The Bearings, Vol 6, No 4
Articles in this issue
- Regular column by 'William' argues against pneumatic tires and in favor of solid-tired high-wheelers, recounting how Zimmerman's experiences in England have failed to convince the columnist that pneumatics are reliable or practical, given their tendency to puncture and leave the rider far from home on a rattling rim.
- News digest covering items from Buffalo, Portland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Indiana, Belgium, and New Jersey, including Mrs. R. J. Mecredy's 106-mile Irish ride in ten hours, the Associated Cycling Clubs of New Jersey officer elections, and the upcoming Stanley Show in Philadelphia.
- A Chelsea, England correspondent proposes using a time-ball on a pole to enforce minimum lap speeds in scratch races and championships, addressing the problem of deliberate slow riding and last-lap sprinting seen in English championships.
- Short fiction piece by 'The Gnome' in which a new club member terrifies fellow cyclists by riding at night on a phosphorus-coated wheel while using a squeak horn to clear the road, winning the annual road race before his identity and strategy are revealed.
- The Scottish Cyclist defends the maker's amateur, arguing that allowing riders to accept travelling expenses from manufacturers has opened the sport and improved tracks without corrupting it, and that professionalizing such riders would only scatter them through the amateur ranks.
- Sir Evelyn Wood and Lord Wolseley both advocate for raising volunteer bicycle corps, with Wolseley citing his Indian campaign experience as evidence that cycles could have been used with great advantage in nearly all conditions short of fighting in the hills.
- Reports the rapid growth of lady cyclists in Denmark following the example of the queen's mother, noting that 1,394 cyclists were counted leaving through one city gate on a single Sunday and that a cyclist corps is being formed in the Danish army.
- Preview of the Riverside Wheelmen's September 9 meet in Riverside, California, featuring eleven races on a new quarter-mile track, an 18½-mile road race with prizes, and a banquet, as the young club capitalises on the city's smooth boulevards of black loam.
- Editorial defending the American practice of providing comfortable cots, shower baths, and locker-rooms for racers at Baltimore, Parkside in Chicago, Peoria, Springfield, and Hartford against Irish criticism, citing Parkside's shower baths and Hartford's prompt calling-up system as models.
- Editorial describing a Chicago bicycle burglar who stole $1,000 in diamonds and outran the police patrol wagon through alleys and around corners, using the incident to argue that cyclists outpace horsemen and that police should be equipped with bicycles on smooth surfaces.
- Editorial criticising American cycle track management for failing to provide efficient announcers and clearly-numbered riders' bibs, citing The Bearings' own difficulty reporting the Buffalo meet because numbers were carelessly pinned, doubled, and illegible from the side.
- Profile of English long-distance rider Frank Shorland, who covered 413 miles in 24 hours in competition at the Cuca race, describing his boyish appearance, inexhaustible animal spirits, and the second-place finish of J. M. James, an electrical engineer who became saddle-sore at 330 miles.
- The Chatham Fields Company withdraws its offer to build a bicycle track and grandstand for Chicago cyclists, citing inability to arrange suitable transportation and the World's Fair committee's consequent refusal to sanction the project, releasing all bond subscribers.
- P. J. Berlo lowered G. F. Taylor's two-mile record from 4:48 4-5 to 4:48 2-5 at Springfield, Mass., Hampden track on August 24, paced by McDuffie, Tyler, Nelson, Roberts, and Connelly, with the first mile in 2:21 3-5 despite poor pacing on the last mile.
- At the Detroit Exposition on August 24, Zimmerman, Sanger, and Munger participated; E. C. Johnson of Cleveland won the quarter-mile dash but Zimmerman's protest was upheld; a heavy rain then stopped the two-mile handicap mid-event and the remaining races were carried over to the next day.
- Results of the Pennsylvania B.C. meet at the Tioga track before a select audience of nearly all local amateurs: F. Nelms won the club championship in 2:59 and the 2:50 class in 2:50 1-5, while M. Meredith won the Mercury Wheelmen championship in 3:02.
- Detailed report of the Buffalo Exposition bicycle races on August 20, where G. F. Taylor broke the competitive mile record at 2:21 2-5 in a heat but finished sixth in the final; the event was marred by a complete absence of seating for 5,000 spectators and a multi-rider crash in the half-mile open that gouged Carl Hess's arm and bent several machines.
- Post-meet notes on the Buffalo races, covering Zimmerman's dominant three-mile lap win over Munger and Dorntge, a post-race dinner at the Tift House attended by about 50 friends, and Albert Banker's unofficial timing of Zimmerman's last quarter in 28 2-5 seconds.
- Manhattan A.C. director Moneypenny explains that Zimmerman gave a firm promise before leaving England to ride at the August 27 Manhattan meet, but manager McDermott later asked for his release; the M.A.C. refused to disappoint 20,000 invitees and confirmed Windle, Berlo, Taylor, Hess, Campbell, Banker, and Wheeler as starters.
- M. A. Holbein's 24-hour road record ride on August 11, starting from Biggleswade at midnight: his century came in 6:05, he suffered a puncture shortly after, was 5½ miles behind the 12-hour record at halfway, broke his own old record at 10:35 p.m., and finished with 359 miles.
- A London cablegram reports that unknown rider Oxborrow made a mile in 2:21 3-5 at Coventry, apparently breaking the English ordinary record of 2:28 4-5 held by F. J. Osmond by more than seven seconds, though Oxborrow is unknown in America.
- Hal Pointer, hitched to one of the new bicycle sulkies, paced a mile at Washington Park, Chicago, on August 18 in 2:05 1-4, reaching the half in 1:02½ and the three-quarters in 1:34.
- W. A. Rhodes of the Illinois Cycling Club dominated the South Bend C.C.'s first annual tournament on August 20, winning the quarter, one-mile open, and half-mile; J. P. Bliss of the Chicago C.C. won the five-mile handicap from 100 yards before a total prize list of $1,000.
- J. B. Woolas won best time in the Minnettes Cycling Corps' ten-mile road race over the Oak Park course in 30:50, paced by W. A. Thompson, while George Edmunds won the race itself with a seven-minute head start, finishing in 35:00.
- The North Side Cycling Club of Milwaukee's first annual road race from Thiensville to Milwaukee, 11¾ miles, was won by R. F. Kaross from the five-minute mark; H. Meiswinkle took the time prize and J. Gottschalk won a ham as the only ordinary rider, finishing twenty-fifth.
- A ten-mile bicycle race at Lawrence, Mass., drew seventeen Lawrence wheelmen and 15,000 spectators; Sherman Ulrich won in 36:26, followed by P. Rhoades and F. E. Young, in one of the most exciting events of the season on roads in fair condition.
- Reports four Chicago road races on the same Saturday: A. T. Heywood won the Lincoln Club lake-shore race (31:10), J. Stilwell won the Lincoln time prize (30:58), C. H. Peck won the Englewood six-mile race (22:33), and A. L. Leonhardt won the Calumet C.C. five-mile handicap from scratch in 14:58, beating H. C. Jacob by inches.
- The Peoria bicycle day at the Illinois State Fair, managed by H. G. Rouse and Fred Patee, will feature a grand piano as the top prize followed by six high-grade bicycles, is attracting nearly all the fast men, and forms part of a new circuit also including Louisville, Evansville, Jacksonville, and Quincy.
- Preview of the Waverly Wheelmen's second annual tournament in Waverly, Ill., organized by Frank Smedley and John H. Ritchie with Fred Patee as referee; entries so far include A. E. Lumsden, J. P. Bliss, Bert Myers, Jay Price, and Jerome Leland from St. Louis, Decatur, Springfield, Peoria, Rockford, and Chicago.
- Bicycle races at the state road improvement convention in Chillicothe, Mo., drew 3,000 spectators; R. M. Tidd of St. Louis won the half-mile open and five-mile handicap, and the evening concluded with a banquet at the Henrietta followed by dancing at the Odd Fellows hall.
- Races at the Carthage, Ohio fair were so successful the board held a second tournament on August 18; Sanger won the annual Hanauer race on the 16th in 2:28 before over 20,000 spectators, and Arthur N. French won the one-mile open in 2:56; the board is now considering laying a permanent quarter-mile track.
- Prof. John West of Chicago made his second attempt at the 24-hour record at Elgin, Ill., on August 17 but ran into his pacemaker's wheel, was thrown against a fence and fainted; he remounted despite serious injuries but gave up at 89½ miles, saying he will try again.
- Frank Waller of the Oak Leaf Wheelmen of Stockton, Calif., will attempt the 24-hour record on September 16 after the club's tournament, confident of 420 miles if properly paced; C. C. Hopkins is assembling a corps of fifteen to twenty pacemakers and the race will be held at Goodwater Grove.
- Minneapolis's Flour City Cyclists protest that a St. Paul C.C. member managing the September 10 Minnesota State Fair races has structured five events so that their crack rider John S. Johnson can only enter two, while any St. Paul rider can enter all but the novice race.
- Cleveland challenged Detroit to a team road race at Put-in-Bay after hearing Detroit riders disparage Cleveland road men; Detroit accepted but then refused to race on the narrow Put-in-Bay road, prompting Cleveland to claim Detroit is protecting its best men for the track racing season.
- Horace Baine covered only 317 miles in 24 hours on the Warsaw, Ind., track on August 18–19, resting two hours, far short of the record his trainer F. J. Wagner of Chicago had claimed he could easily beat.
- The Columbus Cycling Club's Labor Day meet at Columbus, Ohio, is attracting Lumsden, Ballard, Wenger, and Sanger of Milwaukee, Berlo, Carl Hess, C. H. Christ of Tonawanda, and teams from Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Zanesville for its new, steeply-banked seven-foot track.
- W. C. Sanger rode a mile in 2:20 on a Milwaukee half-mile track after returning from Sarnia, paced by Andrae, Nickel, Wegner, and Price; his admirers claim Price blocked him from a 2:16 and that Sanger's potential is 2:06.
- Johnson and Ulbrecht, tied for second time in the Waukesha road race, resolved the dispute at South Bend by coin toss; Johnson won the toss.
- The Ashland C.C. of Chicago held its first races: F. W. Hall won the half, F. T. Fowler the mile handicap, and H. Vanzwold the quarter; the club's September 3 four-mile handicap will feature match races between Fowler and G. L. Walker at a mile, and Hall and A. C. Fordham at the quarter.
- A. O. McGarrett, who oversees record trials at Springfield, Mass., says he has not heard of H. C. Tyler riding a mile in 2:09 and is inclined to regard the reported time as a canard.
- The DeKalb C.C. of DeKalb, Ill., held its first handicap road race over a four-mile course; George Halloran won in 17:00 and George A. Leonard of the Kenwood Road Club of Chicago made best time in 16:00.
- An international seven-day race is to be run in Paris starting October 9 on a fast half-mile track, with $12,000 in prizes including $2,500 for the winner and special prizes for record breaking; management claims to have secured riders from all over the world and entry is free.
- At the second day of the Alma, Mich., tournament D. Marshall of St. Johns won the four-county championship and W. C. Rands of Detroit took the three-mile handicap; Rands also rode five miles in 13:57.
- The Parkside track in Chicago is in record-breaking condition; on a recent Tuesday night Githens rode a mile in 2:22 1-5 and Bliss in 2:23 3-4.
- Zimmerman told reporters at Sarnia that he plans to enter the Boston A.A. twenty-five mile road race in Boston on October 1; W. C. Rands is among the western riders expected to compete in the same event.
- W. C. Rands' claim for the 25-mile road record of 1:15:59 4-5 on the Belle Isle course in Detroit has been accepted as bona fide by the Century Road Club's temporary records committee; the course was surveyed by the city surveyor, who offers $5 for every foot his measurement is found short.
- Detroit rider H. E. Dennis declares Sanger unbeatable with more experience, praising his easy handling of a 72-gear Ormonde at Sarnia; Sanger's father repeatedly shouted at him to go faster from the sidelines, and plans are to prepare him for Springfield after bypassing the Manhattan meet.
- L. D. Munger reverted to his 75-inch gear at Buffalo after two weeks on a 66-inch wheel; even after a crash bent his low-gear wheel's cranks he entered the very next race on the 75 and finished second to Zimmerman, confirming he performs better at the higher gear.
- Attorney Joe McDermott personally rubs down Zimmerman before races; Zimmerman avoids liniments and stands rather than lying down for massage, shows no visible whipcord muscles on back or chest, and has been closely attended by a Canadian admirer keen to back him against 'foolish folk in Yankeeland.'
- The Sioux City C.C.'s one-third mile track, built for $447 total including only $22 for surfacing, was packed hard by rollers, wheel tires, and copious rain using natural soil alone; banked four feet on turns, it is considered one of the best if not the best track in the West.
- The July 31 races at Saint Sebastian, Spain, were attended by the queen and royal family; the young king wanted to ride in the children's race but his mother forbade it, and the art prize donated by the queen was won by Luis del Campo of Madrid.
- A Detroit observer reports that Zimmerman admitted to feeling somewhat stale at Sarnia and had no trainer with him, spending his entire Canadian stay with Hyslop, who under a good trainer is steadily improving.
- The Zig Zag C.C. of Indianapolis invites all to its September 9–10 races, with a $2,000 prize list including eleven bicycles on a new fast mile track where local riders have already clocked quarters in 30 1-4 flying.
- James bicycles captured five first prizes at the South Bend races on Saturday, and C. H. Peck won the Englewood seven-mile road race and time medal in 22 minutes on a 23-pound James track racer over very rough roads.
- Aggregated brief racing items: F. J. Osmond about to try the half and one-mile records; J. D. Racey of Orange, N.J., suspended sixty days for a false class entry; L. D. Munger disputes the Buffalo timers who credited Taylor with 2:21 2-5 on a single watch while two others showed 2:22; and entries to the Chicago C.C.'s Parkside meet include Sanger, Ray Tidd, and Hoyland Smith.
- W. A. Leonard Jr. and L. D. Taylor have incorporated the National Columbian United Wheelmen's Association with $100,000 capital to build a club house on 57th Street near the World's Fair grounds, charging $5.25 for fifteen wheel storages and offering sleeping accommodations; Illinois chief consul Gerould doubts it can turn a profit.
- The British solicitor-general upheld the comptroller's amendment to the Dunlop pneumatic patent, dismissing an appeal by a coalition of eight rival tire makers without even calling for the Dunlop company's reply, and awarded costs to the pneumatic tire company.
- The Niagara Falls B.C. has about 50 members in three club rooms equipped with piano and cycling periodicals; President King hopes to secure a club house, and popular rides run 14 miles along the Niagara River to Youngstown and across to Queenstown, where Brock's monument stands, and on to Niagara-on-the-Lake.
- Henry E. Harris spoke on road improvement at a Fort Scott, Kansas editors' meeting and won pledges from a hundred editors to keep the subject before their readers; Major J. K. Hudson of the Topeka Capital pledged to help get a roads bill through the next Kansas legislature.
- The New York Recorder's contest to give a grand piano to the most popular wheelman by vote shows G. Minturn Worden of the Riverside Wheelmen and M.A.C. in the lead, ahead of P. J. Berlo, W. F. Murphy, A. A. Zimmerman, W. W. Windle, and George C. Smith.
- Colorado chief consul Hackney rebuts sensationalised press accounts of Mrs. Candy's bicycle descent of Pike's Peak, stating the carriage road has no precipitous grades, well-banked sharp turns, and daily four-in-hand coach traffic; Mrs. Candy's fall was a trifling one and the lady is modest and displeased by the notoriety.
- The Louisiana C.C. of New Orleans is about to amalgamate with the Southern Athletic Club, joining due to waning local cycling interest and accumulated club debt, while retaining its identity and full member benefits within the larger body.
- W. A. Rhodes of the Illinois C.C., stranded in Elgin when his rear tire valve was cut off, bought a piece of inch-and-a-half rope from a grocery store, lashed it on as a replacement tire, and successfully completed his century, saying the rope ran very smoothly.
- Two bicycle thefts reported: a full-nickeled Century Columbia No. 969 taken from Lynn, Mass., sought by city marshal Frank E. Wells; and H. P. Walden of the Chicago C.C.'s Humber Road Racer No. 14,746 stolen from the Pullman Building, Chicago.
- Over fifty Milwaukee Wheelmen enjoyed a basket picnic at Donges' Grove ten miles north of the city on the Lake Shore, consuming the ham Henry Andrae had won as the Waukesha race booby prize, with ball playing, games, and swimming.
- Indiana's L.A.W. Division has issued a large placard featuring a valuable map of gravel roads in red across Central Indiana, following Kentucky and other divisions' similar campaigns to supply the demand for membership application blanks at cycle agencies.
- The Bearings challenges the Referee's claim of superior advertiser returns, asserting the Referee is a class-four paper with only 2,100 circulation against The Bearings' 8,000, and offers to prove both figures by a comparison of circulation books.
- At the Des Moines road convention, University of Iowa president Schaeffer argued that good roads improve the intellectual, moral, and social welfare of rural communities, arrest the flow of country people to cities, and would send fewer farmers and farmers' wives to the insane asylum.
- Illinois Division chief consul Gerould has appointed W. A. Connelly of Danville as chairman and member of the Illinois Division's road improvement committee.
- Judge Edwin B. Gager of Ansonia, Conn., and S. E. Forman toured Holland and the Rhine for six weeks by wheel, cycling from Rotterdam through the Hague, Leiden, Haarlem, and Amsterdam on all-brick country roads, then continuing to Cologne, Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Heidelberg.
- Long Island riders hoping that workmen on Ninth Avenue in Brooklyn were removing boulders from a cycling path discovered the crew was only replacing dead trees, leaving the path more littered than before and driving support for the movement to improve Ocean Parkway.
- Charles Oswald and James Gould wagered at Colonel John A. Duff's Staten Island club house that they could beat a Rapid Transit train from Stapleton station to Strothman's Atlantic hotel on South Beach by bicycle; they won, beating the newspaper man who took the train by ten seconds.
- Detroit riders favour Belle Isle's smooth five-mile course during the heat, McSweeny's road house twenty-three miles out on the lake road for fine steaks, and runs across the river to Amherst, Canada (eighteen miles) and to Ann Arbor (thirty-eight miles straight or fifty via Saline for century rides).
- Michigan L.A.W. chief consul Bresler is a real estate man and earnest L.A.W. worker whose office and the city's wheel agencies display 'Join the L.A.W.' signs, so that 'Have you any L.A.W. application blanks?' is now frequently heard in Detroit cycle agencies.
- Two thieves who broke into C. H. Schub's store in Valparaiso, Ind., on the night of August 10 and stole a Cataract and an Escort bicycle were tracked by Sheriff Sego and found hiding with the wheels in a hay stack several miles from town the following afternoon.
- Miss Charlotte Neal of Plainville, Conn., visiting New Haven, wears a cycling costume of white silk serge trimmed in military style with gold, with matching cap and slippers; she is president of her local ladies' club and rides at about ten miles per hour.
- H. C. Tyler returned from an eighteen-day break to ride a half mile in 1:04 1-5 on August 15, then spent a week training with Windle at Millbury; a prominent Eastern cyclist says 'Keep your eagle eyes on that boy. He is the coming man.'
- Cycling is gaining adherents among French press and arts figures, including the managers of the Matin and the Bulletin des Halles, dramatic critic Bernheim, and twenty-seven writers on Le Petit Journal — whose editor once publicly ridiculed cycling but is now one of its most ardent advocates, with 1,000,000 daily circulation behind him.
- French inventor M. Kleinan of Gonnem has patented a bicycle fitted with small wings that open to use headwinds below the axle and tailwinds above, though The Bearings doubts its practicability due to weight and cumbersome features.
- Mrs. George Rorke of Port Richmond, S.I., fell with her bicycle on a railway crossing directly in the path of an oncoming train; the engineer reversed his engine and blew his whistle in alarm, but Mrs. Rorke calmly arose, picked up her wheel, mounted, and rode away without even looking around.
- A Cycliste Belge writer proposes the French verb 'velociper' for cycling, noting that 'velophobe' has been adopted for a cycle hater, 'velocipedard' or 'cyclard' for an awkward novice, and 'velodrome' or 'cyclodrome' for a race course.
- Race and club-run fixture calendar for late August through October 1892, listing sanctioned meets including the Manhattan A.C. (August 27), Hartford Wheel Club (September 5–6), Springfield tournament (September 14–15), Zig Zag C.C. Indianapolis (September 9–10), Milwaukee Wheelmen (September 10), and Louisville Western Circuit Electric Meet (September 23–30), plus Chicago club runs to Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Fox Lake.
- Gilbert F. Wiese of the Hilliard Cyclometer Co. of Philadelphia, in an unsolicited comment to The Bearings' Buffalo correspondent, called The Bearings the best advertising medium in the country circulating among wheelmen.
- Overview of Detroit's ten bicycle concerns, noting that this year's sales are running five-to-one over last season's driven by extensive asphalt paving, that racing interest is growing, and that Detroit's lady riders — many on air-tired wheels and guarded 'tutor' bicycles — are seen downtown throughout the day.
- Profile of dealer George Hilsendegen at 310 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, who started in January with two bicycles and has sold 600 wheels; five specially built English Centaur 'King of Scorchers' as light as 20 pounds are en route, and he has $40,000 invested in the cycle business with five repairers on staff.
- Huber & Metzger at 13 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, handle Columbia, Hartford, and Hickory wheels with nearly 450 sales including over 200 Columbias; Mr. Metzger is chairman of the Michigan Division racing board and the firm uses a Hickory quadricycle for typewriter deliveries.
- John Sheier, who claims to be the original patentee of the hammock saddle and is pursuing legal recognition, continues building wooden and wire-spoked boneshakers in Detroit used daily on business streets by old men and messenger boys; he also makes spring-frame safeties.
- The Easy Wagon Gear Co. has opened a spacious store at 228 Jefferson Avenue exclusively for the Ames & Frost Co.'s Imperial bicycle, with a riding school upstairs as large as the store; Mr. Jacobson manages the department, which opened August 1.
- Anderson & Co. on asphalted Jefferson Avenue near Woodward Avenue is described as a busy-looking store with a good cycle stock and energetic young staff, though Mr. Anderson was personally absent when The Bearings correspondent called.
- Peterson Brothers at 29 Lafayette Avenue handle the Liberty in Michigan (about 200 sold this year) plus Cricket models made by the Sweeting Co.; former wood-working machinery dealers who took up cycles mid-last-season, they find almost all demand is now for pneumatics.
- Michigan Cycle Co. at 133 Jefferson Avenue, managed by Geo. A. Morrison, handles the Rambler, Rover, and regular Centaur, claims to be Detroit's oldest cycle house (since 1888), and is incorporated with $10,000 stock, doing entirely retail business.
- Rayl & Co. at 112–114 Woodward Avenue claim to do the largest hardware business in Detroit and the largest Western Wheel Works business in the state, exhibiting over a hundred sample wheels — Victor, Credenda, Kenwood, Tourist, Union, and Western Wheel Works lines — with heavy stock ready for shipment to small towns.
- Henry C. Weber & Co. at 116 Woodward Avenue, a ten-floor hardware firm, handles cycles as a side line selling the Humber, Reform, Overland, Queen City, and Monarch; Mr. Weber is becoming personally enthusiastic about riding and keeps a cycle repairer busy.
- This Woodward Avenue hardware firm took on the Irwell, Sanspareil, Niagara, Singer, and Western Wheel Works goods on April 1 and has a small but potentially promising cycle stock; a note adds that the Swift won the diploma of honor at the Scheveningen Exhibition in Holland.
- Mr. Smith of the Indiana Bicycle Co. is erecting a drop-forging plant in Indianapolis to serve the cycle trade with reliable forgings, hiring superintendent Bates from the Buffalo Drop Forge Co. to run it.
- The Phoenix Cycle Company, with $50,000 fully-paid capital, has been formed in Philadelphia to succeed the Sweeting Cycle Company; Charles F. Smith of the Indiana Bicycle Manufacturing Co. is president, E. H. Wilcox of the Stover Bicycle Manufacturing Co. is secretary, and T. Henry Sweeting has been elected general manager.
- Technical explanation of the Crypto geared ordinary's epicyclic hub gear, describing how the stationary centre pinion, small pinions on the crank axle, and phosphor-bronze outer-ring hub interact; all gear teeth are cut from solid steel blanks and case-hardened, and the outer ring is said to wear 'wonderfully well.'
- Reports two Niagara Falls cycle dealers: Gregory & Bowen at 64 Falls Street (Columbia and Hartford, two-to-three years in business, with old-timer Bowen recalling Jersey giant Webber racing on the Star before Zimmerman learned to ride), and the Cataract Wheel & Supply Co. (agents for Victors, Warwicks, and Western Wheel Works goods, with about a dozen wheels sold this season).
- The Bearings staff tested the Worth tandem from the Chicago Bicycle Mfg. Co. over 25 boulevard miles; the convertible spring-frame machine uses a gear-box at the rear hub to synchronise front and rear riders, handled steadily even with a first-time rider up front, and is recommended as a family mount needing only one experienced rider.