The Bicycling World, Vol 54, No 20
Articles in this issue
- G. W. Houk, ten years a London resident and formerly a pusher of the Morrow coaster brake, says on sailing home that the British syndicate has forced every American coaster brake out of the English market, enforcing its price scale with a $1.25 forfeit on each hub sold below the figures; he adds that variable gears are gaining on high-priced machines and fixed gears are practically unknown.
- The Prospect Motor Mfg. Co. of Brooklyn has ceased making the Simplex motor bicycle after J. J. McGuchin obtained the United States Peugeot agency in France; the machines will be imported in parts, assembled here and sold as the Simplex-Peugeot in 2 3/4, 3 1/2 and 5 horsepower doubles and an 85-pound 1 3/4 horsepower.
- A. B. Coffman has been made sales manager of the Consolidated Mfg. Co., Toledo, taking the Yale factory chair vacated by Edward Buffum, who leaves the cycle trade for the Empire State Motor Co. in New York.
- J. F. McLaughlin of 148 East Forty-ninth street, New York, has taken the N. S. U. agency for Greater New York on the strength of his own season's riding, has already sold six machines, and will show the single and double cylinder models with magneto ignition and two-speed gear at the Sportsman Show in Madison Square Garden, March 2-9.
- A correspondent signing B. K. N. answers Ovington's magneto papers and the "Foreign Expert," arguing that hard starting is usually caused by a piston stuck in the cylinder rather than by the magneto, and prescribing a squirt of kerosene on the cylinder walls of large-bore foreign motors, tickling the carburetter on Thor-type chain-driven machines, and a well-advanced spark.
- The Billings & Spencer Co. of Hartford has organized Canadian Billings & Spencer, Ltd., with $200,000 capital and a plant going up at Welland, Ontario, eight miles from Niagara Falls; Fred C. Billings is president and the branch is expected to turn out wrenches by the fall.
- Advice on an oil lamp that will not burn regularly: drill a small hole in the filling cap, or better a vent through the threads just under the cap flange, so air can replace the oil the wick absorbs without letting in dirt or allowing evaporation.
- Reprints an extravagant letter from a colonial dealer to a prominent British bicycle maker begging, "in the name of God," for catalogues, price list, clothing patterns per yard and the 1907 Almanack and Calendar.
- On re-enamelling an old bicycle frame: soak in a strong solution of potash in hot water to soften the old enamel, scrape with the back of a case knife, go over with emery and crocus cloth, then a second potash soak and an alcohol cleaning, finishing with four thin coats rubbed down with whiting and oil.
- Editorial leader arguing that theory is no substitute for the average man's experience, and urging riders to record mileage, fuel, lubricant and repair costs, since such data is of the utmost value to maker and user alike; it points to E. W. Carritt's record printed elsewhere in the number as the model.
- E. W. Carritt, silver-haired president of the Brooklyn Motorcycle Club, covered 8,232 miles in 121 rides on a 1905 Indian between May 6, 1905 and December 31, 1906, averaging 411 miles a month and 74 1/2 miles to the gallon at 22 1/5 cents; his tables log monthly mileage, seven batteries, 23 punctures and a broken exhaust valve head on November 26, 1905.
- Albert Kreuder, Alex Fiedler, George Wood and C. Rogers have been suspended by Roland Douglas, chairman of the F. A. M. competition committee, for riding the outlawed midnight New Year race to Tarrytown promoted by the Associated Cycling Clubs of New York; Kreuder and Fiedler drew a year as second offenders, the others three months.
- The new Pennsylvania automobile bill, which the F. A. M. is contesting, specifically includes motorcycles, re-enacts the $3 annual rider fee and adds a $5 dealer fee, bars drivers under 18 and raises the open-country speed limit to 30 miles an hour; Dr. S. D. Bashore is the F. A. M. state representative.
- The final of the Austral Wheel Race was run over two miles at Melbourne on December 15, 1906, and won by H. Thomas from the 20-yard mark by a yard from P. Helir (130 yards), W. Henry (220) and E. Lisberg (160) in 3 minutes 59 2/5 seconds, Henry having led at the bell.
- A bill before the Indiana legislature providing a maximum $50 fine for throwing glass or broken bottles on any highway is expected to pass without opposition.
- A reminder that rim cutting can never occur while a tire is fully inflated, and that leaving a machine standing on a deflated tire is half as injurious as riding it in the same condition.
- Dave Stanton, a champion in the days of the old ordinary and a frequent opponent of Jack Keen, died in London a fortnight ago at 65.
- Proposed amendments to the Massachusetts automobile law, drafted by the taxation committee, would raise the manufacturer and dealer fee from $10 to $25, cut non-residents' reciprocity from 15 days to two, and hold the motorcyclist to $2 registration plus $2 licence; the F. A. M. is pressing to have motorcycles exempted from the bill, whose full text follows.
- Hugh MacLean is preparing a "six-day" race for the Park Square skating rink, Boston, during the week of February 18-23, run two hours each evening on a special track; the semi-official teams are Joe Fogler-Walter A. Bardgett, MacLean-James F. Moran, Louis Mettling-P. F. Logan and J. B. Coffey-A. W. MacDonald.
- A racing man's winter prescription of a large bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and a boiled Bermuda onion weighing half a pound for supper, to keep the inside and chest in fine condition.
- Illustrated review of the ten brands at the Chicago Automobile Show, with the four Western makers to the fore: Merkel's belt-driven 2 1/4 and 3 horsepower spring-frame models and new float-feed carburetter, the Armac 3 horsepower with combined battery, oil and gasolene tank, two Harley-Davidsons, and the Fowler-Manson-Sherman Manson-Brown with J. A. Brown's compensating sprocket; also the Indian, Reading Standard and Columbia headlight.
- Broadway & Croft showed at the recent Birmingham show a two-cycle motor attachment with no control levers beyond a compression relief on the cylinder head, said to bring a roadster bicycle fitted with it to only 65 pounds.
- Rene Pottier, winner of the 1906 Tour de France and of the Bol d'Or, and holder of the unpaced hour record, was found hanged in the cycle shed in Rue Chaptal, Levallois, on January 26 by his friend M. Barthelemy; born at Moret (Seine-et-Marne) twenty-seven years ago, he left no known motive and was not in want.
- In the Buchheide wood near Stettin the owner of a private cycling road exacts a five-pfennig toll and sets a specially trained dog on riders who fail to stop; a court corresponding to the American court of appeals has ruled such canine toll-collecting legitimate.
- The Boston Bicycle Club, mother club of America, has elected Elliot C. Lee president to succeed J. S. Dean and holds its twenty-ninth annual dinner at Hendrie's, with Frank W. Weston, Augustus Nickerson and Walter G. Kendall retaining their offices and "Papa" Weston writing the invitation, which is quoted with its Burns epigraph.
- "Jock," in the Scottish Cyclist, attacks the training handbooks that forbid drinking, recalls being beaten by a teetotal chap who drank sodas and ginger beer by the gallon, defends pints of ale and half-and-half over water and milk, and quotes Karl Kron of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" bursting into song on the subject.
- Carl Showalter of San Jose took the Garden City Wheelmen's six-day home-trainer championship of the Pacific coast, beating Livio Maginni in 2:19 2/5 and covering the mile in 2:09 1/5 on a 160 gear against Mainland's 2:19 record; W. Chaboya beat his brother C. Chaboya in 2:27 1/5, and the proceeds start a fund for a San Jose bicycle track.
- Explains the racing men's dressing-room slang for "spreading the bull" as the off-season business of besieging promoters for contracts, and reproduces verbatim a Salt Lake letter to "Manager" Halvorson from a rider who Frenchified his name, claiming the five-mile unpaced road record and four hundred-mile wins in a year when only one such race is held.
- Hugh MacLean of Chelsea defeated James F. Moran, his milkman, in two match races at the Park Square skating rink before about 4,000 people, taking four miles 1 1/2 laps out of him in the unlimited pursuit at an announced 7:15 2/5; Moran slipped on a turn in the one-mile match and MacLean won the substituted half-mile in 1:10.
- The German professional sprint riders who voted to dissolve their union because of the decline of sprint racing have reconsidered and will not disband, though membership has fallen from 205 to 75.
- A year-round cyclist advances the idea of shoes with leather soles and rubber uppers for cold and wet weather, since leather becomes water-soaked and stiff and retains a surprising amount of water, while rubber uppers would stay flexible and keep the feet warm.
- The head of the fire department at Colorado Springs, Colorado, will hereafter use a motor bicycle to reach fires, going one better than the automobiles other city departments have adopted.
- Thomas Enstone of Gloucester, England, said to be 103 and the oldest cyclist in the universe, lies in the local hospital with a fractured thigh after a bicyclist ran into and upset his tricycle during his daily "constitutional."
- A blind London cyclist is claimed to have the ambition of touring awheel around the world, and takes a ride every evening, though how he avoids colliding with animate or inanimate objects is not explained.
- A Parisian sporting daily blames Floyd McFarland's Paris defeats on the blue goggles he rides in; at the Velodrome d'Hiver on the 27th, in a two-heat tandem-paced match with Darragon and Poulain, Poulain won both heats, beating McFarland by two lengths in the five-kilometre heat and finishing about 100 yards up in the 25-kilometre heat after Darragon fell and remounted.
- A French journal's plebiscite on the most popular pace-follower of the day put R. J. Walthour of America first with 1,533 votes, ahead of world's champion Louis Darragon with 1,500, Nat Butler 1,382, Paul Guignard 1,341 and Thaddeus Robl 1,246.
- Jack Prince is reported to be building a 200 by 300 foot coliseum at Salt Lake City housing a ten-lap track for summer bicycle racing, with John M. Chapman said to be slated to manage it and possibly the Vailsburg oval as well.
- The city trustees of Hanford, California, have granted cyclists permission to ride the sidewalks when the weather makes riding in the middle of the streets impossible.
- Cites French practice as evidence that an N. C. A. junior or public school championship would stimulate American cycling: boys' races are held constantly, an interscholastic championship annually, and the "Tout-Petits" at the Parc des Princes drew 375 starters under 17, won by a boy named Lecam who covered the last eighth in 15 3/5 seconds.
- Paul Guignard, who holds the hour record at 59 miles 30 1/2 yards, is secretly preparing an attempt to ride 100 kilometres (62.1 miles) within the hour behind pace on the fast Munich track, with Bertin on a new two-cylinder machine, Darioli on a special two-cylinder tandem guided by Contant, and Peguy in reserve.