The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 17
Articles in this issue
- Twenty-one makers now form the Motorcycle Manufacturers' Association after Minneapolis Motorcycle, Black Hawk Motor, Henderson Motorcycle and Schickel Motor were admitted at the winter meeting at the Hotel Astor on January 11, where President A. B. Coffman predicted a banner 1912.
- The Cycle Parts and Accessories Association, meeting at the Hotel Astor, elected L. M. Wainwright of Diamond Chain president and David S. Smith of the Standard Company vice-president, and chose Detroit, August 6-9, for its summer convention.
- The National Association of Cycle Jobbers voted itself out of existence at its Hotel Astor annual meeting of January 11 after failing to agree on a plan of incorporation, with talk of reorganising later along social lines.
- The Bradley Motor Company of 268 Diamond street, Philadelphia, has been looking over the former Merkel plant at Pottstown, Pa., as it contemplates extending its factory facilities.
- The Clincher Tire Manufacturers' Association adopted standard motorcycle rim sizes on January 5, and Goodyear immediately staged the first tires to suit them at the New York show.
- Buffalo bicycle and motorcycle dealers, rallied by John W. Henry of the Vim Cycle & Supply Company, will elect officers on January 15 for a new local trade organization.
- Two new buildings at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber works at Akron, Ohio, will raise the company's capacity from 2,200 to 3,500 casings a day.
- A federal grand jury at Buffalo indicted 18 individuals and six corporations - New Departure, Corbin Screw, Aurora Automatic Machinery, Eclipse Machine, Miami Cycle and Buffalo Metal Goods - for a price-fixing combination controlling 90 per cent of coaster brake manufacture; the defence claims it merely exercised patent rights.
- George M. Hendee of the Hendee Mfg. Co. reports 87 Indian orders received in a single day and output rising from 80 to 100 machines daily at Springfield, and predicts a certain future for the side car as a commercial carrier.
- The Excelsior Cycle Company will open on January 20 in a three-story, 40,000 square foot building at 166-168 North Sangamon street, Chicago, specialising in motorcycle frames under Peter O'Horo and James C. Blaine.
- After part of its reinforced concrete building collapsed, the Prest-O-Lite Company has let a contract for a three-story steel factory on East South street, Indianapolis; a second $10,000 damage suit has been filed over the accident.
- Fixture calendar for January to March 1912, listing the Century Road Club of America ball at Lyric Hall, the Philadelphia, Providence, Chicago, Quincy, Toronto and Denver shows, and armory bicycle races at Buffalo, Brooklyn and Madison Square Garden.
- Hugh Saxon won the fifty-mile open on a 7-h.p. Merkel at the Augusta (Ga.) fair ground half-mile track on New Year's Day after R. H. Lombard threw both tires while a lap in front, and M. B. Buford beat Saxon in the two-mile match race.
- The first motorcycle road race near Phoenix, run to Mesa and back over 38 miles under Y. M. C. A. auspices, was won by Staton Dorris (Harley-Davidson) in 1:00:37 from Joe O'Connell (Thor), the prize a challenge silver loving cup.
- Fred I. Willis and G. H. Hamilton have sold their Kokomo Rubber Company holdings to the Spraker interests; Willis returns to the Hersey-Willis Company at Indianapolis and Hamilton joins Federal Rubber Mfg. Co. at Milwaukee.
- James I. Bush has left the B. F. Goodrich Company's motorcycle tire department at Akron to take entire charge of the motorcycle tire department of the Kelly-Racine Rubber Company at Racine, Wis.
- James L. Gibney & Bro. of Philadelphia have formed the Gibney Motor Supply Company to handle their growing supply trade, keeping solid tire and electric vulcanizer manufacture in the old firm.
- The Dayton, Ohio, Motorcycle Club fixed February 1 for its annual dinner at the Algonquin Hotel, with at least 200 expected to attend.
- Leader surveying the mechanics of the 65 machines at Madison Square Garden: 45 singles against 18 twins and two fours, the magneto crowding out the battery, one-piece cylinder castings, wider adoption of the multiple disc clutch and a marked return to chain drive.
- Chairman Estabrook of the F. A. M. Membership Committee writes from Bangor, Me., that the Galveston Motorcycle Club took the first 25 members of 1912, beating Rushville to it, with Bowling Green, the Humboldt club of Chicago and Enid, Okla., also coming in.
- George Post was installed president of the New Jersey Motorcycle Club at Newark with Carl Bush, Elmer Crosbie, H. Norman Davis and Peter Cunningham; members are weighing a track at the old Vailsburg cycle track or Electric Park and will visit the New York show in a body.
- The Toronto Motorcycle Club's January 3 election chose Fred Johnston president and Rev. J. D. Morrow honorary president, reported $1,035.35 in the treasury, voted $100 to retiring president William Self, and planned an exhibit at the Armories show of February 21-28.
- The Elmira, N. Y., Motorcycle Club elected B. A. Forsythe president on January 4 in its West Water street rooms, and has taken options on the Maple Avenue Park track for race meets on Decoration Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
- The Reading, Pa., Motorcycle Club held its election on January 4, choosing Arthur Bruderick secretary and a competition committee of John G. Neubling, James Mayo, William Schaeffer, W. E. Buel and William Stout.
- The Twelfth National Show opened at Madison Square Garden on January 6 with nearly 600 exhibits costing an estimated $2,500,000, 16 of them motorcycle stands, in the building's last season before demolition; agencies were closed by the hundred and dealers demanded immediate delivery.
- Emblem showed a 7-horsepower twin, two 4-horsepower and two 5-horsepower singles and a tandem; the chief change is the camelback frame in place of the straight bar, with an adjustable-footrest tandem attachment and a tank plate carrying motor number and colour indicator.
- Excelsior's gray-finished stand centred on the new chain drive models with cradle spring fork, cushion spring seat, double chain drive and multiple disc clutch, the seat sprung under both compression and rebound and adjustable for load.
- The Flanders single made its first Garden appearance in five 4-horsepower black models, one with a Majestic sidecar; changes since announcement are a one-piece brazed fork stem, one-piece lower fork links with bronze bushings and an altered Kingston carbureter.
- Harley-Davidson's new 7-horsepower chain twin, at $275 without the free wheel, was the centre of attraction; its motor is special throughout rather than a bored-out 6.5-horsepower belt twin, and the inlet valve push rod springs have been moved to cups above the crankcase.
- The Henderson four made its debut with an underslung frame, long wheelbase and all-mechanical valves, the inlets over the exhausts and tripped by rockers, an L-head layout its designer credits with curing overheating.
- The Hendee Company took the largest space with six Indian models but showed nothing new except the imported English Millford sidecar, red-upholstered and coupled to a 7-horsepower two-speed T. T. twin, to be duplicated in two months at $75.
- Merkel showed five orange-finished belt and chain models in rigid and spring frame with the enclosed Bosch magneto; the leading novelty is a friction-type shock absorber placed in the hanger, plus a new Merkel-Acme carbureter with automatic needle adjustment.
- Minneapolis showed four 5-horsepower singles including the first two-speed flat-belt model, its 2.5-inch belt pulley carried on the two-speed countershaft to give an undergeared drive, greater grip area and lower belt speed, with no clutch needed.
- The Majestic Mfg. Co. of Worcester, Mass., exhibited its wicker-bodied sidecar at the Flanders booth under the slogan "Don't forget the girl"; it was one of only two sidecars on exhibition.
- The M. M. line showed fewer changes than any other at the show: a quarter-inch longer stroke on the "4-50" single, cast rather than machined cylinder flanges, a longer piston with a third ring, a lower saddle post and magneto control moved to a tank lever.
- Archie McCollum's redesign gives the New Era 4-horsepower model a smaller bore and longer stroke at 3.215 x 3.75, a full 30.25 cubic inches; the machine adopts overhead mechanical inlet valves and moves the Bosch magneto, replacing the Eisemann, to the front of the cylinder.
- Pierce showed a 5-horsepower single, two 5-horsepower black singles and the 7-horsepower four-cylinder, standing pat since its 1912 announcement; among its few refinements is a snap-spring filler cap for the oil nozzle, chained to the tank so it cannot be dropped.
- Pope's three 3-horsepower singles made the make's first New York show appearance; the smallest machine present at 140 pounds, it is claimed to develop over 4 horsepower at 30 miles an hour and uses a double tube frame reinforced with a pair of "D" tubes.
- R-S was one of the few concerns to spring a new model at the show, a chain drive single duplicating the chain twin it brought out this season; for the chain type the firm has developed a very large cone clutch, leather-faced and mounted on the undergeared countershaft, while belt models keep the disc clutch.
- The only two-cycle machine in the show, and the only one running - a sectioned motor belt-driven off a dynamo - the Schickel uses a single drop-forged flywheel with mainshaft and crank pin integral, deeply recessed to take a 9/16-inch ball bearing.
- Thor offered more new features than in any previous year, with the twin entirely redesigned and a big single bred alongside it, both using a floating spring seat on a horizontal link riding a vertical spring-suspended pillar.
- Yale's new 5-horsepower twin, a smaller replica of the "7," is the youngest of the 1912 family; its cylinder flanges are cast horizontal with the road to circulate air among the inclined cylinders, and Yale is the only maker to adopt the mechanical pump oiler this year.
- Comparative table of every motorcycle exhibited at Madison Square Garden - Minneapolis, Indian, Yale, Pierce, Excelsior, Thor, Henderson, R-S, Schickel, Emblem, New Era, Merkel, Harley-Davidson, Flanders, M-M and Pope - covering models built, motor make, cylinder casting, carbureter, magneto, cut-out, weights, bearings, drive, speeds, brakes, wheels, tires, saddles, nameplates and colours.
- Show-week gossip: George Kreamer of Brooklyn on the quarter-mile board track proposed for Fred C. Perkins's Narragansett Park, Providence, and the $15,000 Narragansett Motordrome Company behind it; also J. B. Webb of United States Tire, W. H. Snyder of Columbus, and the $1,000 Tourist Trophy - a sterling Apollo on a winged wheel - at the Indian stand.
- The first annual dinner of the Motorcycle Dealers' Association of Greater New York and the United Cyclists, at the Hotel Earlington on January 10, drew 174 representatives; A. G. Batchelder was toastmaster, President H. A. Gliesman launched the American Olympic Bicycle Team Fund, and Frank B. Mihlon of the Newark Velodrome gave $100.
- Charles Hansen of 81 Montgomery street, Jersey City, cast the first mail ballot in the riders' popularity contest at 4 P.M. on January 9, naming Frank Blatz, Jr., Gus Wohlrab, Joe Kopsky, John Becht, Alvin Loftes, Jesse Pike, Paul Heidrich, Stanley Carman, Carl Ericson, Isadore Taub, Joe Schieder and himself for the American Olympic Bicycle Team.
- The Olympic bicycle team fund jumped from $199 to $335 in a week; the Standard Company of Torrington, Conn., maker of most of the country's bicycle spokes, was the first manufacturer to subscribe.
- Alfred Goullet and Paddy O'Sullivan Hehir took $3,750 of the $5,000 purse by winning the first six-day race held in Australia, run on the three-lap open-air asphalt track at the Sydney Cricket Grounds from New Year's Day to January 6 with forty teams starting.
- The New England Wheelmen of New York ran their 1911 "cork" race series every Sunday morning on the Pelham Parkway in the Bronx, awarding gold, silver and bronze medals on points; Bert Baker set a 10-mile unpaced record of 28:50 and won the cup.
- Charles H. Thoms and August Leimbach tied on 215 points in the Crescent Bicycle Club of Baltimore's run-attendance contest, both riding all 43 club runs, with William Leimbach next on 210.
- Walter A. Bardgett, long a prize-winning professional and last summer referee at the Newark Velodrome, has taken over management of the Melrose Park cycle track at Providence, R. I., and promises a big season.
- The Century Road Club of America's mail-ballot election returned the whole body of National officers and chose an experienced New York State Division slate.
- A three-mile flat-floor bicycle race open to all amateurs is on the program of the Irish American Athletic Club games at Madison Square Garden on Thursday evening, January 25.
- Leonard "Baby" Bliss, at 575 pounds reputed the largest man in the world and the sport's champion heavyweight rider of the "nineties," was found asphyxiated by gas at his home in Bloomington, Ill., on January 4, in his forty-sixth year; he entered the cycling world about 1893 advertising for the Fowler Cycle Mfg. Co.