Vol 64, No 25
Articles in this issue
- The Clincher Tire Association, meeting at Cleveland, adopted definite motorcycle rim standards in three sizes, Double A, B and C, with fixed widths between clinches, all rims to be inspected and stamped with the official brand.
- Six new agencies or branch stores opened in Toronto in a few weeks, giving the Indian four branches and bringing Flanders, Militaire, Emblem and Thor representation to about 18 dealers in the Canadian metropolis.
- Seven Detroit firms, including the Economy Cycle Supply Co., Excelsior Auto-Cycle Co. and W. E. Metzger Co., organized the Detroit Motorcycle Dealers' Association to promote races, regulate sales and improve the trade.
- The Triumph Manufacturing Co. filed articles of incorporation for $75,000 in Michigan to build motorcycles at Detroit, with Robert M. Brownson and George W. Sherman, formerly of the Flanders Mfg. Co., identified with the venture.
- Stockholders of the Fafnir Bearing Co. of New Britain, Conn., elected Howard S. Hart president, E. C. Goodwin vice-president and E. H. Cooper secretary-treasurer.
- Edward Richel of Cleveland, formerly John Zucker's leading Thor salesman at the Casino Cycle and Supply Co., joined the traveling staff of the New Era Auto-Cycle Co. of Dayton, Ohio.
- Boston trade notes: Edward Buffum is hunting a site on Columbus avenue for a Merkel and Racycle branch, and Grady has bought the bicycle business of the Bi-Motor Equipment Co., which will confine itself to motor supplies.
- The Sun Motor and Supply Co. of New York, handling the Excelsior, N. S. U. and Flanders lines, moves from 206 West 76th street to 307 Amsterdam avenue on April 1 to gain a busier thoroughfare near the 72d street subway.
- The Hendee Mfg. Co., anticipating the biggest season yet for 1912, built up a large reserve stock of motors and machines so that dealers' orders can be filled without delay.
- F. A. Baker & Co. of 10 Warren street, New York, added a mezzanine floor to house several new motorcycle accessories.
- The Hub Cycle Co. of Boston is putting out a novel tire.
- Augusta dealers report more inquiries than ever, twins being most in demand; the county and city authorities have adopted the motorcycle for official use and a race meet is set for April 26.
- F. E. Bremer of the Consolidated Mfg. Co., Toledo, back from six weeks in the South, cites Galveston, Texas, where post office special delivery messengers and youngsters delivering for druggists have bought motorcycles for commercial work.
- New Emblem agencies include the W. A. Doubleday Co. of Syracuse, C. Otis McCarty of Watertown, Browning Bros. of Ogden, Utah, and the Wichita Bicycle Shop, plus dealers in Oklahoma City, Evansville, Yonkers and Fort Wayne.
- The Hagstrom Bros. Mfg. Co. of Lindsborg took the Wagner agency for Rice, Reno, Harvey, Marion and McPherson counties, Kansas; Zimmerman is the district F. A. M. commissioner.
- Stockholders of the New Britain Machine Co. chose Frederick G. Piatt president and Robert S. Brown secretary, with H. E. Irwin assistant, and a board including A. Buol, H. H. Pease, C. J. Parker and C. M. Jarvis.
- H. J. Krackowizer of New York City has severed his connection with the Schickel Motor Co. of Stamford, Conn.
- The 1912 Greyhound of the Greyhound Motor Co., Buffalo, descended from the 1900 Thomas Auto-bi, is offered in a single model at $175, with cartridge plunger fork, three-in-one tank, Bowden controls, Spartan belt and Eclipse hubs on a 56-inch wheelbase.
- Judge John R. Hazel of the U. S. District Court at Buffalo sustained the New Departure Mfg. Co.'s coaster brake patent against the Buffalo Metal Goods Co., a decision bearing on the pending Sherman anti-trust indictment of the coaster brake licensors.
- The Stewart & Clark branch at Minneapolis moves from 45 South Tenth street to larger quarters at 1202 Hennepin avenue, with A. H. Champlin taking the outside Minnesota trade.
- Directors of the Waverley Mfg. Co. of Jefferson, Wis., renamed their machine the P. E. M. after designer Perry E. Mack, to distinguish it now that Waverley motors are being sold to other makers.
- A. B. Coffman, sales manager for the Consolidated Mfg. Co.'s Yale motorcycle, hired G. H. Squier, late of the Flanders Mfg. Co., to work Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
- R. D. Washington opened as Indian agent at 145 South Third street, Ironton, Ohio, and invites touring motorcyclists to use his headquarters, for which he has provided special accommodations.
- Victor H. Roos, Harley-Davidson and Yale agent at Omaha, lost a new 1912 H-D battery single, No. 1432B, from an unlocked shed on February 25 and offers $25 reward for its recovery.
- The Hudson County (N. J.) boulevard commissioners ordered 18 new 7 horsepower twin Indians, and the W. E. Metzger Co. sold six more to the Detroit police, which already runs 12.
- Ex-racing man Fred Huyck, Chicago Merkel distributor, added the Henderson four for Cook, Will, DuPage and Kane counties, and Harvey Bernard took the Merkel agency for Oak Park.
- The Chase Motor Co. sold three more Harley-Davidsons to the Baltimore police department, making nine now in service there.
- Editorial arguing that a well-dressed window is the surest index of a merchant's enterprise, introducing this paper's prize competition for the best decorated dealer windows.
- Editorial attacking the F. A. M. decision to shelve the competition rule redraft until midsummer, leaving the season to be governed by rules the paper calls lax and as porous as a sieve after last year's race meet scandals.
- Fixture calendar for March and April 1912 and the season's dated list, from Decoration Day meets at Lancaster, Washington and Long Branch to the Stockholm Olympic 200-mile road race round Lake Malar on July 7 and the world's championships at Newark in August.
- Recalls March 9, 1878, the first meet and run of the Boston Bicycle Club, with 14 high-wheelers and one tricycle starting from Trinity Square, mostly English Duplex Excelsiors by Bayliss & Thomas.
- Toronto's motorcycle scout corps, attached to the signal department of the Canadian militia, will number 16 men in two companies, the government paying rental for the machines and supplying gasoline and oil.
- Chauncey Ewing, an Ohio Oil Company gauger at Bluffton, Ind., seeks a partner for a Harley-Davidson run from Indiana to California, where he intends to settle.
- All Connecticut motorcycle operators' licenses expired February 29 and renewals are at flood tide under new regulations that are more onerous and carry higher fees.
- The Bicycling World announces a window display photograph competition open to all motorcycle and bicycle dealers, closing August 1, 1912, with $25, $15, $10 and $5 in gold for the first four places and subscriptions for the next fifteen.
- Government, municipal and commercial adoption of the motorcycle: a southern telephone company saved nearly $200 a year on trouble repair, and rural mail carriers cover in hours routes that once took a day with horse and buggy.
- Motorcycle Officer John Frese of the Spokane police plans a 3,500-mile transcontinental run on a Merkel with sidecar, accompanied by his wife and five-year-old daughter; he holds a 71:20 record for the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene round trip.
- An argument in the House over a $360 appropriation to maintain two motorcycles used by Washington elevator inspectors filled three columns of the Congressional Record and ended in one member challenging another to step outside.
- Half a dozen riders and dealers are claiming to have originated the Indian priming gun, and the paper invites further entries.
- The tenth annual Boston automobile show at Mechanics' Hall carried three motorcycle exhibits, Boyd Motor Co., George N. Holden and the New England Motorcycle Co., plus a long list of accessory firms, in English rose garden and Spanish mission settings.
- The Columbus Motorcycle Club staged its first annual independent show on East Chestnut street with 40 machines of eight makes, a band, and admission at a dime, exhibitors including Barr Motorcycle Co. (Indian) and L. P. Birkenbach Co. (Thor and Yale).
- Erie, Pa.'s first automobile and motorcycle show at Arbuckle's garage gave the second floor to seventeen motorcycles and a sidecar from seven exhibitors; M. A. Reinholtz's Thor booth took decorating honors and the Lejeal Cycle Works showed the largest Indian display.
- B. A. Swenson, the Providence dealer, credits his increased winter sales to stocking heavy leather coats and fur gloves so that prospects will take a demonstration ride in cold weather.
- London letter noting the death of D. Graham Gilmore in an aeroplane fall, the craze for naming machines, running costs of about a penny a mile for a 3.5 h.p. single, Jack Prince's alarming Los Angeles saucer, the Auto-Cycle Union Six Days' Trial of August 12-17 and the growing number of women riders.
- A rider took a new 1912 model out from the Calgary, Alberta agency for a trial spin with the thermometer at 46 below zero.
- Chairman Estabrook reports four new F. A. M. clubs, Flower City of Rochester, Aberdeen (Wash.), Batavia and Lawndale, praises the registered repair shop as a recruiting station, and details the Hawthorne Mfg. Co.'s gift of 50 "Old Sol" lamps for the club contest.
- Secretary Gibson's monthly statement shows 440 new F. A. M. members for February 1912, a net increase of 38 over January, with New York leading at 55 and the Lake district at 129; renewals numbered 137.
- President Hamilton and competition chairman Thornley agreed there will be no revision of the F. A. M. competition rules before the next national meet, the contemplated changes being judged too vital to act on before the annual convention.
- Dr. B. J. Patterson of Pratt, Kan., vice-president of the F. A. M. Central District, publicly arraigns his State and local commissioners in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa for failing to answer letters, and warns that continued neglect will cost them their posts.
- Seventy-one Seattle and Tacoma motorcyclists banqueted to mark the Tacoma Motorcycle Club's entry into the F. A. M.; Clinton C. Hull was elected president and five deputies were appointed to be given police stars.
- The Oakland Motorcycle Club's touring committee is gathering data on hotels and reliable garages across the State for its touring members, and cautions riders to behave like gentlemen and not like "open muffler pests."
- Twenty-eight Bakersfield Motorcycle Club riders held their first annual picnic at Edison Canyon, with boxing, wrestling, foot runs and a hill climb won by Joe Dixon (Indian), C. P. Clark (Indian) and P. C. Taylor (Harley-Davidson).
- The Los Angeles Motorcycle Club has a decorated reserved section at the Stadium and plans a machine shop in the gymnasium, a basement shooting gallery, a tennis court, an archery range and a banquet room in the enclosed rear porch.
- Providence riders are back on the road, Chief Swenson reports plenty of orders, and Secretary Edwards is furnishing the Providence Motorcycle Club's new rooms; a club yarn-spinning hour produced the tale of a rider who primed his cylinders from a peanut shell.
- The Washington Motorcycle Club launched as a 100 per cent. F. A. M. organization with George Cackran president, membership limited to 50, and a first race meet at Bennings on May 30.
- Baltimore riders called off a joint Maryland and Chesapeake club run to Ridgeville for cold; a hill climb between the two clubs is mooted, Jack Prince is awaited to build a board track, and a new club of University of Maryland students formed under James M. Hepbron.
- The Lancaster (Pa.) Motorcycle Club is first into the contest ring for the season, opening with a May 30 meet.
- Officers chosen by the York, Lima, Auburn, Canton, Sidney, Fresno, Butler, London (Ont.) and Owego motorcycle clubs, from F. M. Reiff at York to W. E. Halstead at Owego.
- Luna Park was chosen as the site for a four-lap Cleveland motordrome to be built by George Kreamer and ready by mid-May; manager Bramley claims it will rival Playa del Rey for speed, and Matthews, Klark, Hart and Huntsbery are expected.
- Two days of racing on a 3.1-mile course drew a large crowd; winners included R. Van Sant (Merkel), F. Y. Bush (Thor), C. P. Clark (Indian), D. D. Stoecki (Indian) and, in the professional twins, A. Thoenson (Indian) in 9:02.
- Indianapolis dealers re-estimated their proposed board track at $18,000 to $20,000 rather than $10,000 and may hand the F. A. M. restrictive sanction to a single backer; an executive committee including Fred W. Spacke, Gus Habich and E. G. Baker was elected.
- P. B. Whitney, vice-president of the F. A. M. Lake District, awarded medals to 21 riders from the September 1911 Western endurance run, eleven of them, including A. T. Barlass and H. Bernard, taking gold for perfect scores.
- The Motorcycle Touring Club of New York will run to Peekskill on Sunday, April 7.
- The Eastern Racing Association of George Hamilton, Edward MacDougall and A. C. Dunlap deposited the $350 fee with F. A. M. competition chairman Thornley for an exclusive Newark franchise; the three-lap oval goes on the old Vailsburgh bicycle track site at Electric Park.
- The Point Breeze Motordrome Association, Rudolph Baeuerle, Walter G. Sykes and Daniel Kane, began work on a three-lap board saucer banked for 100 miles an hour at an estimated $12,000, with a sanction applied for for May 30.
- Walter Goerke, the ex-racing man now holding the Newark Indian agency, is confined at home by a tissue growth interfering with the knitting of the leg he broke in a road race accident last year.
- H. F. Bidwell of 2142 Broadway, New York, founder of the race, is again fathering the second handicap over the Long Island Motor Parkway.
- An 88-mile road race from Newport News to Richmond for the Virginia State championship will be run May 30 under F. A. M. sanction and Peninsula Motorcycle Club auspices, with gold medals and cups for stock machines only.
- Having swept the singles at the Riverview motordrome last season, Thor has completed three new 7 horsepower twin racers, which "Shorty" Matthews will introduce at Chicago.
- Charles Earl, an ex-bicycle rider, and O. P. Warlick of the Invincible Motorcycle Club are reported to have designs on the old Aqueduct race track as a Brooklyn motordrome site.
- A "four" and a "seven" Indian racer just purchased will form the nucleus of the speed stable for the new Baltimore track.
- Rain postponed the motorcycle races at the Los Angeles Stadium.
- The Bicycling World Company states that every dollar subscribed to the American Olympic Bicycle Team fund stays intact, the $500-odd of campaign expenses and even the United Cyclists' $18.30 having been borne by the publication; jobbers led the week's giving, among them Post & Lester, Walthour & Hood and the Union Supply Co.
- The Tiger Wheelmen of New York offer new club rooms and a two-class riding and social membership, with a monthly closed club race and a monthly social function; the committee is J. G. Kopsky, O. Brandes, F. MacMillan and C. P. Soulier.
- E. H. Goodwin of the Irish-American A. C. won the two-mile handicap from scratch at the Dominican Lyceum games in the 71st Regiment Armory, beating H. J. Murphy of the Atlas B. C. and Harold Lightfine in 5:01.
- The Canadian Wheelmen's Association met at Toronto to arrange elimination road trials of 25 to 100 miles for the Stockholm 200-mile race and hopes to send at least seven riders; Frank McPherson pressed Petersboro's bid for the August Provincial championships.
- Boxed subscription roll headed by Frank B. Mihlon's Newark Velodrome and the United States Tire Co. at $100 each and the St. Louis Cycling Club at $60, with $87.00 received during the week and a grand total to date of $865.24.
- At the 65th Infantry A. A. games at Buffalo, F. P. Scott took the two-mile lap race from Walter Andrews of Toronto, George McMillan won the two-mile handicap in 4:49 2/5 and J. L. Stoll the novice mile, with 31 local amateurs still suspended.
- The St. Louis Cycling Club holds its annual business meeting March 14, with officer election reports, membership buttons, dues and two by-law amendments up for action.
- J. E. Langford and Joseph Nelson of Salt Air took a ten-year lease from Frederick Heath on the Salt Palace park and its historic bicycle track, and are willing to renew Floyd Macfarland's management contract on his return from Europe.
- A Philadelphia selling corporation formed by Rolin W. Van Horn, William H. Cummings, John C. Wisener and George F. Brendlinger plans 100 Spanish-speaking salesmen working from depots at Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Lima and eight other cities in anticipation of the Panama Canal.
- The High School of Commerce ran one-mile heats for a two-mile final at the 71st Infantry armory, a method that cost Van den Dries his place; E. H. Goodwin won from scratch in 4:57 2/5 from Jack Townsend and Walter Raleigh.
- Entries are already arriving for the fifteenth annual spring century run of the New York Division, Century Road Club Association, with Joseph G. Kopsky as chief pacemaker of the Olympic "work-out" division.
- Bicycle and motorcycle exports for January 1912 were valued at $95,379 against $83,843 a year earlier, and $539,267 for the seven months ending January against $449,359.
- The Atlas Bicycle Club's second club race of the season over 14 miles at Brooklyn ended in a sprint in which A. D. Dawson took the "cork" from H. J. Murphy, with "Pop" Rhodes third.
- In seven months the new owners spent $250,000 rebuilding the old Federal rubber plant at Cudahy, Wis., under President B. C. Dowse, and plan 500,000 motorcycle tires this season plus a recreation building for the operatives.
- The Excelsior Motor Mfg. & Supply Co.'s Chicago plant, with about 350 men and a $50,000 forging department, is filling its stock bins for full-capacity output; the mechanical inlet valve gained over half a horsepower on the single, and chain drive has been adopted for the single and the "7" twin.
- Paul Garst and Ray Weishaar, Indian speedsters of Wichita, Kan., submitted a design for a four-cylinder Indian to the factory as a suggestion for a 1915 model.
- F. A. Baker & Co. of New York brought out the "Infallible" line of centrifugal motorcycle speedometers in three models with 60 and 80 mile dials, driven by flexible shaft and worm gears with a disconnect for running the motor on the stand.
- Charles Mitchell of Pearl City, Ill., asks which machine won the 365-mile Chicago to Indianapolis endurance race of 1910; the editor replies that the Thor team took the trade trophy and a Merkel rider the private owner's cup.