The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 9
Articles in this issue
- Ignatz Schwinn, president of Arnold, Schwinn & Co. of Chicago, completed his roughly $150,000 purchase of the Excelsior Motor & Mfg. Co. on Wednesday night, taking a three-year lease with an 18-year option; output is to be doubled to twelve or fifteen thousand machines, with H. N. Kirk staying as sales manager and F. C. Robie remaining with the company.
- The Motorcycle Manufacturers' Association, the Cycle Parts and Accessories Association and the Jobbers' Association will hold their joint winter meeting at the Hotel Astor, New York, on Thursday, January 11th, preceded by committee meetings and a luncheon on the 10th.
- Space in the motorcycle section of the 12th annual automobile show at Madison Square Garden, January 6th-20th, has been allotted: Bicycling World Co. 701, Hendee Mfg. Co. 703, Pierce Cycle Co. 705, Excelsior Supply Co. 707, Harley-Davidson 716, Flanders 717 and Pope Mfg. Co. 719 among others.
- D. E. Dunn, formerly a New England traveler for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. of Akron, O., has joined the selling staff of the Hendee Mfg. Co. of Springfield, Mass.
- The Miami Cycle & Mfg. Co. of Middletown, O., will fit chain drive to stock Flying Merkels for the first time in 1912, offering four models from a $200 rigid-frame four-horsepower single to a $275 seven-horsepower spring-frame twin, with imported Renold chains, a friction-disc shock absorber in the hanger bracket and a new Merkel-design carbureter.
- The Detroit branch of the Bosch Magneto Co. has moved into a new brick and terra-cotta building at 1250-1252 Woodward avenue, with salesrooms, laboratory, repair shop and garage, and a doubled staff under manager M. Tost.
- The Tucker Wood Work Co. of Sidney, O., has leased a Chicago warehouse to carry a full stock of Tucker wood rims, distribution in the city being handled by the Chicago Cycle Supply Co.
- The Sun Motor & Supply Co., New York distributor for the Flanders "4," reports that the Central Motorcycle Co. under Herbert E. Hillyer has opened at 1220 Bedford avenue for part of Brooklyn, and that Charles Krebs of 51 William street has taken the whole of Essex County, N. J.
- Two of the five Drouhard brothers, Peter and August, have left the family business at Danville, Kans., to open a store at Wichita on November 1st handling Harley-Davidson motorcycles exclusively.
- A correction: last week's United States Tire Co. advertisement captioned its photograph of Arthur Mitchel with the name Arthur "Miller," a typographical error obvious to everyone who knows him.
- A man calling himself Harry A. Neff and claiming to be "chief engineer" of the Hendee Manufacturing Co. has been cashing worthless checks in the Middle West; the company says no such person is in its employ and warns dealers and riders.
- R. A. Peavey corrects a recent report that he had left the United States Tire Co. entirely: he resigned only from the St. Louis branch and now manages the Dallas, Tex., branch covering Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and part of Alabama.
- Peddler Aaron Korezy has sued Frank Meunier, a motorcyclist of Hartford, Conn., for treble damages on three counts - personal injuries, injuries to horse and wagon, and loss of trade - after Meunier allegedly ran into his outfit.
- Arthur J. Herman of 2945 West Twenty-fifth street, Cleveland, O., has been appointed sub-agent for Pope motorcycles by local distributers Vincent Bros., covering the south and west sides of the city.
- The American Motor Co. of Brockton, Mass., will market four M. M. models at the deepest price cuts yet quoted for 1912 - an eight-horsepower twin at $275, the "Four-Fifty" single at $200, and magneto and battery specials at $160 and $140 - with a new Schebler carbureter, longer stroke, flat belt and hand idler, and a lower cavalry saddle.
- The newly incorporated Detroit Bi-Car Co., capitalized at $10,000 under president J. J. Chapin, will build the Bi-Car, a two-wheeler copying automobile practice with pressed channel-steel underslung frame, seven-horsepower four-cylinder hood-cooled motor, enclosed shaft drive, 30-inch wheels and bucket seat, in single, tandem and delivery-van models at about $300.
- Editorial urging bicycle and motorcycle dealers to stop using their show windows as storage and dress them for Christmas in red and green with holly, a machine and accessories, backed by a four- or five-inch daily newspaper advertisement, to catch parents puzzling over gifts for "Johnny or Susie."
- Fixture calendar for November and December 1911: the Olympia show in London, the Atlantic City 200-mile run, Thanksgiving Day meets at San Antonio, Baltimore, Jacksonville and Redlands, the United Cyclists' first preparatory 25-mile handicap road race, the Madison Square Garden six-day race and the Garden automobile show.
- Bryson Wickwire took four firsts, including the Hendee Cup, at the San Antonio (Tex.) Motorcycle Club's International Fair meet on the 5th; Cotton Derr was thrown by a rut, Otto Heikens dislocated a shoulder and H. Bohn's Merkel burst into flame at the tape.
- Thirty members of the Savannah Motorcycle Club rode to the Ogeechee river bridge for a fish fry on the 5th; on the return A. V. McGuire, one of the best known local riders, collided with another machine and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
- William Mann, a former bicycle repair man of Portsmouth, O., who had gone west to Nebraska, has returned and plans to open a shop.
- Secret controls introduced on the final day wrecked perfect scores in the Toronto (Ont.) Motorcycle Club's first annual three-day reliability run over Hamilton, Brantford, London and Stratford; only S. Vogan, S. License, O. D. Cooley and F. Craig came through unpenalized out of 31 starters, competing for a $350 Dunlop shield.
- Howard A. French is promoting a Thanksgiving Day meet at Electric Park, Baltimore, with Washington riders expected to renew the rivalry begun at Bennings; Chic Thomas, injured in August, will not ride.
- After older members complained that club runs had become road races, the Boston Motorcycle Club called a deliberately slow run on October 29th through Newton, Waltham, Brookline and Quincy to Dr. "Doc" Coulson's cottage at North Weymouth, where he had dug clams for dinner.
- Now affiliated with the F. A. M., the Toronto Motorcycle Club will incorporate to protect its name, fund a club house and board track by selling stock to members, and send a delegation to President Hamilton in January; the column also notes rising Canadian speeding fines and praise for motorcycle scouts in the Toronto garrison maneuvers.
- Completing its first year, the Invincible Motorcycle Club of Brooklyn elected O. P. Warlick president, M. M. Aiken vice-president, J. U. Constant secretary, D. R. Thompson treasurer and J. C. Fawcett captain on the 14th inst.
- The Columbus (O.) Motorcycle Club opened its new quarters on East Eighth avenue on the 8th inst. with a housewarming attended by 105 members, the largest assembly in the club's history.
- Ben Broderick of San Francisco won three straight heats from Bud Northrup to add the California "State championship" at San Jose on the 4th and 5th; the professional Wolters, unable to slow for a turn on his Excelsior at about a 45-second gait, threw himself off and slid into a ditch, escaping with lacerations.
- Jack Prince told the Los Angeles Motorcycle Club his projected board saucer would eclipse any track in existence, persuading it to call off a scheduled Ascot Park meet; he also plans to pull down the Oakland motordrome and rebuild it elsewhere in the city.
- A humorous squib: a pedestrian watching a motorcyclist jack up his machine on Broadway asks "Had a puncture, friend?" and is told, "No; I'm just changing the air in this tire."
- Henry C. Ragsdale of San Angelo, Tex., rode 2,850 miles to the Franklin automobile factory at Syracuse, N. Y., to train as a repair man - 44 days in all, 18 in actual travel, held two weeks by mud at Mascoutah, Ill., and crossing the Canadian river on a quarter-mile railroad bridge.
- The New Jersey Motorcycle Club has wiped all remaining dates from its slate at Olympic Park, N. J., after a shortage of riders forced abandonment of the last scheduled meet.
- "Bobby" Stubbs's Birmingham professionals headlined the first motorcycle races ever held at Selma, Ala., part of the Central Alabama Fair on October 25th-28th; Gail Joyce set a track record of 56 1/4 seconds and won most of the professional events, while Peacock had the better of Owens among the amateurs.
- The San Jose (Cal.) Motorcycle Club presented engraved gold medals to Ben Broderick, Bud Northrup and C. E. Oberg, one-two-three in Emile Agraz's recent 100-mile race, and a diamond-set medal to C. E. Reade for the fastest mile.
- Robert Stubbs, the Birmingham, Ala., racing man seriously injured at last month's State Fair races, has recovered enough to resume business but says he will not race again "if Mrs. Stubbs can prevent it."
- An illustrated first-person narrative by a printer who, unable to spare a day from his plant, borrowed his brother's machine, rode out to a friend's cottage on Muskego Lake, shot seven ducks - three mallards, a pintail and three blue bills - from the rushes at sunrise and was back at his office by eight o'clock.
- E. M. Estabrook reports new F. A. M. clubs at St. Louis, New Orleans and Sidney, O., fresh registered repair shops from Decatur to Portland, and a needed revision of the roster before publication: twenty states and the District of Columbia have no official shop at all, and only one is registered in Canada.
- The Auto-Cycle Union has voted to run the 1912 Tourist Trophy in the Isle of Man subject to the island authorities' permission, but several prominent makers object to the cost of maintaining racing camps there for two weeks - and, it is whispered, to the American sweep of the last T. T.
- The United Cyclists elected J. H. Patterson vice-president and Victor J. Lind treasurer and fixed a 25-mile Thanksgiving Day preparatory road race under Olympic rules; chairman J. A. Hall's American Olympic Bicycle Race Committee needs about $4,500 to send twelve amateurs to Stockholm, and the Bicycling World Co. will donate half of every subscription secured through H. A. Gliesman.
- Messrs. Wood and Essex of the Maryland M. C. of Baltimore rode past Cockeysville into a downpour, sheltered at a farmhouse and shipped their machines home by rail; the club's runs to Harpers Ferry and Staunton have been called off.
- In a four-mile motorcycle-versus-aeroplane race at Norfolk, Va., on the 26th ult., the aeroplane swooped round the turns faster and beat motorcyclist W. Fuerstein by a quarter of a mile.
- Jackie Clark of the Clark-Hill team beat John Bedell of Bedell Bros. by half a wheel's length to win the third annual Buffalo, N. Y., six-day race on the 11th, a capacity crowd filling the 74th Regiment armory on the last night after a week of lagging interest and an uncorrected discrepancy between actual mileage and the announced score.
- E. E. Frayzee won the Century Road Club of America's annual hill climb up the three-quarter-mile rise of Manhassett Hill, L. I., on the 12th, nipping Hugo Hintze at the tape, with Herman Hintze third and Charles Kudrle fourth.
- Savannah cyclists are pressing for two ten-mile motorcycle events, one for singles and one for twins, between the big automobile races during Thanksgiving week, to be run over the 17-mile Grand Prize course.
- The Atlantic City (N. J.) Motorcycle Club's second annual 200-mile endurance contest on November 26th runs via Pleasantville, May's Landing, Camden, Egg Harbor City, New Gretna and Port Republic in nine hours, with about 50 riders already entered.
- The Empire City Wheelmen will run an open bicycle race at midnight on New Year's Eve from Bedford Rest, Bedford avenue and Eastern Parkway, to Surf avenue, Coney Island, and back; three cups are offered and entries close with F. Fisher, 532 Pacific street, Brooklyn.
- The Century Road Club of America will hold its annual ball at Lyric Hall, Sixth avenue, New York, on January 13th, 1912, with a silver loving cup for the bicycle club sending the largest representation.
- Twenty-three of 37 starters kept perfect scores through the San Francisco Motorcycle Club's third annual all-night 336-mile endurance run near Hayward - six laps of a 56-mile circuit via Mount Eden, Warm Springs and Mission San Jose - with the Racycle team of Eike, Pickerel and McCarthy the only team unpenalized.
- J. O'Connor of the Century Road Club Association won a gold watch, tires, a pump and a club medal in the C. R. C. A.'s 10-mile handicap road race at Floral Park, L. I., on the 12th, while H. Kaiser of the Acme Wheelmen took first place by 5 1/4 seconds and the scratch men sprinted each other out of contention in a 45-mile-an-hour head wind.
- The Quality Wheelmen, a new Brooklyn club whose members include Irvington-Milburn winner Walter Raleigh, Hugh R. Brown, Jack Townsend and H. L. Lind, have challenged the Empire City Wheelmen, C. R. C. Association, Atlas Bicycle Club, Acme and New England Wheelmen to pool, bowling, flat-floor racing and pinochle matches.
- Joseph Orlando headed the Empire City Wheelmen's seventh annual closed cup series with 16 points, ahead of Frank Becht, William Napier and William Seegelkin; 42 members contested handicaps from half a mile to 25 miles for seven trophies costing $150, and the club's crack scratch bunch scored not a single point.
- The Atlas Bicycle Club of Brooklyn will hold its first annual smoker at Stoetzer's Hall, 1213 Fulton street, on December 16th, and has carded a bowling tournament, pinochle tournament, cross-country run and a point competition for what it claims is Greater New York's largest team of flat-floor riders.