The Bearings, Vol 7, No 23
Articles in this issue
- J. P. Bliss of Chicago twice defeated John S. Johnson of Syracuse in the one-mile open and won the two-mile handicap at the Ohio Division L.A.W. meet in Sandusky on July 4; the Ohio Division annual meeting re-elected all officers and reported membership of 2,931.
- C. H. Peck of the Englewood Cycling Club won the Fourth Annual Poorman Road Race in Cincinnati from the 4:30 mark in 53:41, while E. A. McDuffee rode from scratch to earn the time prize in 52:26, then swept the open track events at Chester Park in the afternoon.
- L.A.W. Racing Board chairman H. E. Raymond denies W. J. Morgan's fabricated story that Johnson threatened to leave the L.A.W. unless reinstated, and Johnson's own telegram from Sarnia confirms he asked no favors of the N.C.A. and made no threats; Tom Eck also failed to steer Johnson toward the rival organization.
- Emil Ulbricht of the Chicago Road Wheelmen won the time prize at the Milwaukee-to-Waukesha road race in a course record 46:54, while Fred Nessel nearly died swerving into a ditch to avoid a C. M. & St. P. train at Wauwatosa; Chicago riders were poorly handicapped and effectively shut out of prizes by the Milwaukee Wheelmen's handicapper Patitz.
- The first annual Colorado Division L.A.W. meet at Greeley on July 4 saw W. W. Hamilton dominate, winning the one-mile state championship in 2:29 4-5, the 2:40 class, and the half-mile open, though disqualified in the two-mile for crossing hands-off; two Denver riders suffered their wheels being shot at by outlaws near Evans.
- The editor rebukes British Sport for claiming English riders lost the N.C.U. mile championship to Sanger because they could not train without suspicion of professionalism, pointing out that English records had just been broken and the men lacked nothing in fitness.
- Editorial urges the Racing Board to require riders to wear conspicuous numbered armbands and to race in distinctive personal colors, as jockeys do, so that spectators can identify competitors throughout the race rather than only after they cross the tape.
- Editorial criticizes the Milwaukee Wheelmen for allegedly misdirecting Chicago visitors over the Waukesha course and for handicapper Patitz's one-sided marking, warning that the fragile diplomatic truce between the two rival cycling cities is now in danger.
- Frank Bowden, Managing Director of Raleigh Cycle Co. in Nottingham, flatly refutes N.C.U. charges that his firm paid Zimmerman to ride their machine, detailing that each party paid his own expenses on all European trips, and blaming the license refusal on petty retaliation by E. B. Turner and G. Lacy Hillier.
- As Zimmerman boarded his steamer home from England, he told an English newspaper correspondent that the N.C.U.'s refusal to grant him an unconditional license was pure spite from Hillier and the N.C.U. for his refusal to abandon the Raleigh machine and for taking his own business management in hand.
- At the two-day L.A.W. meet in Sarnia on July 3-4, Johnson dominated the open events both days though crowds were thin because Sanger and Zimmerman failed to appear; W. Hyslop of Toronto swept the Canadian national championship events including the mile, five-mile, and three-mile titles.
- The Rockford Cycling Club's July 4 meet produced a surprise when newcomer George L. Emerson of the Englewood Cycling Club beat veterans Barrett and Davis in both the quarter-mile and five-mile open (15:22) racing into a hurricane headwind; about 500 visiting wheelmen attended the evening smoker.
- The Norwalk Wheel Club's first annual ten-mile handicap road race drew 5,000 spectators; F. C. Hoyt of Bridgeport beat host member W. A. Gunther by six inches after Gunther eased up five feet from the tape, while J. B. Perry earned the time medal in 29:53 1-2.
- Harry C. Wheeler of the Kings County Wheelmen dominated both days of the National Cycling Association's inaugural cash-prize meet at Manhattan Field on July 3-4, winning every event entered and collecting over $1,125 in prizes, while old-line professionals Crocker and Rowe were outpaced.
- London correspondent A. W. Hartung defends the N.C.U. licensing committee's handling of the Zimmerman case as consistent and fearless, while noting that Raleigh's prominent advertising of Zimmerman's name likely provoked the conditional refusal; separately reports that the San Francisco Bicycle Club, oldest cycling organization in California, is about to dissolve, and notes the death of cyclist A. A. Bouton.
- Humorous vignette in which an Illinois farmer named Joe Higgins visits the bicycle exhibit in the Transportation Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, watches a puncture repaired on the spot, and declares he will mortgage the farm to buy one for his son George.
- Paris correspondent Albert G. Roux reports that the N.C.U. has officially recognized U.V.F. amateur licenses for international races; covers Nicodemi's new 25-mile world road record of 1:11:36 1-5 from Blois, French champion Stéphane's 24-hour attempt from Bordeaux, and Italian champions Cassignard and Medinger's victories in Milan.
- The Kentucky L.A.W. division annual meet at Harrodsburg was marked by lavish hospitality but enlivened by Chief Consul Watts's report that President Burdette had charged the division with violating its L.A.W. contract by publishing its own official organ; E. H. Croninger of Covington was nominated as chief consul and Owensboro accepted as the 1894 host.
- First paper of architect Edward H. Elwell Jr.'s cycling tour narrative covering the opening days of a 1892 trip with twenty-three colleagues through the treeless Picardy plateau to the medieval fortress at Courcy-le-Château, with comic episodes including a nine-course French dinner interrupted by compulsory police registration forms.
- London correspondent C. W. Hartung gives a heat-by-heat account of Walter Sanger winning the N.C.U. one-mile safety championship at Herne Hill on June 17 on a 21-lb wood-rim machine with a last quarter of 28 4-5 seconds; also covers the N.C.U. council meeting at Newcastle, A. J. Watson's five-mile championship, and the England-Scotland team race at Gosforth.
- The Kings County Wheelmen's twelfth annual tournament at Eastern Park's new quarter-mile track saw W. W. Windle run away from the field in the half-mile scratch and Wheeler compete in his final amateur appearance; a disputed scoring decision cost Wheeler the five-mile race, and a rash of crashes left several riders injured including one carried off by ambulance with a head wound.
- Boston L.A.W. correspondent reports Massachusetts wheelmen are united against President Burdette after director Post publicly charged him with aiding the anti-pool bill's passage; Massachusetts is expected to push for a constitutional limit on executive committee powers at the special National Assembly.
- The Lynn Cycling and Athletic Association meet at Glenmere track produced a sensational third-mile open won in 47 seconds, with McDuffee, Gary, and surprise novice Saunders of the Union Bicycle Club finishing within a yard of each other.
- Maiden B.C. swept both divisions of the Boston-area Inter-Club Team Road Race, winning the unlimited class and the 1:30 class; the unlimited class inadvertently ran a course 1¼ miles short of the intended distance.
- Comprehensive tables list current American track records in competition and against time for distances from the quarter-mile flying start to ten miles, and road records from ten to twenty-five miles, with record-holders including Zimmerman, Windle, Sanger, Taylor, and Hurlburt through July 5, 1893.
- At the Columbia Cycle Club's July 4 tournament in Hartford, Walter Sanger won the one-mile handicap from scratch in 2:14 3-5 — a new world competition record — with a final quarter of 28 2-5 seconds; E. A. Nelson set a new world starting quarter-mile record of 30 2-5 seconds on the same day.
- At the Tourist Wheelmen's second annual meet in Paterson, N.J., Zimmerman won four events and set a new quarter-mile standing-start record of 30 3-4 seconds, though E. A. Nelson bettered it the same afternoon at Hartford with 30 2-5.
- At the Press Cycling Club's meet at Waltham, George F. Taylor beat W. W. Windle by six inches in the invitation diamond mile and set a track record; the meet drew over 10,000 paid admissions, one of the largest cycling crowds ever recorded in Massachusetts.
- Arthur A. Zimmerman won all four events at the New Jersey Division L.A.W. meet in Trenton on July 6, capturing the half-mile, one-mile, five-mile, and ten-mile division championships; Taxis won the open mile event.
- Trade columnist 'BOLAV' argues the bicycle industry's price-cutting crisis was caused by undercapitalized, poorly managed manufacturers who attracted outside capital with exaggerated profit claims, leaving the trade saddled with old stock and exhausted credit; solid makers like Hartford Cycle Co. will survive while purveyors of inferior goods face ruin.
- Race calendar listing upcoming meets for July through September 1893, including the Illinois division and National L.A.W. meet in Chicago (August 7-12), the Milwaukee Wheelmen's international circuit meet, and the Springfield B.C. tournament (September 12-13); also notes a new rubber water-bag for road racers invented by W. G. Gibson of Winston, N.C.
- List of eleven recently granted U.S. patents for bicycle-related inventions — including saddles, tires, frames, chain drives, luggage carriers, and mudguards — as reported by patent attorney W. E. Aughinbaugh of Washington, D.C.