The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 14
Articles in this issue
- The bankrupt Reliance Motorcycle Company of Owego, N. Y., was sold at auction on December 18 for $17,500 to W. H. Ives of Addison, the founder, believed to be acting for Elmira interests connected with the Eclipse Machine Company and John N. Willys.
- Max M. Sladkin's $25,000 slander suit against C. E. Peterlein, the Grand Rapids, Mich., bicycle grip maker, ended when the court directed a verdict of no cause for action, finding no evidence of expressed malice.
- Tacoma, Wash., motorcycle dealers report record sales for the closing season, most machines going to the surrounding towns, and credit improved streets and highway work for the rise.
- F. A. Baker & Co., New York jobbers, have taken space 401 of 1,100 square feet on the Madison Square Garden mezzanine for the January show and will exhibit new foreign and domestic novelties.
- The Department of Justice has summoned the six licensed coaster brake makers—New Departure, Corbin, Eclipse, Miami Cycle, Aurora Automatic and Buffalo Metal Goods—to the United States District Court at Buffalo over the uniform $5 retail price; Colonel Charles M. Jarvis defends the royalty agreements as lawful under the patent acts.
- The United States Tire Company's Seattle branch runs a "first aid" messenger on a gray Excelsior who carries automobile tires slung over his shoulder to stranded motorists within a 15-mile radius.
- Willis L. Hayes of Finch & Hayes, Hartford, Conn., agents for Thor, Merkel and Excelsior, reports a $15,000 turnover on 30 new and 50 used machines and plans sub-agents and an F. A. M. registered repair shop for 1912.
- J. P. McDaniel, Harley-Davidson agent at Janesville, Wis., traced the bicycle family tree from high wheeler to motorcycle at the town's industrial exposition and sold seven machines outright.
- Madison Square Garden is being fitted in crimson and gold for the twelfth national motor car and motorcycle exhibition in January; "motorcycle row" moves to the Twenty-seventh street side of the top balcony for the doomed building's last show.
- The F. W. Spacke Machine Co., Indianapolis, has issued a booklet with an oil-window cut into the cover showing its De Luxe single, and detailing four and five h.p. singles, 7 and 9 h.p. twins and a two-speed gearset.
- Pope directors declared 1½ per cent. on the $2,298,200 preferred and 1 per cent. on the $3,690,800 common, the first common dividend since August 1910.
- Walter Goerke entertained a large gathering at the opening of his new store at 321 Washington street, Newark, N. J., on December 16, showing 1912 Indian models and distributing souvenirs.
- B. A. Swenson, the Providence, R. I., dealer, will do a large jobbing business in motorcycle accessories next year and wants prices and electros from manufacturers for his catalog.
- Magistrate Herbert fined H. A. Gliesman $2 in the New York Night Court for selling second-hand motorcycles without a dealer's license; counsel Mark Eisner will appeal to settle whether the $25 license applies to the trade.
- Detailed description of the Schickel Motor Co.'s $225 five-h.p. two-stroke single from Stamford, Conn.—three moving parts, unit tank-and-frame construction, an enclosed rocking-armature magneto, castor spring forks and oil mixed with the gasoline in the tank.
- Leader arguing that the motorcycle trade, with an output estimated near $12,000,000 for next year, badly lacks capable sales managers, branch managers and travelers, and that many agents neither carry proper stocks nor know the machines they handle.
- Leader praising the Madison Square Garden six-day race just ended as the cleanest and most sportsmanlike in years, the riders being bonded against forming combinations and the attendance the largest ever.
- President Taft, guest of honor at the Automobile Club of America banquet in New York on December 20, opposed Federal aid for road building as an endless drain on the treasury; his remarks are reprinted with the paper's rebuttal.
- Fixture calendar for December 1911 and January 1912, listing the 71st Infantry Armory races, the Brooklyn New Year's Eve midnight scorches, the Twelfth annual New York automobile show of January 6-20 and the Philadelphia and Chicago shows.
- Part III of William Streiff's account of riding through Switzerland—Basil, Zurich, Schwanden and Lucerne, gumbo mud on the Zurich road, gasoline sold by full gravity test, and shipping the machines through the St. Gothard tunnel into Italy.
- Indiana farmer Len Lacy, who swapped a colt for a motorcycle and then returned the machine to Frank Snotgrass express collect, lost his suit and about $400 in costs, the circuit court holding the return improper.
- Touring article on Richmond, Va., for motorcyclists coming up from Newport News through Williamsburg and Seven Pines, noting Monument avenue, Hollywood Cemetery, the Marshall house and the Confederate "White House," with a map from Robert Bruce's A. A. A. Touring Bureau.
- Editor Hapgood of the Hendee Manufacturing Co.'s Motorcycle News argues that contracts let to political favorites and the use of two-ton steam rollers instead of fifteen-ton machines are ruining American road work.
- Edwin Smith, secretary of the Crowley County Abstract Co., Ordway, Colo., beat an overtaking storm home from La Junta, covering the 25 miles of ordinary country road in an hour and 25 minutes.
- A dealer's analysis of Connecticut's new automobile law effective January 1: registration raised from $1 to $2, a $10 dealer's license for six sets of plates, oversize number plates prefixed "CO," compulsory rear lights and a ban on running with the muffler open.
- New Jersey automobilists will press again this winter for a reciprocity amendment to the state motor vehicle law for tourists from other States, a similar bill having failed by one vote last winter.
- John J. Gebhard of Detroit, Mich., was robbed of $15 by a highwayman who rode up on a motorcycle, held him up a short block from a police station and escaped on his machine.
- Toronto's new street lighting system and unusually mild December weather have made evening riding popular, with scores of local motorcyclists out on night spins.
- Full report of the nineteenth annual six-day race at Madison Square Garden, won by "Jackie" Clark and "Joe" Fogler with 2,718.9 miles after Clark's two o'clock sprint gained the deciding lap; Kramer and Moran headed six teams tied for second, settled by a disputed re-run mile in which Lorenz refused to ride.
- Personalities at the trackside during the six-day race, including Alfred Reeves of the United States Motors Company, N. C. A. president Daniel M. Adee, referees "Jack" Donovan, Paul Thomas and Walter A. Bardgett, and Major Taylor among the spectators.
- Manager P. T. Powers has signed a five-year contract, with a five-year option, to run the six-day race in a new 12,272-seat building to be called the Arena, to be built in Lexington avenue between 47th and 48th streets as Madison Square Garden comes down.
- Walter Rutt and Johann Stol won the Frankfort six-day race ending December 20 with 2,119 miles, ahead of the French pair Miquel and Combes and the German-American team of Stabe and Walthour.
- Under this year's percentage division the six-day riders shared $19,900—30 per cent. of $60,000 and 35 per cent. of a further $5,000—and after bonuses Clark and Fogler took only $900 against last year's $1,600 first prize; Kramer's bonus alone was $1,800.
- Floyd A. Macfarland sails on the "Philadelphia" with Fogler, Hill, Root and Elmer Collins for the Berlin midwinter six-day; Jackie Clarke sails from Vancouver for Sydney, Wiley and Galvin team for Berlin, and Halstead and Drobach go first to England and France.
- Stellbrink and Miquel beat a crack field by two laps in the 25-hour race at the Berlin Winter Velodrome on December 2-3, the closest rivals Hoffman and Sonntag dropping out when Hoffman broke a collar-bone in the 22d hour.
- F. A. M. secretary Estabrook reports 210 affiliated clubs, the newest at Lorain, O., Concordia, Kan., and Sidney, O., and notes club movements at Philadelphia (the new Quaker City Motorcycle Club), Sioux City, Fall River, Sleepy Eye, the District of Columbia, Warsaw, Duluth and Burlingame.
- Guernsey Van Riper of Indianapolis, Ind., editor of the F. A. M. weekly publicity sheet, has humorous verse titled "A Moneylogue" in the Saturday Evening Post of December 16.
- George I. Kreamer holds an option on a Coney Island plot for a five-lap board track and will put his case to the F. A. M. board in January, since the Hamilton and Thornley resolutions allow nothing smaller than four laps; Sheepshead Bay and Jersey schemes are also moving.
- Work on the big brick, egg-shaped speedway on the meadows near Newark, N. J., with a 60-foot speed path and seating for 100,000, is set to begin February 1.
- Luna Park, Cleveland, may get a four-lap oblong track usable for bicycle racing; Manager Bramley and "Dare-Devil" Schreyer are behind it, while Walter DeMara holds the National Cycling Association franchise option for the city.
- The Toronto Motorcycle Club nominated Fred Johnson for president on December 6, the slate having been framed at a secret caucus the night before despite an effort to keep racing men and dealers off the ticket; the election falls on January 3.
- The Utica (N. Y.) Motorcycle Club voted to take permanent rooms in the business district, has four bowling teams and a snowshoe trip to Oneida Lake planned, and invites touring riders to stop off and exchange club pennants.
- William G. Schack, president of the Emblem Mfg. Co., Angola, N. Y., was elected president of the Buffalo Motorcycle Club on December 15 on the slogan "B. M. C.—Bill's My Choice," becoming the first manufacturer to hold such an office; the second annual banquet at the Hotel Edelucia seated 60.
- "Joe" Wolters took two of the three professional events at the Elmhurst motordrome, Oakland, Cal., on December 18, Ray Seymour winning the two-mile and Walker and Estudillo dividing the amateur races.
- George Post, charter member and retiring treasurer, was elected president of the New Jersey Motorcycle Club at Newark; Captain Stevens has called a 60-mile New Year's run to Dover and the club's second annual ball is set for February 9.
- Thirty Ohio State University students at Columbus organized the first college motorcycle club in the state, electing A. A. Case president, and voted to fine members caught speeding or running open mufflers on the campus.
- At the Elmhurst Motordrome, Oakland, on December 11 an aviator lost control and descended in front of "Joe" Wolters, who struck the aeroplane's rudder and was knocked unconscious, yet still took two firsts including the 10-mile free-for-all from Ray Seymour.
- The Toronto (Ont.) Motorcycle Dealers Association has asked the Toronto Motorcycle Club for full control of its racing affairs and proposes to promote meets throughout the province as a trade advertising venture.
- William Longmuir, a confirmed Toronto crook, entered the store of License Bros., Harley-Davidson agents, to help himself to a machine and was run down by a shadowing constable and remanded.
- The Tampa Motordrome Racing Association will hold the year's first F. A. M. sanctioned speed contest at the Tampa Bay half-mile track on January 1, 1912.
- Atlantic City's motorcycle police and local speed merchants use the famous board walk as a motordrome; Frank Gravatt, the local Flanders agent, is shown testing a newly uncrated machine on the planks.
- Harry Ling, a prominent Chinese merchant of Toronto, Ont., has bought an Excelsior twin, is the first of his community in the city to take up the sport, and intends to apply for admission to the Toronto Motorcycle Club.
- Appeal for support of the American Olympic Bicycle Race Fund to send a team to the 200-mile road race at Stockholm next July, arguing it is exceptionally cheap publicity for makers and dealers; the pledge list is printed and a definite answer is needed by January.
- Charles Hansen of 81 Montgomery street, Jersey City, N. J., has put a cash box in circulation among his friends for the Olympic bicycle fund and reports it half full.
- Rules received from the Svenska Velocipedforbundet for the 200-mile road race round Lake Malar on July 7: a 2 A. M. start from Liljeholmsbron, three-minute intervals, pacing forbidden, eleven control stations from Sodertelje to Jerfva, and a finishing lap in the Stadium.
- Technical note explaining that inlet valves, cooled by the incoming gas, expand less than exhaust valves and so need less stem clearance; equal clearance for both costs power by admitting a smaller charge.
- The Motorcycle Dealers' Association of Greater New York gave a dinner for about 40 at the "Parisian" on December 19 for the United Cyclists' officers and the American Olympic Bicycle Race Committee, with speeches by H. A. Gliesman, J. A. Hall, Mark Eisner and J. B. Webb of the United States Tire Co.
- Thomas Crabtree argues that American motorcycle design has largely standardized in power, wheelbase and frame height, and that the sidecar—about $60, attachable in minutes, good for 30 to 35 miles an hour with a passenger—is the next step and a needed new income source for retail dealers.
- Most Boston motorcycle dealers favor instalment selling for next year, the popular terms being one-third of the list price on delivery and the balance in weekly payments of $5 or $10.
- The Persons Mfg. Co., Worcester, Mass., adds the suspension-type Overland and Sterling models with 10¾ by 8¾-inch tops and a three-point front spring support; the 1912 line will run to 15 bicycle models and three for motorcycles.
- Joe Schieder took the two-mile lap race at the 74th Infantry A. A. carnival in the Buffalo armory on December 16 with 58 points to Ed. Arenz's 50, while Herb Kriegbaum won the one-mile handicap final in 2:10⅘.
- The Crescent B. C. held another closed series over seven-eighths of a mile at Clifton Park, August T. L. Leimbach winning the open-to-all event in 2:30 from Charles H. Thorns and William Leimbach.
- Captain Huber's November report leaves Charles H. Thorns first, and the club's eleven-month total of 49,355 miles far surpasses the previous full-year record of 28,175 miles set in 1910 when Doc. Sanborn won.
- C. Hausenbauer won both the one- and two-mile handicaps at the Thirteenth Regiment A. A. games in Brooklyn on December 16, beating scratch man E. Goodwin by half a wheel's length in the two-mile.
- William VanDenDries of the N. Y. A. C., the veteran New York flat-floor rider, won the two-mile bicycle race at the Fourteenth Regiment A. A. games in Brooklyn on December 16 from J. Townsend and Walter Raleigh.
- The three paced riders who competed at the opening of the Paris winter track were Nat Butler at 45, Emile Bouhours at 43 and Paul Guignard at 36.