The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 19
Articles in this issue
- Six coaster-brake makers indicted at Buffalo under the Sherman anti-trust law for controlling New Departure brake prices - New Departure Mfg. Co., Corbin Screw, Aurora Automatic Machinery, Eclipse Machine, Miami Cycle & Mfg. and Buffalo Metal Goods - pleaded not guilty before Judge Hazel, their eighteen officers contending the grand jury lost jurisdiction after January 1.
- F. A. Baker & Co., 10 Warren street, New York, issue a 64-page 1912 sundry book whose pastoral cover shows solo, tandem and sidecar parties at a T road junction; the catalogue lists Indian single and twin power plants equipped with carbureter and magneto.
- Creditors of the Pierce Cycle Company, meeting at Buffalo on January 10, appointed Lawrence P. Hancock trustee in place of the receivership; Hancock purposes to begin paying the deferred current accounts on February 1.
- The Waverley Mfg. Co. has moved its motorcycle plant from Milwaukee to a new and greatly enlarged factory at Jefferson, Wis., keeping a Chicago office at 440 Marquette building to look after that territory.
- Directors of the Reading-Standard Company, meeting January 19 at Reading, Pa., elected Abner S. Deyshar president, Jacob B. Fricker vice-president, William F. Remppis secretary and John M. Hill treasurer.
- The Curtiss Motor Company of Hammondsport, N. Y., announces that it will immediately place a flexible side car on the market.
- United Kingdom December returns show 10,083 bicycles exported at $208,570 against 8,914 at $187,620 in 1910, with the full year at 146,718 machines worth $3,006,590 plus $7,114,405 of parts; complete-bicycle imports are falling while the value of parts brought in rises steadily.
- Corrects the paper's New York show report: the Harley-Davidson chain twin lists at $285 only and always includes the free wheel, and its lubrication is a semi-automatic vacuum feed drawn from the crank case, not the gravity sight feed type.
- Indian machines took honours in three British and Irish reliability contests - F. B. Roper won first prize with a sidecar carrying 336 pounds in the Sheffield & Hallamshire 170-mile trial on December 26, C. B. Franklin alone scored perfect in the Dublin and District M. C. trials, and three Indians won gold medals in the Motor Cycling Club's London to Exeter run.
- The Oberwegner Motor Company of Toledo, O., becomes Excelsior distributor for northwestern Ohio, southern Michigan and northeastern Indiana, and displayed the entire New York show Excelsior exhibit at 139 Michigan street during the Toledo automobile show.
- George W. Rogers of Baltimore, known to the racing fraternity as "Flying Fish" Rogers from his Prospect Park days, has abandoned motorcycle racing and leaves shortly for South America to give aeroplane exhibitions.
- Having sold 11 four-cylinder machines to the Government of the Philippine Islands last year, the Pierce Cycle Company of Buffalo has placed its general motorcycle and bicycle agency with Wisner & Company of Manila and taken an order for 27 more.
- The Toronto factory of the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Goods Company held a musicale and ball on Friday, January 19, with advertising manager A. A. Briggs as chairman; the company intends to make it an annual affair.
- Norman E. Heil, of Heil's Motorcycle and Bicycle Store at Van Houten and Washington streets, Paterson, N. J., will handle Merkel, Reading-Standard, Marvel and M-M machines this season and has engaged endurance rider Harvey Snyder for the selling end.
- The Gotham Motor Co. of New York City, largely composed of Louis Goldsmith and holder of the city Yale agency, has been given Westchester, Kings, Queens and New York counties, in which sub-agents will be appointed.
- E. C. Kicherer, manager of the Sun Motor & Supply Co., New York City, booked a repeat $1,300 order from the Mount Vernon (N. Y.) police department for two N. S. U. 7-horsepower DeLuxe twins and two 4-horsepower coast-to-coast singles.
- J. Otto Tresemer of Columbus, O., one of the best known motorcyclists in the Buckeye State, has joined the sales staff of the Barr Motorcycle Company, local Indian representatives, and predicts a stupendous increase in motorcycling in his territory.
- The Consolidated Mfg. Co., which builds the Yale motorcycle and bicycle at Toledo, made a splendid exhibition of its products at the Toledo automobile show, its stand crowded with visitors throughout the week.
- New York racing man Fernard Mercier, who campaigned on an Indian last season, will ride an Excelsior at the meets this year and has abandoned his repair shop to manage the Central Motorcycle Company, 1220 Bedford avenue, Brooklyn, which holds the Flanders and Excelsior representation.
- A. H. Patterson of Brooklyn has secured 17 by 34 feet on the main floor of the Twenty-third Regiment Armory show, February 24 to March 2, where he will show Indian, Pierce and New Era motorcycles with several types of sidecars and delivery vans.
- The Buffalo Cycle Trade Association elected Edward Young president, A. H. Olief vice-president, H. Griegbraum secretary and F. D. Barton treasurer; Young is a veteran cyclist who joined the Buffalo Ramblers Bicycle Club in 1889.
- Tacoma agent Ray Day has sold all twelve of his bright yellow Merkel machines within two months, and Frank P. Fentress becomes direct factory agent for the Excelsior auto-cycle in Tacoma and Pierce county.
- The Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee reports a Government order, secured in open competition and without price concession, for a machine with "Ful-Floteing" seat and "Free Wheel" for the reclamation service at Boise, Idaho.
- At the Pontiac, Mich., annual meeting of January 15 the Flanders Mfg. Co. elected Walter E. Flanders president, Don C. McCord vice-president and H. L. Stanton secretary-treasurer, with Studebaker men Scott Brown and Newton Gunn among the directors.
- E. J. Knight has been appointed acting sales manager of the Aurora Automatic Machinery Co. of Chicago, makers of Thor motorcycles, in succession to J. A. Handin.
- Columbus Harley-Davidson agents P. I. Haynes & Co. have moved from 51 East Gay street to more spacious quarters at 45 North Third street, and the Franklin Cycle & Supply Co., agents for Excelsior, Thor and Reading-Standard, announce 203 machines sold last year.
- The American Motor Company of Brockton, Mass., has lopped $50 off its M-M 8-horsepower twin, bringing it into the $225 class, or $240 fitted with a clutch.
- Argues that New Hampshire's new motor vehicle law, which makes motorcycle dealers pay the same $40 registration fee as automobile dealers, shows why dealers must form local trade associations with specially deputed committees to follow legislative matters.
- Objects to a quarter-page Sunday newspaper advertisement for a widely exploited beverage that used a motorcycle racer in action, implying "Tank up ... if you want to win" - advice the paper calls dangerous and harmful to the motorcycle cause.
- Urges motorcycle dealers and repairmen to spend the dull winter months making special wrenches and assembling tools from idle shop stock, which will repay their cost many times over when the spring rush begins.
- Explains that carbon strengthens iron and steel but makes the metal brittle, so vanadium is gaining in motor vehicle construction where continuous vibration crystallizes ordinary steels; the largest deposit yet discovered is in the Peruvian Andes.
- Through the courtesy of the A. A. A. Touring Bureau and manager Robert Bruce, the paper reproduces a map of the main travelled southern highways including the newly chartered Atlanta to New Orleans route; larger copies cost 25 cents from the Bureau at 437 Fifth avenue, New York.
- The legislature of Quebec has appropriated $10,000,000 for a network of 3,300 miles of macadamized highway, including four thoroughfares between Montreal and Quebec, a road from Quebec City to the United States line by way of Sherbrooke, and routes to Gaspe, Tadousac and Ottawa.
- Fixture calendar for 1912, listing the Dayton Motorcycle Club dinner of February 1, the Chicago Coliseum show of February 3-10, the Brooklyn Twenty-third Regiment Armory show of February 24 to March 2, the Century Road Club Association dinner of February 24 and the Stockholm Olympic 200-mile road race of July 7.
- The New Jersey Motorcycle Club voted 14 to 6 on January 23 to accept George I. Kreamer's proposition over rival bidder George Hamilton for a $15,000 four-lap saucer banked 16 feet at 56 degrees; Kreamer will float a stock company and have the track ready for racing in May.
- An owner of six automobiles who dropped in at the Indian wigwam during the Madison Square Garden show keeps two Indian machines at his country place, one for informal calls and the golf links, the other for messenger service on his estate.
- President W. G. Schack of the Buffalo Motorcycle Club states that the surplus from the fund raised for the last F. A. M. meet goes to Treasurer Weschler, after W. F. Hapgood of the Hendee Mfg. Co. moved that the manufacturers donate their individual shares to the F. A. M. Legal Action Committee.
- At Tampa, Patrolman Russ gathered in a flock of cyclists and motorcyclists for riding on the sidewalk, among them Motorcycle Officer John Marsicano, who overslept court, forfeited a $6 bond and was afterwards discharged under suspended sentence with the other offenders.
- Secretary Gibson has forwarded engraved certificates to the 33 riders who completed the F. A. M. Eastern District tour from New York to Buffalo last July, the list headed by Tourmaster B. A. Swenson of Providence, Merle B. Mann and A. P. Howe; similar diplomas await the Western party once Tourmaster Whitney sends their names.
- The Winnipeg Motorcycle Club decided at its annual meeting to take up full membership with the Federation of American Motorcyclists; Secretary J. M. Moorhouse reported 80 members and predicted 150 by June 1, with Toronto, Hamilton, London and Vancouver expected to follow.
- 141 clubs affiliated with the F. A. M. during 1911, bringing the total to 216 with the West Side Motorcycle Club of Maricopa, Cal., and the Grand Rapids (Mich.) club the newest; the chairman is offering registered repair shops an electrotype of the shop sign for stationery and local newspaper advertising.
- Lists the newest F. A. M. registered repair shops, from F. P. Fentress of Tacoma and Greenough & Greenough of Charleston to R. L. Davis of Louisville and B. L. Howell of Danville, and describes the electrotype cut of the shop sign the chairman supplies for cards, stationery and newspaper advertising.
- The Chattanooga Motorcycle Club elected O. G. VonLong president, Wells Boyd vice-president, Jesse J. Lesh secretary and Ed Marler road captain, then served a "Dutch lunch" followed by a smoker.
- After F. A. M. State Commissioner J. F. Gorman spoke, all 21 members present at the Tacoma Motorcycle Club's first meeting of the year filled out membership applications and nominated Clint Hall president and A. F. Hoska, Jr., secretary-treasurer, with the election set for February 12.
- At the Los Angeles Motorcycle Club's monthly ladies' reception the new entertainment committee of Messrs. Burford, Nale and Brown decorated the clubhouse with Japanese lanterns and palms and brought in a string orchestra; the club is refurnishing and arranging a motorcycle show.
- Two Crawfordsville Motorcycle Club enthusiasts have refused to store their machines, riding with the thermometer below zero, and Secretary Miller reports prospects of a large increase in membership.
- The Columbus Motorcycle Club stages its second annual dance in A. C. R. Hall on February 1 under Fred Hare's committee, has formed a bowling league led by Nelson Redden and entered in the city tournament, and entertained F. A. M. president G. H. Hamilton, who was looking into the city's claims for the national assembly and racing tournament.
- The year-old Maryland Motorcycle Club has grown from six charter members to 80, elected Frank O. Boyd president and retained motor-law authority Osborne I. Yellott as counsel; its new brass and silver club emblem mounts on the front mudguard with the F. A. M. emblem set in the centre.
- The Atlantic City Motorcycle Club's annual banquet, photographed on this page against walls placarded with road signs, followed a season in which 20 members were added; at the head of the table were William Shannon, Albert C. Stephany, William Haenline and William F. Specht, Jr.
- At the Davenport Motorcycle Club's election of January 12 Dr. W. F. Hunt was returned president, with Philip Wagner vice-president, Edward Soone secretary and W. Erickson captain.
- A. B. Coffman of the Consolidated Mfg. Co., Toledo, and A. J. Musselman of the American Motorcycle Co., Chicago, propose a 2,000-mile national tour patterned on the Glidden, run over ten days at 200 miles a day, with a $150 permanent challenge trophy for trade contestants and a $100 cup for private owners.
- The Marietta (O.) Motorcycle Club elected Edward Baumgartner president and arranged a February lecture course - G. R. Yeomans on "Gasoline and Its Uses," Frank Nolan on "Magnetos" and Blaine Johnson on "Tires" - to which ladies are invited.
- Augusta motorcyclists organized on January 15 at the Chamber of Commerce with 51 charter members and elected Chester Story president; the New Year's Day race meet promoters donated their net proceeds to the treasury, and an April club meet is proposed for the Georgia-Carolina fair grounds track.
- The Four Lakes Motorcycle Club of Madison, Wis., elected A. G. Aldrich president, John Sumner vice-president and F. W. Huels secretary and treasurer; it has 25 members, nearly all of whom belong to the F. A. M.
- The National Capital Motorcycle Club approved the District of Columbia commissioners' ban on more than one person to a machine but condemned enforcing it against sidecar passengers carried in front of the operator, and appointed a committee to wait on the commissioners and the chief of police.
- The Flower City Motorcycle Club has been formed at Rochester, N. Y., with H. George Hammon president, J. J. Malone vice-president, William Krieg secretary, A. D. Cook financial secretary and C. Allen treasurer.
- Jack Prince's new third-mile Los Angeles Stadium, banked all the way round at 50 degrees, opens for practice on February 4 with the first races February 11; Prince calls it the fastest track he has built and expects 100 miles an hour, while Paul "Dare Devil" Derkum manages and Charles Fuller Gates acts as referee.
- Five events inaugurate the Los Angeles motordrome on February 11, among them a two-mile private owner 30 1/2 class for medals, a two-mile Class A professional in three heats for $70, $45 and $35, and a six-mile free-for-all handicap; new Class A and B professional subdivisions replace the trade rider class.
- Los Angeles professional M. J. Graves states that he has closed negotiations with no manufacturer for the season, his Excelsior rides at Ascot Park having created the impression that he had signed for that mount.
- The Cortland (N. Y.) Motorcycle Club is preparing a July 4 meet on the half-mile fair grounds circuit, with $495 in prizes and seven events programmed; sanction has already been applied for.
- Albert Nowlin on an Indian beat John Marsicano's Excelsior by a wheel in a seven-mile gasoline duel on the Tampa Bay half-mile dirt track in 9:04 1/5, Marsicano taking the fifteen-mile in 19:08 and Eino Johnson the five-mile stock; F. A. M. commissioner Joseph D. Hanna ran the meet with the Town Criers for a town clock fund and hopes to build a board track.
- J. Romain Lipe of Johnstown, N. Y., rides his Emblem twin the year round over the hills of that part of New York State and is rolling up a mileage that is the envy of the local riding fraternity.
- The Toronto Parks' Committee refused to sanction an auto-motorcycle race meet on the half-mile exhibition track on September 21, and the city's riders read it as a move to boycott all motor racing, strengthening the case for building a board bowl without delay.
- Howard A. French plans a three-lap Baltimore board saucer with a four-lap cinder path inside for marathoners and pylons for aerodrome use, seating not less than 4,000; the F. A. M. has told him it will sanction only absolutely circular board tracks, and he has written to Jack Prince for the cost of track and stands.
- At the Toronto Motorcycle Club's monthly euchre Jack Gilley made a clean sweep, scoring a win in every round and taking a handsome silver-mounted cane; over 50 members attended and copies of the club constitution were distributed.
- Charley Hansen of Jersey City, acting on E. Lee Ferguson's suggestion, collected $18.24 in pennies, nickels and dimes for the American Olympic Bicycle Team Fund; Chicago's reorganized Six-Point Cycle Club under C. L. Schofield sent in a solid ballot for the Windy City, D. M. Campbell of Gray, Ky., wrote asking about elimination trials, and the subscription list is headed by Frank B. Minion's Newark Velodrome $100.
- Eddie Goodwin won the five-mile flat floor bicycle race for the "Brooklyn Standard Union" trophy at the Millrose Athletic Club games in the 47th Regiment armory, Brooklyn, on January 20, with W. Waeldner second after a slippery-floor duel between Jack Townsend and H. J. Murphy for third; time 13:53 4/5.
- The Manhattan Wheelmen, with headquarters at 38-40 Carmine street, New York City, elected James Barry president, Frank Trainor vice-president, Anthony Rivello financial secretary and George Crescia captain for 1912.
- Elmer L. Collins of Lynn, Mass., beat Nat Butler, Bobbie Walthour and Jimmie Moran in an hour race at the Velodrome d'Hiver, Paris, on January 7, winning what was billed as the "Criterium d'Amerique" on a new Columbia racing wheel; the French papers now call him "King of the Winter."
- Champion Frank L. Kramer is visiting his parents at Evansville, Ind., Lloyd Thomas is wintering at his San Francisco home and William Palmer, Jr., has gone back to Australia until May, when he and Thomas will ride for Manager Macfarland at Salt Lake City.
- At the Velodrome d'Hiver on January 14 Joe Fogler beat Eddie Root, Jimmie Moran and Fred Hill in the 25-kilometre tandem-paced race in 13:15, while Guignard won the hour motor-paced event for the European cracks with 71.625 kilometres from Parent, Seres and Darragon.
- More than 400 attended the fourteenth annual reception and ball of the Eastern Division, Century Road Club Association, at Alhambra Hall, New York City, on January 20, where the American Olympic Bicycle Team Committee's Thanksgiving Day race prizes were distributed and Henry Kest and Miss Bieregel led the grand march.
- Joseph F. Solan of the Crescent Bicycle Club, Baltimore, equipped his bicycle with an anti-skid chain and found deep snow and ice no bar to touring; the whole club has now ordered them for the next snow storm.
- August T. Leimbach won the Crescent Bicycle Club's 1911 century-mileage contest with 10,615 miles for 13,515 points, just 11 ahead of Charles E. Thoms on 11,204 miles, with William Leimbach third on 12,835; the club logged 52,363 miles and 119 centuries for the year and has renewed the contest for 1912.
- C. C. Hoffman, a former employe of H. A. Gliesman of 782 Eighth avenue, New York City, received a 13 months reformatory sentence for stealing a motorcycle and personal effects from the store two years ago, despite Gliesman's plea for clemency.
- A Bureau of Manufactures report from Consul General John L. Griffiths of London describes the Olympia show's 250 exhibitors and $500,000 of machines and the openings for American makers; United States motorcycles sent to Britain rose from 3 in 1908 to 208 in 1910 while British exports more than trebled to 3,341 machines worth $590,545.
- The Century Road Club Association's annual dinner is fixed for Saturday evening, February 24, at the Broadway Central Hotel, New York; over 300 tickets are out from Chairman R. A. Van Dyke, Paul Thomas of Tarrytown and Sylvain Segal, and the menu runs from Blue Points to Cafe Demi Tasse.
- The Iver Johnson Wheelmen of New York City elected H. Kaiser president, C. Irwin secretary, G. Bielefield treasurer and F. Woisin captain, and reported the club flourishing enough to run an extensive point system competition with the handsomest medals yet offered.
- New Hampshire's motor vehicle law, in force since January 1, makes motorcycle dealers pay the same $40 registration fee as automobile dealers plus half the regular horsepower fee on each machine rented for hire, while private owners pay $3 and must furnish their own two-inch numbers; sections 1 to 19 are quoted.
- A wide level trail completed by the Government along the line of the old McNeil survey of 1882 now allows a motorcyclist to travel from Lake Cushman in the Olympic Mountains to the Pacific, and further trails from Longmire Springs past Mt. Tacoma to Mt. Adams are intended.
- The C. T. Ham Mfg. Co. of Rochester, N. Y., offers a Duplex model that is a sturdy coldblast oil lamp with an added acetylene burner, together with a 7 1/2-inch silvered red rear signal tube that snaps over the side jewel to take its light.
- The Connecticut Telephone & Electric Co. of Meriden offers the first handlebar magneto cut-out with a detachable key that leaves a gap in the ignition circuit when removed; the Hendee Mfg. Co. has adopted the switch as standard equipment on its 1912 models.
- The Persons Mfg. Co. of Worcester, Mass., will offer two 1912 motor seat models, "R" and "S," differing only in the front spring, with 12 1/2-inch tops across the cantle, increased lower rear spring clearance, drop-forged solid parts and the patented compound rear spring suspension.