CYCLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2059, 10 August 1893, Page 33

CYCLING.

NOTES BY DEMON.

The annual meetiqg of tie Taieri Ramblers' ■ Cycling Club was held on the 21st ult. Tha followingoffjce4bearers were elected ; President Mr H.H. Inglis; vice-presidents — , Messrs 3, R Stedman, Dr Allen, <J. H. Inglis ; captain, Mr C. Davidson ; deputy-captain, Mr J. Curry, j treasurer, Mr H. Gibson ; secretary, Mr G. Clark; committee — Messrs Cheyne, - Christie, Thompson, J. Johnston, A. Davidson, D. Buchanan, and James Dawson. ' It was decided to have anew track "laid, at a cost of - £40. ' ' At the first annual meeting of the Ariel Bicycle Club, Ashburton, held last' week, the following office-bearers were elected, j-rPatror,-, , Mr J. C. N. Grigg ; president, Mr Edwaid . Gates ; vice-presidents — Messrs^ ■ty^., ,'MINab Lyttelton, J. Scaly, J. Henry, J. Lane, R. M. Cuthbertson, and C. M. Slrtfehey ; oaptainj Mr. J. Forbes; sub-captain, Mr C. Henry,; secre- . tary, Mr J. Mttller ; treasurer, u Mi; &,'. Mainwaring ; committee— Meßsrs'H, Thomson, D. Zander, F. Clark, John Wilson, J4mes Wilson, B. Todd, andH. H. Je'cks. .MessrV Forbes and Mailer were appointed a deputation; to interview other a,thle,tio cluba with regard to the

A

Us

improvement of the track for the coming ' £,aßt, aB t Thursday the test races between H. j Pither, of Chtistchnrch, and C. E. Hull, of Timaru, took place at the South Canterbury Amateur Athletic grounds, Timaru. ■ The weather was all that could be desired, the day -being 1 genial, with hardly a breath of air stirring. -Only two of the test races were gone through, for Hall winning both it was not necessary that the third should be ridden. The . first event, the One-mile, was by far the most interesting; Both men rode their best from start to finish, and at no time was there over a length's difference between them. Hall made the pace, and won handsomely by half a wheel amid the greatest ' excitement. Time, 2min 43seo. The Five-mile was a ding-dong race, first Hall leading and then Pither showing the way, until- the goal was in view, when Hall made a brilliant spurt and won by a bare length. Time, 14min 53sec. The choice of the New Zealand Cyclist*' Alliance was thus confirmed. It will be recollected that when Hall was* picked as one of the team to represent New Zealand at the forthcoming races at Sydney Messrs Jones,. Simpson, and Pither reckoned they could beat Hall, and the above racing is the result of a triangular duel between these three riders, to see who would meet Hall in & contest. Pither secured the victory over his Christchurch opponents, and, as is shown, has been defeated by Hall, the alliance's choice. Duringthe afternoon a handicap bicycle race of two.milee and one of three miles was held. The'former race was won by Blackburn, 60yds, who rode leisurely and won easily in 6mm 25seb. . , " ........ The Three-mile race resolved itself into a contest between Hall and Pither, who rode in company to the last lap, when Hall came clean - away and^won-bjr about five lengths. Time, 9min4-ssec.' " -",.,, / . —^The cash amateurs in Chnatchurch.are 'making arrangements to get a representative Australian team 1 to compete at their Spring meeting", Davis";4he Adelaide crack, is to be asked to jojn the team. > The programme of the Austral Wheel Race meeting is out.' Nominations are due on 28th October. - ' •; ? ' 1 gather that the visit of the team of , New Zealand amateurs to Sydney will do a lot to uphpldi amateurism in New South Wales, and ,prbmises to deal a big blow to professional racing, which. haS never caught on with the Sydney public- At present three race meetings have been decided upon— viz , Sydney Bicjcle Club on September 9, combined clubs on Septemper 16, and. Suburban Club on September 23. Tlie Sjdney-Club has si cured the right to run-ihefive miles' championship of Australia, while the one.and five miles championship of New SouthiWales will be run at the other two meetings respectively. Queensland, it is said, .will send, down half a dozen riders, but Victoria is not likely to' be represented. 'It appears that in Victoria cyclists will haye 1 to bear an additional 3 per cent, more duty "on bicycles;,'' The present rate of 28 per cent; is thought by cyclists and the trade to be quite high enough. "'" ' ' — - Particulars of G. P. Mills's record nde from Land'sErid'to John o' Groats, a distance of 861 miles,; are to hand. Mounted on a Clincher-tyred tricycle, Mills left Land's End at 6 5 -a.m. on Monday, 7th June, and when not a mile' away the taking of a false turning caused him and 'his pacemaker to ldse a little time. At Penzance Shorland, the famous longdistance rider, picked up Mills, and at mid-day Launceston,' 86 miles, was reached. Shortly ' after leaving the town a puncture -in the front tyre necessitated a short spell, and Exeter .was hailed 18 minutes behind time. Worcester was reached at 4-. 45 a.m., and Whitecburch was passed- through at,- 11 a.m. -At 'Tarporley another ' man who has held the Land's : End -record"' joined the paciDg party,; and ' at Warrington Mills got a royal reception from the local cyclists, who had got wind of his coming. At Wegan Mills was troubled-with- saddle' sorenes9, which cost him a couple of dismounts, but things soon improved and .good pace was made through Preston and Lancaster to Kendal. ~ At Penrith .. an hour's halt wascalled for feeding and tubbing purposes. * Carlisle was soon left behind .and the Border wascrossed quickly, so that at Lockerbie Mills was close' on four hours ahead of. his arranged time-table. At Granton Ferryit was found necessary to kill time until the arrival of" the ferry boat; and with that view, rather than, because he had ridden 570 miles without sleep the record breaker "turned in" for half anhour. The ferry crossed Perth (625 miles)' was reached at 6 p.m. Kingusaie, close on 700 miles, was after laborious work across the Grampians reached in the small hours ; . and at 7.45 a : m. on the third day Inverness was reached after a very trying time, consequent on the very bad state Of the roads and a disagreeable Scotch mist.- At Helmsdale, Samson took charge of Mills,, and piloted him across thp wretched- Ord of Caithness by way of Berrydale. Wick was reached in the company of a number of pacemaker*, among them being the übiquitous Shcrhnd, who rendered yoeman's service during the ridei From Wiok Messrs Ware and Sandom, of Wisk, acted as pilots over the stretch that was so fatal to Mills when he fell aeleepin 1891 ; and John o' Groat's House was" struck at 10.47 p.m. on the third day, with a result that all previous records were eclipsed. < The previous record of 3 days 23hr 55min made.laSt year by .Lawrence Fletcher on a safety was thus broken by 7hr Bmin, and Mill's time of 3days,l6hr47minis . destined to stand for some time. Mills, who • had been, practically training all wiuttr with this ride in "view, notwithstanding the fact that he had slept half an hour only, finished fresh and well, as may 'be' gathered from the fact that the last 19 miles had been ridden in lhr 22min. He has had a remarkably successf nl career, and has held nearly all the world's road records. From 1886 to 1891 he has been almost invincible, -and the.rest he had in 1892 has, if anything, improved' him. After one of his great rides he was given up as a orippje for life, and a victim to rheumatism, and was considered araßh ybutlawho had injured his constitution tKrougu'.over exertion. The previous tricycle record was 5 days lOhr. — — At the London f County Cycling Club's meeting, held at Herne Hill on June 10, A. W;. Harris and Sanger (the American) had a -great 'go 'jn.'the final of the Scratch Mile. Sanger led by "2yds on entering the straight, but the Englishman wore him down, and won by a couple of 'feet in 2min 34sec. Harris also won the Five-mile Invitation Race in 12mm 9icc, whichis 2c3-ssec2 c 3-ssec better than the previous, ' record, held by R. A. .Vogt. • Meintjes (the South African champion) oomptted \m the milej but failed to get' a place in his heat. He' laoks spurting pscs. Although deficient in ■ finishing sprinting, it is evident that Meinjjes possesses considerable ability as a racer, for, in an attempt to 1 lowenHwris's five-mile record, he" beat the two-mile , record hy 4-s*ec, and finished the full distance in 12mm lOsec, only . lsec outside Harris's time. The day was quite against record breaking, beingoold and windy. •£-r-' Senor Don Sena Oto, the Mexioan flier, finally arrived in England wifh one or more boxes of jiis patent plus. Those pills are said to be something wonderful, and warranted to

enable a in>n to bottle up energy enough tb send him going at top rate, and also load him up with energy enough to run a week. A funny part of tlie matter was that the reputation of these pills,' or else of the rider, made Griffin, the handicapper, put the man on soratch, but at ,the, end of the race the senor was distanced. * Whether he took too many pills or not enough has not been as yet ascertained, but it may be that there is a certain combination between the pill and the climate, and Oto had not yet struck that combination. It may be that -the' prescription should readTake of EnglislTclimate 10 parts, of Oto's pills six parts, whereas the prescription for Mexico would merely resjd or Mexico air take 10 parts, and of Otb's pillsj pile part. It will be well to wait until Oto hafrifrad a chance to strike the combination befo*e;his famous pills are entirely repudiated i-Aih;&icjin Cyclist. - « Partioulajps' regarding the refusal of the National CyclistsMJnion to grant a license to the American champion; A. A. Zimmerman, are to hand, and dealing' with the case an English paper says :— "'Everyone looked forward to the second visit of Zimme'rinan to this country, and the popular Am&ioan has certainly kept the promise' he' made, <when leaving us last year. We have had plenty, of notice to get our best men ready to meet him, and to-day (June 17) was to decide whether there was one good enough to lower the stars and stripes. Popular opinion is against such a probability, and— so are we. Since he landed in Europe 9 , Zimmerman has competed in a dozsn races and has never been beaten". Certainly he has not met our best, but that itfnot his fault. Last week tbe temporary license granted him by the National Cyclists' Union expired, but was renewed upon condition' that he did not ride a 'Raleigh,' the 'fcupposition being that it was to his pecuniary .interest to do so. We have tbe solemn assurances of the manufacturers that there" is absolutely no reason for such a .belief, It is quite-impossible for Zimmerman to "get used to another machine in so short' a space of time, atufbii the day, of the championships he steams f (pin Liverpool for home. The American' Eagle will of course scream madly, and no wonder, for who would hava^imagined that amateurism would have acted so violently in so short a space of t The National Cyclists' Union will.be called upon to state its reasons for such a move, whether it will, or can do so, is another matter." - — On June 15 F. G. Bradbury, at Herne Hill, lowered the' half mi'e Siftty record to lmin 3-sb(.c, the previous be&t being Zimmerman's linin ssec. The', cyclists of France have set up tor themselves a 6aint,'without asking the permission of the Pope. They have called him " Saint Velo," and eaclj'jear they intend to celebrate his fete day' by a grand gathering of the faithful worshippers of the wheel. The inauguration'day, or ''beatification," if one may be permitted so to style it without offence -to anyone's susceptibilities, took place on Sunday, when over 500 cyclists assembled on the Place de la Concorde, and rode three abreast up the Champs Elyse'es .through the Porte Maillelot" (where stood • the ' winning post of the great Paris JBordeaux race) to' St. Germain, where they lunched al'-fresco, and then, joined by hundreds of others; took part in a grand march past in Indian \ file.— East Anglian Daily Times. ■ - . ' " ' !> " Felt handles;' are excellent for road riding. They do 7 not make the hands dirty, absorb the* perspiration, are pleasant to the touch, can be cleaned with soap*, and water, and above, all do not slip out of the hand if lightly held when af sudden jar comes. Horn handles are good, but felt are better. A writer inßieyeling World says :— " On a recent little cycling trip in a prominent locality where I had occasion to pass several hundreds of wheelmen,' parefal, personal observation^ convinced me that there is not one man in 100 (yes, I think* that that proportion is rather under than over the mark !) who uses the ankle motion in riding; The flat-footed position' seems to be the almost universal rule. Now, why is this ? la it tp be attributed to ignorance or simply to carelessness ?• Either the riders give no thought to the matter, or 1 they were not taught, when taking up the sport, that this is a matter of any great importance ; and yet it is. Certainly no one who has ever experienced the-addedpower and speed yielded by proper ankling would be so foolish asto relapse into the old style, and this , fact cannot .be too' strongly impressed upon the tyro, no less than upon the old rider who has fallen into bad, habits. I will admit that it requires a good bit of perseverance to cultivate and rigidly adhere to the ankle motion, but it soon becomes second nature, and once acquired it more than repays one for the effort." - — • G. P. .Mills's performance over the Land's End to John b' Groat's course is certainly one of the best' things he has ever done. It ! exemplifies what, a difference climatic changes I make in what, can be done over such a course. Mills beat his own safety record by over 18hrs, and this on a tricycle.' ' The difference in times was not from the fact that he was immeasurably superior to what he was in 1891 ; nor does it show that the Clincher tyre was a speedier tyre than the old Djintop, which Mills had fitted to his safety ; whilst we hardly think it proves the tricycle a better and faster machine than the safety. No; the' difference' in times is accounted for in the fact that Mills, in his last essay against the' scythe-bearer, had fine weather and the v wind on his back the whole of the' way, whilst When he rode the safety he had a lot of rain, mud, and. slush to contend against. Ajfavourable wind and fine weather means everything over the End-to-end coursed A man, no matter how 1 strobg he may be, goes to pieces from hard plugging,, whilst easy pedalling can easily be managed —British Sport. The Irish Cyclist has a splendid article upjn " Cycling far Ladies," and it is worthyof reproduction, since' it ghes information which can only be procured by long experience upon the effects of cj cling among ladies. ' ' Why has no one pointed, out the benefit which women whose cccupations entail much btaading would derive from' adopting cycling a« a means of taking exercise ? And yet how many women pass most of their hours on their -feet. A teacher, for instance, gets thoroughly wearied in the feet and legs through sbmuoh standing, and no form of exercise ' seems to relieve them. Tennis, oountry walksj &'c, which are recommended a3 recreations, quite fail to meet the case. The weight of the body' is still supported by the feet and legs, and -a ttro'ng woman, feeling that exercise is an absolute necessity, will continue bravely tD take it, although she feels Vired afterwards ; while a delicate one will give up in despair after a few attempts, feeling that the headache and sensation' of dulriess which results from want of fresh air is preferable to the weanness entailed by exertion. Cycling would exactly meet such cases.as thes?. The weight of the body; is chiefly 'supported by the saddle, and the feet and legs, freed from their load, are able to exert themselves in such a way that the tired, muscles are completely rested and the weary, aching, feeling vanishes. It has been tried in various oaies, and adeboate girl who, after a morning" 'spent in lecturing, could do nothing but- lie i on a sofa, finds that she can potter about on her maohine for an hour or so, »nd feel much refreshed. For shop girls, too, whose vocation necessitates almost constant standing, the cycle is » boon the- value or

which none but those who have experienced it can estimate." " I have heard," writes a correspondent, •'of a one-legged ballerino, but; it waa my good fortune the other day to Bee w^th my own eyes a one-legged bioyclist. He was not a professional performer, but appeared to be tooling along the Portsmouth road, near Kingston, purely for his own pleasure ; noc^ras there any-, thing to attract attention in the phenomenon until you looked at him closely. You then observed that the maohine had a single treadle for the right foot, and the rider, whose left leg was missing from the hip, kept -his balance by* leaning over slightly to that side. How he manages to mount is 'a mystery that I cannot solve, for I had not the presence of mind or absence of shame to subject him to an inter-, view.— Pall Mall Gazette. We (Cycling) have recently been riding a borrowed machine, identical in every way with our usual mount, with the exception' that it has no gear case. It is a good, high-class machine, but in comparison to the gear-case fitted mount a veritable crock as far as sweetness of running against the wind or up hills is concerned. The more experience we have of properly made and fitted gear cases the more are we impressed with their advantages,' and to ride a machine without one is almost as distasteful as to have to descend from a pneumatic to a lowly solid. [A STORY IN THREE ADVTS. (Morning Gazette, April 1, 1891.) Wanted.— Tandem Bicycle, or Tricycle: in good condition. Willing to pay cash for a first-class machine.— Address A. P., Morning Gazette Office, Fleet street, E.C. . (Morning Gazette, April 1, 1892 ) PerMnß— Robinson.— At the parish church, Eistminster, by the Rev. A. H. Goodman, Algernon, 'eldest son of Thomas Perkins, of London, to Angelina, daughter of John Robinson, of Eastminster. (Morning Gazette, April 1, 1893.) ' For Sale.— A Tandem Bicycle/ in fairly good condition. Terms cash, or will accept new-per-ambulator in part payment. — Address A.P., Morning Gazette Office, Fleet street, E C.