The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 5
Articles in this issue
- The Wagner Motorcycle Co. of St. Paul, Minn. will build two 1912 four-horsepower singles with flat and V belt drive, a "Velvet" spring seat post, separate exhaust pipes with hand-controlled cut-out, and options of magneto or battery ignition and Corbin or Eclipse brakes.
- The Aurora Automatic Machinery Co. of Chicago cuts Thor Models R and T from $225 to $200 and magneto Models M and N from $250 to $225, the prices to hold until all 1911 machines are sold.
- The Reading Standard Co. of Reading, Pa. is first in the field with a 16-page 1912 advance catalog covering all three "new R-S" models and featuring the seven horsepower twin it is introducing.
- T. J. Sixsmith of 203 W. 100th street, New York, long the R-S representative in the city, is made distributor for the entire Metropolitan district and will appoint sub-agents for the boroughs.
- A. Cocchi of 2214 Broadway, New York, takes the agency for the Thiem motorcycle, stocks 1912 models and states the machine will hereafter be entered in all endurance contests and track races around New York.
- Only five members appear at the Motorcycle Manufacturers' Association meeting at the Hotel Statler, Buffalo, so an informal discussion accepts S. A. Miles's offer of 3,000 feet at the Chicago Coliseum and lists fifteen exhibitors for the Madison Square Garden show of January 6th to 13th.
- The Flanders Mfg. Co. is quietly building a three-lap track on its Pontiac, Mich. property purely for testing, and its engineers have devised a way to keep the snow off so it can be used all winter.
- The Los Angeles Motorcycle Co. takes the Merkel line for 1912 from C. L. Smith and expects to dispose of 500 machines, with chain or belt drive offered on the six and seven horsepower twins.
- Joseph Buckingham, Harley-Davidson agent in New York City, sells blue pennants carrying a water color sketch of a "Silent Gray Fellow" rider, while Hirsh Baxter of Providence, R. I. has sold over 200 "Excelsior" and "Providence" pennants this year.
- The Flanders Motorcycle Co. of Atlanta, Ga. closes twelve Florida agencies for the Flanders "4" in a week, among them the Tampa Harness and Wagon Co., the Roberts Motor Car Co. of Jacksonville, E. G. Dorn of Miami and the Titusville Boat Co.
- The Kentzler Motorcycle Co. of Cambridge and the Waverly Motor Co. of Milwaukee consolidate as the Waverly Manufacturing Company under P. E. Mack at Jefferson, Wis., the local Promoters' Club donating a site and a 60x100 concrete factory.
- A correction: the 1912 Harley-Davidson single with free wheel control described in the issue of the 7th inst. is priced at $235, not the $245 inadvertently given.
- Henry J. Wehman, proprietor of the Curtiss Motorcycle Co. at 1203 Bedford avenue, Brooklyn, agents for the Curtiss and Marvel machines, has discontinued business and expects to connect with another concern.
- Rumor has it that the American Motor Co. of Brockton, Mass. will offer two new M-M models, one with battery and one with magneto ignition, listing at $135 and $150.
- "Little Joe" Wisenfeld of Baltimore has for two years sold motorcycles on his own instalment plan, quoting a $200 machine at $220 with $25 down and $10 a month, dealing direct with the buyer instead of turning 5 per cent over to a finance company. Signed C. F. Y.
- The Simms Magneto Co. of London, England, with a new model plant at Bloomfield, N. J., bids for American trade with single and twin high-tension magnetos of the "open arch" pattern designed to run at camshaft speed.
- Richards & Burkey of Sioux Falls, S. D., agents for R-S motorcycles, mark their first anniversary in business by moving into larger quarters on the main street.
- B. A. Swenson of Providence, R. I. explains how he stopped stock sliding about in his "Silent Salesman" show case when motors are run on the shop floor, by cutting an old heavy inner tube into strips and laying them round the edges of the case as a cushion.
- O'Neil and Burch open a motorcycle, bicycle and accessory store at 148 Whitaker street, Savannah, Ga., the first-named having been a member of the firm of Oakman and O'Neil for fifteen years.
- The adoption of the imported Schafer ball bearing by both the F. W. Spacke Co. and the Minneapolis Motorcycle Co. in their motors is read as the forerunner of wider use of the type.
- Leader urging the newly formed United Cyclists of New York to advertise: with only about 1,500 motorcyclists in a city of 5,000,000, against nearly 1,500 in Los Angeles and 200 in Terre Haute, dealers should mount a Christmas newspaper campaign and the clubs should arrange runs, club rooms and technical lectures.
- Fixture calendar from 21 October to 20 January, including the Sacramento and New Jersey Motorcycle Club meets, the Century Road Club Association's Guttenberg bicycle carnival on the 22nd, the North Jersey club's 170 mile reliability run, the Olympia show in London on 20-25 November and the twelfth New York automobile show.
- Argues that autumn gives the best wheeling of the year, the roads hardened by summer traffic resisting the first fall rains, and cites the season's jump in bicycle sales and an Eastern paper's tribute to the wheel as the best friend the present generation ever saw.
- Cotton Derr on an Indian takes three firsts and the Hendee-donated club championship cup over Bryson Wickwire at the San Antonio (Tex.) Motorcycle Club's Fair Grounds meet of the 8th inst., while O. Leoloff and O. Heikens dead-heat on a pair of Thors in the six mile match in 7:26 1/5.
- I. D. Kuehl on a four horsepower Excelsior covers 16 9/10 miles on one pint to win the Davenport (Ia.) Motorcycle Club economy contest from J. R. Reynolds (Indian) and H. Ranzow (Harley-Davidson); the one lady entrant, Mrs. R. L. Carson, makes 14.3 miles.
- C. Governor on an Excelsior twin wins the ten miles in 15:02 and H. Kaiser on a Harley-Davidson the five mile single cylinder class in 8:07 at the Canfield fair, Youngstown, O., on the 14th inst. before 5,000 people.
- F. A. M. membership chairman E. M. Estabrook celebrates the enrollment of the 200th affiliated club, the three newest being Ashtabula (O.), Memphis (Tenn.) and Aurora (Ill.); Lockport, N. Y. and New Orleans, La. have also just organized.
- Five Toronto M. C. riders on Reading Standard, twin Excelsior and Indian machines flounder 45 or 50 miles through rain-ruined slime and ditches to Hamilton, Ontario, Gladish smashing his lamp and bending his forks against a post. Signed W. M. G.
- Charlie Neilson and R. M. Case of the Toronto M. C. ride a nine days' jaunt to Springfield, Mass. and back and find New York State roads far ahead of Canadian highways, their cyclometers registering 1,100 miles on twelve gallons of gasoline.
- The Indiana Fish and Game Commission will buy twelve motorcycles and turn them over to deputies to apprehend law violators, speed and economy having been the prime factors in the choice.
- An ordinance prohibiting the carrying of passengers in front of the driver on motorcycles passes its first reading in the Ashtabula, O. City Council.
- Don Klark of Detroit takes the Ohio and Indiana state championships and cuts the local mile track record to 53 seconds at the final meet of the season at the Fort Wayne (Ind.) driving park on the 8th inst., though beaten twice by De Salvo on an Excelsior before a crowd of 2,000.
- Jake DeRosier on an Excelsior wins all three professional events from Mitchel (Thor) and Schatzman (Indian) at Macon, Ga. on the 16th inst.; rain on the 17th causes the second day's races to be scratched altogether.
- E. M. Hughes, president of the Louisville Motorcycle Club, has his red seven horsepower 1911 Indian taken from his garage; the F. A. M. offers $25 for its recovery, the machine being identifiable by a gasoline tank partitioned to hold auxiliary oil.
- The Hydro Electric department of the municipal plant at Toronto puts eleven machines into service with its inspectors — six Excelsiors, three Indians and two Pierces. Signed W. M. G.
- Joseph Baribeau rides 100 miles in 100 minutes 14 1/5 seconds at Winnipeg, Manitoba on the 14th inst., wresting the press agent's "world's 100 mile dirt record" from George Evans of Columbus, O., refuelling on the move a la Stanley Kellogg with W. Pelham passing the canteen; a $60 subscription is raised at the track for a medal.
- Erwin Baker of Indianapolis wins every event but the novice at the Decatur (Ill.) meet on the 8th inst., local favorite George Kennedy taking that; Baker goes down in a time trial and remounts to finish in 1:00 flat, while Louis Herman comes off with fractured wrist bones.
- Thirty thousand people watch "Walkaway Walker" on a Harley-Davidson take the fifteen mile free-for-all in 16:42 1/2 at the National Implement Fair, Peoria, Ill., on the 11th inst., with Jamison and Stansbury winning the 30 1/2 class events.
- The Portland Motorcycle Club expects to hold its 1912 race meets on the new motordrome now in course of construction near the Twelve Mile House.
- Los Angeles traffic squad head Sergeant Butler and Prosecutor Nimmo have a new ordinance drafted whose Section 50 makes it unlawful to drive any motor vehicle not fitted with a good and sufficient muffler, closing the defects that got a motorcyclist acquitted a year ago.
- "Shorty" Matthews on a white Thor IV wins every event he starts at the Dayton (O.) Motorcycle Club's fair grounds meet of the 14th inst., Russell Smiley taking the city championship from Ivan Jacobs and Pfeifer proving king bee of the private owners.
- Statistics from the national convention of rural free delivery carriers at Milwaukee show 41,500 carriers covering 1,007,000 miles daily on salaries of $440 to $1,000, a field makers are already working through advertising in the R. F. D. journals.
- Newspapermen E. F. Korbel, M. W. Colwell and J. T. Shaw of the Metropolitan Motor Racing Association take over the Guttenberg (N. J.) track from ex-promoter Shaffer; over 3,000 attend the rained-off opening of the 15th inst., where Constant beat Cox by half a length and Ralph De Palma gave exhibitions.
- Jake De Rosier gives his own account of quitting the Indian for the Excelsior, saying the factory told him and Balke to look for new jobs after he complained that machines '21' and '23' were not fast enough; he will winter in California and ride at Oakland.
- At the Laurel (Md.) track on the 14th inst. two runners on foot, running horses and a motor car are sent away against J. S. Berryman on a Harley-Davidson, who is beaten into third by a bad start on a mile track.
- Hand-lettered humour panel advising that a lost gasoline tank cap can be replaced at any road-house by ordering a quart bottle of champagne and keeping the cork — and a second bottle ordered for the oil tank.
- Ohio State Highway Commissioner James R. Marker, backed by the Ohio Good Roads Association, motor clubs and granges, wants $50,000,000 raised by state bond issue for a brick-paved inter-county highway system linking Columbus, Cleveland, Mt. Vernon, Wooster and Akron.
- Illustrated news miscellany: new clubs at Atlantic, Ia., Dayton and Coshocton, O. and Norwich, Conn.; Wisconsin's new $2 registration law; Seattle's ban on open mufflers; Jack Prince's planned one-third mile Los Angeles motordrome; and Laura Tammany of St. Louis on her spills.
- The North Pacific District, F. A. M. will next meet at Portland in June 1912 during the Rose Carnival; President J. Benton Lindsay reports on the first semi-annual meeting at Seattle, and C. L. Smith of Los Angeles secures the Pope agency, dropping the Merkel.
- William Pearce, formerly a well known bicycle and motorcycle rider and latterly a racing automobile driver, is killed in an accident while racing at Sioux City on October 19th.
- Karl Schoen, Harold Simpson and Donald Ferguson, all 17 and Y. M. C. A. lads, ride a 522 mile ten-day circuit of Indiana carrying a blanket, oilcloth, army kitchen and repair kit apiece, sleeping in shucks in a Scottsburg flour mill and visiting Wyandotte Cave, Louisville and Corydon.
- Boys in Topeka, Kan. strew belt rivets stolen from the local street railway company in three rows across the street on a Sunday morning; two of the miscreants are caught and information obtained that will lead to the arrest of another.
- Controller McMahan's licence figures for Richmond, Ind. show 1,254 of the 2,681 tags issued went to bicycle riders against 840 to one-horse rigs, 245 to automobile owners and 52 to motorcyclists.
- Patrolman Ewing of the Baltimore police force claims the title after trapping a negro who had been consistently stealing bicycles left unguarded outside houses and stores, several victims identifying him.
- Prizes for the Eastern Division's ten mile race include a Columbia special 1911 racer, three lamps, a silver medal for the first member to finish and a solid gold watch for fastest time; entries go to George Bieregel, 1105 Amsterdam avenue, New York City.
- Full-page cartoon signed W. F. showing a giant "Public Opinion" firecracker held over a motorcyclist whose open cut-out goes "Bang, Bang, Bang," continuing the paper's campaign against the open muffler.
- Ben Meriwether and Henry Hart describe eight days in Paris for the Fete Day de France on July 14th and their run south on Columbias, guided by Touring Club de France road-map cards, through Fontainebleau, Puiseaux and Orleans to the chateaux of the Loire, Bordeaux, Biarritz and into Spain.
- The Buffalo ten hour amateur bicycle team race is put back to October 31st and the six day professional race set for November 6th to 11th, with a mixed sprint meet on the 4th; the eight-laps-to-the-mile track in the Seventy-fourth Regiment Armory has Fogler, Freddy Hill, Carslake and Ryan among the paired professionals.
- At the second regular meeting of the United Cyclists' Association at 1213 Fulton street, Brooklyn, on the 16th inst. the dues are cut to $2 a year, the word "association" is dropped from the name, J. A. Hall is elected president and W. R. Stroud secretary, and the Olympic bicycle race fund is discussed.
- Two Hartford, Conn. bicyclists collide on North Main near Windsor street; the owner of the damaged machine seizes the undamaged one and pedals off up Main street, leaving the real owner standing open-mouthed, and the police are still trying to find him.
- Wm. Cullington crosses second in the last of five point races of the Atlas Bicycle Club of Brooklyn on the 15th inst. to take the series with 12 points from Arthur Dawson's 10 and Paul Smith's 9; James Mangels wins the three miles handicap off one minute.
- Henry E. Johnson of the Little Rhody Cycle Club, Providence, covers the Century Road Club of America's 150 mile Columbus Day triangle run by North Attleboro, Norwood, Boston, Waltham, Marlboro, Worcester and Woonsocket in 9 hours 44 minutes, the fastest time ever made on a bicycle.
- William A. Leimbach noses out Charles M. Thomas in the century mileage contest of the Crescent B. C. of Baltimore, only 4,532 miles being reeled off in September because members were training for the annual Crescent and Racycle road race.
- The Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco organize a motorcycle club within the club and apply for admission to the F. A. M., electing H. Robinette president, with an entertainment and ball set for November 17th.