MOTOR-CYCLING ONE OF THE HARDEST SPORTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 9

MOTOR-CYCLING ONE OF THE HARDEST SPORTS

Physical and Mechanical Fitness EssentialChances Equal in All but Speed Events Reliability Trial Leads as Most Popular Fixture.

Although looked onjbv most j New Zealanders as a medium for thrills only in speedy grass track work or on the cinders, and, i indeed, considered by many to he i highly dangerous for practical ! road transport, the motor-cycle ; has a large and constantly grow-1 ing following who look to it. to i provide their sport. It is surpris-1 ing to note the varied ways in j which the standard road machine is used by the club rider. Long sporting runs over routes including some of the Dominion’s worst road surfaces, hill-climbing contests, pillion passenger tests and even short bursts of speed in friendly races on beach or track, | are but a few of the competitive fixtures of the average motorcycle club.

This is probably the only sport in which the professional man. be he broadsiding star or grass-track speedking, may well be humbled by the veriest amateur, every man having equal chances and starting off the same mark. It is the reliability test especially which provides the Dominion’s most truly sporting amateur fix- | ture since it affords the same chance •of success to the small light-weight ! machine as to the super-power sports | mount.

Competitors are required to average a fixed speed over a given route, being checked by officials at various points either openly or secretly. The behaviour of the machine over certain types of road surface may bo noted, and tests included to judge its powers of braking, acceleration and starting from cold. At the end of the journey, the machine is examined by mechanics and points deducted for any serious mechanical defect. In some cases, competitors ride with sealed tool-kits, every breakdown fixed at the roadside with tools involving a loss of points. The reliability trial is rightly the most popular contest staged by a club. However well a machine may perform in the track or in hill-climbing on impossible road grades, it may be entirely unsuited for every-day riding,

end a stiff test will show ud at once any little defects of design or construction. Even mud and clay, impassable to motor traffic, presents no | serious obstacle to the modern ’ motor-cycle. A trial conducted by the North Shore Sports and Motor- ! Cycle Club last week covered a total of 250 miles over surfaces varying from concrete to long stretches of waterlogged clay and rain-furrowed wagon tracks ; through scrub, but not one machine failed owing to road conditions. A reliability test calls for physical fitness as well as skill. Along the winding road come the riders at a good speed, for they real- . ise that the clay section ahead will ! require nearly an hour lo cross anti ; hard riding will have to be the ordei ’ |of the day if a good average speed is ‘ to be maintained. Fast times through • a stretch of small loose metal call foi the skill of a cinder-track rider aiu gives a taste of what is to come. Th* i leading rider enters the slippery patch 3 along which he progresses in a aerie: - of slides, his engine roaring and 5 showering mud and water from hi: ? madly-turning back wheels. At last he

slips into a deep rut filled with slush, I and. there his mount sticks until the I engine is stopped and the machine

lifted out one -wheel at a time. Then , his tactics carry him bj- sheer momenaway he goes, sliding and slithering, | turn through the first -svet patch and , round the next corner. ! on to a gentle slope on which both S The next man enters the mud at a j wheels slip suddenly away, leaving ) good speed, feet on the footrests, and ' him struggling and wallowing in the

mud. He is up and away again in a minute, but his course is much more careful. And so it goes on. every competitor meeting with a measure of success dependent on his skill and judgment.

Next comes a “water splash,” the crossing of a creek flowing over the road. Often situated round a corner, and just at that point where a rider is ‘ giving her full handle” to gain speed to take the next slope, this proves the downfall of many. Then, perhaps, the route will be along a bridle-track or up a hillside of almost unbelievable steepness. It is certainly a sport calling for physical and mechanical perfection. The next few weeks show promise of being busy ones in Auckland Tomorrow afternoon two championship events are scheduled to be run off by the North Shore Club at Orewa Beach. A six-mile cup race will be followed by the flying half-mile championship, in which a speed of more than 90 miles an hour was registered early this year. There is a fascination about beach speed tests which is absent in track events. Perhaps it is the long straights of a mile or more along which competitors dash at full throttle before slowing down for the full turn. A thin drone away in the distance grows rapidly louder until, with a roar like artillery, a helmeted figure

crouching low over bouncing handlebars flashes past at well over the mite-a-minute mark. Racing of a different style will In seen at Henning's Speedway, Mangetv. on Tuesday nest, when the Sports Club will decided two events on the style of the famous French “Grand Prix.” Artificial S-sliaped bends will replace the present straight, the corners being so abrupt that riders i will require to change right into low j gear to negotiate them. The contests i will not be trials of speed so much as of machines, since every rider in the 50-mile race for solo machines will have to shift gear approximately 203 times. The contest for side-car outfits, set down as 12 laps, should also I lack nothing in interest. Another trial of skill for Auckland riders will be provided on June 14. when hill-climbing contests will be decided at Mangere Mountain. Meanwhile, there !s a buzz of ex- | eitement throughout motor-cycling ! circles in Eugland, where preparations i j are well under way for the annual | Tourist Trophy races at the Isle of Man. This contest has more than passing interest as. besides being the world's premier sporting event in this class, it has become a gruelling test for the new machines intended for production by the various factories next season. New Zealand has a special , interest in the fixture this year, as Percy Coleman, heavy-weight champion here for the last seven years, went abroad recently specially to compete. An Auckland rider, Len Coulthard, who showed himself a worthy competitor of Coleman at a 1 recent Mangere race meeting, has been ■ selected as a member of the Velocette 1 team, winner of last year's junior section of the T.T. series. The T.T. races are run over a road 1 course of seven circuits of the island, . a total of 264 miles 300 yards. The 3 junior section, for medium-weight . machines, is set down for June 16, the light-weight race being on June IS, with the senior event two days later. The Government of the Isle of Man has spent a huge sum on these roads, and it is expected that last year’s winner's astonishing average speed of 73.55 miles an hour will be still further increased. The Government has made a grant this year of £5,000 toward providing the prizes and paying competitors’ expenses.