CYCLING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10625, 21 March 1896, Page 7

CYCLING.

'FIXTURES. March 21.—Dunedin Cycling Club's Road Race. April 25.—Official closing of.the season.

(By Demon, in the Otaqo Witness.)

There is little of local interest to relate this week. A number of the Dunedin Club rode tilt as far as Evamdale on Saturday afternoon;/and other riders took short spins into the country. The weather at the week eud was perfect, auu the roads are muck improved.

—— The . Dnnedin Cycling Club's annual road race takes place this (Saturday) afternoon. The race starts from Mrs O'Kune's, Mosgiel, at half-past 3. Special prizes for this race, given by Mrs O'Kaue, Mosgiel, and Mr Crane, Wait-on, are. to be awarded as the committee think fit. :■! \ . . ,

■■——I have received: a copy of, the programme of the Grand Goldßelds Carnival, to be held* under the auspices of the Roxburgh Cycling Club at Roxburgh on Thursday, 16th April. There are five bicycle races provided— viz, One-mile Novice Handicap, Three-mile Fhst-class Handicap (limit 2Sojds), Five-mile Handicap, One-mile Handicap, aud Tea-miie Gsldfie'ds Handicap ; and. three foot'races— 100yds Handicap, MOyds Handicap, aud H*l?--ari.e Haudicap., Botriea oloie with Mr R. M. Falconer, the hon. secretary, on Suturday, 11th April;

:—— The 100 miles Australasian road record, 6hr.ttnin, held by A. J. Body, of New Zealand, has been bpaten bjr G. B. Broadbent, of Mulbdurna.,. He.rade I'iom Warrnambool to Great Western,' 100 miles, in sbr 45niin, which time now stands '.'as' the record. Broadbent holds ■ako'tae 50 hiiles road record of 2hr 34min.

-^— Parsous's mile under 2inin at Adelaide was done with the assistance of a triplet and a tandem, with a standing star!;. Parsons'hring on to the triplet and, kept well up till the last iap, when pacing was takaa up by the, tandem, and Parsons maUiug the'riders go all out, crosfed the tape amid great excitement in linin 58 3 ssco. He did the half-mile in 54-sec behiod the triplet, and knocked 4sec off Zimmerman's Australian half- mile record, done at Melbourne, in December last. The lap of GlZyds was done in 37^980.,,

v'.': —r Frank Toms, who lowered the two-mile Anstralasi&h record to tmin 15Jseo, is a noted lobg-distatiee rider, and now holds, along with the two miles record, the Adelaide to Melbourne record, » distance of nearly 600 miles.

;.r—- The bicycle has beij'n taken np by tha clergy, and a fellow cyclist informs me that he recently saw.-the Rev. Father Coffey pedalling manfully along the Beaumont road, and doing good. work. "Father Os/ffey, who** holds Divine service at Roxburgh, recently cycled from Lawrence'to Tapanui on the Friday, and then on to Roxburgh on the Saturday. He was accorded a good send-off by a number of people on his leaving Roxburgh for home on the Monday, : ■7—-The Mataura Cycling Club intand to try anil-raise by means of a bazaar the sum of £80, to be Used in the formation of a racing track. The. irack,wiU prpbibly be built on a gravel foundation with a cinder top, and the corners will bo banked' tip' about sft or 6f6 with clay. '■':— —A road race from Wallscetown Junction to'Waimatnku and back,:> distance of about 22 miles, came i' off under the auspices of tho Inverpargill Cycling Club oh Wednesday last. There wefg'flve starters—R. ftl'Kenzie,' scr; 6. U. Guthbertson and P, Mair, 4-£min; M. Itnpcy and A.'Micdbnald, s£miri—and the race was won by Cuthbertsou in ihr smin 50sec. Muir was only a machine's length behind,- and M'Kenzie finished- 45seo 'behind the winner. Itripey • &ud Macdonald did not finish' the distance. '; ••' •" • ■ ■ •■•

!rr — Mr J W.' Jones, of Christchurch, who with Mr C. Joaeß, has gone north to to .^abe 'part in tbi'Napicr Wanderer's annual meeting, • intends to make an effort to lower the Napier'WeUington record. ■■ — I learn from the Lyttelton Times that Messrs W, Cqrtiea.andCo,, bicycle manufacturers, Manchester street, Christchuroh, have just, manufactured a bicycle which has many novel features;* The Ordinary crank bracket, with cranks, chain! wheel; aud chiin!is done away1 with, and two special quadrant pedal levers'are arranged so as to rock up and down in,an arc of 'a* circle, instead of taking a complete revolution, as,in the ordinary motion, thus obviating the dead centre. In operation, when olio lever is pushed down the cord pulls a clutch round, which grips and turns the driving wheel. By the connecting wire over the wheel the opposite clutch is wound backward, and consequently pulls up the other pedal lever ready, for tho next stroke. As. the driving mechanism is independent of the wheel any length of etibke may be taken iip to 16m. By an ingenious contrivance the taking of shorter strokes enables great leverage to be obtained for hill climbing Bnd riding against head winds. For fast woik full strokes are taken, which brings into play the longer axis of the quadrant. It is claimed that tH« machine is very suitable for ladies,-as, apart from the advantage named, there is po dinget of a la iy cyclist tearing her dress owing tb the ped»lliu^ being back and forth and hot continuous.

■■— —Cyclists have been to the fore in oonneption with the receut troubles in Soath Africa. The Johaunesßurg-Btar of Janu»ry4 gives'an account \ of a meeting of cyclists on December 30, when oy«r 100 riders were present, and ■ after some spirited speakiug tbu following resolution was carried:— "That thft cyclists of Johannesburg agree to form a U1 gide, both for the purpose of protecting women.and children, and, if need be, for standing together for their rights, and to elect a committee to have power to give such orders as may be rendered necessary in the pre aenb state of affairs:"

As evidence that cyclists have been of soine asuiabafice, the stmii paper shows the following :—"iheDefeuce dramifctee desires to m*ke mention of the admirablu service rendered by the corps of iOOcyclints,; who have been employed in bringing in int*ll<genca ftora every quarter. The assistance giveu by the corps in this rexpect bas'b&en simply invaluable." : The Cape Times of December 11 records tha following amusing incident:—" A peculiar experience befeU'a local cyclist, Mr Donald MoDzies, the other afternoon. He'was riding along the main road from Onpetbwn to Somerset, West strand,'-'-when an ostrich, attracted apparently by what was in its eyes a novel vehicle, commenced to ' waltz' around the cycle. After a few preliminary antics the bird took it into its head to ■'price' Mr Meczies, and so long as it abstained from, using its wings the Byoliet and the Ostrich maimged adeadheat. However, after careering about lutlf a mile in this way, the ostrich utilised its stumpy wings as sails, leaving tho cyclist fur behind. After that the birr] troubled^Mr Menzies no more."

Mr H P. Thoropsou, Pioneer Blejcle Cmb, has lowe od the two-mile amateur record for New Zealand to tain 32 4-ssec. The , previous record was hold by J. W. Jones. -—- A writer in a Honjkong paper has made a rather, ingenious; compilation showing the fastest times in: which a mile has been covert-d id various ways.- It is quite possible that oho or two of the records riisy have, been broken during the last few weeks, but those who are fond of makingcouiparkpns willfind the fullowingdetails interesting :t—Rniinay train, 49 +-s^o ; ice yacht, lrnin IObbo; runniughorsp, liniu 35-isec ; torpedo boat (with tide)) lruiu BOjec; torpssdb boat (still water), Imins Jsec; safety bicycle, imiii sWec; tandem bicvoUy lmin 25Vwc; trotter, 2iiain 4sec: steam y i chfc, 2min 12i«ee; ice skating (with wind), Simin 12 3-sfiec ; ocean liner, 2min 20sec; roller skating, 2min SOsec; running, 4min 12;£seb ; rowing (single coulls), smin 40stc; snow riioes (running), smm i^Bec; walking, 6min 23sec; show shoes (walking), 9mia 14s?c ;' canoe, 9mm 29:iec', swimming, 28min 18§sec. In its way this is a moat extraordinary analysis, but there are a few omissions which would makiicstill more complete. There 18 no mention of the grejhound or tho flight of homing pigeons or swallows. Of all the above, however, which depend upon a man's own fexertion, ;th(|'-'cje)ist bears the palm. To. cut ttn-ough ,tb.e air at. the rate of 36. miles an hour* must ba a 'wonderful eiperieocc.; Ahdalthpugh lmin 50«ee is thd .fastest, time ia which a mile has been cut out on & level track, it has been dope very much faster ou a straightaway course with a downgrade.—Sydney Mail. • In connection with the 'Stanley Cycle show at the Agricultural Hall, it was stated that there are now nearly a million cyclist* in Enge land, something like 10 miDiohs aitetline beipg invested-ia the oxole iadustis. ,

The parcel carrier, which is a tricycle with a capacious carrier in the rear, is now a j familiar sight in New York. Thay are much more economical than delivery waggouß. Bicyoljng News hasthefollomngregarding two Newcastle cyclists in the Transroal: — " If hot work was to be done, the Newcastle exiles, ' Jim' Martin and Arthur George, were likely to bain it, and sure enough there.they were. The former is in tha Second Scots Company, bat, modest as ever, says nothing of whit he has done himself, bat deals only with the deeds and hairbreadth escapes of A. E. G. Tfc»t sprightly youth is—or rausb I say was—third in command of the Cyclists Corps, and up to the time of the departure of the mail (January 5) had been busily employed in deepatck-beariug, and it was in this tust he outwitted the Dutchman, and saw Jameson making his last gallant stand. Arthur and another were seut out with despatches to 'Dr Jim' on the morning of Thursday, January 2, but the district was infested with Boers, and ere they reached their destination they wera suddeuly surrounded by a detachment of the enemy. Both men were 'stripped to the buff,' and every possible hiding place was searched, but no despatches could bo found—nothing more incriminating! in fact, thau a pair of revolvers. These were confiscated, and the two wheelmen allowed to dress and depart, with the comforting reroxrk that had any despatches been found thoy would. hava been instantly shot. And, as a reminder, a rifle-bullet whistled p»st their cars as thay sped away. And where, think you, wtre the despatches in all this. ? Well, Arthur always was an ingenious youth, end his ingenuity has obviously stood him in good stead. The despatches were in the tyres! Bat there was no hope of getting through to Jameson. When the wheelmen came within sight of that gallant little band—' filibiwters,' may be, but brothers and heroes for all that—they were surrounded by .5000 Boers ; .standing with food and ammunition exhausted at their mercy. From the accounts to hand, the trouble is yet far from endud, aud I echo the wish oE every friend of our own particular emigrants in hoping that no harm may befall them in the struggle."