WHEEL NOTES BY DEMON. N. U. T. S.

Otago Witness, 31 August 1888, Page 27

WHEEL NOTES BY DEMON. N. U. T. S.

The rear-driver is making its way. Soon the tall ordinary will give place, and the ladies will cease to admire cycling (not cyclists). You do occasionally hear a remark when some of our masher riders pass down street, " Oh, how nicely Mr — well, So-and-so— rides," or " How well he looks on his bicycle," or "What a pretty bicycle." But even its best friends cannot call the rear-driving safety pretty ; and the rider kicking out behind, like a grasshopper impaled on a pin, does not look the most graceful object in the world.

It is all custom, however ; there is always a difficulty in introducing a new thing. But cyclists, when they know a machine is good, are not slow to take it up. Looks may go to — Halifax when there is a chance of breaking a record.

The mere safety had little to do with the chaDge at first. Any number of safety machines have been invented, beginning with a cross bet weeaibicycle and tricycle, and a machine with five wheels — the big one to drive, in the middle, and one in front, behind, right, and left, in case of spills. Then came the Extraordinary, with its phenomenal rake and .grasshopper-jointed levers ; the American Star, a bicycle ridden the wrong way; the Facile, Kangaroo, and finally the Rover rear-driving safety. Out of all these, only the fast machines have stayed — in fact the Facile is about the only competitor to the rear-driver ; all the rest have vanished,

The Ordinary still is. the racer. There, weight is everything, and 261b can hardly be reached when a lot of frame and chain has to be worked in.

These safety machines will kill the racing yet, for what is the good of makers' keeping men to advertise their goods when nobody wants to buy that particular style ?

What was the D.C.O. man doing the other night, carrying home provisions on his bicycle ? If this is to become the fashion, the skippers had better go in for a double-carrier cycle and do their marketiug on wheels.

Whatever you do, don't talk to a cyclist about the weather just now. It is a sore point, sometimes too bad even for the mudlarks. August generally is an unsettled month.

The very latest is a proposal to have a swimming handicap later in the season. Most of the D.C.C. swim more or less ; it always has been an aquatic club from the days of the old club runs to the mill at Outram. , Several members are in the habit of riding to St. Clair for a swimduring theseason, and some have started already. Last week was a holiday though ; roads were too bad. Water not too cold, oh no.