The Bicycling World, Vol 52, No 7
Articles in this issue
- The Consolidated Mfg. Co. of Toledo, Ohio, has closed and dismantled its automobile department after commercial experts reported that $500,000 would be needed to make it self-supporting, and will build only Yale and Snell bicycles and the Yale-California motor bicycle; A. W. Coulter remains general manager.
- A bicycle manufacturer complains that the wood rim "pool" makes every maker send orders to the Mutual Rim Co. in Michigan on a "take it or leave it" basis, naming its own price and shipping whatever rims it pleases, and wonders why Washington has not looked into it as a combination in restraint of trade.
- The George N. Pierce Company's is the first 1906 catalogue out, with prices unchanged at $40 lowest and $80 highest and the bicycles unaltered; most of its travellers are already on the road and report a widespread feeling that demand for high grade wheels will be the largest in eight or ten years.
- Great Britain exported 4,318 bicycles worth £27,723 and £49,870 of parts in September, and for the nine months 32,380 bicycles worth £211,073 plus £474,673 of parts — £685,746 against £554,789 in 1904; September motorcycle and part exports were £3,043.
- The American Motor and Cycle Co. has been incorporated at Battle Creek, Mich., with $10,000 capital, amalgamating the Currie Motor and Cycle Co. and the Losey-O'Reilly Co. at 35 East Main street, with C. G. Currie president, F. Jay Rathbun secretary and Charles E. Moore treasurer.
- Andy Fritz's store at Portland, Ore., was totally destroyed by fire, the loss unknown and only partly insured.
- An argument from Bicycling News that phosphor bronze deserves a trial in mudguards, mudguard stays, spokes, jointless rims, brakes and bell pushes, since it will not rust or fracture, keeps its color, takes enamel kindly and can be rolled thinner than steel.
- S. G. Rigdon of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio, in New York on one of his periodical excursions, answered "How's the business?" with "Good! Good!" and called himself one of the greatest optimists in the trade.
- British annual reports: the Premier Cycle Company of Coventry netted only $4,975 and declared no dividend, the Rover Cycle Company turned a $6,845 loss into an $81,060 profit and a 10 per cent dividend, and the New Hudson Cycle Company of Birmingham showed $96,260 net profit.
- A British journal's prize competition on improving the bicycle drew suggestions for a rear wheel removable without disturbing the chain adjustment, a hinged rear mudguard, longer front spindles for cyclometers, a cheaper three-speed gear, grooved handlebar stems, gun metal finish on brake shoes and a numbered scale on the saddle pillar.
- A local rubber man tells the Akron (Ohio) Times-Democrat that Akron once repaired more pneumatic tires than anywhere on the continent, and that repairing has advanced from crude patching to cutting a faulty section out of a big automobile tire and vulcanizing in a new one.
- Two orders received verbatim by a big British maker — one asking for a machine at 6d. a week, and one from Enniscorthy offering 8 shillings now and the balance after the writer's grandfather dies.
- Editorial holding that Consolidated's abandonment of automobiles for bicycles will shock those who think the cycle trade dead, and that the motor trade is now meeting the same overproduction, second hand problem, price-cutting and "automobile rows" that the cycle trade survived.
- Editorial on the foreign contemporary's symposium, arguing that finality of design came with the safety and only detail remains — chiefly protecting exposed metal from the weather, since nickel plate cracks and peels at the corners, and easier adjustment of saddle and bars.
- Editorial supporting Mr. Logue's call for a catalogued diamond frame woman's model, noting that women who rode never knew the coaster brake, the two-speed gear or saddles such as Persons now makes, and that saddle discomfort is what drove them off bicycles.
- Letter from Lincoln Holland of Worcester, Mass., endorsing Mr. Gliesman on cycling papers and describing a motorcycle run to the Vanderbilt Cup race on Long Island that cost nothing on the boat while a White steamer paid $16; his police department's motor bicycle has covered over 9,000 miles since May.
- Letter from W. H. Logue, Jr., of Baltimore, Md., urging makers to list a special lady's diamond frame for rational costume in the 1906 catalogues and to have travellers press it on dealers, since even opposition would arouse feminine interest.
- The Dayton (Ohio) Bicycle Club will hand its property to the local Y. M. C. A. on July 1 in return for a fine brick building on Fourth street, to be remodelled to the club's wishes and let at reasonable rent on a five year lease with a five year renewal.
- A motorcyclist stranded by failing batteries where no new set could be had bought a pocket electric glow lamp at a bicycle shop, dissected it, connected up its dry cells and finished his journey.
- At least six of New York's eight or ten motorcycle policemen will ride a ten-mile race on the Coney Island cycle paths at 9:30 a. m. on Saturday, 19th inst., for prizes hung up by a police journal.
- The Brooklyn Motorcycle Club plans an open twenty-mile handicap road race on Ocean Parkway on Thanksgiving Day, 30th inst., preferring the broad boulevard to the tree-hedged Coney Island cycle paths; the Park Commissioner rules on the permit next Tuesday.
- W. C. Chadeayne, the new cross-continent motorcycle record holder, will tour Southern California and may explore Mexico before returning to his home in Buffalo, N. Y., through the Southern and Atlantic Coast States.
- Preview of the Madison Square Garden six-day race of December 4-10: E. F. Root will split with Oliver Dorlon to ride with John Bedell, Joe Fogler teams with Walter Bardgett, Walthour may pair with Ben Munroe, and foreign entries include Vanderstuyft and Stol, Mazan and Dussot, Poulain and probably "Tommy" Hall.
- George B. Hunter won the fifth race in the Tiger Wheelmen's club championship series, twenty-five miles on the Hoffman boulevard, Jamaica, Long Island, off six minutes in 1:17:49, beating U. McDonald to the tape by inches despite a puncture, broken handlebars and five changes of mount.
- Boston promoters propose a motor-paced circuit on the baseball plan taking in Madison Square Garden, Charles River Park, Revere Beach and a new Providence saucer, each city fielding a three-man team, with weekly three 10-mile heats and points and purse divided 40, 33 and 27 per cent.
- W. C. Chadeayne's own account of the Ogden to San Francisco leg of his 48-day cross-continent motorcycle ride — the Lucin cut-off across Great Salt Lake, bumping the ties through the Nevada desert, sleeping in an empty refrigerator car at Carlin, being pitched into a ditch by a passenger train, and finishing with an ulcerated tooth.
- John Berryessa and Carl Showalter of the Garden City Wheelmen, San Jose, took home trainer team honors at the New Century Wheelmen's meet in San Francisco on 1st inst., beating the Bay City team by 2 2-5 seconds, while Dave Mainland cut the amateur two-mile roller record to 2:19 2-5.
- Robert J. Walthour tells a foreign paper he will stop riding behind big pacing motors when his contract ends, preferring small unshielded machines where the best rider wins, and Nat Butler joins him in condemning "death trap" racing behind big motors.
- P. Olsen took the New York Athletic Club's Citizens' Cup over the Pelham Manor roads off ten minutes in 52:13 1-5, but the feature was Charles A. Sherwood, who rode from scratch and set a new course record of about 43 minutes for the fifteen miles.
- In the five-mile motorcycle handicap at the New Jersey Automobile and Motor Club's meet on the Waverly track, Newark, P. Drummond's 1 3/4 h. p. Indian won in 7:49, while J. I. Marion beat C. H. Lane's 5 h. p. Curtiss by a length for second.
- The New Jersey division of the Century Road Club of America carried off nine of the twelve medals at the annual carnival at "West's," Valley Stream, Long Island; Charles F. Hansen of Jersey City won three, F. H. MacMillan of Hoboken the two-mile handicap, and Herman L. Lind of Brooklyn the mile championship.
- An oldtimer's reminiscence of the Century Road Club's opening run from Bedford Rest to Patchogue and back to Valley Stream — 600 starters, 18 miles an hour pacemaking, a tandem smash in Brooklyn, a blackout into a fence near Amityville, and a gaudy "survivor" badge at the finish.
- French cyclists have copied the Italian "Audax" idea, awarding a diploma for touring 200 kilometres (about 126 miles) inside twelve hours; the latest to gain it is Lesna, the old Franco-Swiss long-distance champion, who rode the whole distance pedalling with one leg after being disabled in the Paris-Madrid motor race.
- Boston promoters have secured an option on a large well heated building and expect a ten lap saucer to be erected this month for indoor cycle racing through the winter.
- Carl Showalter, paced by Baumgartner on a stock motor bicycle fitted with wind shields, cut Burton Downing's Associated Cyclists of California five-mile motorpaced record to 8:13 3-5 on the dirt track at Cyclers' Park, San Jose; he and Hal McCormack also starred at the previous day's meet.
- Al Judge and H. Hintze rode a dead heat in 1:16 for the mile at the Navarre Wheelmen's home trainer meet at 325 West Thirty-ninth street, New York; Judge won the half in 0:35 and the quarter in 0:17, with Donato third in each.
- J. Benedict, off six minutes, won the Long Island division Century Road Club Association's fifteen-mile road race over the Merrick Road from West's, Valley Stream, in 40:24, while Frank Eifler beat his brother by half a wheel's length for scratch time honors in the same 40:24.
- Abstracts of Henry G. Fisk's single-piece inflatable wheel tire (802,806), Robert W. Smith of Redditch's two-speed coaster hub for cycles (803,250), and William A. Sankey's pneumatic tire assigned to Frank Reddaway of Pendleton, Manchester (803,510).