The Cycle Age And Trade Review, Vol 21, No 48
Articles in this issue
- p. 1
Buffalo's 1898 season ended with the lowest second-hand bicycle inventory in the city's trade history, as conservative dealer policies prevented the usual accumulation of traded-in machines, and a western buyer arriving to purchase 25 used bicycles could find only five in the entire city.
- Winter Expenses Reduced: Stores Closing for the Season
Buffalo dealers including the Eclipse agents and Buffalo Wheel Co. closed or consolidated their branch stores for winter, shifting to showrooms in their factories or turning their territory over to independent agents to reduce overhead during the off-season months.
- Department Store Bitten by Late-Season Bicycle Purchase
A Buffalo dry-goods store that bought 500 end-of-season bicycles in the belief it could move them quickly sold nearly 200 in the first two weeks but was left holding hundreds of machines when the season closed, with months of insurance costs ahead.
- Overman Company's New Policy: 25,000 Best-Quality Machines
The committee managing Overman Wheel Co.'s affairs announced plans to manufacture 25,000 bicycles of the highest possible grade for 1899, with early orders already covering more than 10 percent of planned output, positioning the company for a cautious but focused recovery.
- Agency Plan in Full Force: Jobbing System Abandoned
A. Featherstone and Co. of Chicago announced it would supply all dealers directly from Chicago and New York branch houses without using jobbers, appointing exclusive territorial agents and using a large traveling force to cement closer manufacturer-dealer relationships.
- p. 2
A Glasgow consular report described Coventry employing 4,000 fewer workers than the previous year and anticipated significant price cuts for 1899 English bicycles, though the consul attributed much of the slump to the growing use of American machines despite determined dealer resistance to stocking them.
- p. 8
A technical article examined the steel alloy specifications needed for high-quality bicycle ball bearings, discussing how hardness, carbon content, and heat treatment affected wear life and resistance to pitting under the cyclic loads of normal road use.
- Road Tests for Frame Joints
The issue described field-testing methods for bicycle frame joints, including brazed lugs and welded connections, with criteria for distinguishing joints that would last a normal service life from those likely to fail prematurely under repeated road loading.