WHY CYCLES ARE COSTLY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5656, 29 August 1896, Page 3

WHY CYCLES ARE COSTLY.

"Mr G. Lacy Hillier, in the St James's Budget, explains why cycles aye costly. There is hardly a part of them that is not patented. The evolution of the cycle is due to many inventors, and all have their rights. In the case of the chain, for example, there are patents on the links, patents on the link-sides, patents on the rivets, and on the methods of dealing with the rivets and so on.

Now, many a man has no conception of what "bicycle tube" means. He thinks of it as just a simple tube, like any other tube, gas-pipe, water-pipe, &c, and if he goes further, 1 have no doubt he supposes that it costs about the same as those other hiimble and useful "tubes." Yet tho drawing of the " cold-drawn steel tube" is not only a highly interesting process, but it is emphatically one which produces flawless tubes for the use of the cycle maker. A tubular mass of steel is drawn by main force through a slightly-tapered hole in a steel shield, the hole being of smaller diameter than the tube which is pulled through it. In the process the steel tube is lengthened, and that process is repeated many times until a tube has been colddratra dotra to the diameter of the tubes of the cycle frame. Needless to say, flaws, cracks, or any other points of weakness declare themselves by breaking, and so it comes about that the surviving lengths of tube are poetically certain to be sound, flawless, and reliable. Hence the value of such tube in cycle construction.

In all working parts ball-bearings are fitted. These consist of a row of steel balls placed in a groove and confined by a cone, which can be screwed or adjusted upon them, thus permitting of the wear being taken up by timely adjustment, while the wear on the balls, being a rolling wear, has a very great tendency to be even ; and if the bearings are kept reasonably welladjusted, wear being even, any slight looseness can be taken up in a very brief space of time. As the bearing is in some sense a delicate fitting, and as its original designers contemplated wear which might need taking up, it is just as well for the cyclist who desires to have a solid cycle to take care to every now and then adjust, or haveadjusted the ball-bearings of the machine. In fact, in a general way it is always well to keep all adjustments well up, though not, of course, too tight.

The wheels of ; to-day represent the final development of an old principle, the principle of suspension. The rationale of the whole thing will be grasped in a moment if the reader will imagine that the spokes of a cycle wheel are of some material as flexible as cotton thread, but as strong as steel. All the spokes of an ordinary wheel are at a high tension, but in a verylarge number of cases they pass through the rim and are simply headed on the inside, or they go through the hub and can be pushed out with the fingers if the wheel is broken. The tension is, in short, suspension, and the rider's weight is suspended from the upper part of the wheel, and is not supported by the spokes below the axle, so that our theoretical cotton thread wheel would still support the rider's weight, just as the wire wheel does to-day. Of course, with the reduced size of the safety wheel of to-day, compared with the big wheels of the old ordinary bicycles of the past, there is not so much to be said about suspension wheels. A 30in or 28in wheel, built up on a first-class hollow rim, will be found to be quite as sound, whether tho spokes be directly put into the hub or be put in tangentially. The latter plan made the wheels of the old ordinary bicycle a great deal too rigid, while the small safety wheels are so stout and stiff that there is practically no advantage in any special system of spoking. But no one who studies carefolly the wheel of a cycle to-day can fail to be struck with the really wonderful ingenuity with which it has been built up. And here, again, innumerable patents exist, dealing with almost every item which has been brought together for its construction. The hub, or central portion of the wheel, is the subject of patents almost without end. The spokes and their methods of attachment have also been carefully studied by inventors ; the manner in which the spoke is put in ; the way in which it is fixed to th,e rim, or enters the hub, &c. — all these points are protected in one or other of their many shapes by letters patent, more or less valuable. As to rims — the hollow rims used in the construction of modern safety wheels, for instance— there are any number of patents, and many of the rims are most ingeniously constructed — one which is "spun" out of a circle of steel especially so. In regard to the air tyres which are placed upon those rims when the machine is finally finished volumes -would scarcely record the patents which have been taken out for them, since the success of the Dunlop tyre caused visions of wealth " beyond the dreams of avarice " to float before the eyes of that very sanguine class, the inventors. There are innumerable patents to prevent puncture, ranging from the complicated and ingenious to the hopelessly insane. Tho number of patents to prevent puncturts, is, however, vastly exceeded by the number for giving easy access for purposes of repair in case of puncture. Special fabrics have been patented to obiate bursting, while as to non-slipping devices their namei3 legion.