CYLCING AND MOTORING NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 102, 20 June 1911, Page 2

CYLCING AND MOTORING NOTES.

The Australian premier road event, tiic Dunlop road race from Warrnamiool to Melbourne (IGb miles) will be field on Saturday, October \ 14th, the League of Victorian Wheelmen having granted patronage to the Dunlop Jompany for that date. Already arrangements are in band for the holding of the usual interstate test races, amongst which will he the TimaruChristclmrch, Goulburn-Sydney, Bev-orley-Ponh, Hobart-Launceston, easily the most important group of road events hold in Australasia. The prize list and conditions for the “Warrnamoool” will be issued at an early date. An important (New. South Wales read fixture—the Bathurst to Syclnc.\ road race—will this . year bo held or September |j!nd,, but under differen. uui more severe conditions than hay applied to the previous contests bet over this course. The first prize fo the forthcoming race is being snh scribed, in Bathurst, and naturall,. die residents of that town have askec that the event be held this year ii the opposite direction, finishing a Bathurst. This the League of Ne\ S.W. Wheelmen has agreed to, and the result will be a race over the severest course yet selected in this part of the world. The road iron -Sydney to Bathurst runs over the Blue Mountains, via Mount Victoria and the greater portion of the 133] miles will bo hill climbing, most ol it well graded, but nevertheless a most “gruelling” course, The even: will lie practically one long hill climb, and the riders who finish will can every penny they get. This rac should afford i,i splendid demonstrate.)! field , for variable-.speed gears, for i> a course of. tins,.description the ride who, h;is, the advantage, of a range o three, gears will have a tremondom pull over contestants, using fixec gears. The, record competition tim< for the Bathurst-Syclney ride is 7hr. 21 min. Klsec., held by F. D. Walcott (New fr?o,uth Wales). This year’s fastest time—riding up. to Bathurst—will he .nearer mine .than seven hours. There are to-day, over 2,697,000 cyclists in France, or more than half the population of Australia, and this, despite the fact that French cyclists, have to yet pay an annual licence ol ,3 francs. The good roads that arc to ho.found everywhere in that country evidently prove a great incentive to cycling. file too kilometres (62.1 miles; road championship of France was recently decided, and was won by Octave Lapize, who, a few weeks hack carried off the Baris-Ronbaix event I'lie host riders of France competed, the winner’s time was 2,hr. domin'., the event carrying with it the right to wear a tri-coloured jersey in al the French road events of 1911. The Australian a nut tour champior cyclist, E. W. .Schneider, who is at present in England, has created a good , impression jimongst amatcui riders, whilst t.raiiung at Herne Hi I (London), and from the way he hat been pushing his 92 gear during train ing work it looks as if the New South Wales crack will later in the sensor show that he is as, good as his Syd noy performances make him out tc bo. Interviewed' recently: by “Cycling” at Homo Hill track, Schneider was asked what. :Ire ' thought ofihv prospects in the Reading amateur cycl ‘ing events of Europe for 1911, bu. he would not commit himself, remarking, “If you conic to me in about ;; month of six weeks’ time, after ! have had a chance of getting into jui> true form, and had some experience of English racing, I may he able tgive yon more practical views. All 1 can,,say ,at present is.Alnvt.cat. reproduce the form I displayed pro vious to leaving Sydney, then I think [ shall be able to hold my own w/tii your host. I hope ,to be able prove upon the ehpDi-distanco, f , unpacked records, th,us confirming, ' thf performance 1 accomplished at Syclne,. in February last, ’,, ,1 am staying jin England to the end of the season,' , so that I shall have a! chance of getting thoroughly acclimatised.” The. ~ro-' cords referred to'are:—ss -l-Sth secs for an nnpaced flying start, half mile (world’s amateur record), ;and 2min. 1 3-sth sec. for aii unpaced flying mile, the latter ,time being only .3-5 Li second outside amateur world’s record. Next week’s English mail should bring word of Schneider’s first public, appearance on ,an English track. }, , i. ■ An American writer well versed in aernplaning writes as follows in reference to the aeroplane of the future:—“There is no doubt that the success attending recent flights has stimulated confidence in the heavier-than-air machine, and that many of our best scientific and practical minds are grappling with tho problems that remain to bo solved. If it be true that from a comparison of ideas, the truth is evolved, then the present year should disclose the beneficienl effect of such a process, and should lead to the production of machines in which the factors of safety will bo greatly increased and the elements ol danger correspondingly reduced. Just when sucli improvements will come, however, cannot he asserted with any degree of certainty. It may he that they will originate in entirely unlook cd-ior places. That they will come from one source or another, and before very long, almost everybody interested' in aviation confidently believes. What the world is waiting for is a hoavier-t-han-air machine that will lie self-sustaining in time of stress, and susceptible of automatic .vporation to a .greater degree than is now possible. Fntil such a mechanism has been designed and placed on the market, most people will decline to trust themselves to a Hying machine. At present, if anything goes .vrong with the motor, the aviator may lie able, if his planes and steering gear remain intact, to save himself Dy gliding downward at a perilous speed; if plane or gear bo dam•ged or out of control, he crashes to destruction. The extent of the risk aas been demonstrated time and again in the cases of tiro most experienced ind cool-headed fliers, the world lias over known. If flying be death-deal-ing to such experts, it must be collided that, as the situation stands

liinv, no novice can ijululgein it with my assurance of safety. Indeed, li may lie said that the acorplano of telay is merely a link hot wean the Id time haloon and tl’.c perfect aiimachinc that is to ho. That perfect machine will hear the sarnie relationship to the air that- the steamship and the sailing ship of to-day hear to the water. It mnsf float in the ir with the same relative certainty s that of a ship 1 ilouting in the sea. It must he capaolo of operating with ho same relative minimum of nervestrain and danger. It must ho stisceplihle of development for purposes of commerce, war, and pleasure, in addition, it must have a speed far ■a excess of that attained hy any transport.vtiini appliance thus fai ..Treated l»y man. And it will come, i'o-day, proha illy, tlicro exists some- ■. iiero in Ijilio world a lira in that will bring it into lining. That hrain may he within the soft skull of an infant, or in the silver-crowned cranium of a veteran savant. It may work out the profile.n with elements and piiniples already within the kon of iiiav, a it may call now elements' and •rincipjes into pi ly to serve its ends.” In view of the approaching motor cycle match which is siiortly to take i i ! T chn betv/oen J, B. l)e-

rosier, the American speed king, and 0. R. Collier, the fastest motor cyclist in England, 1 it is interesting to note that Collier recently won a very fast one-hour motor cycle race at Brooklands (England), ho winning easily alter covering 63 miles yards in the sixty minutes. This mileage is almost 20 miles loss than Dorosier’s hour rccoid of 8.3 miles 135 yards, hut Collier’s ride was accomplished on a hig ojicii track across which swept a strong wind, and in a field of nineteen contestants, whereas Dorosior’s performance was accomplished on a comparatively small wooden track on a picked day as regards weather conditions. Both cracks use twin-cylinder machines, the American’s being more powerlui than Collier’s, but the Englishman will probably have a special machine •onstructed for his forthcoming match igainst Dcrosier, who holds all the oi Id’s motor cycle records from one o one hundred miles. An exciting and plucky incident oc Hired during a recent motor cycl oad race held in France. One o. .he competitors, Duvernois, arriy.ee it one of the petrol depots before ic was expected, ami, in the excite non! that followed, in filling up hi: lel.erol tank, a considerable quantity if petrol was spilt over the machine md on the grounel. The first ox plosion of the engine, as the ridei an alongside of tlio machine previous ,o mounting, fired the petrol fumes, md the machine and ground wore instantly in flames. Spue'tutors anc issistants scattered in fear, hut Hu /ernois stuck to his machine ane! :ried to heat out the flames, and thei iceing that his efforts were in vair ie coolly shut off the petrol, ran hit machine to the top of a hill a few yards off, vaulted into the saddle am free-wheeled down a steep incline wit): die flames roaring out behind him. md kept going until the spilt petrol mrnt itself out; ho then turned on die petrol tap, the engine fired, and >.c was off again at racing speed as if the incident had never occurred.