Cycling & Motor Notes

Otago Witness, Issue 3467, 24 August 1920, Page 42

Cycling & Motor Notes

By DEMON.

——During the year ending June £0 there were registered in Victoria nearly 12 OQO motor cycles, which shows an increase of upwards . t 1500 in the figures for the year previous. In the above figures are included side-car combinations, of -which no separate tally is kept. The increase in the numbers of this type of motor vehicle, especially during the past two or three years, must have been very considerable, though it will likely have steadied since the operation of the new duties, which, together with the adverse rate of exchange, and increase in cost of f\iel, oil, .tyres, etc., have rendered the purchase, and then the operation of such a machine,! a problem in finance with many motor cyclists. An entirely new standard has been introduced in England for motor tyres' and rims _ although it was only in 1915 that certain standards were agreed to and adopted; hence, there seems to be little reason why. a change .should be made. The organisation responsible for instituting the new sizes is the British Rubber Tyre Manufacturers' 'Association, while the tyre section of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which should have been consulted, was not approached in the matter. Not only have the present standards been superseded, but three entirely new rims, for which no" tyres are at present on the market, have been introduced. • The tyre and rim sizes now available meet the needs of every class of vehicle, and according to the Light Car (London), "there surely can be no sane reason for upsetting the present standards and introducing entirely new sizes. So. far as we can foresee, greater confusion than at present exists is bound to follow, and no useful purpose can possibly be served by such juggling." It is understood, however, that the British Engineering Standards Association has approved of these standards direct with the 8.R.T.M.A., and, consequently,. English and Continental tyre manufacturers' who are not members of this new' body have had no opportunity of expressing their views.

—' — A generator requires a drop of light oil at each end of the armature shaft frequently. Care must be exercised not to over-lubricate the shaft, as oil may work its way through, and cause the generator windings to become, short-circuited. ' The oil loads to the shaft bearings have caps which automatically close to prevent dirt from entering and lodging on .the main bearings of the armature shaft, so it_ is best to note that these are 'in working order.

driving chains properly without taking them off. They should be scrubbed in paraffin or petrol until all the foreign matter is removed. To clean them thoroughly they should be boiled, in order tc- remove the dirt from the various bearings. When thoroughly cleaned and dried, they should be boiled in a mixture of tallow and graphite. When this is done and the chains are allowed to dry, each small bearing, in the chain should receive a coating of lubricant. After replacing the chains it is sometimes advisable to put on an additional graphite compound in order to reduce the noise of the chains working on the sprockets. ——Mr H, 'G. Hawker,, the famous Australian airman-motorist, who had a narrow escape from' death when trying to fly from Newfoundland to England, and was picked out of the sea by a passing vessel, had another miraculous escape last June. He was riding the new 400 h.p. 12-cylinder Sunbeam on the Brooklands track when it crashed into an iron fence through the bursting of a tyre. The car, leaving the track, passed through the fence, tearing a large gap. 'Luckily Mr Hawker, who was alone in the car, escaped uninjured. Tyre diameter is the most frequent of the causes of lack of accuracy in the mileage-hour reading of the speedometer, and speedometer-makers cannot be blamed for this. A tyre too big will give a mileage and speed less than, that travelled'. A slack tyre —an under-inflated tyre—will give a speed and mileage greater than that actually attained and covered. -It would really seem that flying as a popular pastime and method of transport may yet be brought within the reach of the private motorist of ordinary means. Aeroplanes, we know, can be produced at comparatively low prices; the £250 aeroplane has several times teen mooted in the English press, and it might be imagined that in the course of the next year or two a really practical machine could be' put on the market at a figure of less than £SOO. Chi© would have expected, however, that the running and maintenance expenses of an aeroplane would have been excessively high, yet recently a Green-engined 'plane flow from London, to Turin, a distance of 650 miles, on 20 gallons of petrol. This works out to the extraordinary figure of miles to the gallon, which is much better than the 15 to 25 miles a gallon run by ttho average passenger motor car. The carburetter used was an ordinary standard car type Zenith. ■* Tho result of the English Tourist Trophy Senior SMotor Cycle Contest —when the first four places were filled by singlecylinder machines over A T ery _ hilly and strenuous course —again emphasises ■ the > remarkable efficiency of this type of engine. For absence of trouble and adjustment the simplicity of the "single" has much to recommend it, and no- doubt its success in England's blue riband motor cycle speed event will do much to enhance the popularity of this type of machine. In addition to its advantages of simplicitv there is the question of economical running, an important matter in these days of high prices of fuel, etc.