CYCLING HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 45

CYCLING HINTS.

the; cabe of the machine.

Dear Demon, — Having lately become the pos* sessor of a- bicycle your notes in the t Witness -have acquired read interest for me. Mora especially do I look out for the odd notes you insert of a nature calculated to teach the ycung rider and give him hints as to the care of tin machine and of himself. For example, in youi notes of November 16, you insert one on hill« climbing, and a little while ago you had on* on " jarring." In writing you I have Wo objects: (1) To express my sense of the value ol these " notes of instruction," (2) to inquire whether or not you know any publication that sets forth neatly and compactly hints to young riders on the care of their machines. Failing any such publication would you undertake to insert in your notes a 1 collection of such hints? I believ* that they would prove a great boom to igno* ramuses such as myself. I don't T?now what part of my machine I ought to watch most carefully. I don't know when my chain 'is too loose, when my tyre is pumped full enough, etc., etc. I daresay I might find out much by questioning more experienced men, but very often on< does not know what to ask about.

Have I given you a large order? Not tOQ largo for your columns, I hope. — I am, etc., J. A. V.

By way of replying to J. A. V.'s queries I da not think I can do better than quote the following hint 3 by G. Lacy Hillier, joint authon of " Cycling," in the Badminton Library: — The price of a first-class cycle is steadily rifcing, for reasons which need not be dilated! upon at length; in any case the purchase of at gcod mount is not a cheap operation, to put i^ mildly, and sotno remarks as to the care of th* cycle when acquired will not be out of places The care necessary may be divided into iw<* sections — thj car; when in use and that necea* sary when the machine is laid by. AVhen in use it is highly inadvisable to per* mit any. part of tho cycle to remain loose, apart altogether from the danger of accident necessarily involved. Thus, should the pedal con>a loese in the crank end, or the pedal nut corns loose, where these ere used, it is moat unwi3^ to neglect it whilst riding even a short distance, and for this reason — that there is a big leverage on the pedal end, and the threads of the .screw, which hold firmly when the>nutis screwed ua ot the pedal end is well gripped by. the lorn.

" nut, •will very soon be broken and rubbed -when, those-points, are loose in the crank end, the ca t - sequence being great difficulty in screwing the - pedal up Satisfactorily, and in due season the thread will strip, and cause much trouble before it is recut. It may, indeed, be laid down as an axiom that all nuts should be kept .tigfat, and should any particular nut be found .to be constantly coming loose, it will be well t to have it looked to by the nearest cycle repairer, lest it should give a great deal more trouble later on. The same thing applies very emphatically to (the ball bearings oi the machine wherever they are fitted. These bearings are delicate pieces ■of mechanism in -which, as will subsequently ibe explained, the hardened steel balls run on iconed surfaces, which admit of the adjustment iof, or the taking up of, wear by closer .approximation, whether as part of a threaded nut or 'actuated by it, and it is very necessary to keep iiall bearings adjusted within a reasonable lange. Of courst, the bearing must not be •too tight x or broken balls are sure to be the result, but a very loose bearing permits of irregular running, which, of course, means Irregular wear; and in due season, when the tearing is properly adjusted, the irregularly ( worn conea cause it to be tight at one point fend loose at another, with the result that the balls are broken, the internal faces of tihe cones scratched and worn, and these roughened faces again react upon the new balls put in ; to replace the old ones. Every rider of a cycle • ekould lnako iuinscif conversant with the con- ! struction of the bearings and the methods of adjustment used in the machine he Tides, as in nothing is the wise' saw about ''a stitch in \ time " so fully justified as in the care of bearings of the modern cycle. j The same remarks, of course, apply to the ball bearings fitted to the pedals, bracket, and other parts of the cycle, and in a general way it may be said that care of the bearings is care of the cycle, for if the bearings are all right and in good running order, the machine, unless some radical fault exists in its construction, j cannot be far wrong. i The bearings sometimes get clogged up with oil and dust, and if the machine is only occasionally used they may get absolutely stuck. This state of things can be remedied by injecting a little jmraffin, which liquefies the thickened oil, and causes it to run out if the wheels are vigorously rotated for a short time, j "When, after repeated doses, the bearings appear to be clean, they should be carefully reoiled with some suitable oil, and will, of course, be found much the better for the operation. I Some care of the chain will also be found of service, though the almost universal .fitting of the gear-case has much simplified* the task of the chain-user of late years. In earlier days" *the dust-clogged chain required frequent cleaning. If oiled, it caught and held the dust; if not oiled, it was a terrible thing in wet weather, lusting up into a rigid bar, holding the mud, getting gritty, jumping, and so on. The cures adopted were various; black-leading wae a favourite method, as it is to-day in America amongst the fine weather riders over the boulevards of the big cities — the riders who never require a gear-case or mud-guards ; the chain was" soaked in oil, in lard, and so on, and many other devices were tried, but nowadays the real work of taking care of the chain falls on the , gear-case, and those cases which contain an " oil-bath are much to be preferred. Of course the fine weather riders and the mere prome- ' naders do not need anything more tlhan a pretence at a gear-case, but many of the flimsy • things now made 'are of no service at all to tho ■ real rider. They shako loose, get crooked, fail to keep out the" dust or keep in the oil, and, in ' short, are mere travesties o£ ' the real thing, which takes all the care of the chain that that 'most important part of the cycle's anatomy ' requires.. Careful adjustment is, of course, very necessary; a too loose or a too tight chain is bound to cause trouble anyhow, and of course when the chain mounts the cogs, or, through being too tight, throws too great a strain on the frame and bearings, the results are certain to be more or tess disastrous. The chain, then, should be kept properly adjusted, which, in effect, means just short of tight. These few hin^s mil indicate what is needed for the care of the cycle when in use, but it ia well, also, to bear in mind that the beat cycle will rapidly deteriorate in appearance and in value when lying by if it be not properly •looked affer, and this remark applies in a greater or less degree to any length of time. After a ride, especially if the roads have been ' muddy or rain has fallen, all the bright work should be cleaned and gone over with an oily cloth, otherwise the polish will rapidly vanish for good, and great care is needed in remov- • ing mud from the enamel, which scratches if the adherent mud is removed too roughly ; in a dry state it is best washed off with a sponge, and it will be found useful to run the oily rag over the enamelled as well as over the plated parts of the machine. All nuts should be looked at and tested in tegular order, so that none may be missed, and this is the right time to. look for any fault, because should anything have broken during the . ride, there will be plenty of time to procure another fitting to replace it before the next ! time of riding. Very often, in articles giving j advice as to tours and the like, the writers will be found recommending a careful look over tho machine just before starting, which is an obvious absurdity unless repair and fitting shops _ are just round the corner. " . Another wise procedure is" to refill the lamp at once after any ride when it haß been used, because it is possible that a" hurried departure on fiome future occasion may cause the rider to find liimself 10 miles from anywhere with an oilless lamp. As regards the tyres, there is much divergence of opinion. lam myself a believer, when it is possible to do so, in slinging the machine, or turnurg it over on the handle-bars and saddle, removing the lamp, of course, and deflating the tyres, if it is not iikely to be used for some time. It must be an advantage to take the strain off them, and it seems to me likely to cause them to last longer. When machines are being laid by for weeks it is advisable to •remove the tyres altogether, and, whilst putting the machine itself in the driest place to bo found in the house — an attic, for example — the inner tubes and covers of the tyres may ,with advantage be put in a relatively damp 'place, as nothing so soon causes rubber to perish »b absolute dryness of the atmosphere. Before a machine is thus stored away the procedure recommended above for cleaning out the bearings Bhould be adopted, and the bear--higs fresfily oiled before the machine is stored away ; the oil should be removed in the same way before the machine is again taken into use. To sum up, the care of the cyle may be - put in this way : 'A machine with delicately adjusted parts- .must be kept delicately adjusted to do its work properly; proper adjustment insures that the work shall fall as it was intended hy the machine's designer it should fall, and this gives it the best chance of meeting the calculated strains, and at the same time proJongs its life as qn effective instrument. When -laid by, all the delicate parts should be projected from the action of the atmosphere by a coating of oil, and the tyres should be relieved of strain by being deflated. To some of the old hands all these precautions will appear absurd, but then the old Lands rode velocipedes of a type and construction which did not require the delicate handling and careful consideration which the modern cycle calls for. The earlier velocipede weighed 60lb, the modern safety -weighs 251b, and it reauires, at -any rate, proportionately careful candling.