CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 3278, 10 January 1917, Page 44

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES

li¥ DEMON

Tiie premier long-distance cycle event of America, tile New York six days' race at Madison square track, was decided last month. Four Australian cracks in Goulett, Grenda, M'Kamara, and Spears were amongst the contestants, and half way through the race Goulett and Grenda wore leading with evidently a lap to the good. For several years past, Australian riders have figured amongst the winning teams, and it again looks as if they will be well to tho front in the 1916 event. Just before Constanza (Rumania) fell into the hands of the Germans IuO,OOO tone of petrol were stored there. This did not fall into the hands of the enemy, for Russian sailors burnt it. ——German opinion of tho intrepidity of British aviators is contained in a recent issue of the Neucete Nuchrichten, of Kiel, in tho form of a description of the Allies' air service, by a Rhinelandor. "The gigan tie number of enemy aviators,'' states the paper mentioned, ''exceeded anything seen or experienced in this war. By 3.30 a.m. they were already flying, and they cruised with the greatest coolness in the midst of our lire. They fly so low that we can inako out the smallest details with the naked eye. Their aviators cany out peacetime maneeiyrcs, and are indifferent to all dangers. They even shoot at us in our holes and trenches with machine guns, and when they want \o find our bomb-proofs they come down still lower until actually within pistol-shot. Many of them have been shot down, and when their photographs have been developed we have been

able to distinguish the entrances to our shelters. Their artillery has much to thank them for. As a rule young English lads of from 18 to 20 years of age—quite little fellows—sit in the French machines. When they threw down that wreath for poor lmmclmann they did it right over one of our batteries. Then they were off again; and live minutes later that battery was under such fire that it had to chance position mighty quick. They arc frightfully cheeky, these aviators, and as ih'~y usually fly six together it maker; no differenco if one or the other is lost." The carelessness of cyclists as regards keeping their chains adjusted is often noticed"! In quite a large proportion of cases the chain saps to a very great extent, indicating that the tension needs adjustment. In the old days of the block chain and fixed gears such a condition of affairs inevitably resulted in the chain riding the cogs, and coming off. frequently doing serious damage. There is much less likelihood of this occurring in the case of the modern chain and free wheel, but are limits. Experiments in England, brought about by the limitation of petrol to motorists, have proved that it is possible; to obtain at least 85 per cent, of tiro maximum

power of a petrol motor car engine by tiio use of ordinary coal fuel, also that io affords cheaper power than petrol. The means adopted for lubricating motorcycle engines nowadays range from the very simple and direct hand-manipu-lated force pump to the more complicated and advanced mechanical lubricator with which a comparatively few machines are equipped. Intermediate between these two extremes there are various forms of auto matic oil-feeding devices of the drip pattern, supplemented in most cases by a hand pump, by means of which the rate of feed can be instantly accelerated at will. It is for the individual owner and driver of a motor cycle to say which of these ho prefers, and a good case can be made out for both. To begin with, the—as soma like to term it—"old-fashioned" hand forcepump has tin merit of extreme simplicity and cheapness, and nothing more than ordinary care is required to ensure the, engine getting all the lubrication that it needs, whilst the driver sit least has at disposal a means of knowing that, all is well, even though no visible means exists to show that the oil is actually passing through to the crank-case. A drip-feed cannot be seen at night, and in such oireumstanoes one has to trust, in a Bensc, to luck in tho bopo that tho cngmo is

receiving the oil that it requires. A drip feed lubricator of the automatic kind, with hand plunger in addition, has boon found very satisfactory, and it hae the advantage over the more simple arrangement that it feeds continuously and by decrees instead of spasmodically and in bulk, so that the engine may be netting' a surplus ai one moment and a shortage a little later. The mechanical lubricator, if designed on correct lines and carefully made, is to bo regarded as the most approved type of lubricating apparatus for motor-cycle engines, in spite of the fact, that it is morn complicated and expensive to fit than either of the otht-.r kinds. It takes the care_ of the oiling out of the hands of the driver entirely. It suffers from the same drawback as the automatic drip-feed arrangement—namely, that it affords no guide other than the usual one that the oil is going through, and in the event of the pipe getting stopped or the supply of oil running out the driver might, when riding in the dark, go on in happy ignorance of tho fact until his engine seized.

The very latest fitment for commercial motor vehicles is the rccordograph. The instruments records the time the car is started, trip mileage, the time each trip is started and finished, the number of stops, the duration and exact time of each stop, the speed of travel at any time of day, and the total day's miloago. The instrument is a clock arrangement with a tape marked off into 36 hours of five-minute periods, and each hour marked "0." The instrument is driven from one of the front wheels very much aft' r the manner of tho speedometer on a motor cycle. Tho lack of uniformity in the case of the cars used at the front, more especially I he heavy traction vehicle.-, has proved (say.- Motor News, England) a great handicap, and has caused much trouble as regards spares and replacements, du<> to the fact that it is necessary to lay in r stock of spares for every individual make. The authorities are now considering the nuestion of getting out official designs for the assembling of vehicles, so that the provision of spares will he vastly simplified. If this is dee'ded on nartfi of tiie different makes of vehicles will he interchangeable, even nlihomrh they hive been constructed in different factories. Ir is in this way that tho American trade lias been developed, the important compom nt parts of motor cars lining, as a rule, purchased from firms who have specialised in producing different components. The time vine for the British industry to consider this aspect of the question, for a vast amount of data lias been trained as the result of the war. The vehicles have been put through ordeals which they would not otherwise have been exposed to. The fact, also, that already rival firms are in some cases building parts of one another's cars, or even tho comp'eto cars, should serve as the thin end of tho wedge. "Dazzling lichis were the cause of an interesting case in the Timaru Magistrate's Court f Jio other day. A constable gave evidence that ho saw tho defendant, who

pleaded not guilty, driving a cur along Stafford street towards George street. The lights were, according to the evidence, sufficiently dazzling to interfere with approaching traffic. The counsel for the defendant stated the section required that there must be approaching traffic. The constable giving evidence had previously stated that there was no approaching traffic, and that defendant was on his right side. Tho counsel for tho defendant continued that the prosecution would have to show that the •would affect tho vision of approaching drivers of vehicles. Tho lights in question, ho said, did not throw a light across the road but a narrow beam straight ahead, so that approaching vehicles on tho right side of the road would not be affected. The defendant stated that the council's own small omnibus had lights of exactly tho same size. Another witness deposed that the lights were perfectly rcasomiole. The magistrate dismissed the case. The following excerpt from a letter from one of our motor cycle despatch riders will give an idea of the conditions under which they are serving. Corporal 11. G. Broadbent writes from France under date October 27 as follows: —"We had a great trip down here from our last position, over 100 miles by the way we travelled, and arc now settling down on a bit more active part of the front. T';c surrounding country is just one mass of shell holes—made by our guns a few weeks ago. Our sleeping quarters are in a well-made German dugout; it is not bad. Motor cycling is impossible in parts here. It is no pleasure to be moving about; tho mud is something awful. It is nothing to go along on what seems a smooth road and to drop through the slush into a shell hole. I have given my cngine a couple of nasty bumps in this way. You can imagine what the _ mud is like when I tell you that the machine gets clogged up so much that the engine 'knocks' when in low gear —13g to 1 ratio. Of course, it is time to get off then and dig the mud away. I was at one place where the slush and mud was so thick that I merely had to lean tho machine slightly, when it would hold up without putting down the stand. When ready to go I had to got a couple of the boys to help mo out with it."

The owner-driver who attends to his car. making minor adjustments, supervising lubrication, and cleaning certain parts, will assuredly soil his hands, when recourse is usually made to the petrol-pine and a piece of waste. But petrol, apart from it? being more or less dangerous, .is not the best agent to employ for the removal of grease and' grimo from the skin, as it evaporates too rapidly, leaving grains of dirt seemingly more deeply embedded in the pores. Thin lubricating oil will be found far more efficacious, or. if that is lacking, a heavy lubricant, thinned with a little petrol, will answer equally as well. The oil will loosen the srimc as the hands are manipulated, us in washing them, when they can be wiped fairly clean in the absence of soap and water. Kerosene is worse to use than petrol, as it ingrains the dirt. With thin oil, soap, and Warm water the hands will easily become clean, and the skin left delightfully soft and pliable, without a trace of soreness or irritation.

That speed grows upon one —that he becomes more or less accustomed to fast travelling—may, in a general sense, be admitted, though much depends on the individual. Middle-aged and more elderly people, are far more easily satisfied in the matter of pace than are thosn between, say, 20 and 40 years of age. There are many elderly men who would take up motor cycling but for the idea that unless tho machine is travelliiipr at about 20 miles per it is not being fairly driven, and that it will overheat. They rcallv do not desire to travel nearlv so fast; what they would

liko in tho machine is that it will run slowly and easilj at 10 or 12 miles per hour on top gcuV—a machine that will embody easy starting, reliability, economy, comfort, silence-, and safety. The younger generation have numerous machines _ from which to choose, but what they like is not what the older people want. The average motor cycle will easily reach a speed of 40 miles per hour, which is more than double the pace to which the elderly rider aspires.