The Bearings, Vol 8, No 6
Articles in this issue
- Two-day Cleveland Wheel Club tournament featuring Zimmerman, Meintjes, and Dr. A.I. Brown, who twice defeats Meintjes in sprint finishes; also covers the Chicago meet programme and news of German rider Lehr's new world records at Leipzig.
- Columbus Cycling Club annual meet sees Zimmerman clock 2:08 4-5 on a fast half-mile track, then John S. Johnson surpasses him with a paced 2:07 1-5 mile on the second day; Barrett, French, and the Baker brothers shine throughout both days.
- Maiden Bicycle Club meet at Waltham draws a thin crowd owing to threatening weather and absent star riders; McDuffee wins the mile open in 2:26 and the third-mile Massachusetts championship in :48.
- At Springfield, Ohio, Zimmerman rides the fastest mile of the year in 2:05 3-5, paced by Bliss, Dirnberger, French, and Meintjes; Bliss nearly breaks the two-mile competition record with 4:41 4-5, and Van Wagoner rides a mile hands-off in 2:29 2-5 at Syracuse.
- Editor Barrett responds to a rival paper's indignant howl after The Bearings criticised the Century Road Club of America's inactivity, maintaining that the club's officers—not its secretary—were the ones at fault.
- Editorial endorsing the Chicago meet's innovation of an open half-mile from which Zimmerman, Tyler, Taylor, Windle, Sanger, and Bliss are barred, arguing it will develop new talent and produce genuinely competitive racing.
- Editor Barrett rebuts the American Wheelman's charge of hypocrisy over deceptive prizes at the Chicago cycle meet, placing full blame on Racing Board officials who misled the press about the prize list's value while Chicago papers contributed to the guarantee fund in good faith.
- Weekly department covering the etymology and merits of the word 'bike' (traced to Burns' 'Tam O'Shanter'), Zimmerman's suspected heart enlargement and druggist's warning, W.W. Taxis's suspension for selling a wheel, bookmaking scandals at Saginaw and Decatur, and miscellaneous cycling notes.
- Interview with South African racing champion L.S. Meintjes of Johannesburg about his five consecutive summers racing in England and America, the Wanderers' Amateur Cycling Club that funds his travels, his plans to build a half-mile track in Johannesburg, and his close friendship with Zimmerman.
- Two-day Saginaw international meet lambasted for its shoddy prizes—a worn-out organ, a ton of coal, flour barrels—while the racing is strong, with Dirnberger dominating sprints and A.D. Kennedy winning the one-mile international on day two in 2:26 1-5.
- C.T. Knisely of Chicago sweeps four firsts at the Kazoo C.C. meet in Ottawa, Ill., including the five-mile handicap (14:20 1-4 from scratch), with Frank Wing of Ottawa the only man to make any showing against him.
- Decatur, Ill. holds its first open bicycle races at the fair grounds; E.V. Minor of Indianapolis wins the mile open in 2:33 1-2 and Chicago Cycling Club riders take nearly all the prizes.
- Central AAU championship games in Cleveland; Zimmerman wins the quarter-mile in :35 2-5 and Bliss secures two firsts for the Chicago Athletic Association, winning the mile and two-mile bicycle events.
- First annual Oshkosh-Neenah fourteen-mile road race won by T.F. Anderson of Waupaca on handicap; E.W. Roth of Milwaukee wins the scratch time prize in 44:06.
- English visitor J.W. Schofield refuses to continue at the N.C.A. New York races after being pocketed in his heat, while Wheeler wins the mile open and mile handicap.
- Kansas City Cyclists' two-day meet sees J.S. Johnson dominate the open events in Zimmerman's absence, winning a grand piano in the one-mile open in 2:38 2-5; M.H. Burt of Wichita proves the strongest local challenger, winning the two-mile handicap.
- Philadelphia N.C.A. Labor Day meet features J.W. Schofield's first American appearance; he wins the novice race but drops out of the lap race after losing his pedal, while Wheeler and Frank Albert take the main open and handicap events.
- Norristown Wheelmen hold their races at the fair grounds; E.F. Miller wins the mile open and quarter-mile, C.J. Croft takes the Montgomery-Chester county championship and the club championship.
- Fourth annual five-mile road race of the Quaker City Wheelmen at Bala station; F.M. Dampman leads in actual time at 13:24 from scratch while O.R.H. Thompson wins on handicap allowance.
- Sixteen-year-old San Francisco beauty Miss Maud Stuart completes a century ride over dusty roads wearing a sensible Eton jacket, short skirt, Turkish trousers, tan shoes with leather leggings, and a white yachting cap.
- Paris track correspondent reports Cottereau covers a kilometer in 1:18 and the Masi-Vigneaux tandem sets a world half-kilometer flying record of :36 flat at the Seine track; also covers a paced handicap won by Piquet and the Paris-Trouville 220-kilometer road race with a six-tandem field.
- Short profile of Illinois C.C. rider Charles T. Knisely, who first gained prominence winning the Pullman road race in 1890 and this year broke the ten-mile road record at 27:55 while pacing others to competition records at the Chicago meet.
- London correspondent covers Frank Shorland's record-breaking North Road 24-hour race (leading by 14 miles at 4 p.m.), the Paddington charity meet won by Camp and Stroud, England's first cash-prize meeting at Lincoln, Catford and Bath Road Club 50-mile championships, and Osmond and Merry's tandem records including a mile of 2:07 4-5 unpaced at Herne Hill.
- Cyclist editor Henry Sturmey is chased by an aggressive loose horse near Meriden and forced to scramble under a gate until a passing vehicle momentarily distracted the animal.
- Muscatine, Iowa Labor Day meet sees local men fail to win a single first; C.L. Boyschon of Davenport wins the mile open and the mile invitation, Rawson of Kansas takes the quarter-mile.
- Edward H. Elwell Jr. describes a cycling party's journey through the Loire valley, visiting royal chateaux of Touraine including Amboise (where da Vinci is buried) and Chenonceaux (just purchased by a Spanish-American for $850,000), and the historic hilltop city of Loches.
- Hartford Wheel Club two-day meet: Windle breaks the world half-mile record with a :26 3-5 last quarter defeating Tyler; Tyler wins the half-mile international with :26 4-5; Bald of Buffalo takes two class races on day one; Windle wins the international on day two.
- Duluth Cycle Club fall road races on the London road, five miles of smooth thirty-foot-wide macadam the correspondent calls a potential future record-breaking venue; Roy Hoople wins the half-mile three-heat match and Duluth beats Superior in the one-mile team race.
- Preview of the Baltimore international meet September 20-21 offering $4,000 in prizes led by a pair of trotting horses and a Windsor trap; also reports two serious reckless-riding incidents and the dissolution of the once-dominant Chesapeake Club through internal quarrelling over its buffet.
- At the Crescent Cycle Club meet in Ansonia, Conn., Windle lowers Zimmerman's year-old track mile record to 2:16 1-5 aided by Tyler and also wins the mile open, while Tyler takes the mile international.
- Two-day Bay City, Mich. meet; Bode lowers the Michigan state mile record to 2:16 3-4 after the first day's racing, and Kennedy dominates both days including the five-mile handicap in 13:29 from scratch.
- Two Palmyra, Ill. cyclists lure gambler Cole to a creek bottom near Waverly, rob him with a rail blow, and leave him under a culvert; Cole survives and both men are arrested—one in Waverly, one in Carlinville.
- W.E. Waugh wins scratch time in the Minnette Club's annual ten-mile handicap road race in Chicago in 29:03; G.L. Turnbull wins the race itself from the five-minute mark.
- Published correspondence between the St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co. (Lu-mi-num aluminum bicycle) and E.C. Stearns & Co. of Syracuse arranging a public frame-strength test for late September, with each firm depositing $500 and the tests open to the public.
- Roger B. McMullen leaves Parkhurst & Wilkinson to form a new cycle materials company at 64-70 Ohio Street, Chicago, appointed general sales agent for seven manufacturers including the Union Drop Forge Co., Indianapolis Chain & Stamping Co., and the Manessman Steel Tube Co. of England.
- Description of Union Cycle Mfg. Co.'s new one-piece racing pedal whose hub, side-plate supports, and bell races form a single rigid unit; road version weighs twelve ounces per pair with a narrower tread, and several crack riders are already testing it.
- Description of the Triangle bicycle ridden by E.C. Johnson at Cleveland's electric-light tournament, built by the Peerless Co. under superintendent Harry Chapman—formerly designer for English champions A.W. Harris and T.A. Edge—weighing 20½ lbs with wooden rims and Palmer racing tires.
- Gormully & Jeffery of Chicago have moved to larger Coventry premises due to rapid growth in British sales of their American pneumatic tires, appointing W. Pearson of Birmingham as midland agent.
- World's Fair Transportation Day bicycle parade will feature fifty riders in historical and national costumes—Columbus on a Columbia, Kaiser Wilhelm on a Premier, Grover Cleveland on a Cleveland, a band of Indians on Ramblers—organised by H.G. Campbell of the Yost Mfg. Co.
- Description of a new German tubular sheet-iron tool-bag fitted to handlebars holding keys, flask, spokes, pump, tire repair tools, and maps, adding only three and a half ounces to the machine.
- Technical article translated from a French exchange applying Langley-Cailletet aerodynamic formulae to cycling, discussing Johnson's celebrated 1:56 3-5 paced mile behind a horse-drawn screen and calculating that displacing air at racing speed requires two and a half horse-power, questioning whether such pacing constitutes genuine cycling performance.
- Reprint from the English Wheeler forecasting 1894 cycle trends: larger-diameter tubing, easily detachable dust-tight gear cases, block chains over roller, and consolidation of tire manufacturers after a year of public over-speculation; cushion tires declared dead.
- Listing of recently granted U.S. patents for cycling equipment including supplementary bicycle seats (Morris Shipley, Cincinnati), cycle stands, pedals (Arthur L. Garford, Elyria), saddles, pneumatic tire valves (Charles Welch, assignor to Booth's Cycle Agency), a gun-carrier for bicycles, tire-setting apparatus, and a cyclometer.
- Description of the redesigned 1894 Dunlop wired tire: D-shaped cross-section on a flat rim, held in place by inflation rather than a groove, wider for stability and side-roll resistance, and lighter than the 1893 pattern.
- Endorsement, reprinted from the American Wheelman, of colored racing suits as a practical reform to help spectators identify riders on the far side of a half-mile track, with a suggestion that the Springfield B.C. trial the idea at its upcoming meet.
- Calendar of upcoming race meets for September through October 1893, including the Amateur Athletic Union championships at Chicago September 14-16, the Baltimore B.C. international September 20-21, and the L.A.W. race meet at Chicago October 5-6.
- Comprehensive tables of American track records in competition and against time, plus road records, as of September 1893; W.W. Windle holds the flying quarter-mile competition record (:26 3-5, Hartford, Sept. 4, 1893) and L.S. Meintjes dominates the long-distance records from ten to fifty miles.