The Bearings, Vol 8, No 24
Articles in this issue
- Williams rides 428½ miles in 24 hours at a Paris race on December 24–25, beating Shorland's record by two miles; A. V. Linton makes his professional debut but withdraws after the sixth hour after rivals force the pace to exhaust him.
- San Francisco cycling report: the Alameda Bicycle and Athletic Club plans a new three-lap track, Otto Ziegler of the San Jose Road Club prepares for Midwinter Fair races, and the California Midwinter International Exposition arranges bicycle storage in Bicycle Hall.
- Charlie Murphy has covered 8,004 miles since October, riding alongside Frank Waller during Waller's six-day training, in pursuit of the Kings County Wheelmen and New York Athletic Club long-distance medals.
- Boston correspondent reports a lively cycling social scene, optimism for the 1894 season, and a heated associated-clubs dispute over a dividend proposal advanced by the Union Bicycle Club to benefit clubs it was negotiating to absorb.
- London correspondent C. W. Hartung covers the Kilburn Ramblers' Christmas one-mile handicap, R. L. Jefferson's planned London-to-Constantinople tour for The Wheeler, the Crypto Bantam's debut, new St. James' Park cycling regulations, and tire-popularity statistics from the Stanley and National shows showing pneumatics at 85–90 per cent.
- Milwaukee Wheelmen refuse to cede control of their Waukesha road race to the proposed local cycling association; remaining clubs adopt a constitution without them, threatening two rival road races in 1894 and ongoing club-vs-association hostility.
- Alabama division chief consul Harris defends the word 'white' in his division's constitution, argues Black cyclists are unfit to associate with white riders, and calls for the next LAW assembly to be held in a southern city so northerners can appreciate the southern position.
- Maryland chief consul Mott proposes two LAW amendments: that League-affiliated clubs receive priority sanctioning over independent clubs on the same date and venue, and that a national registry of stolen bicycle descriptions be circulated to railway baggagemen who can earn rewards.
- Boston physician Dr. W. H. Libby describes his steam-powered bicycle, which uses pistons connected to the front-wheel cranks via a boiler and water reservoir in the frame; he claims it can reach 20 mph and run 12 hours on a single lamp charge, though the machine weighs about 150 pounds with water.
- Washington DC's Arlington Wheelmen hold their annual banquet at Freund's with speeches from cycling club representatives; a prominent Texas cyclist writes to The Bearings that few southern riders benefit from LAW membership beyond race eligibility and that a separate southern league would fail, while the paper reproduces letters supporting its editorial stance.
- H. G. Wolzendorf of the St. Louis C. C. makes the De Soto–St. Louis ride in 4:35:00 on roads 'like a boulevard'; George Tivy and W. P. Laing are beaten to the Ballwin New Year's bottle-of-wine prize by an unattached rider who arrived early and waited out midnight across the street.
- Results from January 1 bicycle races at the Sweetwater track: Berte Franklin wins the novice mile (2:54¾) and five-mile handicap (15:56½); C. H. Edwards takes the quarter-mile and one-mile open events; the track was in poor condition from recent heavy rains.
- Editorial urging American cycling clubs to organize charity entertainments, dances, and indoor race meets to aid the unemployed during the economic depression, citing the Columbus Cycling Club's donation party and Columbia Wheelmen's sandwiches as rare examples of clubs that have acted.
- Editorial assessing the improved reputation of professional cycling after the NCA's honest 1893 season, condemning professionals who raced the six-day grind in violation of NCA rules, and noting that England's NCU is moving toward a similar two-class structure separating pure amateurs from cash riders.
- Column including the Old Skate's anecdote about parlaying $6 into $125 at the Garfield Park races to bankroll a cycling circuit tour; a separate note praises Denver's Cycling West for its lavishly illustrated Christmas number with half-tones by artist W. E. Miles.
- Anecdote about Walter Sanger explaining to fellow club members that his watch-guard medal was won at the NCU one-mile championship by default, since Schofield—the one man fitted to beat him—was barred from competing.
- Survey of cycling in Russia: Moscow holds the national championship but has poor cement-and-asphalt tracks; Varsovie has the best facilities and all records; Odessa's 375-member club has a track surfaced with pounded coal, nails, and pebbles; the August international race offers $600 first prize.
- Bicycling News endorses The Bearings' campaign to have American racing men adopt distinctive colors, arguing it would benefit feminine spectators and help press officials and track judges identify riders during races.
- Essay (reprinted from the English journal Cycling) advising novice cyclists to ride year-round rather than store their machines, recommending all-wool clothing, gaiters, cork-soled shoes, and starting into the wind before turning for home while the body is warm.
- Wry column about three Chicago robbers who looted $5,000 from Simon Greenburg's West Randolph Street pawn shop, tying his nephew to a safety bicycle and piling old ordinaries on top; the writer uses the incident to revisit the unanswered question of what to do with discarded high-wheelers.
- Extended editorial arguing that a LAW exclusion law against Black members would be an enduring disgrace to American civil liberty and would doom the League within three years, proposing instead a state-rights compromise allowing southern divisions to set their own membership conditions.
- Sarcastic comment on the English Cycling Touring Club raising its annual dues to one shilling—equivalent to 24 cents—which the writer calls 'highway robbery' given the hardship of the times.
- Humorous dialogue in which young Jorkins, having established his lifelong honesty with his devout father, confesses in a ringing voice that he has signed a contract to ride a bicycle around the world for 'a swell eastern athletic magazine.'
- Second annual Indiana Road Congress convenes in Indianapolis; President Niblack frames it as a methodological discussion rather than a tax-raising effort, and papers on road-building methods are read by ex-Senator J. A. Mount of Shannondale, A. P. Kent of Elkhart, and J. P. Applegate of New Albany.
- Merlin's comic narrative of two cyclists who ride out each Sunday to attend country churches: a 'hard-shell Baptist' service is disrupted when the choirmaster spots a loose horse through the window and works the information into the hymn lines; a visit to an African M. E. church ends abruptly when the new minister proposes marriage to Sistah Smiff during his prayer and is roundly refused.
- A meeting of bicycle manufacturers in New York on January 10 adopts resolutions to organize a national cycle trade association; Colonel A. A. Pope is elected chairman of a five-man committee including A. G. Spalding, H. A. Lozier, Lindsey Coleman of Western Wheel Works, and F. J. Stimpson.
- Comprehensive report on the 1894 National Cycle Show at Madison Square Garden, covering exhibits from Overman (Victor), H. A. Lozier (Cleveland), E. C. Stearns, Hill Cycle (Fowler), Raleigh (with A. A. Zimmerman in attendance), Pope (Columbia), League Cycle (chainless), and dozens more bicycle, tire, saddle, tubing, and accessory firms, concluding with backstage 'Notes of the Show.'
- Preview of Overman Wheel Co.'s six 1894 models from advance catalogue copy: the 33-pound Model D standard and high frames, the 19-pound Victor Racer at $150, the Victor Flyer, and the Victoria ladies' wheel with its new tilting saddle and flexible rubber dress-guards.
- C. Ford Seeley, head of Pope Mfg. Co.'s Hartford sales department for two years, leaves to start his own bicycle dealership at Norwalk and South Norwalk, Connecticut; he previously broke the American road record with 25 miles in 1:16:00 in the 1892 Boston–New York relay.
- Hobart Bird & Co. of Wolverhampton introduce a friction-free idle wheel inserted near the bracket sprocket to keep the driving chain in even tension and eliminate the need to unscrew multiple nuts and risk misaligning the rear hub each time the chain needs tightening.
- Punctureless Tire Armor Co. of Hagerstown, Maryland, demonstrates a chemically treated fibrous fabric inserted between the outer cover and inner tube; a Hagerstown rider drove five needle-pointed tacks into a Dunlop fitted with the armor and rode over them for two miles, puncturing only one.
- J. Willard Parker of the Niagara Cycle Fittings Co., Buffalo, reports that a visit from Martin D. Smalley of Marble Cycle Mfg. Co. of Plymouth, Indiana, produced a $10,000 order, with nearly half the season's output already under contract and overtime running in several departments.
- E. C. Stearns & Co. of Syracuse present a 38-pound tandem with 28-inch wheels, cold-swaged tangent spokes, Providence double-tube tires, wood rims, and a black-and-gold finish for $225; a drop-frame 'Daisy Bell' mixed tandem version adds about seven pounds.
- Survey of 1894 bicycle catalogues: Ariel Cycle's Shakespeare-quoting booklet with a knight-vs-racer cover, Peerless Mfg.'s green-and-gold Triangle catalogue, Stover's magnificent cover, Snell Cycle Fittings' exhaustive trade guide covering everything but tires, and Relay Mfg.'s white-and-gold booklet featuring a corrugated cold-rolled steel rim.
- Factory visit to Garford Mfg. Co.'s four-story saddle works in Elyria, Ohio, where 100 men produce up to 1,000 saddles a day across 30 styles; 1894 contracts already total about 75,000 saddles and departments are running overtime, with R. B. McMullen & Co. of Chicago as U.S. sales agents.
- A recently patented French device interposes a rubber-and-canvas cushion with cylindrical projections between the inner tube and outer tire cover, sheltering the air tube from cutting objects that pierce the outer shoe without significantly affecting resilience.