CYCLING NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 10056, 13 July 1896, Page 1

CYCLING NOTES.

[Bv Rover.] To Correspondents. Correspondence and queries are invited, and must be addressed to “ Hover," editor of Cycling Notes, odice of this paper.

Active cycling is dead in Dunedin ; climatic change produced disorders which ended in the aforementioned climax. It has been so long dead now that it has become a milter for antiquarian research. 1 have to thank the hon. secretary (Mr J. D. Bachman) of the Vincent Cycling Club for his kindness in sending me a ticket for the first annual reunion of the Vincent Ciub, to be hold on Wednesday, 22nd July. I regret exceedingly that I shall not be able to pay Clyde a visit; the state of the weather precludes all possibility of being present. I think it would be about the height of enjoyment to have a trip to Clyde, and a day or two to spare there, with a dance at the end. As for Mrs Rover coming, I may mention that she’s still in nubibus, as we say in the classics. When riding up the streets that have much traffic upon them wheelmen should exercise as much foresight as possible as to the best means of avoiding collisions, in which the wheelman generally suffers most. All riders should ride slowly, and give other vehicles as wide a berth as possible. The neglect of this and carelessness of drivers are the fruitful causes of much of the cost of repairing. This week a bicycle was completely metamorphosed into a cross between a porcupine and a crinoline by an express taking it amidships. 44 1 should deeply regret,” writes the cycling editor of 4 Land and Water,’ 44 being the first to sound a note of alarm amongst the holders of any company’s stock ; but it is more than probable that the next few weeks will see the advent of a bicycle that will entirely revolutionise the trade. 1 have had the privilege of riding the very first machine of the new style. Its inventor claims that at last the pneumatic tyre has been superseded, and really I must confess that I am greatly inclined to agree with his view. The wheels arc shod with solid rubber tyres, while the frame is pneumatically slung. There is also an improvement in the build of the head of the machine which greatly facilitates steering. The application of the pneumatic principle in the new machine is extremely simple and ingenious.” As a result of a trial the writer speaks of the resilience as perfect, and of an entire absence of vibration in the handle bar. The absence of inflated tryres will minimise the risk of breaking down, and the new machine, so the writer is told, will be turned out in first-class style at about £lO or £l2.

The extraordinary activity in the cycle trade for many months has produced something like an industrial revolution in Birmingham. When the great demand for cycles lagan last autumn the manufacturers quickly exhausted tho number of cycle workers, and still found that they were understaffed. Tempting offers were consequently made to experienced mechanics in other trades, with the result that thousands of men have left, their usual occupations to become cycle-makers. As trade generally is exceptionally good, the scarcity of woikmen has seriously handicapped manufacturers, and some branches of trade are paralysed. There are no men to fill the vacancies that have been caused, aud scores of factories have been robbed. Gun-makers have suffered severely.

Cycling has overrun the United States. In Chicago it has been found that it considerably reduces the Sunday congregation at the churches of that city. The rabbi of tho largest aud most fashionable synagogue in the city calculated that his congregation was at least reduced by 200 owing to the popularity of the bicycle. A brother clergyman’s suggestion that each church should provide a room in which the cycles might be housed during service met with considerable favor, both with ministers and cyclists. HEALTH BV CVCLINti. It seems hardly possible to realise in these days that when feminine cycling first made its bow on the public stage it had to fight its way against the serious charge of being highly dangerous to the health of women. Nowadays nearly every doctor in the country is putting all his lady patients on wheels, and that not only because the fashionable physician must needs bow in some measure lo fashionable fads, but because they have found out for themselves that cycling is one of the most beneficial exercises ever invented for the use of women. All along, doctors who were themselves cyclists, like Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson and Dr Turner, understood the enormous good to be derived from the rational use of cycling by women ; and now that the majority of the faculty have learnt from practical experience what oycling does for health it is becoming the most common prescription in the world for their lady patients. The old outcry against the use of the cycle by women was founded largely on ignorance. It was a favorite charge to bring against it that it reproduced all the undoubted harmfulness of the treadle sewing machine in an aggravated form. It was said to cause a violent strain on the back, to endanger the heart, and to cause varicose Veins as one of its most direct consequences. It was declared too dangerous for any woman to attempt without peril to life or limb, and the brain and nerve strain of keeping one’s balance on a bicycle was denounced as even more harmful to women than the less exciting saunter ou the tricycle. Many anxious parents forbade their girls to ride, under the conviction that it was a delight that could only mean disaster in its ultimate results.

As a matter of fact, the bicycle is the most potent factor in creating good health and retaining it that has ever yet been invented. When cycling is sensibly and properly indulged in it is productive of nothing but benefit to the cyclist, and more especially to the woman cyclist. Doctors now agree that it is the very exercise to suit feminine requirements, and that its universal use is likely to create a revolution in the health of women. Men, accustomed for many generations—as far hack, indeed, as the history of the race extends—to constant employment and recreation in the healthful fresh air and out of doors, can hardly realise how devoid of anything of the sort women have been. From the middle ages in this country, as in most others, the lives of women have been unnaturally cramped and contracted within doors. With very few exceptions, they had no outdoor pursuits or amusements, aud exercise seems to have been considered a thing for which they had no need. During the last century or two things became even worse in this respect, and it is no wonder that women physically and mentally degenerated. Who would not have been subject to vapors and hysterics—have suffered from nerves and childish tempers and silly whims? No wonder women fainted at a mouse and screamed at a footstep when their nervous system was reduced to a set of fiddle strings through lack of fresh air and exercise, and a style of dress calculated to produce palpitation, consumption, and dyspepsia ! Added to that, in the strain and worry of nineteenth century life there is nothing worse for health than dull monotony, and of this women, some twenty or thirty years ago, had more than their full share. Their lives were spent inside their houses ; unless they had abundant means they had neither change nor recreation from one year’s end to another, and their exercise was for the most part confined to a shopping expedition

now and then, or a little e dling upon their neighbors. The “little health of women” —that phrase that sounds so slight and means so much to anyone who has practically experienced it—was too common to suggest itself as anything more than the ordinary feminine characteristic, like long hair or an accentuated waist. Women were born so, and they must put up with it. Cycling is the greatest boon that has come to woman for many a long day, not only to her health, but to her mind and brain. It not only gives her a new lease of strength and vigor, teaches her for the first time what it is to feel perfectly well and devoid of any complaint, but it broadens life for her; it gives her a new and fascinating amusement, an interest outside the petty details of her generally narrowed domestic life, and it enlarges her mind and educates her, even as it trains her muscles. Women who feel their veins bounding with the delightful vigor of a health}' circulation will look at their surroundings with an altogether healthier tone than when the sluggish flow scarcely stirred their pulses. The tendency of modern life is to become too anxious, too sad, too pessimistic ; the cycle alters all that in a woman’s constitution.

Cycling, then, is a boon and a blessing, like that oft-quoted advertisement of the pens. But, like everything else, in order to get its full benefit it must be properly treated. There is quite as much harm to health as there is benefit to be extracted from it by women ; and where discretion and common sense are not exercised the harm will soon assert itself. This is a subject of so much importance to women in the present state of cycling enthusiasm that I am sure they will not find a few strong hints on the matter thrown away. I am too ardent an advocate of cycling for women, and have for so long done all that in me lay to enlarge its borders and strengthen its situation, that I cannot be accused of anything but a desire to increase its usefulness when I warn women what they should avoid in connection with it. —Lilias Campbell Davidson in the ‘ Scottish Cyclist.’ THK BUCK BOOM. Few cycles have got a better name in the market (writes our London correspondent) than the Humber, which was first given a start by Lord Kintore's brother, the Hon. lon Keith Falconer, who in March, 1876, won the Cambridge University races on a 60-inch Humber. Mr Rucker, managing director, when interviewed the other day, expressed the belief that the future of cycling would be bigger than ever. The orders of the leading firms have this year increased 100 par cent. “I suppose,” inquired his interrogator, “you build nothing but pneumatic-tyred machines?” “Absolutely nothing. The Simpson chain is ‘ blooming, 1 but wooden rims have not caught on in England, although they are very popular in America, They are not to be depended upon, and they will not st-fnd the wear and tear like the steel rims.”

“How about autocodes? “ They are bound to come, though they want a lot of

improvement yet. Keen now I have seen one bowl along easily at a rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour. But they will not supersede the ordinary machine, for, after all, people go in for cycling chiefly for the exercise.” *

“ Is aluminium going to oust steell think not. It is very unsatisfactory at present; it splinters, and is generally unreliable.”

“Handle-bars are getting very narrow, aren’t they ?” “ Yes, they have been getting narrower and narrower for some time now. There is much more power to be got out of them.” “ I suppose that black still holds its own, in spile of the number of colored machines oue sees about among the richer clashes ?” “Oh, yes; the vast majority of machines are black, though many ladies hj ive several machines in different colors to match their dresses. Other people have them colored to match the family carriages, and so on.” “ Now for a few statistics. How many men do you employ?”—“At Beeston, where we turn out only the very highestgrade machines, we employ about 1,100 men, and we are building an additional factory for about 300 more. At Wolverhampton there are about 500, and at Coventry about 700.” “ How do these figures compare with the past ? “ Three years ago Humber and Co. employed only 1,100 men—roughly speaking; so you see we have more than doubled our establishmentsincethen. And the re is a bigger increase this year than in the previous four years pat together. In 1893 the turnover at our London depot was only about TIT,000; this year it is between £BO,OOO and £90,000. I have no doubt all the big houses could show the same ratio.”

“ How fast can you turn out machines 5 ” —“ Our average for a week is 925. I should roughly estimate our output this year at 59,090.'” “ What proportion of these are for' ‘ society ’ ? ” —“ About a third. 1 ' “ How can you best describe the dilference between a high grade and a cheaper machine'; ’ —“ Icm put it before you rather graphically. At Wolverhampton with 500 mechanics we turn out 250 machines a week, at Coventry with 4UO hands we build 400 machines a week—these are the cheaper goods; but at Beeston, where only the very best machines are made, with 1,100 men we only make 275 machines a week. This will show you, while there is not a “cheap and nasty “ bicycle manufactured at any of our works, how far superior is the workmanship of the Beeston wares. We have reduced the weight consistently every year by getting rid of superfluous metal. Racing machines used to turn the scale at 281b and 201b when the pneumatic first came in. Before that they were a little lighter, the tyres weighing hardly anything. Racers now r weigh 2lib or 22,b. Hoad machines in the last five years have been diminished about 12ib, Tubing is made much lighter, as the pneumatic tyres have almost done away with vibration." A FAJ.KIHK SKI’TI'AUKNARIA.N. Mr James Robertson, Laurieston, Falkirk, writes to the current number of the ‘ Vegetarian Messenger 1 as follows; —“I have much pleasure in stating that I have now been twenty years a vegetarian, and my experience might be of benefit to some other person, if you think of publishing it. My diet consists of / of oatmeal made into porridge, with buttermilk, for breakfast; and about llb,of potatoes for dinner, with a little relish or milk, sometimes varied with lentil soup made with butter; and soz of bread tor supper, with a little coffee or weak lea, and masted or stewed apples when in season. I'go to bed about 10 o’clock p.m. and rise regularly at 5 o’clock a.m. I take a ride on the bicycle every day, except Sabbath, from five to twenty miles, in the morning before breakfast, and very often a good spin through the day. I am now seventy-seven years of age, andean ride a distance cf fifty miles a day. I have an umbrella to shield me from the tun in the summer time and from the rain in wdnter. I hold the umbrella with one hand and guide the bicycle with the other, and to my knowledge I am about the oldest bicycle rider known, and although I am an old man I can outstrip many of the flesh-eating bicycle riders. I attribute my healthiness to the diet I partake of and to the great deal of open-air exercise on the bic\cie. I have been a temperate man all my life, and have been a member of the Good Templars for many years. I must also tell you I have abstained from using salt for years, as I consider there is enough natural salt in the food we use. I may till you lam an old man of nine stone and a-half, which is a good weight for a man of my age.”