CYCLING AND MOTORING NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 4, 14 December 1911, Page 3

CYCLING AND MOTORING NOTES.

Considerable attention is being paid to the Dunlop Military Despatch Hide by tiic military authorities, and an active interest is being taken in its organisation by the Ooimucnw ealth General Staff, through the Intelligence Corps*. An interview with Colonel J. \\ r . McCay, Director of Intelligence for the Commonwealth, ana oilicer commanding the Australian intelligence Corps, will indicate the great importance of the ride in demonstrating the value of cycles, motorcycles, and motor vehicles as auxiliaries in communication and transport in modern warfare. “Every attempt of human skill and ingenuity conquer time and space compels one’s interest,’’ said Colonel McCay in discussing the despatch ride. “When to this is added the testing of physical capacity and endurance, the perennial sporting interest is aroused. Wo are more concerned, however, with the military significance of the event. triple tests by cycle, motor cycle and cars are to be carried on simultaneously, and a comparison of the results achieved will furnish new data of high interest and importance. The military value of the ride? Well, it has previously been explained that the military despatch is to be carried in triplicate by road from Adelaide to Sydney ; one copy by relays of cyclists in pairs, one copy by relays of motorcyclists, and one copy by motor car. Probably enough there arc facts now existent and ascertained which, if they could only be collected and tabulated, would enable most of the information which the ride will afford to he otherwise acquired. These facts (all of military value) are not, however, available in suitable form, if they be available at all. The first substantia value to the soldier of this ride will be, that the data which it affords can be recorded for reference and in a form suited to military purposes. The Defence Department, at tlie request of the Dunlop Company, is assisting in the preparations for the ride from this point of view. The roads over which tiie despatch bearers will pass are typically Australian from a military point of view. That is to say, they pass through considerable tracts of unoccupied country; there is q good deal of hill climbing on them; for a comparatively small part of their length they are good; a few more miles are “fair;” and much is distinctly bad. Therefore cycle, motor cycle and car will alike he tested under conditions distinctively Australian, wnich is the sort of test required if any lesson is to be taught with regard to 0111 military plans. Much experiment with cars and cycles is going on in Europe. But Australia is in marked contrast with Central Europe, where the roads to be used for military movements on a large scale are, almost wholly, broad substantial and wellkept highways, passing through settled country which everywhere produces and stores food for man and beast. The ride will thus give information of wha’t may he for the present regarded as the maximum speed attainable, over long distances in Australia, by cyclists or automobiles travelling singly or in pairs. , The bicycle has its undoubted place in war—Napoleon; through all his, campaigns, wanted infantry which could follow cavalry at the ,trot. He never got it, though he more than' once Said with truth that his soldiers’, legs won campaigns for him'quite ar. much as their 'bayonets, for the unexpected speed with which he moveo continually enabled him to catch the enemy unawares. It may frequently happen, in modern warfare that when cavalry have .opened a way, or an holding a position well ahead of thei: main body, groat advantge would re suit if they could be promptly sup ported by iniautry, whoso resistin' power is greater. Cyclist battalioni might he used in such cases unde; favourable conditions, and might web ■be organised for-coast defence- purposes,, when rapid movement is ..so 1 nXmcssTtyb"’ It :'is, bnwdvdi-;’ it’s ’an aid to communication and an aid to trap'sport of supplies : that cycles and automobiles are most promising for the immediate future. Battlefronts and marching fronts extend over many miles even for comparatively small forces. While there are conditions under which mounted messengers or oven messengers on loot must lie used and conditions under which which telegraphs and telephones ought to he used cycles and automobiles can and should* often take their places, and can and should always work in conjunction with them. Organisation of cyclists and car-owners for these purposes is.urgently needed in .Australia. A very limited number of. public-spirit-ed men carry on the cycle and automob,ilc work) in cyclist sections, and in the volunteer Automobile Corps of flic States. The zeal and energy ol those now serving is above praise; but they are deplorably few in number,' and even they cannot atone for the apathy of their fellows. The greatest of all’ the advantages to Australia in

this Despatch Hide will, I hope, he its bringing home to the minds of those who"own bicycles, motor cycles and motor-waggons, the fact that they possess something of great potential military value to their country—but of little actual value unless organisation in peace precedes the opening oi war. The rids will, I believe, once more demonstrate, and demonstrate in a way which should rightly strike tiic miblic imagination in Australia,

that organisation is necessary, and that organisation is also effectual.”

Despite the fact that we hear so much of aviation accidents in Europe and America, the total number of fatalities is said to be still well under fifty. When it is considered that as many as one hundred and lilteen lives have been lost in a single month, mountaineering on the Swiss Alps; the lives lost in mastering aviation have been few in comparison to the pastime of mountaineering.

A tendency is growing amongst European car manufactures to. utilise chains 111 place of pinion drive lor timing gears, change speed gears, etc. Absence of noise is one of the greatest gains. Automobile road racing is to he officially revived in France in 1912, for the French trade have found that since relinquishing their big motor contests they have .to an extent lost considerable portion of their international trade. The Automobile Club of France has therefore decided to hold two big events next year, which will, it is said, eclipse even the great French contests of 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908. A small section of the French trade wanted the forthcoming event to he restricted to cars made in France, hut the proposal met with strenuous opposition, and it was decided that the two -vents for 1912 will he international. According to one English authority very few naked chassis were to he shown at .the annual London Olympia motor show." Manufacturers and agents consider that there is now no novelty in displaying the bare chassis as the great mass of visitors to this line motor exposition have become more less educated to the general principles of chassis construction, and that it is now better to show the complete, finished vehicle. As a consequence, it was predicted that the Olympia show which is now open in London

would witness a magnificent display of finished cars. So successful lias been the motor omnibus in London that one company alone now has 1220 of these vehicles on the London streets, which carry amongst them 300 million people a year. And this is the vehicle that, a few years back, was almost legislated off the London streets, and which was predicted to become, extinct in a very short period by anti-motorists.