The Bearings, Vol 6, No 6
Articles in this issue
- Henry Crowther's departure from Sporting Life is attributed to management pressure to become a traveling solicitor for cycle advertisements; he is reported to have joined Bicycling World as de facto editor.
- Regular humorous column from the fictional Johnson's Corners Cavorters club: the narrator recounts a failed 24-hour record attempt, a grand club testimonial reception featuring a gas-stove gift, a 192-mile record by John Johnson, and speculation on Zimmerman's Springfield readiness.
- Humorous anecdote about Dublin cyclist Mr. Wayte, arrested by a constable of the Dublin Metropolitan Police who repeatedly mistook his surname for an instruction to "wait" and marched him to the station before the superintendent could explain.
- Editorial asserting that The Bearings pioneered color printing, proper illustration, camera coverage of race meets, and fearless reporting in American cycling journalism, and that rival papers have been slow to learn.
- Two-day race report from the Zig Zag C.C.'s meet in Indianapolis: C.W. Davis of the Chicago C.C. sets a new world quarter-mile competitive record from a standing start in :32½; W.C. Marmon wins the mile open on both days, with C.P. Root injured in a pedal-slip crash.
- Comic poem parodying Tennyson's "The Brook," depicting scorching cyclists tearing through countryside over bridges and ridges, annoying farmers, and ultimately delivering burst tires to the roadside repairer who "smiles, the heartless waiter."
- Survey of the past week's record-breaking, ranking the nation's top riders as Zimmerman, Windle, Taylor, Tyler, Berlo, G.C. Smith, and Sanger; Zimmerman alone lowered the half-mile, three-quarter, and mile competitive records.
- Major editorial arguing that rapid growth of cycle racing has made existing LAW rules inadequate; proposes a national racing circuit to end chaotic scheduling, fairer suspension rules for unwitting competitors, delegation of county-fair sanctions to division boards, and standardized judging and timing procedures.
- Humorous fiction reprinted from the Irish Cyclist: raconteur M'Gliblip tells of "old Blumold," who on a train encounters a cycling fanatic obsessed with a chronically leaky trike, who escapes his attendant, mistakes Blumold for a flat tire, and attempts to inflate him with a pump until Blumold faints.
- Short humorous anecdote from the Kansas City Star about a girl who puts her jeweler-warranted watch through the laundry and disputes the repair charge on the grounds that "I've had it only about a week."
- Detailed two-day race report from the Hartford, Conn. meet: Zimmerman defeats Windle, Tyler, and Taylor in the mile invitation; sets new three-quarter-mile (1:46 1-5) and half-mile (1:01 4-5) records; George C. Smith breaks the world's standing quarter in :31 1-5; full results for both days including class, handicap, and Connecticut riders' events.
- Account of social events surrounding the Hartford meet: wheel parade with Pope's band, a hop at the Foot Guard's Armory attended by nearly 800 guests, and a dinner at the United States Hotel hosted by Col. Pope, Dave Post, and W.C. Marion with speeches by Neil Burgess and Councilman Oakey.
- Preview of the Maryland Club's September 21 race meet offering $2,000 in prizes—including a piano, three pneumatic safeties, diamonds, and gold watches—with the goal of breaking the world's mile record on Baltimore's track.
- Narrative race report from Birmingham, Conn.: Zimmerman breaks world three-quarter (1:46 2-5) and mile competitive records (2:19 3-5); in a dramatic mile handicap final, 18-year-old A.W. Warren of Hartford still led by fifteen feet with forty feet to go before Zimmerman surged past; Tyler's 1:06 3-5 half-mile the best on the sandy track; approximately 3,000 attended.
- Street-car interview with W.W. Windle in Hartford: he admits suffering stage fright early in his season and confesses that racing has cost him the simple enjoyment of road cycling since settling down, marrying, and building a house in Milbury.
- Windle's Turn. He Turned the Tables on Tyler at Rockville, on his New Wheel—Zimmerman Was not There.Race report from Rockville, Conn.: Windle on his new 22-pound Columbia beats Tyler by two lengths in the half-mile and one length in the mile open before 6,000 spectators; Tyler wins a rerun mile that Windle does not contest and finishes second in the mile handicap in the remarkable time of 2:21 3-5.
- Report from the Passaic A.C.'s meet at Clifton, N.J.: Zimmerman starts from scratch in a field of nearly sixty opponents on marks up to 200 yards and rides the fastest competition mile ever in 2:19 flat; he also defeats Taylor and Berlo in the two-mile scratch race; racing men express dissatisfaction at long delays between events.
- Feature on Julian P. Bliss of the Chicago C.C. who, while training at Columbus paced by Lumsden, Van Sicklen, and Rhodes, rode a sensational 2:13 2-5 mile and then won the mile-and-a-half handicap by twenty yards in 3:36 3-5 and the two-mile scratch race over Berlo and Taylor.
- At noon in Springfield, Mass., Zimmerman breaks Berlo's two-mile record by eleven seconds, riding 4:37 2-5 with Wells, Nelson, and Banker pacing successive half-miles; timed by Robinson, Shean, and McGarrett.
- Two-day report from the Columbian Cycling tournament in Columbus, Ohio: Sanger wins the half-mile and mile open on day one while Lumsden and Bliss also excel; on day two Berlo wins the piano race and the mile handicap in 2:19 2-5, within two-fifths of Zimmerman's competition record; a record attempt ends in a crash when Dorntge impedes the field.
- Race report from the Syracuse Athletic Association's seventh annual meet where W.W. Taxis came from Philadelphia expecting to sweep prizes but local riders gave him stiff competition; a recovering Billy Murphy officiates as referee from the judges' stand.
- London correspondent C.W. Hartung reports: S.F. Edge wins the Ripley Road Club's invitation 100-mile race then marries Miss Sharpe; Von Koppelow and Schutte of the Bath Road Club break the English tandem flying-quarter record in :31 3-5 at Herne Hill; a Dutch team defeats the Catford C.C. for the second time in a rainy autumn festival.
- Report on the relay bicycle race carrying General Ordway's message from the U.S. Capitol to the Pittsburgh Leader: the Washington Military Cycle Company handled the first leg to Frederick, Md., but time was lost at each subsequent relay and the message arrived five hours late in 29:19:36.
- Race report from the Union County Roadsters' annual meet at Rahway, N.J.: George C. "Riverside" Smith was the advertised drawing card before approximately 5,000 spectators; Berlo failed to appear despite his promise, and N.R. Titsworth crashed in the quarter-mile heats.
- Joseph Ketchum of the Long Island Wheelmen, who accompanied Zimmerman through Europe, claims that the champion's distinctive horn-like hair is a reliable barometer of his racing fitness: erect horns predict a win, drooping ones predict a loss.
- Department covering upcoming meets and miscellaneous news: W.A. Rhodes joins the Chicago C.C.; Jack Prince claims a :30 1-5 professional flying quarter at Decatur; Marriott and Briggs lower the London-to-York tricycle record to 15:20:00; Teddy Oxborrow lowers the professional mile record to 2:21 3-5 at Coventry paced by three riders.
- Report on the Century Road Club of America's second annual century run over the Elgin-Aurora course: 207 started, 166 finished; Miss Hattie Bicker led all six lady starters by completing the century in 11½ hours on a stripped wheel with drop handlebars, accompanied by William Neyenesch of the C.C.W.
- Profile of Oscar Lappe of Pittsburgh, returning after a 15-month cycling tour through Europe, Africa (to the Nile Cataract, where he strapped his wheel to a mule), and Palestine and Syria (with a Bedouin chief as protection); he gained ten pounds and rates Napoleon's Swiss roads the finest in the world for distance riding.
- Champion Klipfel and H.C. Wagner of Buffalo complete a 200-mile double century to Erie and back in a record 20 hours 30 minutes, fifty minutes faster than the previous best; it was Klipfel's seventeenth century and third double.
- Editorial rebutting The Referee's claim to pre-eminence: The Bearings reaches 8,000 readers vs. The Referee's 2,100 and carries more American advertising pages; includes an unsolicited testimonial from Sercombe-Bolte noting inquiries from every state in the union.
- The interests of L.K. McClymonds and D.W. Blanchard in the Sercombe-Bolte Mfg. Co. of Milwaukee have been purchased by Casper M. Sanger, John S. George, and Frank J. Kipp; Sanger—a former Milwaukee sheriff and lumber dealer—becomes president.
- Detailed trade feature on the Niagara Machine Co. of Buffalo, soon to operate twelve-ton circular grinders capable of 100,000 pedal balls per run; describes the full process from forged steel rods through grinding, polishing, tempering, and final precision sorting by a room of young women using watchmaker's gauges to detect 2/1000ths of an inch variation.
- Profiles of two Pope Mfg. Co. field agents: W.A. Shockley, who began cycling in 1886 with the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, won California safety championships in 1889, and toured Europe in 1891; and Frederick W. Starr of Newington, Conn., formerly head bookkeeper at the Pope plant in Hartford.
- Comprehensive race report from Springfield's second day: Tyler breaks the world's standing-mile record in 2:08 4-5, paced by the Murphy brothers' triplet, Taxis, and Nelson, before 9,000 spectators and Governor Russell; Zimmerman wins the invitation race and a buckboard-and-horses prize; Springfield Club profits estimated at $45,000.