The Bearings, Vol 8, No 4
Articles in this issue
- Walter Sanger is expelled from the Telegram Cycle Club in Milwaukee for breaking his promise to ride at the club's meet despite Parker Sercombe having personally paid $1,500 for his English trip expenses; the article details his ingratitude toward the club, the governor, the mayor, and the 20,000 citizens who welcomed him home.
- Critical report on the Telegram-Mercury Cycling Clubs' joint meet at Athletic Park on a substandard quarter-mile cinder track with poorly banked corners; Sanger refused to appear despite promises, angering 3,000 spectators, while Tyler won the two-mile lap race and Wegner took the five-mile handicap.
- G.E. Osmond, younger brother of Ernest, lowered the two-mile English record from 4:37 to 4:24 2-5 in London on August 17, also beating Windle's world record of 4:28 3-5; brief notes also cover a new German mile record by Hoffman (2:35) at Linz-sur-Danube and Lehr's 100-kilometer ride in 3:02:49 2-5 at Frankfurt.
- Detailed three-day report of the international meet at the Minnehaha track (August 17-19): Zimmerman's failure to appear deeply disappointed the Twin Cities crowd, John S. Johnson set a world three-mile record of 7:15 3-4 on the second day, and George F. Taylor won the five-mile international run-over on the final day with Johnson second.
- Report on the St. Louis Bicycle Association's midsummer amateur meet at Sportsman's Park, the first amateur meet of the year in the city, with closely contested races dominated by P.A.C. riders including E. Grath winning the mile open final in 2:45; unicyclist F.A. Padgett attempted to break his own quarter-mile record but fell near the finish.
- Boston city letter (August 19) reporting that wheelmen returning from the Chicago meet are still discussing nothing else; includes local news of the Winnisimmet B.C.'s upcoming twelve-mile road race and results from the Lynn Cycling meet at Glenmere Park, where Ed McDuffee lowered the track record to 2:27 4-5.
- Humorous item reprinted from Cycling (England) about two well-known American riders who held a match race for a curious prize: a yellow dog about five inches high and a yard long, described as very sociable with front-forks spread as if for pneumatics and a color warranted not to fade in any climate.
- Editorial arguing that the perennial protest against sham amateurism in cycle racing has at last reached a logical conclusion: only by formally permitting riders to ride for salary and expenses, while prohibiting only a divisible cash prize, can the hypocrisy of the current system be ended.
- Editorial criticizing the Century Road Club of America's officers—Skinkle, Gerould, Berger, Herrick, Brewster, Betts, Garden, and Kennedy-Child—for failing to use the club's great opportunities, with road records unregulated, the grand Chicago tour fizzled out, and only one milestone placed on Sheridan Drive.
- Commentary on Henry Sturmey's argument in The Cyclist that England's championship system is anomalous: under current N.C.U. rules foreigners can win English titles and be expected to represent England internationally, while the licensing scheme bars the country's best riders for trivial trade connections.
- The editor's column: a humorous complaint about street-vendor kazoo players audible from the office window; a proposal made at Ripon for a company to promote cycle meets in country towns on a traveling circuit; and the story of a young man named Murphy who posed as W.C. Sanger's brother to obtain a free tally-ho ride with the Cook County Wheelmen.
- Amusing report from Paris of what may be the first bicycle wedding procession—the fiancée on a blue-enameled man's machine and the groom on a geared ordinary—who rode to the eighteenth ward mayor's office, then cycled to Enghien for the nuptial breakfast and a round of cycle races in which the husband won several events.
- Brief portrait of F.J. Osmond, who first appeared before the Chicago public on August 12 pacing Meintjes in the sixty-mile race, impressing spectators with his tall form in a tight white jersey suit and pale-blue handkerchief while doing more than his share of the pacemaking.
- Trainer Harry Leeming of the Springfield Bicycle Club proposes to sue the railroad for the advertised value of second prizes at Ripon and Minneapolis after Tyler's trunk containing his racing machines miscarried, preventing Tyler from riding at either meet; Leeming would cite Tyler's recent string of second-place finishes behind Zimmerman as evidence of damages.
- W.C. Sanger received an anonymous vile letter denouncing him as a blackguard and hoping he would die after allegedly riding recklessly and parading his bare legs before the public; the envelope had been cut and reversed to conceal the author, who appeared from the handwriting to be a woman.
- The Irish Cyclist denies the report that Zimmerman had a secret arrangement with Dublin race promoters for a diamond ring in addition to prizes, explaining the story arose from a letter in which Zimmerman merely suggested a diamond be put up as the scratch-race prize.
- Two-day report of the Wauseon, Ohio meet (August 17-18): J.P. Bliss set a new track record of 2:20 4-5 in his mile heat but fell in the final and broke his wheel, then borrowed another and dropped out of the two-mile handicap; the Rope Club initiated over 250 new members and the town's sunflower-and-orange-and-black decorations charmed visiting riders.
- Detailed two-day report of the Wisconsin division meet at Ripon (August 17-19): Zimmerman dominated the open and international events while Dirnberger and Kennedy starred in the handicaps; hometown Louie Reed won the half-mile state championship to wild local acclaim; Zimmerman set a world record of 2:13 in a special mile race paced by Banker, Crooks, and Dirnberger.
- Paris report (August 11) on Henry Fournier's near-miss bid for Osmond's hour record on the Buffalo track, covering 39 km 682 m against the world record of 40 km 194 m, with a detailed account of the pacing relays by Masi, Vigneaux, Antony, and others; Fournier plans another attempt this month.
- Nicodemi captures French road records for 100 km (3:01:49 1-5, beating Allard by over 2 minutes) and 50 km (1:24:21 2-5, beating the previous best by 5 minutes); Pachot breaks the 6-hour, 12-hour (297 km 880 m), and 200-mile records; H. Desgranges sets an unpaced 100-km amateur record in 3:04:07 3-5.
- Multiple Parisian attempts on the one-kilometer record: Fournier lowered it to 1:22 2-5 at Bordeaux, Cassignard reduced it further to 1:21 2-5 paced by Nivet and Loste; at Paris, Medinger's tandem pacemakers' chain broke at the start but he still covered 500 meters in :39 2-5, a new half-kilometer record.
- Two major French road races: the 150-mile Lyons Express race drew 92 competitors and was won by Stephane in 9 hours (Allard second in 9:13, Nicodemi retired after an accident); the Paris-to-Ostende race was won by Dubois despite terrible roads and all-night rain, his pacemakers threatening to leave him at the Belgian frontier if he quit.
- Travel narrative by Edward H. Elwell, Jr. recounting a cycling tour from Fontainebleau toward the Loire valley châteaux country, including a chance encounter with illustrator Joseph Pennell (unwittingly called a 'd—d Frenchman' on the road by one of the party), a French policeman's arrest over a non-ringing bicycle bell in Orleans, and observations on French roads, vineyard customs, and village wells.
- Reprinted commentary from Wheeling arguing the N.C.U. licensing scheme is unworkable in practice, citing Shorland's case—a £1,000-a-year commercial traveler who was nearly denied a license simply for riding the wheel he sold—and warning that the autocratic injustice of the licensing committee may recur at any time.
- London correspondence (August 17) covering bank holiday racing (A.W. Harris winning at Harrogate and Coventry), the elegance of the Dorking cycling camp with carpeted tents, electricity, and a piano in every reception tent, Lacy Hillier's party arriving three hours late after a railway delay, and news that Lawrence Fletcher will attempt Mills' Land's End to John O'Groats tricycle record on a safety next Tuesday.
- Editorial column by "Bolav" responding to a Boston Sunday-school preacher who declared the bicycle one of the greatest modern menaces to Sabbath observance; a wide-ranging defense of cycling as an innocent, God-given pleasure and an attack on narrow-minded clergy who attack anything new or pleasurable to hide their own lack of brains.
- Profile of Berney Byron Bird (age 20, St. Paul Cycle Club), who has succeeded John S. Johnson as Minnesota's cycling champion with state records including quarter-mile :34 3-4, mile 2:33 1-5, and five miles 14:14, having won the 25-mile Como road race in 1:13:03 3-5 and the ten-mile St. Paul C.C. championship in 28:58.
- Directory listing the Century Road Club of America's officers (president W.A. Skinkle, Cleveland), committee chairmen by specialty, state centurions across the U.S. and abroad including England (Maj. Knox Holmes) and France (A.G. Roux, Paris), and current membership applications by state.
- Race results from the Asbury Park A.A. midsummer meet at North Asbury Park (August 16) where G.M. Wells dominated all events, winning the mile open in 2:32 2-5, the two-mile handicap in 4:50, and the half-mile handicap.
- Report on the Berlin-Ripon twelve-mile road race run on the first day of the Ripon meet, won by Ed Diebler in 55:41; Peck, second in 55:53, also earned the best time award, but the judges ruled one man could not win two prizes and gave the more honorable time medal to the second-place finisher.
- Announcement of the international meet to be held at the Tioga track, Philadelphia, on September 23 under the Associated Cycling Clubs, offering over $1,600 in prizes across six events including a one-mile international and a special handicap for Philadelphia riders only, with a trophy from Colonel Singerly of the Philadelphia Record.
- O.S. Bunnell of the N.C.A. tells a Bearings correspondent that the organization will open its eastern circuit in New York in mid-September with top English riders and other international competitors, and that he has found a promising new wonder rider in Iowa.
- Miscellaneous items department: St. Louis racing man Bert Harding seriously ill with typhoid fever; L.D. Robertson of Toronto lowers the Canadian quarter-mile flying-start record to :33 2-5; the Ilsley brothers hold world's records from quarter-mile to the hour on a Raleigh tandem (24 miles 1,360 yards); Italian cyclist Masetti riding to Chicago has passed through Cologne; S. Redman of Fostoria, Ohio killed when his revolver discharged after a fall on a run.
- Comprehensive double tables of current American track records in competition and against time, plus road records, listing holders and venues from Zimmerman's quarter-mile in :27 (Chicago, August 11, 1893) to Meintjes' fifty-mile in 2:11:06 4-5, with Johnson's new world three-mile record of 7:15 3-4 (Minneapolis, August 18, 1893) freshly entered.
- Letter from Albert A. Pope (Boston, August 21) urging state legislatures to fund road improvement as emergency public employment during the current business depression, and calling on Congress to appropriate funds for western irrigation and removal of mining debris barriers, arguing these investments would relieve the laboring classes and ultimately prove profitable to the Government.
- Memphis bicycle dealers Deupree & Brodnax make a partial assignment preferring Lozier & Co. for $5,255 and Kingman & Co. for $4,600; with assets of $19,500 against liabilities of $12,800, full payment is expected once their bank, which had locked up all their ready cash, resumes normal operations.
- Standard Mfg. Co. of Indianapolis, makers of the Arrow bicycle, assigns to the Union Trust Co. with assets and liabilities each about $60,000; the company has a well-equipped plant and widely regarded product but no cash to meet maturing obligations, with the failure attributed to money market stringency.
- E.C. Stearns & Co. of Syracuse formally accept the St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co.'s Lu-mi-num frame-strength challenge, offering a certified $750 check held in trust by a prominent cycling journal, and call for the test to take place as soon as possible.
- W.D. Womack, general agent for Imperial and Telegram cycles in Kansas City and the largest retail bicycle agent in the city, has attachments filed on his stock by Simmons Hardware Co. ($2,601) and W. Bingham Co. ($1,784); much of his stock is on consignment from manufacturers and the attachments are expected to be contested in court.
- Technical column covering nickel steel's superiority for bicycle rims due to its resistance to concussion and cracking (as proven by Government warship plate tests); a history of aluminum manufacture from Wohler's 1828 discovery to Webster's economical alum-and-pitch process; and Scientific American advice on setting the correct vise height for bicycle repair work.
- List of recently granted U.S. bicycle-related patents (nos. 501,493 to 502,232) covering velocipedes, child's cycles, drive chains, wheel tires, gear cases, bicycle bells, saddles, and pneumatic tire valves and inflating devices, assigned to inventors in Chicago, Hartford, Philadelphia, Paris, and other cities.
- Reply to The Cyclist (England) questioning the St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co.'s aluminum bicycle test results: The Bearings defends their 30-pound machine as superior to conventional 45-pound steel roadsters, notes the company is still experimenting toward lighter weights, and rebuts the English paper's claim that non-oxidization is not a worthwhile advantage.
- Calendar of upcoming race meets and cycling events from late August through October, covering major meets in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Springfield, Hartford, Syracuse, Kansas City, and other cities; entry blanks for starred events are available from the editors on receipt of postage.