The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Chicago, Feb. 7: distinguishes the Excelsior Motor & Mfg. Co. from the independent Excelsior Cycle Company, formed last August by former Excelsior manufacturing managers James C. Baine, Peter P. O'Horo and Ernest Unger, who bought the bicycle end of the business for $30,000 and now build motorcycle frames and forks for the trade under sales manager Harry Svensgard.
- Chicago motorcycle dealers organized permanently on January 27, electing H. W. Angsten president, R. C. Crist vice-president and F. D. Freeman secretary, with a board of 11 tradesmen; the association plans co-operative newspaper advertising under one general head and waives the initiation fee for early applicants.
- Detroit, Feb. 6: the Morse-Beauregard Mfg. Co. incorporates with $10,000 capital to build a pedalless motorcycle that starts before the rider mounts, with William Morse president, William Beauregard general manager and Frank E. Whipple secretary-treasurer.
- Toronto, Feb. 5: Herb. Kipp, Canadian travelling representative for the Indian, is arranging the Hendee display at the Winnipeg motor show of February 12 to 18, where Flanders, Merkel, Excelsior and Triumph will also be exhibited.
- Richard J. Collins, Hans P. Hansen and Charles J. McCormick incorporate the Chicago Cycle Supply Company at 22 West Lake street with $30,000 capital stock, to handle bicycles, motorcycles and supplies.
- Harrisburg, Pa., Feb. 5: Charles Gearhart of Mt. Holly Springs is showing a four-cylinder motorcycle of his own construction at the Harrisburg automobile show, with a view to manufacturing in quantity before the season is over.
- The Aurora Automatic Machinery Company ran a special train of over 80 guests, largely dealers, from Chicago to its Thor factory at Aurora, Ill., during show week; Vice-President E. N. Hurley and Sales Manager E. J. Knight laid on luncheon, vaudeville parodies of Thor executives and a guided tour of the plant.
- Baltimore, Feb. 6: Indian distributor Howard A. French has sold 50 machines since the first of the year and looks for 500 in 1912, many to commercial houses; the street cleaning department, the gas company and three commission houses have bought Indians for inspectors and for buying agents in Florida.
- Portsmouth, O., Feb. 5: Paul Rein has taken the Thor agency for the district and will open an up-to-date repair shop adjacent to the Portsmouth Automobile and Machine Company's plant.
- Buffalo, N. Y., Feb. 5: dealers, manufacturers and jobbers meeting at the Vim Cycle and Hardware Company on January 29 formed the Buffalo Cycle Trade Association, electing Edw. Young president, H. Krigbaum secretary and F. D. Barton treasurer; dues are $2 a year and a committee has already corrected a number of long-standing trade abuses.
- Brockton, Mass., Feb. 5: W. T. Marsh of the American Motorcycle Company confirms that motorcycles only will be built at Brockton, the new automobile end of the business going to some town in Ohio or Indiana.
- A Chicago catalogue house with over 6,000,000 customers is said to have earned about 16 per cent for the year ending December 31, 1911, and to be raising its dividend from 7 to 10 per cent, with pending parcels post legislation expected to swell business further.
- Middletown, O., Feb. 6: Abe Levy of the Middletown Bicycle and Automobile Company has installed a gasoline engine for power, lathes, a drill press and a complete building outfit for special repair and manufacturing work.
- Philadelphia, Feb. 8: the Auto Motor Cycle Company at 2216 North Broad street, agent for New Era and Pope motorcycles, is enlarging and refitting its store for the spring rush and adding a complete line of bicycles and supplies.
- The motorcycle police of the Hudson County boulevard, Jersey City, N. J., will be remounted on eighteen 7-horsepower twin-cylinder 1912 Indians, sold by local agent A. G. Boiler of Union Hill.
- Leader marking the National Cycling Association's thirteen years, its part in founding the Union Cycliste Internationale at Paris on April 14, 1900, and its alliances with the A. A. U. and the American Automobile Association, while regretting the severed alliance with the Federation of American Motorcyclists.
- Leader charging manufacturers and dealers with treating bicycle making and selling as a necessary evil and chasing ever cheaper goods, and urging them to back this journal's campaign to send an American team to the Fifth Olympiad as the best publicity the trade has ever had.
- Fixture calendar for February to September 1912: flat-floor armory bicycle races at Brooklyn, Buffalo and New York, motorcycle shows at Colorado Springs, Toronto, Quincy and Denver, Century Road Club century runs, and the Olympic 200-mile road race round Lake Malar at Stockholm on July 7.
- German official returns show exports of bicycle and motorcycle parts rising to $18,265,500 in 1911, with motorcycles at $415,750 and bicycles, tricycles and wheel chairs at $1,620,500 — evidence, the paper argues, that the "antiquated wheel" is very much alive.
- American exports of bicycles, motorcycles and parts except tires totalled $961,673 for 1911, a gain of $233,116 or about 29 per cent over 1910's $728,557; December alone showed $79,829 against $56,879, a 39 per cent increase.
- Day-by-day report of the Chicago Coliseum show, from a bleak moving-in Sunday to jammed aisles in an undecorated Annex, with 17 makes staged — Edwards-Crist showing 16 Indians, and the Wagner and Iver-Johnson making their debut; a census of 82 machines precedes detailed notes on the Emblem, Merkel, Reading Standard, Schickel, Pierce, New Era, Pope and Flanders exhibits.
- Show-week gossip: Excelsior representation for Fort Wayne goes to the Fort Wayne Machine Company, A. G. Chapple leaves Merkel for Flanders, the North Shore Motorcycling Club abandons its banquet, John Sink moves to Evansville to sell Thor and Harley-Davidson, and the Humboldt Motorcycle Club plans a February 24 social.
- Editorial notice that a miscarriage of mail has forced the omission of a number of Chicago Show exhibit descriptions, which will be duplicated and published next week.
- Buffalo, Feb. 5: the 65th Infantry Athletic Association's monthly games drew a big house despite a blizzard, with about a dozen Toronto amateurs competing; Canadian champion Walter Andrews rode a 2:19 mile heat, and the finals fell to H. M. Gastle, F. B. Scott and W. C. Penseyres.
- The newly completed indoor bicycle track at Helsingborg, the first of its kind in Sweden and reputedly the first north of Germany, is drawing capacity crowds ahead of the Fifth Olympiad.
- Tourmaster P. B. Whitney of Chicago reports to Secretary Gibson the 70 riders entitled to F. A. M. certificates for the Western Tour to the 1911 Buffalo National Assembly, a list running from Chicago, Detroit and Toledo to Rockford, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids.
- Chairman Estabrook's semi-annual summary shows 2,351 new F. A. M. members for August to January against 1,460 in the same months a year earlier, and praises Central District chairman Dr. B. J. Patterson of Pratt, Kans., organizer of the Short Grass Tour.
- Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 5: the Rochester Motorcycle Club elected Dr. Clint W. La Salle to honorary membership, and over 100 couples attended its annual ball at Valmont Hall, where the dance card was shaped as a motorcycle wheel with a club monogram hub.
- Toronto, Feb. 5: Alex McLean of the Toronto Motorcycle Club was awarded $900 by the Jury Assize Court against the Taylor Soap Company after skidding into acid spilled from the company's wagon.
- Oakland, Cal., Feb. 3: the Oakland Motorcycle Club is canvassing California clubs on a transfer-card system letting a member in good standing change clubs without a second entrance fee; the San Francisco Motorcycle Club has already given its assent.
- Baltimore, Feb. 6: forty members of the Maryland M. C. dined at the New Howard Hotel with president Frank O'Boyd as toastmaster and local talent providing the entertainment; the club's first event will be a Baltimore–Westminster–Hagerstown–Frederick–Washington endurance contest in the spring.
- Washington, D. C., Feb. 5: after a hearing given to the National Capital Motorcycle Club, the commissioners decided not to rescind the regulation barring two riders on a machine built for one; only four permits have been granted since the police inspection board was formed.
- Baltimore, Feb. 6: the newly formed Chesapeake M. C. plans a March run to Annapolis over the new boulevard and a 250-mile endurance contest in July with a 12-hour limit, offering a silver loving cup, a gold medal and a $5 gold piece as club incentives.
- Toronto, Feb. 5: 300 riders and friends attended the Toronto Motorcycle Club's smoking concert of January 31, with a dozen boxing bouts and a 13-minute wrestling match; a dozen new applications followed, and the club's annual "skirt" night is set for February 21.
- Augusta, Ga., Feb. 1: 15 of the Augusta Motorcycle Club's 50 members made the club's first run on January 28, riding the historic Sand Bar Ferry road and stopping at the United States Army aviation camp maintained there.
- Philadelphia, Feb. 5: the Quaker City Motorcycle Club held its first annual ball at Wagner's dancing academy, an occasion for renewing acquaintance with the lady riders in a town where 90 per cent of riders use double-seated machines.
- Elmira, N. Y., Feb. 5: the Elmira Motorcycle Club elected Burton Forsythe president, Robert Weaver vice-president and Arthur Holley treasurer, installed a new pool table, and will be represented at the Rochester club's banquet on February 22.
- Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 5: the reorganized Terre Haute Motorcycle Club will lease a modern home at Thirteenth and One-Half street and Wabash avenue, following its consolidation with the make-restricted Indian Club.
- Salt Lake City, Feb. 5: the Wandamere Motordrome Company is suing Gus Ling and Ernest A. Pye, 1911 lessees of the Salt Palace bicycle track, for $1,700, alleging they broke a contract over race nights and payment for riders supplied.
- Butte, Mont., Feb. 3: the Butte Motorcycle Club elected Leo Benz president, Michael Cunrow vice-president and Joseph Seaker secretary-treasurer, following the election with a smoker and boxing bouts by local amateurs.
- Annual officer elections at the Evanston, Richmond (Ill.), Salina (Kans.), Piqua (O.) and Mansfield (O.) motorcycle clubs, which chose John Jennings, Charles A. Tangeman, Russell Craven, E. E. Huntzinger and F. R. Dippman as presidents.
- Los Angeles, Feb. 3: Jack Prince's newly finished stadium opens February 11 with 24 entries including Jake de Rosier, Joe Wolters, Ed. Hasha, Charles "Fearless" Balke and Raymond Seymour, the first real meeting of the 1912 Indian and Excelsior; three Chinese gardeners are suing for $50,000 over an asparagus bed ruined by the track.
- Springfield, Mass., Feb. 4: the Springfield Motorcycle Club deadlocked over rules for the proposed New England Quarterly Trials and instead resolved on a Decoration Day meet at the Stadium with $500 in professional purses and an inter-city team race; W. A. Kothe was elected secretary.
- Indianapolis, Feb. 5: John Merz's committee now favours a four-lap board track, probably at Wonderland Park, to be discussed with Jack Prince at a Dennison Hotel banquet on February 18; the 200-mile international race is reported to be dropped altogether.
- The N. C. A.'s fourteenth annual meeting at the Hotel Bartholdi, New York, on February 6 re-elected D. M. Adee president and R. F. Kelsey board of control chairman; Kelsey's report confirmed the World's Championships for the Newark Velodrome on August 25 and 28 and September 1, recorded 85 professional and 273 amateur registrations, and the meeting reinstated John B. Hawkins, Edwin Lowe and Thomas Connolly as amateurs.
- Toronto, Feb. 5: the Eaton Athletic Association will organize a bicycle section and has already signed Harry Young, a member of the 1908 Canadian Olympic team, along with several younger riders.
- The American Olympic Bicycle Team Fund stands at $380, led by Frank B. Million of the Newark Velodrome with $100 and the St. Louis Cycling Club with $60; elimination race plans await the popularity ballot, and this week's candidate sketch is of Carl E. F. Ericson of the Empire City Wheelmen, the five-mile amateur champion.
- At the 22d Regiment armory, New York, on February 3, Edw. H. Goodwin of the Irish American A. C. finished first from scratch in a flat-floor record 5 minutes flat for two miles, but was disqualified for elbowing Harold Lightfine of the Glencoe A. C., who took first place.
- Toronto, Jan. 30: Joe Golden's club has installed three home trainers and veteran Tom Ford of the Queen City Club is training hard, as Canadian riders prepare for the spring trials for a team for the Swedish Olympic games.
- Bessemer, Ala., Feb. 5: six of ten Bessemer Bicycling Club riders finished the club's first run of the season, some 50 miles to Tuscaloosa, in 4 hours 20 minutes despite rain; dealer Jasper W. Bryant of Bryant Bros. is president.
- Rutt and Stol won the fourth annual Berlin six-day race at the Hohenzollern Sports Palace, with the American pairs Root-Hill, Fogler-Moran and Halstead-Drobach next home and new German records set at 955, 1,350 4-10 and 2,070 miles; George Wiley fractured his skull in a fall and Brocco was also seriously injured.