The Bearings, Vol 6, No 7
Articles in this issue
- A touching vignette of a care-worn working woman slowly counting out $75 for a cushion-tired bicycle for her ten-year-old son, illustrating the self-sacrifice of working-class parents for their children's cycling dreams.
- Anecdote about J. Perry Worden's $95 three-month European cycling trip, during which he lunched with the Lord Mayor of London and spent two days as a guest of Gladstone at Hawarden purely through honest self-introduction.
- Lament that race crowds, grown too knowledgeable about pacemaking, no longer cheer spontaneously—only a Zimmerman or a local favorite like Taxis of Philadelphia can still rouse the grand stand to genuine vocal enthusiasm.
- Advocacy piece urging desk-bound cyclists to keep riding into the September harvest season, arguing the crisp air and vari-colored woods offer health compensation most riders neglect once summer ends.
- William Twinkle's humor column argues for Sunday opening of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago so farm workers who labor six days a week can attend, illustrated with Irish journalist friend Cahill's disappointment at a Washington cycling crowd that argues loudly but never comes to blows.
- Miscellaneous items: George Hendee praises The Bearings; Illinois C.C. presents its president a watch charm; Belgian military cyclists achieve 62-mile daily marches; Columbia Wheelmen spend $700 furnishing their new clubhouse; Tourist Wheelmen of Omaha elect officers.
- Nostalgic poem reprinted from Bicycling News about a rust-covered old 52-inch ordinary bicycle gathering dust and spiders under the stairs, once perhaps ridden by an Ede or Osmond, now valued at fifteen shillings to a tender youth who answers the advertisement.
- The whimsical bill of fare from a post-tournament supper hosted by Charles L. Burdett and Hartford cycling notables, with pun-laden dishes including 'Consomme dead Royle,' 'Roman Punch,' and a finale of Charlotte Russe and vanilla ice cream.
- Feature on the English cyclists' annual Harrogate tent-life camp: the nightly clearing of the field by a human chain of campers, fireworks at Spa Gardens, and the farewell of the Australian contingent carried shoulder-high to his machine before a social lasting until 6 a.m. (reprinted from Cyclist).
- Profile of Pope Company starter Asa Windle's push-off technique—left hand on the handlebar, right grasping the saddle, body swung far forward with a tremendous lunge that launches rider and machine off the line before the trigger is pulled.
- Editorial analyzing Zimmerman's 1892 season pattern of starting poorly then peaking after months of grueling racing travel, drawing on nervous energy past nausea, his face still clear-eyed and his confidence expressed directly: 'I know dam well I can' beat 2:06 4-5.
- Skeptical editorial on L.A.W. president Colonel Burdett's undisclosed remedy for the prize controversy—not cash prizes—arguing the drift toward value is unstoppable and warning that wealthy baseball magnates are contemplating a professional cycling circuit.
- Proposal to form an association of cyclists with ten or more years of L.A.W. membership, with supportive letters from Frank Egan, John Blake of Gormully & Jeffery, and H.G. Rouse of Peoria (League number 6), plus Secretary Bassett preparing a 'Veteran' bar for qualifying badges.
- Springfield correspondence from the editor recounting a Hartford conversation with rival paper The Wheel's proprietor Prial, who claims not to read competing papers yet keeps adopting Bearings innovations in illustration, colored-ink advertising, and relay-ride promotion.
- Comprehensive survey of bicycle use in European armies from Italy's 1875 trials at Somma through France's 1892 adoption of 3,000 regimental and staff cyclists, covering qualification requirements, uniform, extra pay, and the consensus that cyclists serve best as dispatch riders rather than combatants.
- Critique of the hunched 'monkey-on-a-gridiron' riding position spreading from London to Dublin, quoting the Irish Cyclist's condemnation and prescribing a saddle no more than eleven inches behind the crank-axle with handles raised for an upright seat.
- Humorous pastiche in Pepys' diary style recounting a bicycle tour from Pangbourne through Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon ('wherein one of them was reputed born Mr. W. Shakespeare'), and on to Bromsgrove by moonlight, with a lost cap on a descent and a wayside inn bill of ninepence (reprinted from Cycle Record).
- Racing Board western member W.C. Thorne rules that a Milwaukee amateur who inadvertently raced near a professional sprinter incurred no suspension, as handicappers have no duty to question the amateur status of entries submitted by authorized parties.
- Brief note that the ordinary bicycle, now practically unsaleable, fetches six to eight dollars from repairers who strip parts from it to graft onto ailing cheap safety bicycles.
- Profile of C.L. Rierson of San Antonio, first secretary-treasurer of the Texas Division L.A.W., first Century Road Club man in Texas, and organizer of the Adams Wheelmen, with club memberships across the country.
- Comprehensive multi-day feature on the Springfield, Mass. tournament: Zimmerman sets a flying mile world record of 2:06 4-5 eclipsing trotting mare Nancy Hanks' mark, Windle clocks 1:00 1-5 for the half-mile, and on Thursday Zimmerman goes stale losing the mile invitation to Tyler (Windle second, Taylor fourth) while Taylor sets a new mile competitive record of 2:15 2-5 before a crowd of 7,000.
- French cyclist Stephane rides 421 miles and 437 yards on the Paris cement track in twenty-four hours, breaking Englishman F.W. Shorland's record of 413 miles by over seven miles.
- John S. Johnson of Minneapolis rides a quarter-mile flying start over the kite-shaped track at Independence, Iowa in 27 2-5 seconds, with plans to attempt all records up to one mile that week.
- New York Sun interview with trotting authority Robert Bonner, who calls Zimmerman's 2:06 4-5 'simply wonderful,' explains that pneumatic sulky wheels are three to five seconds faster without tiring horses, and reveals he is having 36- and 48-inch test pneumatic wheels built by the Bidwell Cycle Company for trials at his White Plains track.
- Announcement of the September 27 Peoria cycling tournament with ten races and $2,494 in prizes, headlined by a one-mile open with a rosewood Kroeger grand piano worth $900 as first prize, with the Peoria Bicycle Club hosting an old-time smoker and the Mackay System offering half-fares on the Western circuit.
- London correspondent C.W. Hartung covers Syd Begbie and H. Arnold's wind-assisted tandem tricycle record of 2:19:09 for fifty miles, the Herne Hill autumn meeting where A.W. Harris wins the mile scratch, the forthcoming Stanley Show at Islington's Agricultural Hall, and W.C. Jones' plans to attack safety records.
- Western Racing Board member W.C. Thorne warns amateurs against Ludwell Cox of Abingdon, Ill., declared a professional, who has written threatening to 'knife the League' and disrupt racing by any means available.
- George Taylor defeats W.W. Windle three times at the Boston meet—including the mile special piano race in 2:41—while McDuffie also beats Windle in the piano race; Zimmerman is absent after being called to the A.A.U. games in New York.
- Toledo, Ohio race meet draws 2,000 despite threatening weather; A.L. Baker of Columbus dominates, winning the one-mile open (2:33), the half-mile open, and the three-mile lap race (8:57 1-2).
- Columbia Wheelmen's ten-mile Chicago road race won by H.L. Nelson (3:30 handicap), with Fred Nessel and Emil Ulbricht both clocking a course-record 30:21 on scratch out of 60 starters; all 52 finishers receive prizes, the last man a leather medal.
- Zimmerman breaks Osmond's three-, four-, and five-mile flying records at Springfield on September 8 (five miles in 12:12 2-5), while Banker and Hess lower the mile tandem record to 2:14 4-5 the same afternoon.
- John S. Johnson wins nearly all events at the Minnesota Division meet at Winona; Secretary Gregory reports a membership increase of 144 and a treasury balance of $237.33; rain ends the third day's program early.
- Canton, Ohio Bicycle Club runs thirteen postponed Labor Day races under fifty electric lights on a Saturday night track, with local riders W.C. Oberly, Ernest Gardner, and L.H. Bannister of Youngstown among the winners.
- Third biennial tournament of the St. Johns Wheelmen in Michigan features over 100 wheels in parade and a novel farmers' race open only to agricultural workers who had never won a prize, with R. Loomis of Lansing winning the sixteen-mile road race and the one-mile novice.
- Tom Jefferis wins the time prize in the Lexington-to-Paris, Kentucky road race from scratch in 47:48 for sixteen miles—an average of 2:57 per mile—beating Max Wilson in time by two minutes despite finishing twelfth on corrected order.
- R.E. Patterson lowers the Texas one-mile state record to 2:56 3-4 before 6,000 spectators at Galveston, with results from six events including a boys' half-mile and a slow race won by Parker of Waco.
- Frank Waller of Stockton, California trains for a 24-hour record attempt starting September 17, having ridden thirty miles in 1:30:00 without a stop, with plans to rest only thirty minutes total and be paced by state crack riders.
- First California circuit meet at Alameda draws 2,000 spectators; L.S. Upson of Sacramento lowers the mile ordinary record to 2:45 2-5 and George Osen of San Jose sets a new two-mile safety record of 5:24.
- A large crowd sees an indifferent track produce poor time at Kalamazoo, Mich., with Caselton, Bradford, Flansburg and Casterlin dividing the mile, half-mile and three-mile handicaps among Battle Creek and Kalamazoo riders.
- The third annual Davenport Fair and Exposition tournament sees Will Schmidt take the county championship, Oscar Kobs win the novice and 3:30 class, Fred H. Clifford of Muscatine sweep the half- and quarter-mile dashes, and Carl C. Schmidt win the three-mile handicap.
- Manhattan Athletic Club announces a day-long sports carnival with cycle races, tennis, baseball, lacrosse, football, shooting, and swimming, to conclude with an evening cycling parade by the Riverside Wheelmen, Harlem Wheelmen, Manhattan Bicycle Club, and Kings County Wheelmen.
- At Herne Hill, Leslie Newland and J. Wass set new tandem records from 41 to 50 miles (fifty miles in 2:28:23) before a heavy wind forces them to stop; Von Koppelow and Schultz also lower the flying quarter-mile tandem record to 31 3-5 seconds.
- Waterloo Bicycle Club's first road race—Waterloo to Cedar Falls and return, sixteen miles—won by H.R. Hilsinger with a fourteen-minute handicap in 1:13:00 1-5, with scratch man J.R. Cheesbro two and a quarter minutes behind.
- F. Howard Harvey of the Chesapeake Wheelmen rides to 35 miles at Baltimore while attempting a 100-mile track record, setting new local marks for 10 miles (30:53) and 25 miles (1:20:54) before abandoning the longer effort.
- The Warren A. C., of Wilmington, Md., joins the Wilmington Wheel Club to stage a meet and 25-mile road race at Hazel Dell Park on Saturday, October 1, billed as the largest race meet Wilmington has held.
- The Illinois Cycling Club's annual ten-mile road race over the West Side course will debut Chicago's first sealed handicap, with all riders starting together and the winner unannounced until hours after the finish.
- Rainy weather forces postponement of the Milwaukee and St. Paul race meets, with the Milwaukee events rescheduled for the following day.
- The Century C. C. of Syracuse explains that its riders won no track races at a recent meet because only one member entered, and he rode only the novice event, the club having concentrated on road work instead.
- The Rover C. C.'s first annual road race at Pueblo, Colo., over a 21-mile course is won by H. E. Dickson from the eleven-minute mark, with W. W. Hamilton second and F. L. Cuddeback third.
- D.L. Burke of Los Angeles breaks the California one-mile coast record at the Riverside meet, lowering it to 2:33 2-5; C. Shoemaker wins the accompanying eighteen-and-a-quarter-mile road race in 1:01:20.
- The Wanderers Bicycle Club of Toronto announces a large race meet on the Rosedale track for the 24th, barring Wells, Nash, Hyslop, Smith, Carman and Palmer from the team race.
- Associated Cycling Clubs of Chicago votes 8-2 to reject the Chicago Colored Cycling Club's membership application despite a favorable committee report; president R.J.B. Ellington vows legal action if necessary, and English cycling journalist G. Lacy Hillier writes to assure the club that no color bar exists in British cycling and English clubs would welcome their racing or touring teams.
- Louisville City Court Judge Thompson dismisses charges against Dr. H.W. Hendricks, who drove his horse into cyclists W.C. Furras and N.F. Martine on the Third Street Boulevard on July 4, ruling the doctor shared the general public misapprehension that traffic ordinances did not apply to the boulevard.
- Ten Melbourne clubs enter a road race series for premiership honors; a cycling deputation fails to reduce the 27.5% bicycle import duty; and E. Elliott, the fastest racing man in Australia, dies of typhoid—his funeral attended by over 200 wheelmen walking with their wheels.
- Chicago wheelmen plan a fall trip October 1 via St. Louis and the hilly DeSoto road to the Jacksonville, Illinois Western circuit tournament on October 3-4; riders to contact L.J. Ollier or F. Ed. Spooner for reduced railroad rates.
- Survey of Rochester, N.Y. cycling clubs: the Rochester Athletic Association is building a three-lap banked cinder track; the Genesee B.C. just admitted 32 applicants to reach 150 members; and the Lake View Wheelmen with 130 business-men members is the most sociable club in the city.
- Chief centurion William Herrick enforces the rule requiring a continuous ride in the annual century run, disqualifying over a dozen riders including Misses Peterson and McConnell who took the train partway and finished on the boulevards.
- Harry J. Cassady of Chicago firm Thorsen & Cassady coasts down Pike's Peak, finding the stretch from Ute Pass to Manitou Springs the hardest portion due to teams blocking the road.
- The Riverside Wheelmen of New York elect fourteen new members and fill vacated posts, naming E. J. Day captain, E. C. Potter second lieutenant, A. R. Barry third lieutenant, and former captain E. A. Powers to the board of trustees.
- J.M. ('Pop') Worden organizes the Remington Wheelmen in New York, with G.B. Mendes, George G. Scott, M.B. Macfarlane, and W.I. Findley among charter members; Worden also leads the piano contest after F.W. Becker of the Riverside Wheelmen withdraws.
- Roland Hewitt, chief clerk of the district post-office department at Atlantic City, N. J., and the fastest cyclist in the city, is arrested on a charge of robbing the mails just a month before his planned wedding.
- An Imperial safety, No. 4,915, is stolen from Bay City, Mich., with a fifty-dollar reward offered through chief of police Murphy, while an Irwell safety rented from C. J. Conolly of Rochester, N. Y., is never returned.
- The Akron B. C.'s lantern parade, set for September 21 at Akron, O., is expected to draw participating clubs from Cleveland and Canton.
- C. D. Hill, of the Moffat Cycle Co.'s successors, writes to THE BEARINGS crediting the paper's advertising with far exceeding expectations, having drawn 293 replies from just two insertions.
- Eclipse Bicycle Co. moves its entire plant from Indianapolis to a former Beaver Falls, Pa. cutlery factory with water-wheel-driven machinery and nearly 100,000 square feet of floor space, targeting mid-October to begin production on new-design 1893 wheels.
- Cycle Manufacturers' Protection Association votes at Coventry to hold a trade-managed London exhibition in early 1893—stands allocated by ballot, profits shared proportionally among exhibitors—entirely distinct from the Stanley Show in November.
- Chicago cycle dealer Spooner-Peterson Co. closes after a dull season; backer L. Danziger returns to law practice, K.F. Peterson pursues a World's Fair scheme, and Ed. Spooner continues cycling correspondence.
- Yost Manufacturing formally opens its new Dorr Street, Toledo factory on September 6, with the three-year-old daughter of J.L. Yost starting the engine; E.W. Tolerton addresses the 35 employees and stockholder guests.
- Profile of the New Departure Bell Co. of Bristol, Conn., supplying over forty principal cycle trade firms with its durably made rotary gong bells; proprietor Rockwell reveals a new patented model still in the patent lawyers' hands that will be 'a revelation in its line.'
- Edwin Oliver leaves the Lozier Company to open his own Cleveland business at 5 Livingston Street, handling the Sunol bicycle east of the Mississippi, Garford saddles east of Elyria, and Winton wheels east of the Pacific Ocean—strictly wholesale.
- H.J. Hall Jr., formerly with Rudge, Metropolitan Hardware, and the Ormonde Cycle Co., joins the Raleigh Cycle Co. as their traveling representative.
- Morgan & Wright of Chicago build a large addition to their tire factory to handle increased Eastern orders, having manufactured 17,500 pairs of pneumatic tires and many tons of cushion tires in the 1892 season.
- The Goodyear Rubber Co. introduces a washable bicycle towel for cleaning wheels, described as very useful to wheelmen.
- Trade department: Shorland joins Crypto Cycle Co.; new Sanger Racer (26½ lbs.) from Sercombe-Bolte of Milwaukee; Henry Fournier's record ride on a 22-pound Humber; new Bolte clincher pneumatic tire requiring no cement; Taylor Cycle Co.'s 28-pound Psycho in excess demand; Kirk Brown moves from Philadelphia to manufacture pneumatic tires in Boston; and other industry notes.