictorial art, with careful classification and makeup requiring several hours more than rival cycling journals.
- Report of the Iowa Division meet at Sioux City (Aug. 10) where state records fell in three events: Ralph Earl of Chicago lowered the boys' quarter-mile to :39 1-4, Edmonds took the mile record to 2:44 2-5 and the half-mile championship to 1:17 2-5; full race summary included.
- Note on Cycling and the Irish Cyclist campaigning against English papers' practice of publicising the make of wheel ridden by race winners, called a 'positive nuisance' with even third-place results sent in expecting publication.
- Column of brief notes: Justices Brayton and Mahoney as ardent wheelmen, Buffalo planning to send 5,000 wheelmen to Chicago's 1893 League meet, Isaac B. Potter's endorsement of The Bearings, Bishop Coxe opposing ladies' cycling, two Hackensack girls fracturing a pedestrian's leg, and the Columbia Wheelmen's new $12,000 clubhouse.
- Cablegram reporting M.A. Holbein rode 359 miles in 24 hours on a Swift, finishing August 9, beating the previous road record by some 19 miles.
- Asa Windle, not yet in fast form, will make his first track appearance of the year at Buffalo on Aug. 20, then ride the Manhattan meet on the 27th, Hartford Sept. 5-6, and Springfield Sept. 14-15, where he will meet Zimmerman, Taylor and Berlo.
- Major two-day report of Zimmerman's first American appearances at Asbury Park, N.J. (Aug. 5-6): before 3,000-4,000 spectators he defeated George Taylor in a thrilling one-mile scratch (2:29 3-5, last lap :33 2-5), the quarter-mile (:34 1-5), and the five-mile (15:05), with full event summaries for both days.
- Sidelights from the meet: Zimmerman's use of toe clips instead of cleats, the lakeside clay-and-gravel track's beauty, Jem Corbett training nearby for his Sullivan fight, Birdie Munger's comedy bonnet prompting 'Where Did You Get That Hat,' and racing men's unanimous verdict that only Tyler at Springfield could challenge Zimmie's present form.
- At the Hamilton Bicycle Club's civic holiday meet (Aug. 8), Zimmerman defeated Canada's champion Hyslop and one-mile champion Wells, lowering the Canadian half-mile record to 1:12 2-5 and the quarter-mile record to :36, winning all open events.
- Detailed account of Frank W. Shorland's new world 24-hour record of 413 miles 1,615 yards on a geared ordinary in the Cuca Cup at Herne Hill (July 22), paced by Soames with lamp-lit number plates; Holbein retired at 12 hours with saddle soreness, leaving James (407 miles), Walsh, and Brundrett to finish before 10,000 spectators.
- London correspondence (July 30) on Shorland's and James's remarkable freshness after the Cuca Cup, the Catford Club's Toy's Hill climb won by F.L. Wale (6:42, using nine-inch cranks), and the Stanley/London County men departing for the Harrogate cycling camp with Henry Sturmey as camp president.
- Paris correspondence on Stephane's 24-hour ride on the Buffalo cement track in Paris chasing Waller's record, covering 400 miles in 24:24:36 3-5 with thirty to thirty-five pacemakers including his rival Dubois, who generously helped him through hot laps.
- A Warrington reader's letter sharply criticising F.J. Osmond's published excuse for not meeting Zimmerman, arguing Osmond knew months in advance Zimmerman was coming for the championships and should have trained accordingly; the reader adds that he is sorry only that 'Zimmy is not an Englishman.'
- Experts at Asbury Park predict the mile record will fall further by season's end: Zimmerman projects 2:08-2:09, Taylor and Troy 2:06-2:08, Windle 2:09 2-5; Troy and Campbell also predict the flying-start half-mile will go below 1:01, citing recent Springfield practice times by Relph.
- W.C. Thorne of the L.A.W. Racing Board interprets the amateur-status rule to permit an amateur to pace a professional (or vice versa) in a ride against time provided no gate money is charged and no prize is involved.
- Report of the Arlington Wheelmen's meet at Y.M.C.A. Park, Washington (twelve events), where W.F. Simms won the open mile and Washington City championship, the Columbia Cycle Club's team of Jose and Wood won the team race, and E.E. Clapp tumbled in the Arlington Wheelmen championship race.
- Fred C. Graves of the Springfield B.C. is suspended by the L.A.W. Racing Board for alleged professionalism; Warwick Cycle Co. president G.D. Chamberlain confirms in the Hartford Courant that Graves was paid to ride wheels as advertisement, given a trainer and travel expenses, before defecting to a Victor.
- Preview of the Chicago Cycling Club's two-day meet (Aug. 26-27) at Parkside's banked quarter-mile track, with twelve barrels of new cement to improve the surface, rich prizes, and a five-mile invitation rule barring mark-holders from retreating to scratch; entries close with C.P. Root, 334 Dearborn street.
- Prof. John West failed to break the 24-hour record at Elgin, Ill.: sleepy after 100 miles at a 3:10 gait, he quit at 187.5 miles after thirteen hours thirty miles behind schedule, and vows to try again at Parkside.
- George Taylor plans to enter a Boston dental college at season's end and may abandon racing, a determination the editors hope he will reconsider.
- The Associated Cycling Clubs of Philadelphia will award a special prize to the lap-leader in each open event at their Sept. 17 Tioga-track annual tournament, joining pianos, bicycles, diamonds, and watches as prizes.
- The Syracuse C.C. is readying the Kirkwood half-mile track for its Labor Day (Sept. 5) meet, with a diamond badge, typewriters and high-grade wheels among prizes; the meet is open to all riders, not just locals.
- An old trainer warns that many prominent young American racers this season will last only a year or so because they bat about nearly every night; the men who build and hold great reputations live quietly, retire early, and rarely depart from a peaceful life in training.
- C.D. Cutting of the Cook County Wheelmen broke Emil Ulbrecht's Elgin-Aurora century record, lowering it to 7 hours 56 minutes on a 28-lb March racer despite bad roads and a head-wind from Aurora; Peironnet and Shumway also finished inside the old mark of 8:15, and 34 of 37 starters finished the club's first annual century.
- The Waverly Wheelmen's second annual tournament at Waverly, Ill. (Aug. 31) will feature Munger of Chicago, Bert Myers of Peoria and J.L. Price of Springfield; the date was moved from Aug. 27 to avoid conflicting with the Chicago races.
- W.W. Watts, secretary-treasurer of Kentucky Division and Racing Board's southern member, argues contrary to chairman Raymond that L.A.W. control over an amateur ceases when he enters a road race, reading the Linscott case rules technically as a lawyer.
- Builder Shoch did not purchase the ground under Philadelphia's Tioga track because he could not secure a clear title to the property.
- Ingeman Petersen and Miss Joergensen lowered the Danish four-mile tandem-safety road record (19.75 English miles) to 57:12 1-5, beating the previous mark of 58:19 at the first attempt.
- W.C. Thorne's ax fell: C.D. Cutting, F.S. Schmitt of the Cook County Wheelmen and four others were suspended from racing for 60 days from July 23 for competing in the unsanctioned Y.M.C.A. races at Parkside.
- H.J. Binns broke the Irish 12-hour record of 150.5 miles, starting from Enfield, Ireland, at 9 a.m. with pacemakers; he covered the first 100 miles in 6:28:55 3-5 (also an Irish record) and finished at 7:35 p.m. with 171.75 miles.
- Horace Bain, a former Chicagoan now of the Ariel B.C. of Goshen, Ind., declares he will attempt the 24-hour record on the Warsaw, Ind. half-mile track in a few days.
- The Elizabeth Wheelmen won the Union County, N.J. team championship with 86 out of a possible 171 points; the Elizabeth Athletic Club scored 48.
- W.A. Rhodes of the Illinois C.C., Chicago, plans to start for the 100-mile world's record at Parkside track on Monday, August 29.
- Zimmerman, set to race in Montreal, Hamilton and Moline, praises Berlin's race track as the finest he has seen, with electrically-lit dressing rooms equipped with running water and an electric bell rung two minutes before each heat; says a five-man American team could finish one to five abroad.
- The Crescent Cycle Club of Birmingham, Conn. is completing arrangements for a Sept. 2 tournament with over $1,000 in prizes, including a $500 piano in the one-mile handicap; entries close August 26 with A.S. Daggett.
- Racine wheelmen are arranging a Kenosha-to-Racine road race they intend to make as important as the recent Waukesha road race.
- Australian sporting papers are urging six-man team road races to stimulate road riding, which has fallen off sharply of late.
- The Fernside Club remains Australia's premier racing club, with members' cash winnings exceeding $2,250 and two riders having won over $500 each.
- The Austral race, Australia's great cycling event, has been decided to run on solid-tired ordinaries, a decision said to set the Australian trade back a year.
- The Illinois C.C.'s annual road race has been postponed until September so it can be run over the old West Side course, which will not be ready until then.
- W. Allen broke both the Scottish 12- and 24-hour records, riding 296 miles in 24 hours and 164 miles in 12 hours, exceeding the previous records by 52 and 6 miles respectively.
- A.W. Harris easily beat F.J. Osmond in a half-mile handicap at Manchester, England.
- Graves and Smith of Boston rode from Boston to Portland in 10:50:00, breaking the old road record by over an hour.
- At the Lake View C.C.'s Chicago races, A. Helmich won the half and quarter mile events over C.A. Fox and Gus Steele; Fox turned the tables in the one mile, and Steele defeated Stilwell in the quarter-mile first heat.
- Description of Zimmerman's heavy N.C.U. championship medals, about the size and weight of a double eagle, bearing the British coat of arms on one face and a laurel wreath inscribing his one-, five-, and fifty-mile safety amateur championships on the other.
- Brief racing department: W.F. Murphy's doctor-ordered rest, the Milwaukee Wheelmen's $100 profit on the Waukesha road race, Tom Cooper's three wins at Pontiac, Gus Steele's voided five-mile road record (course 100 feet short), Osmond's Sheffield handicap win in 7:44 2-5, Mayor Stuart's silver cup for the Park Avenue Wheelmen meet, and Carl Hess's reportedly inapropos bracelets.
- A Britisher's London letter recalling Zimmerman's English season: his initial modest reception, breakthrough at the Polytechnic Club meet where he won every scratch race on his first appearance on the track, and sprint in the N.C.U. championships; argues W.C. Jones of the Polytechnic—not Osmond—would have given Zimmie the stiffest race, and praises Zimmerman as a gentleman and good sportsman.
- Argues George F. Taylor's 2:11 mile, adjusted for a half-mile oval (three seconds) and standing start (three seconds), is equivalent to about 2:05 on a kite track—virtually matching trotter Sunol; includes a five-distance comparison table of bicycle versus sulky times across Zimmerman, Taylor, Tyler and the trotters Maud S., Sunol, and Witherspoon.
- Profile of E.J. O'Reilly, the witty Irish humorist on the staff of London's Wheeling, president of the Phoenix B.C. of Dublin, and former official handicapper of the Irish Cyclists' Association, said by a colleague to have 'cavalry officer' bearing, large expressive eyes, and a drooping brown mustache.
- A petite, white-capped nurse-girl in black issues each pleasant evening from a pretentious home on Chicago's Grand boulevard near Forty-third street, mounts a bicycle and rolls away down the boulevard—described as 'quite chic.'
- The Chicago Inter-Ocean urges the army of bicycle riders to organize solid state battalions and demand laws compelling the making of good roads, predicting the bicycle will go 'ringing down the ages as among the grandest of modern reformers.'
- Trade write-up praising the Luburg Mfg. Co.'s Sprinter Safety of Philadelphia and its Closure self-healing tires, said to have survived about fifty test punctures from pins, tacks, knives and nails over six months with no air loss; Luburg is seeking representatives and offering liberal discounts.
- Chief consul A.B. Choate presented a good-roads resolution to the Minnesota Democratic state convention at Minneapolis (Aug. 3) calling for radical legislative reform of road-building laws; the final clause was incorporated into the party platform.
- Clarifies that the Post and Manderson national highway commission bills have not passed but gone to the Senate and House calendar; the Manderson bill also provides for a World's Fair roads exhibit and an inaugural commission meeting in Chicago on October 21, 1892.
- The Park Avenue Wheelmen of Philadelphia will absorb the shaky Penn City (formerly Referee) Wheelmen and their few hundred dollars of floating debt, and are also negotiating amalgamation with another club.
- 'Pa' Ellis claims a champagne-supper forfeit from 'Pop' Brewster, Fay Tuttle and R.D. Garden for failing to appear at the Elgin-Aurora century run on the first ridable day after May 30; Ellis says he was ready.
- The Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Bicycle Club, organised and incorporated in 1887 with 100 active members, has opened a $20,000 clubhouse on Morrison square—formerly Senator B. Platt Carpenter's home, built by Gen. Thomas L. Davies at a contract price of $35,000.
- The progressive Press Cycling Club of Buffalo, recently a League member, is reported to face a financial crisis described as a 'white elephant.'
- Argues that Cleveland, with its Lake Erie water-trip tradition, old cycling blood and central location, should receive the 1894 L.A.W. meet over rival bidder Buffalo.
- The Lincoln Cycling Club's August-October run card schedules no fewer than twelve century runs as a novel feature.
- St. Louis cyclists are consulting military authorities, including Col. Young of Jefferson Barracks, on a relay ride between St. Louis and Chicago to test the bicycle as a courier against horses covering the same distance.
- W.E. Gladstone tells an English reporter he has 'real and unfeigned pleasure' in cycling's rapid growth, calling its physical, moral and social benefits 'almost unbounded' and preferring it to the luxurious but observation-free railway journey.
- With L.A.W. president Burdett away in Connecticut after his diplomatic effort to rid Washington riders of the lamp-and-bell ordinance, the District of Columbia commissioners have reinstated it; visitors are advised to carry bell and lamp.
- The Illinois Division road book, with seventeen maps by L.W. Conkling including coverage of unexpectedly good roads in southern Illinois, will be issued around September 1 and is described as the most complete road book yet.
- Nearly three score Columbia Wheelmen of Chicago held a girl-less picnic at River park, spending the afternoon in swimming, wrestling and tree-climbing contests.
- Notices of two stolen Chicago wheels: a Liberty Light Roadster (No. 3563) taken from C.B. Hayes, who offers a liberal reward; and F.W. Stephens's Victor Model B cushion safety (No. 24,934), for which no reward is offered.
- Alderman Sexton of Chicago, who 'so persistently opposed the obnoxious Pothoff and his still more obnoxious ordinance,' was elected an honorary member of the Lake View Cycling Club.
- W.J. Whaley was sentenced to two years' hard labor at Savannah, Ga., for stealing a wheel from Gus Kayton.
- R.W. Taylor, one of the racing men of the Cambridgeport, Mass. Cycling Club, died last week after a short illness.
- A cycle corps has been organised for the 5th Regiment, I.N.G., going into camp at Springfield, Ill. on August 15, with M.P. Reed elected sergeant in command and five other members including Ralph Reed and Roy Donaldson.
- The Illinois Cycling Club's Aug. 27-28 run rides to Joliet Saturday night and reaches Ottawa Sunday morning to tour Starved Rock, Buffalo Rock, the Illinois river valley canyons and Deer Park.
- The Washington Post suggests a few bicycle-mounted policemen would be a valuable permanent addition to the force, noting an officer on a wheel can reach a scene of difficulty before his usefulness is past.
- Fiction: a cyclist touring the prairie towns of the Great Northwest stops at a remote homestead, finds a lonely grave marked 'John Anderson—Died August 12, 1888, Aged 24 years, He is asleep,' and from a neighboring farmer hears the sad story of a young man who died three weeks before his wedding to the farmer's daughter.
- An English cyclist riding through Reading had several pedestrians run up and beat him—they were putting out his clothes, set alight by a lit pipe in his pocket; with a brief note that Wesley Reedy of Ottawa, Ill. has moved to Chicago.
- A short domestic joke: a wife asks her husband for a new wheel and, when asked what she wants it for, replies that she intends to ride it—not grind coffee or wash clothes with it—and gets her point across.
- Race meet calendar listing upcoming cycling events in the U.S. and Canada through October 1892, including the Parkside Chicago meet Aug. 26-27, South Bend and Buffalo Aug. 20, Manhattan and Quaker City Aug. 27, the Syracuse C.C. Labor Day, Columbus tournament Sept. 5-6, Hartford Sept. 5-6, Springfield Sept. 14-15, Associated C.C. Philadelphia Sept. 17, and numerous Chicago club runs and races.
- Trade editorial standing by its report that most Boston wheel dealers are cutting prices, clarifying the Union Cycle Mfg. Co. should have been excepted as conservative, and arguing that responses to the article only strengthen the case for a cycle trade association of some kind.
- Quotes the Irish Cyclist's gloomy view that too many English makers, rampant price-cutting on cheap safeties, and buyers' craving for big discounts are forcing honest manufacturers to reduce quality and will ultimately benefit neither the trade nor the cycling public.
- Buffalo trade notes: brisk business for H.C. Martin despite summer heat, coming geared ordinaries, Penseyres and Hofner opening a repair shop at 114 Clinton street, strong Niagara demand after Dorntge and Penseyres's world record, and W.D. Banker leaving J.F. Doll to train for the fall races.
- Trade write-up on the Buffalo wheel from the Buffalo Cycle Works, praising business manager Mr. Bull and mechanical chief B. Harris; agent H.C. Martin & Co. has disposed of the entire output, and Bull is making arrangements to largely increase output next season.
- Credits the success of Morgan & Wright pneumatic tires, especially the new racing variety, partly to Mr. Morgan's personal popularity among Chicago riders and his hands-on attention to every customer at the factory, from a hundred-tire order to a leaky valve.
- John Palmer's non-puncturable tires, tested through four July centuries by Ed. Porter with about fifty punctures from pins, tacks, knives and nails and no air loss, will be marketed in September by the Goodrich Co. of Akron; the tire weighs 6.5 lbs per pair and Palmer prefers to go slow and sure.
- Mr. Gormully of the G. & J. Co. has opened a Coventry office under Mr. Jeffery (brother of the firm member) with the aim of pushing and manufacturing the G. & J. air tire in England.
- A Bearings reporter rode the Ariel Cycle Mfg. Co.'s first geared ordinary at Goshen, Ind., finding it smooth, comfortable and speedy in a brush with a local rider; its gear resembles the Crypto gear box and the wheel will be marketed soon.
- The Ames & Frost Co. sold 500 Imperial A's to W.D. Womack, who will open a large Kansas City cycle store with branches at Atchison, Wichita and other Kansas towns.
- A.W. Gamage, England's leading cyclists' outfitter, was among the last to see Zimmerman off at Euston station and presented Zim's sister-in-law Mrs. McDermott with a handsome bouquet.
- Notes that the dished sprocket wheel was placed on the Rambler in 1887, permitting greater distance between bearings, allowing loose ball adjustment without lateral movement of other parts.
- A short editorial pun advising wheelmen faced with an ordinance compelling them to carry bells that wisdom should prompt them to 'chime in' with the promoters of so just a law.
- Gormully & Jeffery already have orders for over a hundred of their new long-wheelbase diamond-frame Scorcher safeties before production samples are made; a racing tire version reduces the weight to 32 lbs.
- E.J. Righter of Lincoln, Neb., passing through Chicago en route from San Francisco, reports Wilbur F. Knapp is running the Overman Co.'s magnificent new Oakland store and the entire Pacific Slope is enjoying a healthy cycling boom.
- The Raleigh remains a favourite mount in England: J. Bates won the St. Helen's championship on one, the first three in the Italian road race from Melegnano to Lodi were on Raleighs, and thirteen prizes at Sheffield including N.C.U. local championships went to Raleigh riders.
- Brief trade items: ready sales of Bronchos at Thomas Kane & Co., Crypto geared ordinaries en route to the Taylor Cycle Co., F.S. Lincoln's promotion at Taylor Cycle Co., the Ames & Frost Co.'s 50,000 catalogues, Gormully & Jeffery's nine-wheel retail day, Sercombe-Bolte to make hubs and axles for manufacturers, the Monarch Cycle Co.'s large next-season order including a new ladies' wheel, and the Chicago Bicycle Co.'s 3,000-machine convertible tandem order for next season.
- Humorous sketch of a lampless, wobbly wheelman repeatedly circling a corner and peering into a store late at night, making a contented policeman twitch with indecision about enforcing the lamp law before the rider finally disappears up the street.