Cycling and Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3016, 3 January 1912, Page 59

Cycling and Motor Notes

BY DEMON.

Amongst the band of riders now in Sj'dney, Ivor Lawson is the oldest of the active ones. Lawson says he is 32. lie i ■weighs about 11.7 in condition. As is generally known, he was bora in Salt Lake | City, and has been a keen rival of Major | Taylor and Frank Kramer right through his racing career. He claims to have beaten Major Taylor 18 times put of 20; and, while Kramer has secured the American national championship for the eleventh year, he has not yet won. the world’s championship, which Lawson secured in 1904, beating Ellegaard and all the best riders in Europe. After all, the motor cycle is a won- | derful little machine. It has attained a 1 speed equal to 90 m.p.h., and haa covered j over 80 miles in one hour. Machines with 1 engines rated at 3i to 4 h.p. have been ■

driven nearly 200 miles straightaway over a hilly road at an average speed of close on 60 in.p.h. A single-cylinder machine, put to a test, compassed over 63 miles in 60min, while a 13-h.p. engine lias driven a light-weight machine at a speed equal to 68 m.p.h. Touring models axe a.xo very rehab.'o. In tours upwards of 25C0 miles have been covered in six consecutive days.

——As is fairly well known, the Automobile Association of Great Britain employs scouts on the highways to warn members of traps laid by the police to catch the motorist when exceeding the legal speed limit. It is now foreshadowed that the scout business must come to an end soon,” and the reasons proffered are that ‘‘the motor trap instinct is not an English one, and is, happily, a decaying branch of police activity.

, , -^ n inspection of 25 experimental trial .engths of roadway, composed of certain materials, recently took place near London*, when upwards of 70 interested gentlemen attended. Many of t-h© substances used were obvious failures; others were distinctly slippery The most interesting general observation, from the motorists’ standpoint, was that studded tires left but the merest traces of their passage, whereas, on the same material, relatively deep and permanent indentations of horseshoes were frequent, and admittedly more serious in their effects.

A. J. Clark, the Australasian track champion, has, with Fogler (U.S.A.) as a team mate, carried off another six-days’ race in America. The distance covered by the winning team was 2718 miles. Clark’s engagement in the event under notice accounts for the absence of his nomination from the list of starters in the Sydney six-days’ race.

| It is reported that the braking fysi tem as applied to front oar-wheels has not j fully justified the efforts made to install it, j an< l one or two concerns have decided to : abandon fitting such brakes, because they find that the average man does not in practice get that neatners of adjustment which enables him to obtain good braking effect without the risk of locking the wheels, and thus depriving himself of the power to steer. Other manufacturers, of course, may have had more satisfactory results, hut it is certain that yndors of e:;rs with frontwheel brakes will have fo bear a deal of close questioning regarding their efficiency and general reliability. the engines wore placed in the rear, but tho necessity for frequent access to the motor, to its ignition gear, to its carburetter, and i to its valves lias ensured the placing of the engine in the front of the car, where it j can bo quickly and most easily reached with the minimum of disturbance to the main portions of the vehicle. And this fashion in the podtion cf the engine ia I likely fo die very hard, so accustomed have Iwe become to it. Isolated attempts at change have been made, with very little, if arty, success. Dick Arnst is not to ride in the six days’ race after all (says a Sydney paper). He put in a week or so training, to the amusement of the other riders, and, on M‘Nninara. tho New South Wales champion, refusing to team with him in tho six days’ event, Arnst knocked off hia training on the bicycle, and has not been near the track since. Good judges who saw tho champion sculler during his few days’ training on the Sports , Ground declare that it would have taken him three months to get into condition for cyclo racing. No wonder M'Namara declined to team with him. Arnst has put on such a lot of weight during his five > yea.ro’ absence from the .cycle track that his days as a racing cyclist are probably over. There is. however, no telling what such a plucky athlete as Arnst might do if he properly made up his mind to come into tho sport again. Nearly a quarter of a million people visited tho recent Olympia Motor Show held in London. There is no doubt that the anti-motorist feeling is dying out A decade ago everyone out a few enthusiasts wore up in arms against the motor, which was declared on all side© to bo a nuisance and a danger to tho public, and a fad that would soon die out. To-day it lias become a necessity in out commercial and social world, besides having grown into one of the world’s biggest industries, giving employment to hundreds of thousands of hands. There are now 7000 taxi cabs on tho London streets. An English writer predicts that the present up-to-date comfortable and almost noiseless motor ’buses running in London will seriously affect tho earnings of many of the taxi companies during 1912. During the recent taxi cab strike in London, many people ■who wero frequent users of taxi cabs were compelled to use the motor ’bus services, with the result that they will for tho future bo satisfied with the cheapness of this eervic® now that they have realised how fast and comfortable this class of vehicle is. It ts said that the popularity of the taxi cab m London received a big set back during tho recent London strike, and it will suffer tn popularity for a long time to come. Tho question of what motor tyres are in favour is an important one with motorists. It will therefore interest them to learn that at the recent London Olympia motor show, the leading exhibition of its kind in the world, the Dunlop tyre waa far and awav the most prominent amongst exhibitors, 1269 of this British-made article • being shown, as against 1241 made tip of all the other makes of tyres grouped together. ... There is keen competition annually amongst many English cycling enthusiasts as to who rides the greatest distance on the road during the year. The record last year was 25.376 miles, by H. Ixmg; but these figures have been easily eclipsed this t-ear by two riders, M. Planes and Wells, and > they still had six weeks to complete tho year’s total when the English mail left. M. . Planes, who was m the lead, established a remarkable performance up to 15th November, having since the beginning of the year ridden 100 miles no lees than 288 times, and, barring accidents, he anticipated covering 33.100 miles by the 31st December. This total would beat. E. Hale’s world’s record of 32.479 males bv 600 odd miles. Plane’s scries of rides —which have been properly checked —have been accomplished on a six years* old raebino, which, with full equipment* weighs 451 b. Tho cost of the ride has worked out at about a shilling per 100 miles. , 1 A very fine long-distance motor cycle track record was established on Brook land* tracks (England) last month by W, 6. Spencer. Mounted on a 3g h.p. machine, Spencer covered 150 miles in 2hr 38min 1 3-ssec, 200 miles in 3hr 23mjn 51 3-6*eo, and 171 miles 1674yds in 3hr —three very fine records considering the engine power.

WATER IN PETROL. A reader tolls a Sydney exchange of a calamity which befel him recently. Knowing 'b,e was short of petrol, he drew up at a country repairer’s for refreshment, and took in lO gallons. Having paid his bill, bo proceeded on. hie way, but not far. Suddenly the engine “coughed nervously,” as Oui? informant puts it, and then struck wdrk. After going through the usual round of Investigation, his suspicions were directed to the petrol 'he had been supplied with. Drawing off a quantity into a tin, he discovered that, by grave mischance, the repairer had given him a mixture of water ana petrol. To those who have not as yet had to cleanse a petrol tank of water, we |hay explain that it was a matter of hours before our friend remedied the evil wrought dn him. By way of adding insult to injury, the repairer stoutly denied and challenged proof of the charge against him. How any motor agent could supply water in mistake for petrol might as first sight seem incomprehensible. Yet anyone cognisant with the way garage hands use oil and petrol cans for carrying water in is able |o surmise how mistakes are made. In a x country garage wo once noticed a youth re planishing a radiator with water per njeqium of a petrol tin, which, if left half jjill, might be supposed by the unsuspecting to contain the “real Mackay.” The only fray to avoid being victimised is to insist on being supplied from cans with unbroken seals. MOTOR CAR CONSTRUCTION. CHANGES IN MECHANISM. There is nothing more remarkable in the history of the development of the autovehicle than the change of view which has been forced upon the motor manufacturer and dealer in regard to many detail parts of the mechanism. The writer can distinctly remember the time when tube ignition was considered practical and sensible, and electric ignition considered visionary and hopeless, Within a year or two no car was built arranged for tube ignition. Then came the struggle between accumulator and coil on the one hand and magneto on the other, a struggle of which the final result is not yet fully visible. In view of the tendency to use electric lamps, the presence of accumulators on the car may continue, and be a stand-by in case of failure of the jnagnoto. But the magneto has unloubtedly forced its way to the front. Again, the automatic governor has disappeared, and the. throttle control, once only known on a certain French car, has become universal. Later, how keen was I’fio fight between the conservative supporter ■of the automatic inlet valve action, which has now become almost non-existent the Jneohanlcal 1 y-oonsfernoted■ valve being practically universal. The struggle between nhain-drive land live axle-drive is not deeded 1 n favour of either. It may be that die ' chain will survive for many classes of Vehicles, though tho live axle may super'eqe it for all light, and pleasure vehicles; ->>ut the chain, if banished from the wheels, b finding its way into tho gear box.- Then here is still a contest between bevel-drive

and : worm-drive, although worm-drive is finding many votaries. The wire wheel was for many years the pet of one skilled engineer, but found little favour. Now it is becoming more common every day, and has been found highly efficient at a size of no less than 4ft 6in diameter in an omnibus that has undergone severe official tests in London. Lastly, comes the change from tho poppet valve to the sleeve valve. Long dissertations were written to prove that it would not be, and could aot be, a rival to the poppet; yet firm after firm in Europe and America have adopted it after observation and experiment, adopting it to the suppression of tho valve system altogether. The progress and advancement made in automobile construction during recent years has been such that it would be a rash effort to try and forecast what the motor car of 10 years hence will be like. SIX DAYS’ RACE. SYDNEY, January 1. Fourteen teams have started in a six days’ cycling race on the Cricket Ground. The competitors include D. Ei Scott, of New Zealand, whose team, mate is Brookes, of South Australia. Scott and Brookes dropped out of the six-days’ race after covering over 300 miles. The others) are going strongly ami evenly. January 1. The mile championship of New ' South Wales was won by Spears, with Mutton oeoond and Hagney third. Won by a length. Time, 2min 24 2-ssoo. MOTOR RELIABILITY RACE. , SYDNEY, December 26. (Received Dec. 27, at 0.25 a.m.) Twenty-ono competitors have started in tho Sydney to Melbourne motor reliability race. ayiatoFnqtes. Lieutenant Ross, of the Italian navy, and an expert aviator, demonstrated during the recent hostilities in Tripoli the practical utility of the aeroplane in actual warfare by dropping bombs upon the enemy from the upper regions. Quito a sensation was caused amongst the Turks and Arabs by explosion of the aerial bombs. This is the first occasion the aeroplane has been used for dropping explosives in actual warfare. LONDON, December 31. The War Office is considering Arthur Wigram’s Australian aerial torpedo, and also an Indian engineer’s invention for preserving the equilibrium of aeroplanes.