CYCLING NOTES.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9737, 27 May 1897, Page 3

CYCLING NOTES.

"Weekly Press and Referee."

[Br Vetox.] Cash cycling in England is in an unhealthy condition (Bays a Sydney exchange); Any man other than absolute toy-notchers find it extremely hard to get a living, owing to the paltry nature of the prizes offered. Ifc is probable that the coming season .will see numerous English visitors on the local tracks. Each of the London cycling journals has been commenting upon the decline of professionalism, and the following extract from Cyclers* Nete* may be taken as a sample:—" That many of the professional arc in a very bad way is evidenced by their practically running themselves stale at Olympia, and thereby hampering their chances of success in the legitimate season. Were Olympia not to have been run, many of the cash riders would have been in a very poor way indeed* especially as one way of making a living is cut off to the majority of thorn by the disbandment of one bigpaoinß team. All this goes to prove that only thi leading pros, can hope to make a fair living out of racing at the present time, the second and third raters' ranks being over-stocked." It ia stated that the renowned A. A. Zimmerman will make his reappearance on the racing path this year, and that J. S. .Johnson intends to have another cut at th» anguish racing cracka. Ihe South Wales correspondent of a Lon* don paper of March 30th writ** :—" I was favoured on Saturday morning with a view of a private trial at Cardiff of a patent cycling gear, the inventor of whioh claims for it an extraordinary advantage over any gear now in use. He contends that hie machine, geared up to 140, not only require* less exertion on the part of the rider than the ordinary gear of seventy or seventy-five does, but, moreover, with this leas exertion double the speed can be attained. From what I saw of the trial I should imagine that much of the. merit the patentee claims for his invention is perfectly true. The first trial was that of tho maker, who bestrode a 261b maohine with tho new goar fitted to it, against a well-known local rider on a lightmade machine of a well-known firm' of makers. , The result was very much like what it would be between a thoroughbred audacart horse. The patentee—a man. of over forty years of age—simply flying away from the other rider. Changing machines the amateur simply ran away from the patentee. Several tests were applied, but the result of them all were completely in favour of the new invention. The statement that the machine was geared up to 140, is in itself a difficult pill to swallow, but when I point out moreover that a stiff hurricane— '-a. twelve knot breeze—prevailed and had to be faced on the latter half of the trial course, practical cyclists will do a gentle amile at the idea of a rider on a machine geared to 140 getting through it, and yet 1 assure you such was the case, and the rider of the new gear pedalled against it with apparently the minimum amount of exertion. Lord Dunniven's representative had travelled down from London oyerpight to witness the trial, and, together with the one other gentleman present, professed the utmost wonder, satisfaction, .and deligKt. A mile a minute seems speed, but from what I caw this morning I feel convinced that will be nearer the minimum than the maximum result." 1 ' ■ '

The cycling press in England appears to have a false impression about the splendid up-to-date tracks wliich are found in nearly every one of the Australasian colonies. *Th» Wheeler says :—•" Martin's five and ten miles Australian records of 10.23 and 21.23 J have been broken, by Lesna, who brought 'the figures down to lO.lljf and 20.44. Fast work this, considering the traoks they have down under."

Though the pastime is going ahead at the Antipodes, and the sport flourishes even as the bay .tree of the proverb doth ( flourish, (says an English writer), cycling in. parts of Australia, at least, is not exactly "all beer and skittles," and it is not to be wondered at that Master Harry Reynolds, the crook Hibernian, "who is at present sojourning in the land of the Cornstalks, is "dead off road-raoingi" In f a "distinctly interesting letter, which was printed in lagt week's Irish Cyclist, he says \— '" You have no; idea of the roads over here; in fact, they are unrideable. The streets are all sand one foot, deep, an,d the .roads are jnadfc up of b'xish and large rooks and holes a couple of feet deep. 1 went for a spin yesterday on the best road about, and , could only do about ten miles per hour at my best. I don't-know how the machines stand .these roads. When we go out in the country for a spin we must always carry a bag of water, as there is not a drop to be had outside the town. This morning I went jout fojr' a ride before breakfast, and when I got about six miles out I punotured, and could not find the puncture, so I "walked on to a camp, and asked ai man. for some water to find the .puncture. He laughed at mc, and said, •Water is, too scarce here,' and took my tube, inflated it, put it under some fine sand, and found the puncture in a couple of mjnutea. I learned afterwards that this is the way; they;find out punctures in'the bush, Vhere there is no water." ' ';.

•' Occasionally " (aays a writer in St. J&nes's Budget) " 16ee people riding with the middle or waist of the fo6t on the pedal, and wonder who their instructor could have been, or where their powers of observation, are. Ankle action is simply a utilisation of the muscles of the calf. It can only be acquired by diligent practice, aa there can be no force in it until these muscles have been gradually cultivated and developed. The best practice for ankle' action is'for the rider to try and move his knees up and down as little as ha possibly can. This will cause the, toes to be alternately raised and extended to their full limit in the effort to follow the pedal round its course. Nothing but constant Cars, attention, and exercise of the ankle joint will enable a bicylist to develop the full power of the calf of the leg." J. Platt-Befcts, the famous English cyclist, on the Crystal Palace track beat the world's records from two to five miles.

A. A. Chase, the English ex-amateur,' in March reduced Michael's time of 2min lfseo for a mile (standing start) to lniin 57£ sec. Chase rode a machine geared to 102/ntted with Dunlop tyres. Racing, which used to he confined to a season of limited duration, is now, owing to the number of covered tracks, an all-year-round game.' Borne of the chief professionals in Prance earn as much as the principal jockeys, theirincomes inseveral instancesrunning into four figures. Even at this rate the remuneration IB not excessive, considering for How short a time a man can retain foremost position. The Five Miles Championship of the Western -District was run at the Bat-hurst branch of the league's carnival On Easter Monday. JSo time limit was fixed, but the pace in the first heat being slow the officials then warned the other competitors that if the time were not better in the remaining heats they would declare each of them " no race." A. O'Brien, of Parramatta, won one heat, and the pace being rather slow it was ' declared no race. O'Brien competed under, protest in the,final, and though-he ran second was not placed. The matter has been investigated by the racing board of headquarters, and O'Brien's protest has been upheld on the ground that in the original conditions governing the raca no mention was made of a time limit. O'Brien will ,be awarded second prize, and A. of Balhurst, third prize. A. J. Body, the ex-JS"ew Zealander, according to a Sydney writer, is considered at present to be absolutely the beat handicap rider in Australia.