The Bearings, Vol 8, No 9
Articles in this issue
- The special National Assembly meeting at the Iroquois Hotel in Buffalo vindicated the LAW executive committee by a 113–48 vote, with opponents led by Perkins of Massachusetts failing to prove illegal expenditure of funds by the Sheridan-backed administration.
- At the Penn Wheelmen races in Reading, Pa., Bald won the mile open ahead of Taylor and Sanger, while Dirnberger was controversially denied a fair win in the quarter-mile open for the third time this season, his protest now before the Racing Board.
- At Scranton, Pa., H.C. Tyler beat Sanger in the half-mile open on a rain-soaked track in 1:13 3-4, and James Willis of Westfield upset the field in both the two-mile 5:40 class and the two-mile handicap (4:47 1-5 from 225 yards), catching Sanger only in sight at the finish.
- Zimmerman slipped and fell during warm-up at the Maryland B.C. races in Baltimore, badly scratching himself and spraining his ankle; Sanger won the half-mile international in 1:16 4-5, and Bliss took the four-mile handicap in 11:04 2-5.
- At the Philadelphia international tournament at Tioga before 10,000 spectators, Willie Windle beat Sanger in the mile international in 2:18 2-5 (a new record), while Dirnberger appeared to beat Tyler by six inches in the third-mile final but judges controversially awarded the decision to Tyler.
- The Bearings editor comments on the vindication of the LAW executive committee at Buffalo, regretting the ward-politics methods—pledging of offices, wily electioneering—that have crept into League affairs and the unnecessary expense of the special meeting on a depleted treasury.
- Editorial arguing that bicycle races at county fairs are converting rural audiences into cycling enthusiasts, as spectators discover bicycles outrun the fastest horses, concluding that the gospel of the wheel is thus spread to thousands of potential new buyers.
- Lyrical editorial urging racing men to exchange their racing wheels for comfortable road wheels and take a jolly autumn trip with congenial companions, with a verse on October sunshine and the falling oak-leaf.
- Regular column covering the amateur question (The Wheel's survey of prominent men uniformly favoring a liberal definition allowing manufacturer expense payments); Philadelphian John C. Scott giving away his bicycle to a stranger after a fall dislocated his wrist; and C.H. Peck narrowly escaping a lynch mob of bookmakers at a Farmington, Ill., county fair.
- Zimmerman angrily denies having promised to ride at Waltham, stating he positively notified Bradstreet he would not come before the announcement was made; the column also includes notes on Windle's Springfield record preparations, Taylor returning to dental college in Philadelphia, and Springfield's 1893 profit of $3,000.
- Dispatch from Springfield, Mass., reports Windle training twice daily behind triplet pacers—Nelson, Clark, and Olmstead—having already ridden a flying half-mile in :58 2-5; trainer Harry Leeming vows that whatever records Windle sets, Tyler will beat them.
- The Massachusetts division nominating committee put up Spencer T. Williams of the Maiden Bicycle Club for chief consul and D.E. Miller (manager of the Springfield tournaments) for vice-consul, passing over three-term incumbent George Perkins; also reports W.D. Bradstreet scheduling a final Waltham meet on October 2 with Sanger, Windle, Tyler, and Johnson secured for record attempts.
- Paris correspondent Albert G. Roux reports Cassignard winning his second U.V.F. five-kilometer safety championship in a fortnight before 10,000 spectators at the Paris track, then leading a Clement tandem with Charron to victory in France's first-ever tandem race against Louvet-Antony and Masi-Yigneaux.
- A mock-biblical feature recounts how the Consolidated Order of Pot-hunters from Chicago—including Steele, Barrett, Peck, and Levy—swept the bicycle races at the West Michigan Fair in Grand Rapids on September 22, with 'Whiskers' of Muskegon winning only a carpet sweeper in the lap race.
- E.H. Elwell Jr. concludes his narrative of a cycling tour through Normandy to Rouen, praising the grand route and an eight-mile avenue of pear trees near Caen, recounting a patriotic lantern procession on France's national fête day, and reflecting on the health and camaraderie gained by the party.
- Profile of Paul Grosch of the Passaic Athletic Club (N.J.), a stocky blond-mustached traveling salesman for McKee & Harrington makers of the Lyndhurst, praised as a back-marker handicap specialist with an astonishing ability to come through to the front.
- Editorial reprinted from the British journal Wheeling pronounces the 1893 International Cycling Association's championship meeting in Chicago a rank failure—merely an American tournament that lost $4,000—and urges the N.C.U. to keep its championships open to international competitors rather than making them purely local affairs.
- Charles K. Harris recounts to the Philadelphia Record how he composed 'After the Ball' overnight for a Milwaukee Wheelmen amateur entertainment in March 1893, with singer Sam Doctor debuting it to tremendous applause, leading Ditson of Boston to order copies and Harris to publish the song that made him rich.
- Zimmerman and George Banker surprised the pot-hunting brigade at Kendallville, Ind., capturing three of four open events; Banker won the mile handicap from scratch in 2:16, Zimmerman the half-mile open in 1:08, and Marion Black of Fort Wayne edged James Levy by six inches in the two-mile handicap.
- At Pittsburgh, Zimmerman came within five of his goal of 100 first prizes for the season by winning the five-mile international in 15:07, having let George Banker win the mile open before a home audience; Taylor, Bliss, Dirnberger, Titus, Miller, and Brandt refused to ride on the poor track.
- Regular column of short news items: G.N. Adams lowering the southern mile record to 2:19 3-5; Samuel Gompers predicting cycling will be universal; a Chicago wheelwoman urging lady riders to salute each other; C.T. Knisely challenging Bainbridge's Illinois C.C. road-race time; and C.A. Wescott winning the Lake View C.C. ten-mile handicap at Ravenswood from scratch in 28 minutes.
- Full roster of Century Road Club officers under President W.A. Skinkle of Cleveland and state centurions across the U.S., Canada, England, and France, with Skinkle's notice appointing new centurions for Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, and Maine, and naming O.W. Lawson of Louisville as traveling centurion.
- St. Paul correspondent reports that a split in the St. Paul C.C. has sent state champion B. Bird and four others to form the Independent Wheelmen, while wheelmen killed a harsh bicycle ordinance before its final passage, and A.A. Hanson of Minneapolis rode a century Minneapolis–Northfield–return in 7:45.
- Houston cycle dealer H.D. Spore is organizing an eight-city winter racing circuit through Texas starting Thanksgiving Day, with diamond prizes in each city and first-class horse tracks guaranteed in record-breaking condition; California may arrange a February circuit if Texas secures the fast men.
- After being pocketed in the mile open at the New York cash prize races, English rider Schofield challenged Wheeler to a best-three-of-five series at one mile for $1,000 a side, with races set for October 7.
- John C. Wood of the Washington B.C. attempted to better Fister's 280-mile 24-hour record but collapsed after 230 miles in 21 hours, becoming delirious from heat and exertion and falling from his wheel; Wood is reported in critical condition.
- The St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co. proposes comprehensive scientific frame-strength tests against E.C. Stearns & Co. at Washington University in St. Louis, naming two distinguished civil engineers as judges and insisting the loser pay all expenses.
- Trade article noting that wooden rims—popularized by Sanger on his European trip—are now standard on most racing wheels; the Bicycle Wood Rim Co. of Kingsland, N.J. makes one-piece lap-jointed rims at $4 per set, used by McKee & Harrington, Sercombe-Bolte, Remington Arms, Winton, and Crawford.
- Bretz & Curtis Mfg. Co. present their 1894 line of eight saddle styles from nine to twenty-eight ounces, including three new racing saddles—a men's standard racer, a nine-ounce boys' racer, and a novel all-steel racing saddle—to be exhibited by Mr. Perrett on upcoming manufacturer visits.
- The Eagle Bicycle Mfg. Co. of Torrington, Conn., claims its special-process aluminum rims outperform hollow and crescent steel rims, resist permanent deformation from road collisions, and reduce propulsive effort by lowering rotating weight far from the axis; complete aluminum frames are under experimental development.
- I.R. Nisbet has arranged to introduce the Preston-Davies tire—praised in England as the finest tandem tire for life, strength, and easy detachability—to American makers and dealers within a week or two.
- 'Bolav' demolishes a Minneapolis Tribune claim that bicycles are overpriced compared to sewing machines, itemizing actual manufacturing costs (tires alone cost more than a complete sewing machine), then delivers a broad critique of trade conditions for 1894: urging uniform prices, elimination of jobbers, less advertising, and warning that the Warwick Co.'s mid-season price cut has dangerously misled the public.
- Reprinted from the Baltimore News, this article explains how major manufacturers field sponsored racing teams with expert trainers and specially fitted trunks of machines; notes that Sanger, Bald, and Riverside Smith ride for one large maker, Taylor, Bliss, Dirnberger, and Githens for another, and that Zimmerman is a company stockholder—which barred him from the English championships at Herne Hill won by Sanger.
- The Bearings rebukes a Keokuk, Iowa, Gate City editorial claiming cyclists have no legal rights, citing attorney confirmation that bicycles are universally recognized as vehicles in every state and that any cyclist run down on the road has full legal redress.
- Reprinted from The Cyclist of England, this technical editorial urges manufacturers to design 1894 models with an L-pillar seat-post adjustable both forward and backward of the socket, and to supply seat-pillars and handle-bar stems three inches longer than current practice, so riders are not forced into ugly, medically condemned postures.
- Brief report that Frank Lenz, the American cyclist making a round-the-world bicycle tour, was last heard from at Rangoon and departed for Calcutta on September 13.
- Listing of U.S. patents recently issued for cycle-related inventions including gear casings, vehicle wheels, pneumatic tires, sprocket wheels, drive-chains, an ice-velocipede, and a bicycle; also notes the Stover Bicycle Mfg. Co. of Freeport, Ill., registering a 'Phoenix' trade-mark.