The Bearings, Vol 9, No 17
Articles in this issue
- William D. Bradstreet's Waltham track has received its new metalithic surface on the turns and homestretch, with trainers and racing men including Billy Cochrane and Windle praising it as the fastest surface in the country ahead of the May 30 Decoration Day meet.
- The cycling war between Denver's Ramblers and the Denver Wheel Club has temporarily ended, with the Ramblers securing equal representation in management of the Decoration Day road race and disposition of any surplus funds.
- The Rambler Pacific coast team set six new standing-start coast records in San Francisco, including Zeigler's quarter-mile in :30¾ and Terrill's five-mile in 12:29 2/5.
- Swiss rider Lesna won the Bordeaux-Paris race in 25:11:07, with English riders Lucas and Samson second and third; American Waller was in fifth place when stoned by peasants near Chaltereaut, while Harry Wheeler separately won the 10,000-meter Prix de Ruffec scratch race.
- The New York state circuit of race meets is scheduled for June, running from Cohoes (June 2) through Troy, Albany, Oneonta, Ilion, Le Roy, and Rochester to the Lockport division meet (June 15-16), with additional meets at Bridgeport, Conn. and Du Bois, Pa.
- At the Midwinter Fair in San Francisco, Dirnberger collided and fell in the mile open while Bliss ran a dead heat with Walter Foster in the first heat before losing the final to Otto Ziegler in 2:59¼.
- Special correspondent J. M. Erwin reports on the American cycling colony in Paris—centered on the Avenue de la Grand Armée and the Café d'Esperance—and covers Harry Wheeler's victory in a 25-kilometer race at the Buffalo velodrome over a field of twenty-one including Medinger, Farman, and Verheyen, with Crooks also winning his first professional race at the Velodrome de la Seine.
- George A. Banker writes to editor Barrett from Paris describing Desgranges's 24-hour record attempt at the Velodrome de la Seine, Wheeler and Crooks' travel to Bordeaux for team and tandem races, and his own early training sessions with Zimmerman approaching 27 minutes for ten miles.
- Milwaukee correspondent reports that bicycle riders proved superior to horses over the 18-mile Waukesha course (best bicycle time 46:47 versus the horse race's 58:00), notes that riders near Port Washington use the Lake Michigan beach as a smooth road, and reports rumors that Frank Sanger will marry after the racing season ends.
- Preview of the Decoration Day Chicago road race with 419 entries and an expected 350 starters, profiling time-prize contenders H. R. Winship, A. E. Lumsden, C. V. Dasey, C. H. Peck, Gus Steele, George Emerson, Martin Nessel, and W. Bainbridge, with the time prize expected to be won in about 55:00.
- Harry A. Truax of the Calumet Cycling Club plans to start a Chicago-to-New York record attempt immediately after the Decoration Day road race, aiming to beat the standing ten-days-four-hours record set by H. H. Wylie over the southern route.
- Editorial defending bicycle racing on Decoration Day against GAR protests in Minneapolis, where the G.A.R. posts unsuccessfully petitioned the park board to rescind race permits; the editor argues that cyclists respect the war dead and notes that the Milwaukee Wheelmen plan to strew soldiers' graves with flowers on the holiday.
- Editorial condemning England's secretive NCU licensing committee for denying E. A. Nelson an amateur racing license without explanation, comparing the case to the earlier Zimmerman controversy and calling out British claims that their championships are 'open to the world.'
- Editorial examining the dilemma facing racing men over whether to join Class B, noting that Rambler, Stearns, and Columbia factory teams will make it the fastest class, while some pure amateurs prefer competing against the best and others hope to scoop prizes before the top Class A talent migrates over.
- Department column covering Dr. H. L. Getz of Marshalltown, Iowa, whose bicycle ambulance attaches a lightweight aluminum stretcher frame to a safety bicycle for transporting patients over rough ground; also announces a forthcoming five-color portrait supplement of Racing Board Chairman Howard E. Raymond.
- Feature by S. W. Merrihew analyzing the three major Decoration Day 25-mile handicap road races—Chicago, Irvington-Milburn, and the Martin at Buffalo—predicting faster Chicago times due to its flatter course and the western men's aggressive front-running style compared to eastern riders' habit of loafing from the back marks.
- Louisville correspondent reports that wheelmen's political influence secured two victories: the board of public safety agreed to regulate street sprinkling (Victory No. 1) and pledged to have prominent lawyer-wheelmen draft a new vehicle ordinance establishing the 'law of the road' (Victory No. 2).
- Elmer C. Davis of the Baltimore C.C. rode 240 miles in twenty-four hours (actual riding time fifteen hours) on a twenty-three-pound Tribune, breaking F. H. Harvey's Maryland record of 224¼ miles despite a five-hour rain delay at a road house.
- Brief satirical tips reprinted from The Cycle on how slower riders can tactfully reduce the pace when cycling with faster companions, including citing medical advice about riding easy after meals and pointing out scenic stops.
- New York correspondent previews the Decoration Day Irvington-Milburn 25-mile road race, noting the Kings County Wheelmen of Brooklyn and the Newark Wheelmen as the strongest clubs, and covering the controversy over the Metropolitan Association of Cycling Clubs barring Black rider David Simmons—a decision Chairman Raymond called 'uncalled for' and which Simmons threatened to contest in court.
- Buffalo correspondent previews the Hazard 25-mile handicap road race (42 entries, mostly novices) and the Martin Road Race on Decoration Day, reporting local predictions the Martin time prize will be won in under 1:08:00, with the Ramblers B.C. entering twenty-five men backed by seventy-five club assistants stationed along the entire course.
- London dispatch confirms the NCU general committee refused E. A. Nelson's amateur racing license on May 10; C. W. Hartung's English notes follow, covering W. T. Stead's Review of Reviews article on cooperative cycling camps, Colonel Savile's report that military cyclist numbers rose from 2,218 to 2,701, racing costume complaints at NCU meetings, and Bordeaux-Paris entries including W. Martin and Waller from the United States.
- Philadelphia correspondent reports the 1894 Pennsylvania division LAW meet will be held at Wilkes Barre July 2-3 under the West End Wheelmen, with criticism of the LAW rule restricting state championships to League clubs; also covers the Inter-State Relay Race from New York to Philadelphia on June 2, with New Jersey relay points at Paterson, Morristown, Elizabeth, and near Trenton, and Pennsylvania represented by Dampman, Marriott, Measure, and Lagan.
- Report on the Pastime Athletic Club spring games at De Hodiamont, where cold wind hampered times on a fast clay-and-cinder third-mile track; Ed Grath won the quarter-mile in :35 2/5, L. D. Cabanne surprised Grath in the one-mile P.A.C. members' race, and Joe Howard won the two-mile handicap as Bert Harding broke the state two-mile record in 5:02 from scratch.
- Washington D.C. correspondent describes the LAW's census of the capital's cyclists (estimated at 8,000 to 15,000 wheels), with Chief Consul George B. French appointing Capt. G. W. Cook for the Georgetown territory, Capt. G. Grant Armor for the northwest, and B. F. Larcombe for the eastern districts.
- Feature article describing the Stearns team's training camp at the Syracuse state fair grounds under trainer Tom Eck, covering life at 'Hotel D'Eck' in the former W.C.T.U. building, the daily routine of morning road miles and afternoon sprinting, and a roster of twenty-four riders including Johnson, Callahan, Murphy, Taylor, and Benito Zalamea of Bogota—champion of South America—with sixteen men already capable of a 2:20 mile after only two weeks.
- Cleveland correspondent previews the Decoration Day road race, noting prizes including a Columbia racer for the best novice time and a Tribune racer for breaking last year's record; reports that George Collister has firmly declined to run for Ohio division chief consul, leaving Parker G. Reed of Chillicothe as the likely candidate.
- Untitled humorous editorial in which the editor recounts two practical jokes from the cycling world: a forty-pound bag of bicycle forgings placed on his sleeping face during a train trip to the Philadelphia show, and the tale of 'Pop' Brewster spreading two quarts of granulated sugar in Davy Post's bed in St. Joseph, Mo., only to learn Post had quietly dissolved the sugar in his washbowl and thrown the water out the window.
- Humorous squib mocking American cyclists' ignorance of botany, inspired by an English exchange report about touring cyclists who discovered a Gymnogramma Leptophylla by a towpath, with invented mock-scientific plant names satirizing the pretension that cyclists should notice botanical rarities while scorching past them.
- Brief comic exchange in which an Associated Cycling Clubs delegate refuses to ride in the big Decoration Day road race because no cycling paper has published a portrait of him.
- Pittsburg trade correspondent explains that the city's steep hills and rocky streets mean only high-grade machines sell well there, with no price-cutting and no dealer failures last year; provides a detailed directory of fifteen dealers including the Pittsburg Cycle Co. (Union, Tribune, Vigilant), A. G. Pratt & Co. (Victor, Spalding), and Banker Bros. Cycle Co. in the East End (Cleveland, Raleigh, Royal), where Arthur Banker holds the store while George is in France and Will is in Buffalo.
- The Harris Mfg. Co. of Buffalo has been unable to ship its combination bicycle wrench because the original manufacturer they contracted with failed; they expect a Providence shipment this week and have orders on hand for nearly 11,000 wrenches.
- A well-placed informant tells The Bearings that the Pope Mfg. Co. plans to close its great Boston store at season's end and relocate its offices to the Hartford factory.
- John S. Driver, secretary of the Palmer Tire Co., will marry Miss Adell L. Kinzie on June 12; Miss Kinzie is a great-granddaughter of John Kinzie, a veteran of the War of 1812 who built the first house in Chicago.
- Thos. B. Jeffery of the Gormully & Jeffery Mfg. Co. sailed on the steamer Campania on May 19 for a two-month pleasure and business trip to England.
- Louisville trade correspondent reports strong bicycle sales with cash sales predominating; notes allegations that one dealer representing a major manufacturer is secretly cutting prices; provides a directory of fifteen dealers including the Kentucky Bicycle Co. (Raleigh, Ide, Union), Jefferis Bros. (Victor—110 of 300 riders at the Park Day parade rode Victors without a single puncture), and Martin & Dressing (Lu-Mi-Num, Munger, Waverley, Phoenix).
- Technical description of the Garvin Machine Co.'s eight-spindle automatic drill press for manufacturing bicycle chain links, which simultaneously drills holes from opposite sides in exact alignment and can produce about five thousand pieces per day attended by only a boy.
- Description of the new L. C. Smith detachable bicycle tire from the L. C. Smith Tire Co. of Syracuse, N.Y., noted for light weight, resiliency, and a quick-removal design allowing the inner tube to be withdrawn in seconds during a puncture after more than a year of satisfactory use.
- The Harris Cycle Co. of Hornellsville, N.Y., backed by the Harris Mfg. Co. of Buffalo, is the town's only exclusive cycle house handling Keating and Yost wheels for a southern New York and northeastern Pennsylvania territory, with a road representative to be kept traveling the district.
- London trade correspondent 'Will o' the Wisp' covers the Starley Bros.' denial of any connection to the Starley Pneumatic Saddle Co., the CTC debate over selling cycles to members at discount, improved Maltby tires with a new jointless metal band, bogus agents making cheap machines under names resembling respected firms (including 'Roverettes' designed to be confused with the Rover), weak Coventry trade, the Coventry Machinist Co.'s new Swift tandem safety and Marlboro tandem tricycle, and a letter from R. L. Jefferson at Sofia, Bulgaria, praising his Swift on the road to Constantinople despite an attempted smashing by villagers at the Servo-Bulgarian frontier.
- Rochester trade correspondent reports the Rochester Cycle Mfg. Co. and Rich & Sager saddle makers both working until 10 p.m. nightly for the first time; lists the city's five cycling clubs and 35-cent annual registry for about 5,000 riders; dealer directory covers C. J. Connolly (Rambler, Eagle, Stearns, Raleigh), Bettys & Smith (their own Humming Bird), and Sibley, Lindsay & Curr dry-goods syndicate selling Reading and Monarch.
- New York trade correspondent covers the Overman Wheel Co.'s strong Victor sales (one model of each shown in a large uncluttered showroom), the Victor resiliometer's successful Brooklyn demonstration, the chain-free League Chainless bicycle's growing appeal, and the Wilson-Myers Brooklyn branch averaging thirty-five machines per week since opening; manager Schwalbach plans to send Backus ('Zim's Dark Secret') to Paris to join Zimmerman's party.
- Philadelphia correspondent notes visits by R. P. Gormully of Gormully & Jeffery and H. A. Lozier of the Cleveland wheel; reports controversy among dealers over proposed Saturday early closings, a large dry-goods house selling surplus Bidwell wheels at $50, and a failed dealer-association attempt to appoint an appraiser for trade-in old wheels.
- Brief Buffalo trade note reporting a satisfactory week for local dealers but a looming dispute over pricing practices, with Stearns sales jumping from six machines last year to sixty already this season under Geo. F. Lutz & Son.
- Editorial noting that while American cycle makers have overtaken the English in design, the English wisely prefer steel over wooden rims that warp in damp climates; an English trade visitor praises the American aluminum rims made by the Eagle Bicycle Mfg. Co. of Torrington, Conn., predicting they will be used almost exclusively within a year.
- Brief St. Louis trade note about the Knight Cycle Co.'s exceptionally strong demand for light-weight machines, with a humorous anecdote about night-shift workers questioned by a suspicious policeman amid a wave of bicycle thefts in the city.
- Reading, Pa. factory report covering W. H. Wilhelm & Co. (4,000 wheels shipped, adding machinery weekly), Acme Mfg. Co. (25 Stormers per day), Relay Mfg. Co. (far beyond expectations), and the new Millholland Tube Works, whose English-built machinery produces tubing reported to surpass the quality of English-made product.
- Reprinted from the Toledo Journal, this narrative piece recounts a quick puncture repair of a Palmer tire at the Chapman Hardware store in Toledo while the manager's cigar remained lit throughout, demonstrating the Heywood repair outfit—a plug-and-tool system allowing a puncture to be fixed in the time it takes a cigar to go out.