The Bearings, Vol 6, No 5
Articles in this issue
- Front-page column signed 'Phoenix' covers Frank Egan's departure to become cycling editor of Sporting Life in New York, profiles G.F. Taylor's character and his 2:11 mile at Springfield, and reports on Carl Hess's murky backstory and the Manhattan Athletic Club's free-admission meet drawing 15,000.
- Humorous column by 'William Twinkle' (Zimmerman's alter ego) uses a grocery-store framing to dissect the amateur vs. professional question, tracing the etymology from Latin and comparing modern racers unfavorably to Alcibiades, who drove seven chariots at Olympia and accepted only an olive wreath.
- Brief items: Horace Bell returns to Chicago; Clements of Paris to show a ten-pound racer at the Stanley Show; a colored cycling club of over 100 members forms in New York; six Cheyenne wheelmen coast Pike's Peak; Iowa Division gains fifty members at the Sioux City meet.
- Satirical catalogue of the most tiresome rider types — sidewalk hogs, badge-collectors, record-predicting bores, and those who always know who will win — closing with the suggestion that W.S. Bull, W.M. Perrett, and L.D. Munger would be naturals in the 'unmitigated nuisance' category.
- Origin story of Zimmerman's competitive career: sent as an afterthought by the Smith Machine Co. of Smithville, N.J. to a Rochester meet in place of regular rider Webber, the tall 'farmer-like boy' won a mile ordinary race from C.J. Conolly and prompted the company to cultivate him as their prize amateur.
- Trotting mare Nancy Hanks lowers her world record to 2:05¼ on the kite-shaped track at Independence, Iowa, with driver Doble coaxing her back through the third quarter before she finished the last furlong into a northwest wind in :31¼ — widening the gap cyclists must close to match equine speed.
- J. Perry Worden returns from a twelve-week bicycle tour of Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland, having sailed second class to Glasgow, cooked much of his own food with a homemade apparatus, and completed the entire journey for under $95 despite persistently bad weather.
- Editorial, at the suggestion of ex-chief consul W. Sheldon Bull, proposes an informal association for cyclists of ten or more years' standing, arguing that veterans' quiet co-operation at future L.A.W. meets could restore the decorum that ribbon-bedecked mobs and badge-begging local committees have driven out.
- Editorial criticises the Racing Board's suspension of Bert Galbraith of Milton and others who raced in good faith at a Williamsport event whose entry blanks explicitly claimed L.A.W. sanction; argues the guilty promoter, not unsuspecting riders, deserves discipline, and calls for a printed 'Sanctioned' legend on all legitimate race advertisements.
- Editorial decries the clashing of dates that put Cleveland, Chicago, and other cities in competition on the same Saturday, scattering the country's best riders and producing slow times; calls on the Racing Board to co-ordinate interstate sanctions so that a proper national circuit can be arranged for 1893.
- Essay tracing the evolution of cycling clubs from half-a-dozen members debating uniform buttons in a member's parlour to organisations with $20,000 club-houses, non-riding 'cigarette dudes,' and club attorneys suing delinquent members for unpaid dues.
- C.W. Hartung reports from Herne Hill and London: J.H. Adams wins the Surrey B.C. 100-mile invitation race in 5:04:18 on a Whitworth safety; R.H. Carlisle rides Edinburgh to London (393 miles) in 32 hours 55 minutes, beating the previous record by over ten hours; the debate over cement track surfaces divides opinion, with G.L. Hillier firmly opposed and riders who have tried Paris's Buffalo track enthusiastically in favour.
- Zimmerman tells an intimate that English competitors in the N.C.U. fifty-mile championship systematically tried to gang up and run him off his legs, with riders taking turns going far ahead to try to distance him — but they failed, leaving him tired but victorious.
- Two-day report on the Chicago C.C. tournament at Parkside before crowds of 2,500 and 4,000: Githens beats Sanger by five yards in the three-mile handicap on Day 1; Lumsden wins the quarter-mile scratch final on Day 2; Ballard is run over the western embankment in the half-mile scratch; twelve-year-old Paul Schimmel of Milwaukee wins the boys' mile in 2:52.
- Chicago C.C. announces a second tournament, October 6-7, on the mile track at Washington Park — the surface on which Nancy Hanks and Hal Pointer recently broke trotting and pacing records — promising it will be the best meet in the West.
- Emil Ulbrecht of the Columbia Wheelmen attempts to beat Charlie Cutting's seven-hour Elgin-Aurora record but manages only 7:13:00 in a stiff east wind, finishing in a very weak condition; the Cook County Wheelmen meanwhile present Cutting with a $100 diamond medal for setting the original mark.
- Report on the Manhattan Athletic Club's second annual meet before some 15,000 at Manhattan Field: G.F. Taylor passes Willie Windle with a big smooth rush to win the quarter-mile, then takes the five-mile Eastern championship in 14:52; Zimmerman was absent in Cleveland, Tyler in Philadelphia.
- At the Montreal Bicycle Club's annual meet before 2,000, E.J.P. Smith of the Toronto Bicycle Club defeats William Hyslop — Canadian five-mile record holder — in the three-mile lap race (8:44) and the two-mile handicap, surprising the crowd with the ease of his victories.
- Cleveland Wheel Club's first-ever tournament: Zimmerman wins every race he enters across both days, his spurts leaving the field appearing to stand still; attendance reaches 2,800 on Saturday; an open grandstand collapses backward without serious injury; Dan Canary performs trick cycling in Friday's downpour.
- Before 3,000 at the Quaker City Wheelmen's meet on Tioga track, W.W. Taxis of Philadelphia defeats H.C. Tyler in both the one-mile record race and the half-mile scratch, raising doubts about Tyler's ability to beat Zimmerman at the approaching Springfield championships.
- Henry Fournier rides 39 kilometres 320 metres in one hour on the Buffalo track in Paris, paced by the city's leading riders and officially timed by Frank Shorland; despite a stitch early on, he completes 25 miles in 61:20, eclipsing all previous records for the distance.
- L.A.W. Racing Board rulings: scratch men must qualify through preliminary heats; suspended riders face further penalties for violations; no Sunday race sanctions will be granted; and the Board recommends abolishing the current national championship system in favour of open championships accessible to all L.A.W. members.
- Preview of the ninth consecutive annual Hartford Wheel Club meet, September 5-6, with Col. Charles L. Burdett as referee and Abbot Bassett as judge; top prize in the mile invitation is a Hallett & Davis cabinet grand piano listed at $1,000, with a Tourist safety and a split-second watch for second and third.
- Mahoning Cycle Club races on a heavy, rain-softened track at Youngstown, Ohio: Zimmerman wins the mile handicap, mile open, and half-mile open, capturing every event he entered.
- Detroit exposition bicycle races on a muddy track: W.C. Sanger of Milwaukee dominates the mile open, three-mile lap, and mile handicap; Zimmerman is unable to contest the final event after a false-start dispute leads him and Johnson to withdraw rather than rerun the race.
- Crescent League Wheelmen's 25-mile handicap road race on the Tanwood-Scotch Plains course draws 22 of 25 starters on a slow, freshly-stoned road; James Willis wins on 8½ minutes' allowance, but scratch man J.R. Hazelton's ride of 1:18:21½ earns the time prize and admiration from 2,500 spectators.
- Notes on gear-selection among leading riders: Campbell tried 60-inch at Asbury, Hess uses 72-inch, Zimmerman is back to 68 on a new Raleigh, and Taylor trained on 64 but rode his 2:11 Springfield mile on 66; the editor concludes that rider build and track condition outweigh any single preferred figure.
- Thomas S.V. Morrison of Clarksburg, W.Va. completes a century on the Elgin-Aurora course without handlebars, performing the unicycle act and standing in the saddle at speed while coasting hills flat-out; the feat, covering nearly 120 miles in fourteen hours, is attested by ten named witnesses.
- William H. Caldwell of Columbus, S.C. and William A. Winn, champion contortion bicyclist from Raleigh, N.C., depart Charleston's Battery for San Francisco, hoping to reach the Pacific in seventy days via Atlanta, Memphis, Arkansas, and the Southwest; 200 Charleston wheelmen escort them for the first ten miles.
- Detailed trade survey of Buffalo's cycle industry: the Buffalo Cycle Works is filling sulky-wheel orders at thirty sets per day; the Buffalo Wheel Co. (Niagara) is retooling for 3,000 wheels in four gears; the Buffalo Tricycle Co. employs fifty men; G.N. Pierce & Co. sells the Queen City wheel; and the Standard Cycle Co. reports $130,000 in sales to August 1, with visits to five retail agencies on Cycle Row.
- Editorial argues that manufacturers should station rental agencies at high-traffic tourist destinations such as Niagara Falls, stocking the latest pneumatic-tired machines; notes that only solid-tired wheels are currently available there, and that a prospective buyer who tries a fine machine at a beautiful location is very likely to purchase one.
- Preview of expected 1893 British bicycle designs: Humber-pattern bottom bracket and Carter gear-case to see wider adoption; weight reductions concentrated on racers; aluminium opens speculative possibilities; the unresolved tire question means most makers will build frames only during the dead season, deferring decisions until after the Stanley Show.
- Technical letter by 'Sandy Hook' arguing that the chain sprocket belongs on the right side, nearest the right foot's greater power application, for steadier revolution, reduced axle twist, and easier hands-off riding — directly rebutting 'Nibs,' who had argued for the left.
- Miscellaneous trade notes: the Moffat Cycle Co.'s successor retains Ed Bode; Raleigh wins every event at Isle of Man racing; Ames & Frost receives an order for 500 Imperial wheels for Fort Worth covering the entire state of Kansas; Monarch Cycle Co. ships 1,200 wheels against a planned 500; Colonel Pope passes through Chicago from the Pacific Coast.