Cycling And Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 67

Cycling And Motor Notes

BY DEMON.

A correspondent writes: —"On the 6th inst. Mr 11. Hutchinson, of Melbourne, mado a record by being the first motor cyclist to reach .Lako Manapouri. Mr Hutchinson rode a 3J, h.p. Triumph, and had a fine trip. Mr Hutchinson brought his motor cycle over from Melbourne and toured the South Island. He is highly pleased with our roads, especially the Main road from Invercargill to Christchurch. It seems a strange thing that motor cyclists have not made their way to Manapouri'era this, as the roads are quite good enough for any good car or motor cycle." According to the Canterbury Times, the Christchurch Cycling and Motor Club lias of late been literally brsiegod with requests from a large number of cyclists to promote n wheel race meeting under the new conditions now existing at Lancaster Park, whereby the old -asphalt path has been substituted by turf. Many new riders have recently entered the lists of the racing cyclists, and such a meeting as that suggested would doubtlefg be of considerable interest. The club, it is understood, some time ago lodged an application for the use of the park, but so far has received nothing definite from the park authorities as to any available dates. When this has been received it is probable the wish of wheel devotees will be at once gratified; or. failing the nark, it is probable another giound will be sought, in order to avoid the complete decadence of the wheel sport in Christchurch. Mr T. C. Ross purchased a 7-9 h.p. Clement Bayard runabout from the local agents. On November 14 J. R. Haswell, th© well-known private owner of a. 3£ h.p Triumph motor cycle, put up a splendid performance at Brooklands. A new silencer was fitted to his machine to comply with the new Brooklands regulations. He captured the four, five, and six-hou: records and 250 and 303 miles, the complete figures being:—Four hours, 209 miles 420 yards; five hours. 266 miles 584 yard.--; six hours, 321 miles 1060 vards; 250 miles, 4hr 42mii) 43 2-s*ee ; 300'miles. shr 38mm 56 2-ssec. Tli'se are world's records in classes C (500 c.c.i D (750 e.c), and E (1000 c.c). tralia's fastest track rider, is now on his way out from America to tuko part in the jVluUvrvurne snx-days' race, wind- if ■•• V held a' the Exhibition 8ui1d.:... .-,. F--l)>-u----arv. Clark's appearance on tin •■. ' ■■'■_'■] add considerable interest to the forthc< .-•■• in? Melbourne event

A party of motorists had a hair breadth escape from serious injury, or even death, while on a trip from Marysville (Victoria) to Stevenson's falk last month. The country is mountainous, and in oider to reach the falls a narrow winding road, cut out of the side of the hills, has to be traversed. An the falls are ap proached, the road, the outer edge of which U not protected, a.«cends a spur from which there is a precipitous descent, of more than sOoft into the valley below. There are many deep ruts and fruiters in the road, and in trying to avoid one of these the car skidded over the side of the precipice. Had it not been for a clump of trees which grew out of the mountain side about 7ft below the road, there is little doubt that the motorists and their car would h;ive rolled over and over to the bottom of the vallev. The occupants of the vehicle scrambled uo to the Toad again, and, having secured the assistance of a farmer and a team of five horses, the car was hauled back to the road little the worse for the mishap. Stevenson's Falls is one of the beauty sjK>ts of Victoria, and would be a favourite resort for motorist*! i- u rough h'iaU track, eo nurr<<*\ nut in rruTiv placet thi-ro \t not room for two ~-;.i !•■- to pi'ss. "tirl on account of th' latf rainr mid th.- heave holidav i rafti. i<

is just as bad as it can be. What is most needed, however, is a fence along the outer edge of the road. Drivers of vehicles often have to squeeze through within a few inches of the precipice, and as a matter of common safety the fence should bo built.

A new 24-hours' Australasian motor cycle record was established on Victorian roads last week by A. Richardson, who bettered P. O'Brien's recent performance by six miles. The new figures are 510 miles, and, considering the wretched weather conditions that, Riohardson had to contend with, tho new record is a creditable one, O'Brien will make an attempt at an early date to regain the record, and is confident that 600 miles oan bo covered on the Victorian Western District roads in the full day. The Australian car record for the day is 777 miles. Victoria has registered 3128 motor cars and 2244 motor cycles. The total amount collected in Victoria in licenses and registration fees during 1911 was £4455, or £1371 more than in 1910. We are in receipt of an interesting and artistic souvenir of tho past Australasian road racing season from the Dunloj> Rubber Company. The souvenir takes the form of a photographic folder with illustrations of the winners of the premier road race« of Australusia during 1911. Copies can be obtained gratis -through cyclo agents, or direct from the Dunlop Rubber Company (Wellington or Christchurch). Though a considerable arruount of petrol may be saved by aduing to tho engine of an old car -a modern form of carburetter, it is frequently possible to curtail the fuel consumption merely by careful driving. Even in the case o? two cars of the eunre make and power, similarly loaded, and run together over the same course, there may be a great difference in the petrol consumption, the extent of the diffcrenco being measured by the skill of the drivers. The car having the smaller fuel consumption will be tho car which WPS driven at that speed which previous experience showed to be its most economical rate of progress. For all cars there is some speed of maximum economy, and in general this ranges from 20 to 25 miles an hour. At higher speeds there is a considerable wind resistance, arid more petrol may l>e used in overcoming this than is required to propel the car at, say, 20 miles an hour Petrol can also be saved by taking full advantage of favourable gradients. A writer in an English paper says that he always "free wheele" down easy and well-known elopes. "'his practice, however, is not to be recommended on steep or unknown hills, as it deprives tho driver of tho braking power of the engine, which, on the lowest gear, i« sufficient to keep the speed of the car within hounds even on a bad hill. The .general opinion of the niru motor cyclists who scored full point* in tin-; -.--I'lir. motor cyclo reliability contr-H from :.., Melbourne was that the •;>ndition« for the rrial wi-rr too easy, hence i-h-erc was no individual wj tr.ter, the resiill ;-...;.., M.nt- tii, *-,.r.;>;..... ,v., i,.,i \ ~..-> -. v

*J v lit up amongst the nine successful contestants. In the ride under notice evidence of breakage was apparent in on© instance, and yet the machine received just as much kudos as those that came through without a flaw. The rider deserved every credit for bringing his mount through, but from a reliability point of view the machine was not justly entitled to full points. This is one point that should be provided for in iuttire tests.

-—-irancis Birtles, the well-known transcontinental cyclist, left Fremantle, Western Australia, on January 1 at 7.45 a.m., with the intention 'of endeavouring to regain his I'reinantle to Sydney Record, which F White reduced to 66 days 13hr 3min last May Birtles is confident that with decent weather conditions, ho can cover the 3077 miles in 30 days, equal to an average of 100 miles a day. Whilst on the ride across Australia from west to east, Birtles will also endeavour to reduce his own figures to Adelaide (1930 miles in 25 davs Bhr), and White's record of 31 days 13hr 40min for the 2509 miles to Melbourne. Birtles arrived at Coolgardio (397 miles) on January 4 ahead of record.

■ A serious accident happened tho other day at Thetford, Norfolk, to a party motoring from Yarmouth to London. The car collided with a telegraph post, and turned a complete somersault, One of the hve occupants was flung into a tree, from a bough of which he hung suspended by his clothes until rescued by a motor cyclist A second was thrown into a field, while another was pinned down under the motor car, and sustained a broken leg and collarbone, but one escaped entirely uninjured. -T~ Scientists are now hopeful of producing artificial rubber. At present tho cost is too high, but Professor Ira Itemsen, of the Hopkins University, U.S.A., declares lie is safe in predicting that before many, years arc passed, rubber will be artificially prepared in quantities sufficient to supply the great and increasing demand for it. Whether tho rubber thus obtained will be suable for automobile work is another big problem to be solved, and we must not overlook the fact that, with tho rubber-planting industry now carried out on scientific lines in* many parts of tho world, a powerful competition can be set up during the next few years by those interested in the production of natural rubber. Therefoie unless the wholo process of artificial rubber-making can be brought down to a sound commercial basis, it can make little headway against its rival: and motor tyro manufacturers and motorists generally will bo chary about using an unknown article in preference to a well-tried m iterial.

GROWTH OF TRADE IN MOTOR CARS.

With the rocentr reduction in the prico of tyres (says a London Paper) motorists will not grumble, as it has reduced their annual expenditure ami cost of the pastime. During the recent pleasure exhibition at Olympia tho motor agents held their annual dinner. At that function Mr J. D. Siddely stated that for the year 1910-11 there were 75,617 pleasure cars and 48,857 motor cycles that paid excise license fees, which proved that in great Britain there wore more motors used than in any other country except tho United States of America. The great number of cars and chassis imported into the country during that period was 9916 (after deducting those re-exported), of a value of £2,772,265, while for 1911, or, rather, ten months of it, the value of the imports was £2,523,733. Ifc could therefore be expected that the valuo of the imports would bo somewhere about £3,000,000. As regards the United Kingdom, Mr Siddeley stated that 28,000 newcars were registered during the year 191011, of which nearly 10,000 were of foreign manufacture, thus leaving a net sale of slightly over 18,000 new cars of British manufacture, as it would be fair to assuma that in every case a car registered would mean a new car put into service.

In 1910 4119 British cars wore exported, of the value of £1,590,422, so that, assuming Mr Siddeley'e figures of 18,000 Britishbuilt cars sold is correct, the total sales of the British motor industry for 1910-11, were, roughly, 23,000 pleasure cars. But besides these there are in use 10,500 motor cabs and 4200 motor omnibuses running on the roads at present, including those of British as well as foreign manufacture, of which London alone accounts for 7300 toxicals and 1600 motor omnibuses. Leaving out the motor omnibuses' as altogether distinct from the type of pleasure vehicle, which is not the case as regards the taxicab chassis, the motor makers did not exceed 25,000 car chassis as their total output for 1910. Mr Siddeley expected that at least 30,000 cars would bo sold during 1911 to users in Great Britain. This in value should amount approximately to £8,000,000 for British cars alone, and to this amount has to be added the- value of British cars exported, amounting to over £2,000,000, and the foreign cars imported, about £3,000.000, so making a grand total turnover of the motor trado of tho mother land of £13,000,000 in pleasure cars alone. NEW CYCLING RECORD. SYDNEY, January 9. A. H. Shepherd cycled a mile, paced by a motor, in lmin 20sec, beating the previous record by 3sec.