Cycling and Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 60

Cycling and Motor Notes

by demon

The following letter, under date May 20, was forwarded by R. Ginsberg to the Otago Motor Club:—“At present I am in camp with the Territorials at Oamaru, and am acting as despatch rider for the camp, and I thought it may be advisable for the members of the O.M.C. to know the state of the roads. Between Dunedin and Palmerston they are very bad, also Kartigi Beach has just been metalled, and is also in a bad state. Last Wednesday I was ordered to Duntroon, on the Kurow route. 36 miles from Oamaru, and it is' a shame to put a motor over the road, especially between Georgetown and Duntroon, and I advise any motorist who must go that route to have a good set of tyres. Hoping the above information should be of some use to the members of the club.” An invention has lately been patented in connection with motor cars whereby the tractive power is removed from the rear wheels to the front wheels, thus changing

It is claimed that this method gives an increased efficiency of 50 per cent. In the case of heavy vehicles, such as motor buses and lorries, all the wheels are made trac tive, while the rear wheels may also be used for steering, thus allowing- for manoeuvrinp' in a limited space. The power is derived from a petrol engine coupled to an electric generator, which transmits current to motors of special construction attached to each wheel —not axle. These motors cause tne wheels to rotate and move the car. In the experiments lately carried out a commercial truck, with a load of 10,5C01b on_ the roar wheels and 45001 b on the tractive front wheels, climbed a gradient of 1 in 7 at a speed of four miles an hour, and was stopped and again on the steepest part of the course. Some interesting comparisons between the conditions of the present war and those of • the Napoleonic campaigns are made in the official organ of the British Acetylene Association. There is exhibited at Malmaison, near Paris, a travelling desk that Napoleon always carried with him in the field. Part of the equipment is a small reflector candlestick, in which still remains the unused portion of a tallow candle just as Napoleon left it; its dim light served as an illuminant for his desnatch-writing. To-day thousands of acetylene apparatus are being sent to the front to bo_ utilised* in various ways—with lamps in innumerable tents, with headlights on transport vehicles, with searchlights to guard against surprise attacks by night, with cooking ranges on kitchen ca’rs (where the gas is supplied from a portable apparatus on the footboard), and,< moreover, for surgical operations. There is a likelihood of an adavnee in the price of bicycles and bicycle parts in

England, which will later on probably be in tins country. The reason tor the suggested increase is that owing to an all-round advance in cost of production, the existing prices—the result of keen competition in prosperous times—do not leave a profitable margin for the manufacturers,. A further reason is that a mild boom in bicycles has set in throughout England since the war started, coupled with the fact that many of the leading factories devoted to the production of bicycles and accessories are now being employed in Government work. It is anticipated that the increase will be in the region of .about 10 per cent. Next to cycling the cheapest means of speedy locomotion is motor cycling. Few people realise how cheaply a motor cycle can be run. On a medium-powered machine the cost of maintenance for tyres, oil, petrol, boles, etc., runs into only three or four shillings for every 100 miles travelled. Even when a sidecar is fitted and an extra passenger carried 100 miles —about an average week’s motoring—can be covered at an expense of about 6s weekly. The comfort of one of these natty, up-to-date little equipments is a revelation, and far superior to many a small car, which at the least costs ibout four times as much fo run. The two vital factors in motor cycling are the low running cost and small depreciation, added to which one has the pleasure of travelling wherever one wishes at a speed far in. advance of the average motor car. All motorists have at times felt a certain amount of uneasiness when driving at night right towards an approaching car with dazzling deadlights The best thing to do under these circumstances is always to check one’s pace and sedulously avoid gaziug at the approaching light. Instead, keep one's eyes fixed on the left-hand kerb, fence, or road-edge. Leave the onus on the other driver of avoiding your car, remembering that your own lamps will guide him, and that Ho is no more anxious to have a collision than you are. Another wise precaution is to make sure whilst the other car is yet distant that the intervening roadspace is unoccupied, and that there is no danger/ of overtaking and colliding with "nothf'r vehicle proceeding m the same direction, when the glare from the approaching headlights temporarily dazzles one. Now that the motor-carried machine guns are playing such an important part in the European war, it is interesting to note that the first motor Maxim gun was used' in 1889. It was introduced by Major Lisle, then commanding the Middlesex Cyclists’ Corps. The gun was mounted on a li°‘ht carriage fitted with tyred wimels, and was drawn by a 2£- h.p. De Dion tricycle. HORIZONTALLY OPPOSED TWINCYLINDER ENGINES. When the horizontally opposed twincylinder tvpe of motor cycle engine made its debut in the modern form there were many who criticised its design and foreshadowed , its speedy demise. The critics, as_ events have proved, were entirely wrong in their predictions, and at the present time machines equipped with engines built on the horizon-

tally opposed principle are among the most efficient and popular on the road. It is no secret that the near future has in store some interesting developments based on this type of construction, Lino of the chief advantages of the horizontal twin is the entire absence of engine vibration. This is noticeable at all speeds, and it adds very greatly to the comfort of the rider. It is also good for the structural portions of the machine itself, for engine vibration where it exists is communicated to the frame and other parts, and has a marked effect upon their condition after a period of service. The ease of starting which characterises the engine, due to its even firing and perfect balancing, is a point, the importance of which cannot be well overrated, and to many it represents the principal charm of the type and the one which acts as the decisive factor in the choice of the machine. Those who have never tried a horizontally opposed twin probably do not realise its advantages as fully as it deserves, although from observations of the doings of others they can hardly fail to recognise the possibilities of the type. An impression existed at one time that it was difficult, if not impossible, to build a motor cycle of this class with its engine so arranged that the cylinders can be removed without taking the engine as a whole out of the frame. This drawback, for so it is undoubtedly regarded by the majority, is by no means a necessary or indispensable feature of the construction. It can be avoided without unduly lengthening the wheel base, and as now designed machines of the horizontally engined pattern are free altogether from anj 7 need for dismounting the engine when desiring to take down the cylinders. Successful efforts have at the same time been made to render it a quite simple task to remove the engine from the frame cn bloc when such a step is required. This class of 'machine to which we are referring is perhaps the most steady of any on greasy road surfaces. This is partly duo to the even running of the engine, and partly to the excellent possibilities which exist in respect of weight distribution. Altogether there should be a promising future for the horizontally opposed machine, not only in its four-etroke form, but as a twostroke as well.

IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF RUBBER IN GERMANY?

Ever sncc- the early days of the war we have heard various stories as to the scarcity of rubber, petrol, and copper in Germany — ; stories that have been verified by the accounts of some who should be in a position to know the facts, and denied by others who were presumably as well informed. The recently-published French official Review, however, lends credence to the statements as to the dearth of various necessary commodities in the enemy’s country. We know that the Germans must certainly be suffering- from want of rubber, for, however well stocked the country may have been in the pre-war days, no supplies are being produced to make good the inevitable wastage. Many of the military tractors and motor cars are shod with solid rubber tyres, and a shortage of rubber ie going to have an effect on the condition of the enemy. An American official of high rank recently stated- in the press: ‘‘There wore scarcely any motor cars in Berlin when I left the city (December last), and the sale of rubber has been prohibited in every fern.”

THE NEGLECT OF THE MOTOR CYCLE.

The motor cycle has been termed “ the most long suffering' of mechanical contrivances,” and in our view the description is a particularly apt one. Tho condition into which many motor cyclists allow their machines to lapse brings with it the certainty, sooner or later, of needless monetary expenditure, and in addition the possible failure on the road of some important part. In extreme cases this possibility is magnified into one involving absolute danger to the rider ana the destruction of the machine. This is a strong view, perhaps, but it represents what is undoubtedly a fact beyond dispute.

A motor cycle is a piece of intricate machinery judged by tho number and diversity of the parte comprised in its make-up, but because of its reliability and faithfulness of service the average user is prone to lose sight of this fact. The state of neglect displayed by some comparatively new machines is bound to react, not only upon efficiency in a general sense, but also directly upon the owner’s interests, which may be reflected in higher cost of maintenance. a lower standard of performance, and, last, but not least, a reduction in the selling value of the machine should it come upon the second-hand market. It may be that in certain cases the users have not the time to devote as much attention to the machine as the "ircumstancos demand. but comparatively few arc so driven that they cannot see their way to make whatever adjustments are urgently needed or to get repairs clone which have become necessary as the outcome of ordinary and legitimate use. Yet every day one comes anoss motor cycles ridden in a more cr less faulty state, and oftentimes seriously, out of condition owing to systematic neglect and tho putting off of adjustments which directly affect the efficient working of the machine. We have seen cylinders wffh every compression joint leaking and on which the holding down nuts were insecurely fastened, brake mechanism either broken or requiring adjustment, wheel bearings loose, petrol union leaking, chains lying slack or requiring lubrication, ami other defects. If not all on tho same machine these faults wore observable in one degree or another on several different combinations. The wonder is that motor cycles "ill work at all under such circumstances, but that they do so and with tolerable satisfaction reflects credit on the makers without in the least degree mitigating the blame attributable to the owner.