The Bicycling World, Vol 53, No 8
Articles in this issue
- C. A. Persons, president of the Persons Mfg. Co. of Worcester, Mass., raised $160 from local tradesmen to run a generic “A Wise Man's Experience!” card three times a week on the front pages of two Worcester afternoon papers, and offers his 50 electrotypes of it to any dealer at cost, 30 cents each.
- British cycle exports reached £106,764 in March 1906, the best March since 1897, including 6,263 complete machines worth £37,105 against 4,063 a year earlier, with South Africa taking £9,814.
- Traces the monkey wrench's name to its reputed inventor Charles “Moncky,” who sold his patent for some $2,000 and put the cash into Brooklyn real estate.
- J. W. Houghton and George Manning open a new store at Traverse City, Mich.; fire at Sears Bros. Co., 809 Massachusetts avenue, Indianapolis, costs about $500; and Henry P. Thompson and C. W. Gasque open as Thompson & Co. in Savannah, Ga.
- The Pope Mfg. Co. will not re-establish its San Francisco branch, a decision reached before the earthquake and fire; Col. George Pope goes west to settle the insurance while manager P. H. Bernays winds up the business and C. C. Hopkins is mentioned as a possible local agent.
- Howard A. French & Co. of Baltimore, Md., report the best spring bicycle and motorcycle season since 1896 and back the Bicycling World's stand for high grade machines against “cheap trash.”
- The Billings & Spencer Co., the Hartford drop forgers, have bought two plots of ground for a large addition to their present plant, the plans not yet being complete.
- Valve World's analysis of salesmanship: the four steps — attention, interest, desire and decision — through which a purchaser's mind must be led, and the judgment, health, honesty, enthusiasm and product knowledge the salesman needs, with a warning against knocking competitors.
- Corrects the Bicycling World of May 5th: the 3 horsepower motor bicycle of the Crouch Motor Co., Stoneham, Mass., is priced at $165, not the $200 given.
- Describes the Tygard motor, in which the piston is fixed and the cylinder moves: a 100-pound, 8 brake horsepower unit built on a De Dion-Bouton crank-case, using a single rotary plug valve and one spark plug for both combustion spaces and giving one impulse per revolution on the Beau de Rochas cycle.
- When charred oil clogs the rings after a hot fast run, flood the bore with kerosene and turn the motor gently until it frees, then flush out thoroughly before re-oiling, rather than tearing off the cylinder.
- The new muffler cut-out on R-S motorcycles is a valve in the elbow between exhaust pipe and muffler, worked by hand through the wire lever and angle piece of the Standard two-speed coaster brake fitted to the top tube.
- One cyclist killed and three injured in New York on a single Sunday, every case on a brakeless machine, are offered to dealers as the strongest selling argument for the coaster brake, since backpedalling is instinctive in a moment of danger.
- The North Illinois Telephone Co. of Sandwich, Ill., covering 1,000 square miles, reports that one motorcycle-mounted “trouble chaser” does the work of three men and a rig, saves about $5 a day, covers 100 miles and 25 cases of trouble in a day, and costs 30 cents a day to run.
- Calendar of coming events from May 20 to November 29, 1906, including the Irvington-Milburn twenty-five-mile handicap at Newark, the New York Motorcycle Club's Decoration Day hill-climb, the F. A. M. New York to Rochester tour, endurance contest and championships, and the world's championships at Geneva.
- A correspondent signing “THE MISSOURI KICKER” urges dealers and repair men to keep the Bicycling World where customers can read it, recalling old timers at the recent forming of the St. Louis Cycling Club who were surprised a cycling-only journal still existed.
- Reprints a letter from an English repairer to a maker asking for “a trifle of luck money” in return for praising the firm while looking after a customer's motor bicycle — graft that has reached the motor bicycle trade in the old country.
- Dr. Mary Gordon, in the British Medical Journal, holds that women's saddles are made too wide, too soft and set too far back, and recommends a narrow hard saddle without springs, brought forward over the pedals by a T-bar.
- W. Brain, a Cardiff cyclist, rode his bicycle backwards the three and a half miles from Roath to St. Mellons in twenty-two minutes.
- About 3,000 attended the graduation races at the Vailsburg track, Newark, on May 13th: James Zanes won the quarter-mile handicap and the half-mile “every heat a race,” Floyd Krebs took the quarter-mile open and the five-mile handicap from W. S. Fenn in 12:13, and William J. Ertel won the novice half-mile.
- Argues that food, fresh air and activity are the three essentials of the human machine, and that the bicycle uniquely supplies the last two — modulated exercise, deep breathing, change of scene and rest for the brain — making it the best “third” in the pursuit of health.
- Paced by Peguy on Cologne's low-banked asphalt track on Sunday, May 6th, Nat Butler covered 36 miles 961 yards in the hour, beating Peter Gunther by about 350 yards and record holder Henri Contenet by nearly a mile, then finished a length behind Guenther in the 20 kilometre.
- The St. Louis Cycling Club adopted a constitution and by-laws and elected W. M. Butler president, Aug. J. Schmidt vice-president, George Lang jr. secretary-treasurer and A. G. Harding captain after three ballots, and will probably promote a Pike county tour.
- A banker at Richardson, North Dakota, has appealed to Mankato for help to buy a motorcycle for the town's one exclusive minister, whose territory covers the greater part of 10,000 square miles.
- Some twenty members have formed the Pike's Peak Motorcycle Club at Colorado Springs with G. W. Blake president, F. W. Davis secretary and C. M. Angell treasurer, and contemplate a race and a hill-climbing contest.
- The Kansas City Gas Co. has ordered about 20 R-S motor bicycles from the Sellers Cycle Co. to mount its inspectors and meter men, all fitted with the Reading Standard combination stand and luggage carrier.
- Frank L. Kramer beat Van den Born of Belgium and Ellegaard of Denmark in all three heats of a match race at the Velodrome de Zurenborg, Anvers, on May 6th, and was given an ovation, a large floral bouquet and a “tour d'honneur.”
- Charles Nerent of the Roy Wheelmen won both first place and first time from scratch in his club's ten-mile closed handicap on the Merrick Road, Long Island, on May 13th in 29:32⅘, after S. Ryan was disqualified for taking pace from an automobile.
- Gorman of Woburn, off two minutes, beat Percy Cutter of Wakefield by a few feet in the twelve-mile handicap road race at Wakefield, Mass., on May 12th in 37 minutes; William Buzzy of Brockton took the first time prize from scratch.
- The one motorcycle race at Evansville, Ind., on May 16th was faster than the automobile events on the same half-mile dirt track: Samuel Troyer on an R-S beat Otto Geiss on an Indian in the final in 2:34⅘.
- Judge Newcomb at Scranton quashed an indictment against Alfred Harvey and held Pennsylvania's motor vehicle act unconstitutional because its title puts the licence duty on the operator while its body puts it on the owner — raising hope that motorcyclists may escape the heavy cast-iron number plates and the $3 fee.
- A foreign expert's table of the causes of overheating in the air-cooled gasolene motor, grouped under engine (valve lift, bad or too high compression, too low a gear, choked silencer), lubrication (no oil, too little oil, choked pipes, narrow crank-case slot, bad oil) and carburation (poor regulation, choked air inlets, frozen gauzes in the inlet pipe).
- A weakened inlet valve spring brings loss of power, a clacking sound as compression rather than the spring seats the valve, and occasional back-firing in the carburetter, while too strong a spring gives a similar loss that is far harder to locate.
- A picked team of the Santa Clara Wheelmen beat the Brooklyn Bridge Wheelmen over a twenty-five mile relay at Santa Clara, Cal., on May 13th, C. Koenig riding the last relay against J. Bertini and winning by an even 100 yards; the relays averaged 14 minutes 11 seconds.
- Two bicycles and six pairs of tires head the prizes for the Atlantic Wheelmen's second annual 25-mile handicap road race on Decoration Day over the Pleasantville–May's Landing road, entries to Charles Van Doren, 1735 Atlantic avenue, Atlantic City.
- Arthur Holden, one of the old Vailsburg guard, out with a circus this year doing a loop-the-loop act as “Diavolo,” was thrown forty feet at Peoria, Ill., when the trap failed to work, breaking his back.
- J. A. Payment has leased the Denver saucer and will give racing every Saturday afternoon through the summer, the first meet probably on May 30, mismanagement having caused the track's downfall last season.
- The Chatham (N. J.) Wheelmen defeated incorporation by 17 votes to 9 at their annual meeting, reported 104 members and $129.50 in the treasury, and elected Charles Mitscher president, Edward P. Miller vice-president, Henry A. Albert secretary and John J. Conklin treasurer.
- J. T. Halligan won the home race for the fast men in the Century Road Club of America's century run, covering about thirteen miles in 37 minutes, with Arthur E. Rhodes second a minute behind.