The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 21, No 37
Articles in this issue
- After competing creditors — including Shelby Steel Tube Co. and Morgan and Wright — clashed over possession of the Charles H. Sieg factory in Kenosha, a court appointed two local receivers who resumed production under a $200,000 bond to fill a standing order for 10,000 machines.
- E. T. Hooley's bankruptcy testimony in London named titled directors who had accepted up to $50,000 each for lending their names to cycle company prospectuses, with payments also alleged to London newspapers including the Pall Mall Gazette for editorial silence.
- Toronto dealers discovered that single-tube tire joints were failing in the summer heat when bicycles were left on asphalt pavement, with the compound used to seal the joint softening at temperatures routinely reached on sun-heated city surfaces.
- Bicycle express and messenger companies faced the new federal war tax on transportation receipts, and the issue discussed how this cost would be passed along to dealers and consumers who relied on express delivery for parts and accessories.
- A practical guide for retail salespeople described how to qualify buyers for high-grade bicycles, counter the price objection with quality arguments, and convert customers who arrived intending to buy a cheap machine into purchasers of premium models.
- The editorial illustrates through a detailed case study how small bicycle assemblers who depend on single-source suppliers for critical components such as fork crowns and crank hangers are left with partially completed machines and mounting bills whenever deliveries fall behind, arguing that unpredictable overhead expenses — not component costs — explain many of the season's bankruptcies.
- New European designs in acetylene bicycle lamps were described, with comparison of their reflector geometry, carbide capacity, and maintenance requirements against American models then dominating the domestic market.
- A continuation of the series on wood rim production covered the drying kiln requirements, the role of hide glue quality, and the factory economics of high-speed rim bending at scale.
- Repairmen are shown how commercially supplied brazeable fork-tip repair lugs — shaped to fit any fork and requiring no custom forging — can reduce the time spent on a broken fork end from an hour or more to a few minutes of filing and brazing, with further discussion of when to splice broken fork sides versus replacing the blade depending on the crown pattern.
- Repair shops were advised on how to economically convert older women's bicycles to fit current rider preferences, including adjustments to handlebars, saddle height, and gearing that could modernize a machine without full replacement.
- A dialogue among members of the Hy Grade Club examines the financial damage caused by major summer holidays falling during the trade's peak selling weeks, with the General Manager noting that midsummer closures mean permanently lost revenue rather than simply deferred transactions.
- New bicycle patents reviewed include the Atwood oil lamp with a perforated draft plate ensuring even air supply for steady combustion, a hinged-cantle saddle patented by Herbert Blossom of New York that tilts the rear of the seat independently of the pommel for precise fit, an adjustable lacing saddle, and a new tandem frame design.
- The latest part of a running survey of American motorcycle patents examines motive-power transmission mechanisms connecting the engine to the drive wheel, observing that current designs are already being superseded by more refined constructions and announcing closer examination of patents relative to actual vehicles in future issues.
- A comparison of English and American motorcycle patent activity shows that while American inventors have converged on general vehicle types, English patents range more broadly in applying electric and gas propulsion to drive wheels, with descriptions of storage-battery carriage commutator arrangements and European designs involving reversible polarity switching.
- Trade news items cover the Union Carbide Company's ownership of both American calcium carbide plants at Niagara Falls and Sault Ste. Marie, new ball-bearing hub and pedal designs from the Benson Company with hardened bearing surfaces, and a bicycle-holder device patented by David Bowman of Berlin, Ontario, along with business failure and assignment notices from the trade.
- The Scottish Cyclist traces the crisis in the British cycle trade to overproduction and poor selling weather, but chiefly to the rise of decentralized local makers who buy parts from the big Birmingham and Redditch houses, forcing established manufacturers to equip their agents with cheaper medium-grade lines to compete.
- Sporting highlights include Chicago rider Edward Llewellyn breaking the amateur half-mile competition record at Philadelphia, demonstrating the improvement in racing over four years since Zimmerman's era, along with news of E.C. Bald's racing activities and results from amateur and professional track meetings across the country.
- A New York correspondent surveys the collapsed 1898 metropolitan racing season, blaming the war scare, the failure of foreign importations, and Morgan's exclusive-contract policy with his overseas riders, and reports Jimmy Michael's rain-postponed match with A. C. Morgan in Washington, D.C., and his visit with manager Dave Shafer to meet President McKinley at the White House.
- Paris correspondent reports on Bouhours winning the classical 100-kilometer Championship of France, noting that the reigning champion suffered a spill but that Bouhours was an easy winner; the article reviews the storied 14-year history of the race and its significance in French cycling.
- Profiles famous clergymen who have taken up cycling for health maintenance, observing that while writers, doctors, and lawyers enjoy diverse exercise options, cycling has emerged as the preferred antidote for the sedentary demands of clerical professional life.
- Reports from New York that two of the three-member nominating committee for the League of American Wheelmen New York Division have named officers for the regular ticket, with opposition to current president Potter taking shape ahead of the forthcoming divisional elections.
- Fred Schade wins Virginia's first-ever professional bicycle race, a four-mile handicap, at the inaugural meet of the new Virginia state circuit in Richmond, beating Robert Walthour and Harry Greer, while amateur E. J. Hanger sweeps several events but is disqualified in the two-mile lap race for not finishing the required distance.
- Eddie "Cannon" Bald won the season's hardest-fought one-mile national championship before more than 5,000 hometown fans in Buffalo, holding off Freeman and McFarland after Cooper and Major Taylor faded, while Arthur Gardiner — unbeaten in nineteen prior championship races — skipped the meet to visit home and lost points in the standings.
- Philadelphia amateur J. P. Rodgers dominates the Millville, N.J. meet until a bad spill in the two-mile handicap injures him and threatens his entry in the national championship at Indianapolis, while New Yorker Fred Titus slices twelve seconds off the unpaced-mile track record with a 2:08 1-5; separately, the Canadian Wheelmen's Association awards the 1899 world's championship meet to Montreal.