MOTOR-CYCLING.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18140, 1 August 1924, Page 5

MOTOR-CYCLING.

NOTES. Sudden letting in of the clutch or application cl' the brakes cause's local wear of the tread. Engage clutch and brakes gradually. Don't drive on a flat tyre even for a hundred yards. It will not only injure the casing, but also will tear the tube. Unusual wear of the tread in a short period indicates bent forks, frame out of line, wheels out of round or cocked in the forks, sidecar out of line. Correct the defects as soon as possible or you may wear the tread completely off in a little time. Don't let tyres stay in oil or grease. Oil rots rubber, and causes tyres to peel off. Glean oil off with waste soaked in gasoline. Motor-cycles are becoming extremely popular in Czecho-Slovakia. Contralto the usual trend of affairs on the Continent, high speed solo machines arc not the most popular, the heaviest sales being made in the heavy twin sideear class. Incidentally, the roads are so bad that specially strong saddle springs arc usually necessary.

CYCLE'S EAREY HISTORY. Coventry's association with the cycle trade may be said to date i'rom the -winter of ISGS-G9. It was during that period that Rowley B. Turner, a nephew of the head of the firm which we now know as Swifts, of Coventry, Limited, came over from Paris with one of the machines that had beeoinc popular in I'ranee, and which we now speak of as the boneshaker, to put before tho directors of the English Sewing Machine Co. a proposition that they should manufacture a number of the machines for him to place on the French market. The boneshaker which the ingenuity of the French people had evolved out of the dandyhorse of the early part of the century was the forerunner of tho modern bicycle. Except that it was driven by the front wheel, it contained all the elements of the type of bicycle which succeeded it, and which held undisputed sway until John. Kemp Starley revolutionised the world of wheels by the introduction of the rear-driven bicycle—tlic safety bieyylo of to-day—in ISB'j. And .that invention, to anticipate' a littlo, was also ono with which Coventry was associated. The boneshaker of the late 'sixties was not, however, tho first form of self-propelled road vehicle which was produced in CovenUy. Three years previously, James Starley (an uncle of J. K. Starley, the inventor of the rear-driven bicycle), who was then in the employment of the English Sewing Machine Co., had built a, four-wheeled velocipede, but ir never achieved auy degree of commercial success, and it is very doubtful if thero is to-day a single specimen of James Starlcy's four-wheelers in existence. At the time that Turner put the proposition to build boneshakers for tho French market before the directors of tho English Sewing Machine Co., the industry with which the name of the company was associated was passing through a bad time, mainly because of foreign competition; but when the directors agreed to the proposal, and also docided to market tho machine at Home, they little thought they were laying tho foundation of a great English iudustr}-—an industry out of which has grown the motor-bicycle and the motor-car, not to say the aeroplane. Tt, cannot bo said that tho introduction of the bicycle created an immediate revolution; "but, at any rate, it served to revive the fortunes of the company whieh introduced it, and within a short period the title of the Ihni boeamo the Coventry Machinists' CM. Under that title it continued to trade until it was reconstructed during the company promoting boom of 1896, when it became the Swift Cycle Co., Ltd. Within quite recent years it became Swifts of Coventry, Ltd., having in tho interval added the manufacture of molor-cara to its activities whilo continuing the making of bicycles.