The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 20, No 22
Articles in this issue
- Chicago retail survey finds that buyers at department stores gravitate to $20-$30 machines and ignore the advertised $13-$15 bargains, while branch stores of high-grade makers sell chainless and $75+ models most readily.
- Sidwell and Measure claim master patents on the single-piece bent pedal plate now widely used, and are quietly pursuing licensing agreements with bicycle manufacturers.
- Denver dealers report their best bicycle business in three years, with buyers consistently choosing light $85 machines over the $50 models dealers stocked expecting cheap-grade demand.
- A Louisville dealer explains how selling cheap end-of-season bicycles at low prices generates repair business and future sales leads worth more than the initial discount.
- Chicago tire dealers report taking 25,000 tires weekly as spring demand surges, with buyers shifting toward smaller-diameter tires.
- Survey of side-line businesses bicycle dealers are adding, including cameras, sporting goods, and stationery, to improve year-round income.
- A Buenos Aires Herald editorial, reprinted and commented on, argues that American bicycle exporters cannot penetrate Argentina and Uruguay because they refuse to extend the long credit terms European competitors routinely offer, and remain ignorant of local business conditions.
- The editors assess the Spanish-American War scare's effect on the bicycle trade, concluding that while some buyers are holding back overall demand remains healthy and actual war would likely boost bicycle sales by circulating more wages.
- Correspondent from Sweden describes growing cycling enthusiasm and the opportunity for American manufacturers to capture market share from German competitors.
- Technical description of Dunlop's newly patented self-adjusting wheel hub mechanism and its potential commercial significance.
- Describes a novel split-ring seat-post and handle-bar clamp by R. H. White of Cleveland, Beach's two-lever wired-tire removal tool, and other recently granted cycle patents.
- Engineering argument that practical motor vehicles should be based on the bicycle's lightweight steel-truss principle rather than imitating heavy horse-drawn vehicles, proposing a lightweight design linking two tandems with a gas engine.
- Britain's House of Lords upholds lower-court rulings that Gormully and Jeffery tires infringe the Bartlett/Clincher patent held by North British Rubber Co., requiring a licence for UK sales though judges praise the G. & J. design as a genuine improvement.
- Argues that the practice of supplying ready-made ad copy for retail dealers violates every principle of good advertising, with before-and-after examples showing how specific factual announcements outperform generic boilerplate.
- Racing roundup led by the return of world champion Arthur Zimmermann to actual competition after years of exhibitions, reviewing his career from his 1890 Peoria breakthrough through his world titles in Europe and Australia.
- Cycle Age correspondent describes riding the 37-mile natural sand-track beach route from Jacksonville toward St. Augustine, battling ocean gales and finding the North River bridgeless at night, forcing an unplanned camp-out.
- New York dispatch reports the late-night arrival of French professional racing cyclists Boulay, Bourotte, and Cavally aboard the SS St. Paul, just in time for the American racing season managed by Reeves.
- Cincinnati training-camp report on the international professional riders preparing at Chester Park, covering their daily routine, amusements, and individual personalities including the difficult Lamberjack.
- Chicago dispatch reports that ex-professional king Ralph Temple, after correspondence with Senator Morgan, has agreed to race again on the old Parkside track.
- Tom Eck gives The Cycle Age his specifications for the Woodside Park track in Philadelphia — tape placement at the turn, seating capacity — and denies being misquoted about Major Taylor.