The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 21, No 36
Articles in this issue
- A Swedish correspondent reported that cheap American bicycles auctioned in Gothenburg and Stockholm were selling at prices that attracted a third shipment from the same exporter, but warned the practice was undermining the reputation of American machines in Sweden.
- Swedish riders and dealers were found to be entirely unfamiliar with American single-tube tire repair procedures, and the correspondent argued that printing repair instructions in Swedish would be the single most effective step American exporters could take to gain market share.
- Washington D.C. prosecutors swore out warrants against several prominent bicycle dealers on the charge of operating as unlicensed junk or secondhand dealers, potentially requiring all trade-in sellers in the District to pay a $40 annual license and report every purchase to police.
- The Washington police chief recommended fourteen additional bicycles for the department, which would allow two bicycle officers per precinct and enable tighter enforcement of traffic regulations on cyclists and other road users.
- Monarch Cycle Mfg. Co. filed a $75,000 damage suit against Siegel, Cooper and Co. in Chicago, alleging the department store and its agent conspired to procure 100 Monarch bicycles under false pretenses as an Indiana dealer in order to undercut Monarch's established price structure in Greater New York.
- Lewis Warner, the embezzling treasurer of the bankrupt Northampton Cycle Co. and president of two Massachusetts banks, was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky and agreed to return for trial on embezzlement charges; the assignee reported that Warner's reckless contracts and above-market stock purchases had nearly destroyed the company, but that superintendent and foreman had kept operations sound enough to ultimately pay creditors dollar for dollar.
- Buffalo wholesale cycle sundries dealer W. C. Boak had made a general assignment after creditors rejected both a committee wind-up plan and a 60-day business continuation; a 35-cents-on-the-dollar cash settlement had been impeded by holdout creditors, a $16,000 chattel mortgage to the Bank of Buffalo further complicated the picture, and the assignee remained in possession at press time.
- South Africa imported over $1.4 million in bicycles and parts in 1897 with English machines dominant, and a U.S. consul described it as possibly the world's largest per-capita bicycle market, but warned that cheap American imports had damaged the U.S. reputation; a separate Malta consular report found American machines well regarded but entirely absent from the market simply because no U.S. manufacturer had established direct contact with Maltese dealers, who needed product samples rather than English-language price lists.
- The Chicago Stamping Co.'s Harrison and Green Street plant and stock were sold at sheriff's sale to judgment creditor Frank Sturges for $75,000 with no other bidders present; the $240,000 judgment on which Sturges based his claim remained legally contested, and he posted a $60,000 bond pending that outcome while intending to continue operating the plant to manufacture some 5,000 incomplete bicycles already in stock.
- German cycle industry employment had grown from 55,000 to 90,000 hands in a single year, and the article warned that German manufacturers—freed from the heavy capitalization burdens and union disputes of English firms, and facing no import duties in their chief export market—were well positioned to displace both American and English machines in colonial and European markets as their output surpassed domestic demand.
- The editorial examined why the horizontal top tube remained universal in American bicycle frames despite shorter steering heads and larger wheels that multiplied stress on head bearings, arguing that crushed balls and broken cups were a preventable consequence of the trade's unwillingness to reconsider frame geometry; it also discussed the persistent preference for the near-horizontal top tube even as longer wheel bases and 30-inch wheels made a steeply raked head mechanically preferable.
- The issue examined the realistic margin structure of bicycle retailing, arguing that dealers needed to understand their true costs including overhead, bad debts, and service obligations before concluding whether any given sale was actually profitable.
- A detailed factory report described the production process for bicycle wood rims, covering species selection, steaming, bending jig design, gluing, and finishing, and comparing output quality across leading American rim factories.
- European experience with acetylene bicycle lighting was reviewed, noting that French and German manufacturers had introduced several competing designs and that European riders were adopting the technology faster than the American trade had anticipated.
- The article argued that the disorder of the typical repair shop bench reflected a systematic failure to treat the shop as a factory tool room—tools were used and abandoned, never inventoried, frequently broken, and rarely replaced promptly; it described organized tool layouts, repair stand procedures, and techniques for fixing the newly common two-piece hanger whose draw-bolt crank attachment gave repairers persistent trouble.
- The patent round-up described several new bicycle designs recently registered, including an anti-vibration machine in which the rear wheel was suspended in a sprung fork pivoted at its crown like the front fork; a new one-piece hanger design; a chainless drive mechanism; and a spring frame arrangement—noting that despite repeated practical failures, inventors continued to file patents on these recurrent themes.
- The article reviewed the diverse approaches inventors had taken to transmit motor power to drive wheels without the conventional compensating gear, covering friction pinion drives, independently clutched half-shafts, and differential gear arrangements, and argued that the proliferation of mutually incompatible patent solutions demonstrated that motocycle construction remained entirely experimental with no proven best method yet established.
- The section opened with D. and J. hanger improvements since their 1896 Chicago show debut—their cylindrical shell protecting bearing cups from distortion by overtightened clamps—and continued with descriptions of other new 1899 components including corkene handlebar grips, accessories, and tools from various suppliers being readied for the coming season.
- Michael had redeemed himself with a clean victory over Linton in their return match, establishing that neither the McDuffee nor the Linton defeat was decisive; the column analyzed the mid-distance championship with Michael, Linton, McDuffee, and Taylore as the four leading contenders, and contrasted the French championship points system—which produced unambiguous results—with the disputed outcomes of American paced racing.
- Paris dispatches from July 15 reported that Deschamps had defeated established stars Morin and Parlby in the Grand Prix de l'Union Vélocipédique de France, emerging as a genuine new force in European track racing; Huret won the Bol d'Or twenty-four-hour race with ease in Cordang's absence, with only Rivierre considered a potential rival for either Cordang or Huret in that event.
- H. Van Herik and John Lawson lowered the fifteen-mile unpaced tandem record (previously 35:21 by McCall and Sager at Omaha in 1896) in a late-evening attempt at the new Ravenswood Road track after waiting for wind conditions; separately, Flath set a new century mark, and a closely contested team tandem race required difficult judging to separate four medal-winning combinations.
- Teddy Edwards, riding a chainless Columbia on a Pope-sponsored 365-consecutive-century attempt, completed his 200th century on July 19 in record heat, wind, and rain, and described his daily training routine and riding philosophy to a reporter who accompanied him on a later Chicago boulevard century; Edwards voiced sharp contempt for the Century Road Club's record procedures, based on past experiences in which his properly documented records had been rejected on technicalities.
- Frank B. German broke every amateur record from two to twelve hours inclusive during a twenty-four-hour ride in New Bedford, Massachusetts on July 25, establishing a 50-mile amateur mark of 1:59:29 and a 100-mile mark of 4:13:51 while totaling 295 miles for the full twenty-four hours and erasing records previously held by Louis Gimm.
- L. G. Cameron won from scratch over the Lower Lachine road course in 42:30 in a Cleveland Bicycle Co.-sponsored event, missing the course record by 30 seconds; racing at Montreal had been stimulated by a new third-mile track at Queen's Park that had already seen Canadian professional records broken, and negotiations were under way to bring leading American professionals to the city for match races.