CYCLING AND MOTORING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14658, 27 January 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

CYCLING AND MOTORING.

It looks as i'f Francis Birtles, the well-known ovenaiiding evefst. will succc-ul ia his attcmoc to r.oio acrois i'r; jm IrelJalulo to Svunov "1 Unity <iuy.i. At the .-.oieU^on or Its Jait b:g jiue aroiiiid Alu.u-Jla Ji..' srateU thai, he was .oniidwit that given uraniary weather conditions inuuuid cover the. 3.07 7 mUs beivovn il-'i-eiiiantio and .Sv'cinev in a im.n'.h. iunl tin. was bcioie F. White, who KUIMO'iU.-ntly reduced iintles * time to Ju days la his. 3 111:11s., had estabi'shod his record. Unties left Freinantio on A on- Heap's Day, and m less thau eight d.-ns had pas-ed lialladonin, a repeating station on the overland telegraph line, about :t thousand miles ii-om hs start.iig point, and ho was t-ien sixteen hours ahead of hi's own schvdulo l'or that section of the ride. Few people realise what the transcontinental cycle ride meaits at this lime 01 the year, especially v. hen a load of 2i- cwts. lias a be unshed over Pome of the heav.o t, hottest and sand est parts of .Australia. Forties's machine, a IJimion-shod Universal bieycls, weighed 112; bs. when lie left t;:e west, his equipment including two copper wat.r tanks, sleeDiug bag. rifle and food supplies, and w.th Pirtles tin the total load on the maciuno was about L'3o'.ln. and tins :'s what l.tirtlos \s pushing at the rate of ii2o miles a day towards the Fast. AMien the overlander reaches South Australia, he will discard most of "nis e.-ori-nieut and travel light to .Sydney. (J'irtles reached Adelaide. 1978' miles, on the 21' st inst.. 2IH days out. The previous record was 27 days 15 hours. lue trench Government has become alarmed at the success of tile recent English Hot or Show and its eon-"-ouent effect on the French antomoVlo ti-'de. Oivlnj to internal disstnsh.n beturcn the various '/rvn.-li am;mob l-elsse-ciutions, the one-time French .Motor Slufiv. the nrennc-r event 01. its khid hi tlie world" was dropped, but the French Covenmient has now decided, that fn the :-ntere ts of the local motor trade, now a y.tal national industry, motor shows must he held annually in France, and have already been made, to bold a big national show in the Grand Palais, Pari.-;, next October. Motor cycling is booming in America part'cularly, it seems, in regard to mnehims for business purposes. The American manufacturers are making a characteristically bold bid for popuand most of the lead.ll2 firms, including the we'.l-known makers of the Xnd an, are marketing a 4-h.p. single, magneto-driven, and embodying ail the latest imnrorements at £35 to £4O. With the inauguration of this price-cutting campaign, preparations are being made for huge outputs, one. well-known factory basing its calculations on an output for 1912 of IP.COO machines. The principal firms all'include » !jj 7-h.p. twin in their rango of models, some for the first time, although, of course, big twins have o,lnays been much more popular in .America than in 'Europe. The past Olyr.uvn. Show indicates that the u<e of the big twin is dying out in Knglar.d except in conjunction with the side-car; whereas there are apparently to be mere "7's" made in America, tlrs year than ever before. The lightweight is practically unknown there, and no maiiuiactuicr opixiars anxious to step into the breach iii an attomnt to popularise it. Jiig singles and twins have the market to thrm=elves in the I'n ted States, which, is strange considering the genera! bad state of the- re-ads upon which, one would think, the high powered motor evelo was: out of place. In England 'the I small twin eugined motor cycle j promise.-, to play an important part ] during the present year, for the wonj dentil performances on th's class if : machine have attracted considerable I attention to this type of engine, which I lend; itself admirably to the adoption of variable gears, and is just as fast as the b:g single cylinder on hills. The position of the favourite tyce of engine, the 3J- h.p. single cylinder, is going to be serieuslv challenged by the 'small twin during" 1.912, for the advantages of the smoother running type of engine certainly tend to more enjcycble motor cycling. The. latest American hies bring particulars of the annual motor contest for the Vnnderlclt Cup, the premier motor event of America. The contest was won by an American with an American car, the victor being P,. Mu.'rord, driving a Lozior, who "just got home by the small margin* of 12rr,in Usee, from E. De Pa!ma°ou a HO h.p. Mercedes. The race wa's held around n c-rcut of 17.14 miles, which had to he negotiated 1.7 times, "mnjein." a total of 2fll miles, which the winner covered in the fast time of 3hrs. oGmin.. equal to an average srsccd of 74 miks an hour. The "wlnmng Tjia'cr car was of smaller Iwrse-power than the Mercedes that filled teecond j place. Tho-r.ice drew a tremendous 1 crowd, nncl was carried thrmisrh with- ! out s.?rious aci'dent. The American j Grand Prix, he'd over the same course, 1 biit over a longer distance, was won hv I). Ti. Brown on a. Fiat, who drove 412 mil-s at the rate of 74? nv.les an I liour, winch must be a. very near record for a long d'stance motor race.