MOTOR AND CYCLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1920, Page 10

MOTOR AND CYCLE.

. NEWS AND NOTES. Week ending i 11th Sept. 1920. The first of the Victorian long distance Cycling Road Events to be decided this seat-on was the Bendigo-Meibourne. Event—held under favourable weather conditions last Saturday. The distance is !>2 miles, and the Rich Event with its £2OO worth of prizes drew a fine field of some 80 riders. The scratch men were Don Kirkhara; the erstwhile Australasian Road Champion, and the present day crack, E. Tamme. Handicaps up to 33 minutes were conceded. The winner turned up in a 14 minutes man— C. Shillito, of Geelong—who scored an easy win, owing to T. J. Carey, with whom he had got a break on the field, puncturing about 10 miles from the finish. The winner also secured fastest time, lie, negotiating the distance in 4hrs. 21 minutes. He used Dunlop Tyres. •Second plasg was filled by T. J. Carey (1C mins.), (4 lira. 20 mins. 25 sees.); whilst E. Bainbridge (10 mins), (4 lira. "23 mins. 30 sees.) was third. The scratch men early struck bad luck; for Tamme punctured, and Kirkham had the heartbreaking task of endeavouring to catch the field unaided. He failed, but finished thirteenth, in 4 hrs, 24 mins. 48 sees. A iiig crowd witnessed the finish at Essendon, and the event was in every way a success.'

Poor progress has so far been made with auxiliary motor attachments for use on bicycles. Particulars of a fine road test in England, with a new type of power unit attached to a lady's cycle, show that there are big possibilities in this direction, once the right auxiliary unit is evolved. In this instance a "Simplex," a little two-stroke engine, was used on a demonstration run of 187 miles. The engine enabled the rider to average a speed of about 15 miles, and only on one hill climb was it_ necessary to help the little engine with pedal assistance. The weight of the whole power unit attachment is only '2(l lbs, a weight that does not materially aflect the ease with which an ordinary cjele can be pedal-propelled. The little engine outfit is attached to a frame over the back mudguard, the power being - transmitted through a countershaft and multiple plate clutch. The maximum pace on the level, is 23 miles an hour. The petrol consumption worked out at 125 miles to the gallon. The success of the run attracts attention to the possibilities of the power assisted bicycle—and the wonder is that this potential field—an enormous ovfe—has been so neglected to date. In Australasia alone, cyclists are numbered by the hundreds of thousands, and if for a sum of about £2O to £25, a little dependable petrol motor is obtainable, and could be easily and conveniently attached to the present day bicycle, what a demand ther- would be for such a fitment.

Since Messrs H. Dutton and M. Aunger drove across Australia in a Talbot car, from Adelaide to Port Darwin in 1908, nothing lias been heard of any further attempt to take a car into the centre of Australia, from the South, although the run from 'Darwin has been negotiated to the Mac Donald country, for Government officials, on one or two occasions. A party of three Victorians, Messrs fJ. K. MacKinnon, W. T. Manifold, and H. H. Peck recently successfully negotiated a trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and back. Sandhills were the principal trouble, some of them ranging from 30 to 40 feet high, with a steep descent on the northern side. Teams of donkeys had to be requisitioned to drag till car, a "Dodge," over some of the worst. The total distance covered was 2260 miles, and whilst the part y. were muc ' l taken with the possibilities of the MacDonnell Range country, from a pastoral point of view, from a motoring standpoint the numerous soft sand drifts will always be a hindrance to motoring. The Racing 12 cylinder "Sunbeam," aboard of which the ex-Victorian, Harry Hawker, has been doing some high speed racing, on "Brooklands" England, develops some 400 h.p. The bore and strike of the cylinders is respectively 120 and 125 millimetres, and if they can only get tyres to withstand the terrific speed this car is capable of, then something big in the way of recorda can later on be anticipated from Hawker's mount. A very fine performance was recently recorded, in England, in an official petrol consumption test conducted by one of the District Automobile Clubs. A 9.5 h.p. "Standard" car covered the remarkable distance of S6V2 miles to the gallon of 7l t 5° 1 ' eqUaling a ton milea e e