The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 11
Articles in this issue
- J. Lovell Johnson of the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works tells the Bicycling World that renewed contracts and new agencies point to a 50 per cent. gain in 1912 bicycle trade, crediting the new 'midget' juveniles and a sales staff enlarged 40 per cent. and sent out on year-round rather than seasonal trips.
- Detailed description of the Aurora Automatic Machinery Co.'s snow-white Thor 'VII' 7 h.p. twin for 1912, listing at $300: cylinders reset 50 degrees apart, push-rod inlet gear, Bosch magneto moved in front of the motor, truss spring fork, spring seat post and a $25 two-speed gear.
- The Michelin Tire Company of Milltown, N. J., is marketing a butt-end motorcycle inner tube of the same material as its regular tubes, the ends fitting together so as to minimize the chance of their giving way.
- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. of Akron, O., is erecting a factory at Bowmanville, Ont., expecting to begin motorcycle tire production January 1, and has opened a private wireless link between the plant and its Toronto branch — Canada's first commercial 'rubbergrams.'
- The Arrow Motor Company, 2845 West Nineteenth street, Chicago, offers the Arrow motorcycle in one model — a five horsepower single with 'aviation type motor,' flat belt drive and Bosch magneto — at $225, sold direct to the purchaser on a time-payment plan.
- B. A. Swenson of Providence, R. I., urges dealers to stock hand wind shields — little handlebar muffs that keep cold wind off the rider's arms — as a live cold-weather selling accessory.
- C. W. Odell, president of the Excelsior General Supplies Company, 1436-38 Michigan avenue, Chicago, announces the firm will begin jobbing bicycles and bicycle supplies, having engaged F. W. Grubb, formerly manager of the Excelsior Supply Company, to run the department.
- Henry DeRudder, the only American bicycle representative in Ghent, describes Belgian conditions on a six weeks' visit to New York: a $1 government license fee on riders, railways that refuse to carry bicycles, and only 14 motorcyclists in a city of 168,000, while urging American dealers to try Brussels.
- Following new quarters in Chicago and a new Kansas City branch, C. F. Splitdorf's Pacific Coast manager P. E. Kempton has secured headquarters at 430-436 Van Ness avenue, San Francisco, the old rooms having proved too small for the service department.
- W. E. Eccles, sales manager for the Persons Mfg. Co. of Worcester, Mass., has completed a saddle-selling trip through the principal western jobbing centers and the Pacific Coast, accompanied by Mrs. Eccles.
- Joseph G. Goodman, formerly president of the Bicycling World Co., has joined the Frank Presbrey Co. advertising agency and will open a branch office at Hartford, Conn., having already secured accounts including the Hendee Mfg. Co. of Springfield, Mass.
- Fred Stewart, formerly of the Indianapolis motorcycle messenger service, has taken 'Bill' Endicott, the ex-automobile racing driver, as partner to deliver packages for department stores, running 10 machines and expanding to about 20 for the holiday rush.
- Full-page Thanksgiving cartoon page showing the F. A. M., the racing men, the United Cyclists, the manufacturer, the dealer, the Motorcycle Dealers' Ass'n of Greater N. Y., the motorcyclist and 'Mr. Open Muffler Fiend' each giving thanks.
- Editorial on how motorcycle makers have abandoned the closed-door policy of a few years ago, now escorting rivals through their works, and argues that little of value is lost because all factories are much alike and the real jewels stay in the experimental room.
- Editorial replying to the Irish Cyclist's R. J. Mecredy, who recommended the tandem attachment over the fore-car: American makers found the motors of 1906 too weak to pull the extra load over hilly or bad roads, but signs point to the side car reappearing here shortly.
- Preliminary Bureau of the Census figures prepared under William M. Steuart show the value of bicycle and motorcycle products rose from $5,153,000 in 1904 to $10,699,000 in 1909, a 108 per cent. gain, with capital up 66 per cent. to $9,780,000 though establishments fell from 101 to 95.
- Cracked spark plug porcelains are usually the owner's fault rather than faulty material, the plug being screwed into the cylinder too far or too tight; advice on fitting a plug a fraction of a turn past binding and allowing for expansion.
- Argues that riders who have tinkered with a machine for weeks cannot expect a dealer to set it right in a few minutes, and that an experienced repairman insists on putting a machine absolutely right before it leaves the shop.
- Los Angeles reports a busy winter season: C. Will Risden's figures showing the district buys more motorcycles than any other, the December 3 Lookout Mountain hill climb with about fifty entrants, the Bakersfield hill climb and road race, a February show, and Captain Lehnhausen's order docking police riders' pay while their machines are in the shop.
- Fixture calendar for December 1911 to March 1912, listing the Cotham Cycle Club's annual ball on December 8, the nineteenth annual six-day race at Madison Square Garden December 11-16, the Atlas Bicycle Club smoker, the January 10 United Cyclists banquet at the Hotel Astor, and the Chicago and Denver shows.
- The Maryland Motorcycle Club of Baltimore has begun a membership campaign built on a yellow card setting out the benefits of joining the club and the F. A. M., with an application form printed on the reverse.
- Members of the Maryland Motorcycle Club rode to North Point, explored a new section and found deep mud all the way, swearing 'Never Again' — while Messrs. Wood and Essex, caught the same way the previous Sunday, were conspicuously absent.
- First of a series of touring maps, reproduced by courtesy of the American Automobile Association's Touring Information Board and compiled by its manager Robert Bruce, showing the main traveled routes of lower New England; copies 17 x 22 inches are offered from 437 Fifth avenue, New York.
- Constable Wright of Tehama hitched his bicycle to a motorcycle for extra speed, hit a rock and was thrown, ending with a peeled shin, a dislocated elbow, a sprained knee and some 700 minor bruises, according to the Red Bluff 'People's Cause.'
- An amendment to Article V of the F. A. M. by-laws has carried, secretary-treasurer G. B. Gibson announces: district treasurers no longer keep one-fourth of the fees, the national treasurer taking charge of all monies and paying all bills, effective November 25, 1911.
- A membership contest with a Fisk Grip-fast tire as prize is running at the Elmira (N. Y.) Motorcycle Club, whose new rooms drew a large batch of applications, and where P. B. Rutan of P. B. Rutan & Co. gave a dinner featuring venison from his Adirondack trip.
- The Columbus Motorcycle Club will entertain at a dance on the evening of December 5 at the Rader Oak Street Academy, with L. P. Birkenbach heading the committee in charge.
- Chairman Estabrook's weekly F. A. M. bulletin records the Savannah (Ga.) Motorcycle Club affiliated as No. 207 with G. R. Rossignal, Jr., as secretary, three new registered repair shops at San Dimas, Jacksonville and Youngstown, and 6,000 tool-box envelopes going out weekly.
- So satisfactory were the past season's experiments that the Canadian Militia Department has placed the motorcycle division of the signal corps on a permanent service footing with a distinctive uniform, the course of instruction opening with a lecture at the Toronto Armories December 4.
- F. A. M. officers are mailing lurid red and black leaflets urging riders to keep their muffler cut-outs closed, and advise that one be posted conspicuously in every dealer's store and motorcycle club.
- Chairman Thornley of the F. A. M. competition committee has bought a $50 set of Brown & Sharpe instruments — straight edge, slide rule, vernier caliper, depth gauge, inside micrometer with interchangeable shafts and magnifying glass — to measure the piston displacement of any protested racing motor up to seven inch bore.
- A constable charges a motorcyclist with doing fifteen miles an hour when 'this here speed register o' yourn p'ints to forty-three'; the rider explains that it is his gas meter, showing how much gasoline he has used since leaving home.
- Only L. W. Connor (Pierce) and D. Hand (Indian) finished with perfect scores in the San Francisco Motorcycle Club's five-week, 1,800-mile elimination endurance run, which was cut short on November 26-27 after officials found trustworthy checking impossible in small towns.
- Three motorcycle road races over a three mile course at Glendale on Thanksgiving Day: Tobey (Merkel) won the sixteen mile singles and the thirty-five mile free-for-all, and Pettit (Indian) the twenty-four mile twins, with three spills at the Ninth and Adams right-angle turn.
- Frank Hart, the national amateur motorcycle champion, lying in St. Luke's Hospital, New York, with a broken leg, has been moved to a private room and hopes to attend the motorcycle show in the Garden in January.
- Herbert Kipp, the brightest star in the local racing firmament and winner of the greatest and most valued prize of his career on November 25, married Miss Margaret Trebilock and, after a Detroit honeymoon, is at home at 315 Gladstone avenue, Toronto.
- Baltimore promoters, envious of the crowds drawn to Western board saucers, are investigating the possibility of planting a speedy motordrome in the city next year if the necessary arrangements can be perfected.
- Ray Peck, a local Excelsior rider, smashed track records and took eight firsts at the San Bernardino, Cal., Thanksgiving Day meet at Association Park, with Dave Kinney (Indian) taking the 25 mile free-for-all and Kinney beating Peck and Knowles by a hair in the 10 mile free-for-all sprint.
- Part II of Wm. Streiff's illustrated account of a four-month European motorcycle tour: securing Royal Automobile Club continental passports and tryptiques, landing at Boulogne, the 152-mile run over cobbles into Paris, the Eiffel Tower and the Tomb of Napoleon, then on through the Champagne country, Waterloo, Brussels and into Holland.
- Cartoon feature advising that on a Sunday morning ride one should invariably open the cut-out and give some of the throttle when nearing a country church, since any horses hitched along the road must sooner or later get accustomed to modern noises.
- At the Los Angeles Motorcycle Club's annual outing at Luna Park on November 26, Fred Everett won charter membership in the 'fearless' club by shooting the chutes on his machine and then riding up the 300 foot, 33 per cent. grade, while Erwin Knappe of Minneapolis won the 'stingy' race on half a pint of gas.
- The United Cyclists' fifteen-mile handicap road race over the Pelham Parkway drew 39 finishers: youthful H. Kaiser (A. W.) won from the 1:30 mark in 39:26 while veteran Franklin Fisher (I. A. A. C.) took the time prize in 38:47 4/5, beating Jack Townsend by a scant length, the whole run on a closed and patrolled course policed by Captain John McCauley's mounted squad.
- In the postponed Great Neck (N. Y.) Cycle Club races held November 12, Jack Townsend won the half mile open and the four miles miss-and-out and Franklin Fisher took the mile handicap from scratch, while the unlimited Australian pursuit ended in a tie between John Becht and Stanley Carmen, settled by a three-fifths mile match won by Carmen.
- Report of the United Cyclists' meeting at the Irish American Athletic Club: branches are to be formed in Buffalo, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Providence, St. Louis, Louisville, Savannah, Los Angeles and San Francisco, a $2 dinner for about 1,000 is planned for January 10 at the Hotel Astor, and an Olympic subscription list headed by B. A. Swenson has been opened.
- M. A. Rosenberg, a German chemist, claims a method of coating metals with tin, nickel, silver or cadmium without an electric bath, the powder 'Galvanit' being rubbed onto the dampened surface with a rag so that friction and humidity generate the current.
- Sixteen teams will face the starter at midnight Monday, December 11, in Madison Square Garden for the nineteenth annual six-day race under P. T. Powers, with Germans Lorenz and Saldow the latest foreign addition and Kramer paired with Moran, whose 1908 record with McFarland stands at 2,737.1 miles.
- The Canadian Wheelmen's Association executive recommended on November 24 that Fred McCarthy of Stratford be reinstated to the amateur ranks, but the N. C. A., which professionalized him, will not consider his case until its annual meeting next April.
- At a special executive meeting of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association at the Falconer Hotel, Toronto, on November 24 it was decided to send a team of riders to Stockholm for the 1912 Olympic games and the Lake Malar road race, with elimination trials near Toronto early next season.
- Thirty riders of the Century Road Club of America, the C. R. C. Association, the Acme Wheelmen and the Iver-Johnson Wheelmen ran a paper chase from Manhasset on November 26, with H. Hintze and H. Geiler as hares and E. Fraysse and J. Schmidt leading the pursuit through Great Neck and Little Neck.
- 'Dave' Shafer, one-time manager of Jimmy Michael, has arranged a remunerative Australian tour for Arthur Stone and his motorcycle globe-of-death act; Stone sailed from Vancouver, B. C., on November 30 and Shafer follows on December 27.