CYCLING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10309, 30 March 1894, Page 2

CYCLING.

Paris bids fair to become the cycling centre of Europe. E. Howell, not so very long ago the fastest professional in the world, and without a peer in England for several years, has been interviewed at some length upon tho subject of professional racing. Howell has seen the seamy side of it, and we do not think that anyone will find much encouragement from hia viewa. He is of opinion that the professional game ia played out, and when asked whether he thought it was killed by tho professionals themselves, he replied, “ That’s just it. It is impossible to race fairly in professional events. You have so many men to work against, and tho man who endeavours to ride straight is bound to get left." His interviewer then said, “But I should have thought that with the influx of new blood professionalism had a few years ago, that it would have looked up a bit." “So it did for a short time, and then the same old games came along, and it has died a natural death, just the same as amateur racing will get dono up before long." Wo do not think that amateur racing ia going to bo done up, but still we will await developments. Professional racing, we fear, will go the same old way eventually, but we shall he glad to he proven wrong. At last (says the Australasian) the wind has caught the sails of that old conservative amateur ship—-the National Cyclists’ Union, England—and we learn by the mail that a committee has been appointed to draw up a set of rules for the “ control of the new professionalism.” This is the result of the inception of cash prizes into English cycle racing. The committee strongly urges clubs and other bodies holding race meetings to include one or more open races for cash prizes in their programmes. This from the National Cyclists’ Union, which always frowned on professional riders! Tho National Cyclists’ Union will find later on that while there are some real professional cyclists iu England—men employed by makers at a salary to race—the great majority will not tolerate being dabbed professionals, because although they, may race for cash prizes they have not the slightest idea of making a living by racing, hut mere race in their spare time, and perhaps do not win £.20 in a year. A leading English cycling paper fstates that it is an undoubted, fact that the majority of racing men in Lancashire and Yorkshire would bo only too ready and willing to throw in their lot with the cash amateurs were it only certain that sufficient cash meetings were to be.held in their respective districts. The practice indulged in by some riders of training a dog to follow them cannot be too strongly deprecated.- However well trained the animal may he, its vsgaries are a never-failing source of annoyance or alarm, if not of actual danger, to other riders. No doubt, much might be said, too, from the dog’s side of the question. Tell a man who has not tried it (says Cycling) that Bates’s covers do not lift up and throw the mud to anything like the extent of a smooth and plain outer cover, and he smiles increduously. Nor is it to be wondered at that he does, for one might moat reasonably suppose that a tread of little cells would act as a dredger on soft and wet roads. In actual practice exactly the reverse is the case, and a machine fitted with Bates’s strips, will return home on the worst of days almost clean, as compared to one without. It is reported that cyclists are to have a new cycle alarm, even more dreadful than the blood-curdling syren. It has been put upon the market in America and is in the shape of a couple of perforated discs which rotate against one another when brought into contract with the tyre of the wheel by a lever similar to the brake handle attachment. A great advantage of the new arrangement is that it cannot be rung by the small and funny boy while the machine is at rest alongside the kerbstone or elsewhere.

At regular intervals (fays Cycling) the perineal pressure question cornea to the front and '••troubles the minds of the nervous. Now some people can sit on any saddle and feel little, if any, discomfort ; others again are most difficult to suit, and really suffer agonies on saddles that another man retains, and changes from machine to machine, as his especial choice. This shows how difficult it would bo to det ign one saddle to suit everybody. Take for instance, the present Guthrie and Hall air saddle. The writer uses it from choice, because he has found it the most comfortable saddle he has ever sat on, although still open to improvement. Yet we know of some riders, who have honestly tried to like the saddle, and have simply found it torture. No doubt slight differences in the build of the human frames have something to do with this lack of interchangeability between some riders and the saddles of others, but we fancy even mors depends on the way the rider sits on the saddle. Some sit in such a way that only certain raddles, and few they are, will allow of their doing so without discomfort, and worse; whilst others so place themselves in the saddle that the body weight Is borne by the bones constructed for that purpose. To the former, perineal pressure will, sooner or later, become a real terror; to the latter, the whole thing seams an invention of inexperienced medical alarmists.-

The New York Cycle Show attracted crowds, and was a success. It was the fashion amongst the exhibitors to present gifts to the visitors. One firm had two litile girls in blue, banding out aluminium medals;another, aluminium gear wheels in miniature, aud others gave scarf pins, pen knivos, aud paper cutters. The American advertiser always sets the pace in sensational originality, but in a cycling paper recently to hand, from America, ha has quite surpassed himself. T,ho picture represents our first parents, in the original racing costume, mounted on safeties, and chased by the cause of all the trouble in tba world since it started business. Mr Adam is putting in a fast lap, and has a commanding lead; the lady looks distressed and is in the act of falling from exhaustion; “ completely curled up ” is a sporting description that describes her pitable condition fully. A recent number of The Picture Magazine

reproduced some copies of curious old prints, showing that bicycles for ladies rrere thought of as long ago as 18,19.

Tbe unemployed in Sac Francisco have recently turned their bands to work, and D.if;de a drive for cycling, 7000fb long and 20ft wide, leading through a park to the ocean. The path is for the exclusive use of cyclists. , Very few wheelmen know how to drink raiik, and those who say that they suffer from indigestion after doing so should experiment in this way : Drink the milk very slowly, a sip at a time—if warm, so much the hotter. Milk that haa been slowly sipped will be digested rapidly and easily, and it is very useful as a sustaining drink for active workers.

The following is a portion of the testimony of a French doctor to the advantages of cycling:—“ It gives that elasticity and carriage, that solidity of gait, which bespeak the healthy individual, while his expression, animal spirits, and rosy complexion are in very great contrast to the uncertain movements, sickly smile, pale, pasty, greasy-looking skin of the recluse and overworked man/’

The first cycling sports of the recentlyformed club at Invercargill took place on March 7. The weather was not pleasanti and a strong wind blew, but the attspjp; o.nce was .very fair. E. R. Gcdward (Dunedin) won tbe Two-mile Open Race in 6min 22me, and was second ia the Halfmile Dash and Ten-mile Open Handicap. The other events, were won fay members of the club.

J. S. Johnson, the American crack, has decided to visit England next summer. Two points for the preservation of pneumatics: Pump hard, and fill up the cat s with solution and wadding as soon as possible. The Professional Union, recently established in London, has added a cypher to its original capital, which now becomes £60,000 instead £6OOO.

The National Cyclists’Union, England, now includes upwards of 50,000 members, either directly enrolled, or indirectly in touch with the Union as members of affiliated clubs.

The Cash Prize League of America is said to be in a bad way. It did not, so we are told, make any money ia the past season, and now disputes have broken out between the official?.

The petition to the American Senate in the mstter of good roads.which was wound round two bicycle wheels, made of oak, weighed 600iba, stood seven feet high, and bore 150,000 signatures.

It has been, estimated that the amount of capital represented at the recent National Show in England amounted to £5,000,000. There were 260 exhibitors (100 cycle manufacturers, sixty tyre makers, and 100 makers of parts, &e.). Writing in an English contemporary Professor A. S. Hathaway says:—“Twenty years will bring a complete revolution of our mode of living in consequence of the relief that the bicycle will bring from the congestion of life in our cities and its stagnation in the country/* The aggregate value of the prizes won by cyclists in America during 1893, is put down at 125,000d015, or over £25,000. Zimmerman heads the list with 20,000dols; 101 firsts, 7 seconds, and 3 thirds. J. S. Johnson is next, with 13,000d01s ; H, 0. Tyler and W. W. Windle, 12,000 each. To Italy belongs tho honour of being the first country to adopt electric tricycles for public use. The machines are built slightly larger and stouter than usual, and each ia fitted with' a battery of ten cells, supplying motive power for from three to five hourc. They will ply for hire exactly the same sa our cabmen.

Tho New York Recorder says some very blunt things about the recent six days* race, terming the exhibition brutal in tho extreme, and declaring that if the men had been animals tho race would have been forcibly stopped. Another writer states, that after the second day the race degenerated into a procession of halftrained, wholly disgusted, spiritless men, who fought against nature, pain, and suffering, to gain a pittance. Tho Scottish Cyclists’ Union has decided to adopt the system, of licensing, and to divide the riders into two classes, named respectively Class A and Class B—the former class to ba composed exclusively of men unconnected with the trade, and the latter to include trade employes. Eiders in Class A are forbidden to race with or “ pace ” riders in Class B, and the registration committee is given power to refuse registration without giving reason. In tho recent “Six Days” at New York one of the most remarkable performances was that accomplished by Van Emburg, who is known as the “Boy Wonder.” Mounted on an English machine, the Triumph, he secured the 100 miles record, for this class of contest, and piled up the wonderful total of 1401 miles, riding the same wheel throughout. According to American exchanges, he was by far the freshest man in the race, and, but for going too fast the first day, would possibly have won.

By flat handle-bars (gays Bicycling News ) we mean those that are cot dropped. It was a sign of healthy development in cycle construction to observe that not a few of the best road racers and light roadsters in the shows were fitted with bars of this description. A flat bar enables a man to adopt a “fast” pose on the road without undue crouching, or the exposure of four to six inches of naked unsupported handle stem. For the average fast rider a flat bar put right down or within an inch or two of the top of the ball head gives a very fine moderate position. For path wort most men find a well-dropped bar an absolute necessity, even with the bar adjusted to its lowest point. On tho other hand, for touring or any riding in which “ sneed ” considerations do not count the bent-up handle-bar is the thing. S. F. Edge is a notable example of the believer in flat bars, and his form, both body and otherwise, is practically perfect.

Are we on the eve of another great revolution in the form of the cycle ? (asks Bicycling Net os). If any reliance is to be placed on the omens of the past) some such radical change seems to be impending. For some two or three years before the downfall of the " ordinary/' there existed a pretty general belief that absolute perfection had been obtained, at any rate in the form of the cycle. Even the possibility of further improvement in details began to be seriously doubted, and shortly after that the "grand old ordinary” disappeared from the scene altogether, to he replaced, after two or three abortive experimental types, by the present form of rear-driving safety. Once more to are gravely informed that the capacity of invention has reached its limits, and that no further improvement can be looked for except in matters of detail. Is this the writing on the wall? Is the sway of the omnipotent and omnipresent safety really trembling in the balance? And if the existing type of machine is doomed to extinction, will the next great stride of invention be, like the last, a reversion once more to early principles, or is it to be something altogether new and startling, something as yet undreamed of in our philosophy ? An effort which is more than likely to succeed is being made to have the amount of value of prizes for amateur events under the National Cyclists’ Union reduced from £lO 10s to .£5 ss.

A track to be constructed in the Bois da Boulogne, by the Municipality o£ Paris, will have a bed of cement, and a surface of compressed cork. Trees will be planted to protect it from the wind. A firm exhibited, at tha New Tork Show, a steal band with small pins, which droo into holes in toothless chain wheels, instead of the usual chain driving. Less friction and noieo is claimed. Chinamen on the Pacific Slope are taking to tha cycle for business transportation. Quite a number of tho Celestials rido round In San Jose and Los Angelos to obtain orders and deliver goods. Thomas A. Edison, tho great electrician, predicts that the metal of tho future will be nickel Eteel, as it possesses bath strength and pliability. He saya “ aluminium is too soft; it is light but lacks strength.” Aa invention which appeals specially to trick-riders has been made in the shape of a fly-wheel attached to the hub of the wheel between tho spokes. When this is wound up it revolves at a great pace, and

assists in driving the machine, thus allow-' ing the performer a freer hand in the execution of his tricks. . It is said that skilled workmen m the cycling trade in America, who last year could command £1 a day, are now going about ready to take from 12s down to 6a per day. This, however, means cheaper cycles for purchasers. Oat of a list of thirty-three leading American racing men of 1893, no leas than twenty-four used Palmer tyres exclusively, and three did so sometimes. The value o£ the prize won by the twenty-four exclusive Palmer tyre users, amounted to something like £12,800.

One of the strongest arguments against? tricycles is the room they take. In the Telescopic Witch, this genuine difficulty has been quite and effectively overcome, as by a very simple and yet secure arrangement, the tricycle can be reduced instantly from a width of 35ia to 28in, The contrivance does not in the least increase the weight of the machine. A London firm is supplying the trade with cycle handles made of sponge. The handle has a foundation of thin ash wood, to which a particular description of fine sponge, known in., the sponge trade. as '‘ elephant’s ears,” is fixed, and being well finished with plated ends, looks very neat. They are described as cool in summer and warm in winter, and are absolutely, absorbent, anti-vibrative, and lasting. It has often been assented by anticyclists that cycling is directly prejudicial to varicose veins, and tends to greatly aggravate the malady. Such, however, is not the ease—in fact, this form of exercise is often recommended by the medical fraternity in order to alleviate the evil. Dr B. W. Richardson, who himself suffered from this disease, says;“ Practically, cycling is not injurious to sufferers from .varicose veins, and the reason is not far to seek. The movement diminishes the height of the nervous column, and thus depreciates the pressure.” The late Major Knoz-Holmes told Bicycling News of a man he once knew who had been afflicted with these veins for eighteen years. He sought the best of medical advice, but found no relief until he took to manipulating a “Gripper” tricycle. The return bicycle match of 100 miles between Dubois, the French champion, and Linton, the holder of the world’s record for this distance, came off on Jan. 8, at the covered winter track in Paris. There was a tremendous crowd in attendance cumbering about 15,000. Both men were suffering from injuries received in their race a fortnight previously,when Linton won by Shortly after the start Linton was obliged to change his machine, which cost him . a lap. The fifty kilometres were covered by Dubois in Ihr 19min 53sec, and the hundred kilometres in 2hr 18tnin, which was SSaec better than his record time, though it must bo remembered that this was over a covered track. In spite of Linton’s best efforts he could not succeed in catching up with Dubois, who won by a little less than a lap in 4hr 37min 73-ssec, an improvement upon Linton’s time in the first race of Gmin 26sec.