CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 50, 23 October 1912, Page 5

CYCLE AND MOTOR NOTES.

E. S. Pcrrott, who recently won tin Dunlop Gold Cup Hoad .Race from Camperdown to Melbourne (lid miies), has been disqualified by the officials for receiving motor cycle pace dining the contest, The event has been award ed to E. Barrie, who finished second. One regrettable feature is that the motor cyclist who caused the trouble goe; Scot free. In almost every long distance road race that is now held in Australia, motor cyclists either ■ thoughtlessly or wilfully hang about the leading riders, thus jeopardising their chance of getting any prizes' thej may win through breach of pacing rules. This evil is growing, and unless checked in some manner, threatens to cause considerable trouble to road rac ing in this country. The long standing world’s unpaced hour bicycle record, which stood at 25 miles 1568 yards, to the credit of the French rider, Marcel Berthet, has at last been bettered. The new record has been established by a young Frenchman, named Oscar Egg, who succeeded in covering unaided 26 miles 466 yards. Berthet’s . figures had stood since June, 1907. Word is to hand from England of a very fine performance by a rider named M. G. Selbaoh, in the North Road Club’s 24-hour race. This event is an annual unpaced one, and the winner, Selbach, covered 206 miles in the first twelve hours, and 394 miles in the full day. This fine road performance equals the previous best figures. In the early lays of the Dunlop tyre innumerable inventors claimed to have solved the problem of producing a successful competitor to the air tyre. Since 1888, when J. B. Dunlop invent ed the Dunlop tyre, hardly a year has gone by without the announcement that the pneumatic tyre was doomed, but although tens of thousands of patents have been applied for, and fortunes wasted on mechanical and other contrivances, the pneumatic tyre is to day going stronger than ever, and from the look of things has a long life before it yet. What a lot cyclists and motorists owe to the Irish doctor, J. B. Dunlop! Special motor cars have been purchased by the police authorities of Paris, a novel feature being racks at the back of the cars, on which two or more bicycles can be safely carried. Inspectors and detectives can bo con veyed in these cars to a certain point, whereupon the force divides, some of the men riding off on the cycles in dif ferent directions. This seems a very effective method of rounding up criminals. The boom in the motor cycle industry in the United States can he gathered from the fact that over 80,00 mach ines will be marketed this season, and even tthis mig output will not, it is an ticipatod, meet the demand for motor cycles. A prize of £SOO has been offered to the Royal Automobile Club of England, to he awarded for the best carburetter. The donor, Mr. G. K. Chamberlain, founder of tho Automobile Club (if America, leaves the decision to he settled by tests organised by the. R.A.C.’s technical committee. The conditions for the tests are now being arranged. If it is the aim of manufacturers to improve the accessibility of the driver’s seat, what is really wanted is a tilting steering wheel or steering column, preferable to tho former. One or two makers have adopted this practice at different times, and it certainly seems to have many points in its favour. With the present design of cars, where tho steering column is raked at an acute angle, and the wheel comes close to the seat, it is often difficult for a portly man, especially whop he is wrapped in a big coat, to manipulate himself in a driver’s seat. A tilting steering wheel could be embodied without difficulty, and could lie made on sound mechanical lines, such as would not ho likely to induce any element of danger once the car is in motion.