THE WHEEL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1321, 24 June 1897, Page 26

THE WHEEL.

" Silversmith" will at all times be pleased to receive contributions, correspondence, news items, reports of meetings, suggestions, and other matter interesting to cyclists. Correspondents and contributors must send their full names and addresses, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of the genuineness of their communications ; write on one aide of the paper only, and address :

" SILVERSFUR," New Zealand Ma.il.

SPOKES.

[By Silversptjr.]

Three bicycle thieves were convicted and sentenced at Sydney a fortnight ago.

The refusal of the Wellington Council to alter their regulation concerning rate of speed from eight to ten miles an hour is scarcely understandable. The Christchurch authorities have fixed upon ten miles an hour, and I cannot see anything to prevent a similar rate of speed being allowed here. Not that it will matter much, perhaps, for it is very difficult to tell how fast a wheelist is travelling, and a couple of miles is neither here nor there. It is unlikely that anyone will be summoned unless he is doing a veritable " scorch." I should not like to be called upon to swear at Trhat xate per hour a cyclist was going, and if there happened to be anyone that could his evidence would likely be flatly contradicted. Speed regulation is no doubt an admirable thing in the city, but ten miles an hour is a much more reasonable pace than eight.

At Nelson last week a lad named Kebbell, -while riding hard, met another cyclist at a corner on the Trafalgar Park cycling track. 'His machine slipped and struck the fence fairly end on, Kebbell being thrown completely over the fence. He had an arm broken and was considerably bruised. His machine suffered some damage.

The Christchurch City Council has decided not to insist that all machines should be provided with brake j.

A big bicycle -deal is recorded by an English paper. At Hull recently the members of the North-Eastern Staff Cycling Corps were provided with eighty-seven new bicyles, which have been purchased from a York firm at a cost of something over J3IOOO. They have been made to the order of individual members, who for a year past have been paying into a general fund to buy them. - The result of the scheme has been that they have been " horsed " at a very great discount.

There are very many ladies riding now who have not had the slightest experience of riding in wet weather, and these naturally feel somewhat apprehensive as.regards side-slip. For the encouragement of ladies who are nervous on the subject, says a writer in Bicycling Newt, J. should like to say that'fchey who have-no feai-of-side-slip are not'likely to be the subjects of it. The first consequence of nervousness in riding is to make "one steer unsteadily, and once control of the steering is lost, side-slip is

inevitable when the road is wet and greasy. If, on the other hand, a rider goes on her way fearlessly and steadily, there is very little danger.

In a paced race run in Paris recently, one of the competitors, Lartigue, thought that he had been poisoned when he drank some kola essence, which one of the pacers had handed him, and immediately yelled out as much, to the great surprise of the crowd.

A cycle motor which made its appearance at St. Hilda (Melbourne) recently is said to have presented a by no means prepossessing appearance, but its utility as a rapid locomotor was abundantly proved. The rider was apparently not quite comfortable on his novel mount, and the hissing sounds emitted by the power generator was a general cause of alarm to horses.

Chilly nights speak louder than words of the seasonableness of a cycling wrap or top coat for use while resting after exertion.

The bicycle is one of the many valuable adjuncts to civilisation, its manufacture one of the numerous industries that have sprung into existence since Her Majesty the Queen ascended the Throne. Sixty years ago it was not thought of, and had a Minister of the Crown or anyone else rattled up to Windsor Castle on a " boneshaker, be would have been set down as a crank —an appropriate term, by-the-way, in writing about these modern wheels. The old-fashioned conveyances of tbe time were not regarded as being likely to be superseded by a vulgarly-named " bike/' But times have altered. This is an inventive age. Men of talent have appeared as the years have merged one into the other and have given a sometimes ungrateful public the result of their brainwork: The Eiffel-tower " ordinary" made its appearance after the dandy-horse and velocipede and struck a wondering public by reason of its height and the idiocy of anyone being foolish enough to ride it. The ordinary was a strong-looking article, and generally held its own when its rider could not hold his. How beautifully it was constructed, too! How splendid its mechanism! And how proud the manufacturer who turned out a more stylish machine than his rival and duly patented the same! But we must not forget the few handy people here and there who, deeming thirty pounds or so too much, strove to construct bikes of their own —big elongated " wheelbarrows " with hoops of iron, or gas tubing, water spouting, anything. The correct adjustment of the saddle " fixings," &c, was a work of art, and the result, after all, was a crude bike and a big doctor's all. If any alleged bikes of this character bill now in existence, stored up and forgottear they should be unearthed, and for warden to Christchurch for exhibition at the Metropolitan Show of Cycles to be held in November next. They would make very interesting exhibits, and excite more curiosity than the latest ingenious invention. When people commenced to ride the old bone-shaker they had a,lot to put up with that nobody envied them, and their path, on the whole, was not of the rosiest. In fact, there was an entire absence of roses, but plenty of gravel. A few years since any prophetic utterance as to the future universality of the cycle and its daily use by woman would have been set down as the fantastic vision of an idle dreamer. Yet it has come to pass, and in our own time, too. And the starchy and precise people who looked with disdain upon the Safety after its appearance now regard it with uncompromising admiration —a thing of beauty and a daily joy. It is only within the last few years, comparatively speaking, that the great advantages of the Avheel was conferring on mankind were recognised, and the craze which set in seems to have spread like influenza or an unchecked fire on a breezy night.

The bicycle manufacturing industry has undoubtedly proved one of the most eventful in the Queen's reign ; its unique character, marvellous rapidity of progression, the enormous number of people it has given employment to, and the vast amount of money it has caused to be put into circulation the wide world over, all strengthen this opinion. And the industry is so-young yet, and the world is so wide, and the possibilities of the little two-wheeler so great, that one can only conjecture as to what it will achieve in the future and how beneficial it will prove to mankind. The physical and moral tone of the community, always susceptible of improvement and development, is one aspect of cycling that has been dwelt upon in the press by qualified writers over and over again. It is admitted that the pastime elevates character and promotes health. Prom an athletic standpoint cycling is a great thing. It has made enormous strides during the past few years. Track racing, fashionable and fascinating, has provided the public with a new form of amusement. Iho days of boxing, dog, andcoek<fightingand what not went by the board long ago. Evolution has brought a new and healthy form of recreation outside the ordinary sport of varied forms which always have obtained. And the colonials have come out boldly in the matter of track-racing. England can not do anything like it. The big cash prizes offered in Australia latterly have induced riders from France, Italy, America and England to come out and ride' for the pools. The fact of such prizes being given is an evidence of the popularity of the sport, because it is the patronage of the public chat enables the bestowal of tempting rmrses. This means the circulation of a great deal of cash, while the impetus given the game is causing the formation of clubs in every township imaginable, the laying down of expensive cycling tracks, &c. A new feature in connection with wheeling, too, has been the inauguration of touring clubs. These afford their members great benefits, touring as a club member being not as expensive as under ordinary conditions.

All cyclists who are in the habit, or who only occasionally make country trips, should join the New Zealand Touring Club. There was a time when cyclists had no power at all; they are now fast becoming a strong power, and their ranks are being daily augmented. So that if they were not altogether well treated in the past they have the gratification of knowing that the condition of things in the future will be decidedly different. Yes, the bicycle is indeed progressing ; everybody has one, or is getting one. It is an easy and cheap mode of travelling, the day of the idle man who took a cab to catch a train is going, and the wheel's only opponents now are: — The person too mean to buy one. The nearly run-over individual. The little tin tack.