CYCLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8054, 5 July 1904, Page 4

CYCLING.

ITHEEL TALI.

(By ROVER.) Mr A. M. Campbell, a Tasmanian motorcyclist, recently established a record by motoring from Launoeeton to Eobart, a distance of 116 miles, in the good time of 4hr 31min, an average of 27 miles per hour. The train time for the same journey ia shr 59min. The Melbourne Exhibition racing track is to be altered and brought more up to dato in time for next season' 6 racing. The Victorian League'a proposal to rebuild the track to carry a speed of forty-five miles an hour would entail an expenditure of £3000, an amount far in excess of the £1500 which the Exhibition trustees' have in hand for track improvement. In the c^umstances, the track will be patoned. if^Hfc,') the bunking improved.

Council of the New /South Wales League is considering the advisabieness of abolishing the amateur class. "Wheeler," in the Sydney "Referee," thinks it was a mistake* to introduce it, for it has never been good for the League, the riders or the sport generally. The "Sportsman" scribe says: — "The public would .not mourn their loss, for the items they nr.ike up in a League programme give one such an ache as invariably results in driving the individual who witnesses ' one© round ' of a Class A event to the booth for a reviver. Their riding, too, is nearly always questionable." * -■ ,

Some of the Australian weeklies received by the laßt mail contain illustrations of a foot cycle, a device which t it is eaid, ' promises to create an epoch in the cycleworld. The Melbourne "Leader" says: — "The weight of the rider's body is the sole motive power required, and a speed of fourteen miles per hour can be ridden with ease over rough tracks or gutters. Mr Glade has given demonstrations in Melbourne of hia new .machine. The machine can be easily ridden by ladies, for the skirts can in no way hinder the speed of the cycle. Mr Glade is now in Germany, arranging for consignments of his cycle to be manufactured and forwarded to Australia." The League of . American Wheelmen, which was once a 'great power in America, can now only btfast of 45C0 members. The patents for the Dunlop pneumatic tyre; expire (in England) this year, but those for the Woods valve, with which all Dunlop tyres are fitted, do not expire until 1906. A lock on a bicycle, like the lock on a front door, may not be thief-jjroof,' but it adds so much to the difficulty of stealing a machine that no cyclist who is in the habit of leaving his cycle about . unprotected ought to neglect the safeguard. "Of course, I believe in the bicycle. It makes the day longer, the male shorter, everything I want nearer, and anything I don't want easier to get away from— besides all the fun of it."— Rev W. Charming Gannett, Unitarian clergyman, Rochester, N.Y. The French Minister of Finance published early in May the official returns of the cycle . tax throughout France for the year 1903. The figures show that no fewer than 1,310,223 ma caines were taxed last year. Paris alone comes in for the respectable total of 244,386 cycles.' Although the official results of theParis-

to-Bordeaux-and-back motor cycle trials ar£ not to hand, the great trial is over, and 24 riders out of 37 returned to Paris within schedule time. The result was a, complete triumph for the little petrol vehicle, and raises it several stages in the high estimation in which it was previously neld. It is one of the marvels of modern cycle racing that a man can fall from a machine when travelling at close on 60 miles an hour without suffering serious injury. Only quite recently Hall, the English- professional, sustained a fall in Paris, when travelling at a speed which was estimated at 56 miles an hour, and got off without broken bones, though, as the London "' Sportsman" puts it, "he lost a little bit off everywhere." . Cyclists -who axe not blessed with a surplus of cash, and whose tyres show signs of giving out can make them good for some time longer by means of ordinary patching! canvas. Abouf, three feet of this should be purchased (if one footwide, or more or less in proportion), cut into strips about 2$ inches in width and solution to the inside of the covers, taking care to get the edges to stick' well to prevent chafing of the tube. A good dusting with French chalk will complete the operation. France, says a correspondent to the " Birmingham Daily Mail," is a cyclist's paradise ; no speed limit, no hauling before the Magistrates because: your lamp Has flickered out, or for riding upon the footpath. Hie latter is not an offence, and is allowed. Several towns have special tracks for cyI cliste along the boulevards 1 ,- Generally the surface of the roads is excellent, and the hills are well engineered with easy gradi- - ents, and plenty of notice boards warning you of dangerous descents, turnings, or level crossings. Accidents frequently happen through faulty braEes, and it should be 'borne in mind that proper attention is necessary to these appliances just the same as to the more intricate parts of one's cycle. Many riders, especially the novice, seldom think of applying a drop of oil to the working parts in tie lever and clutch, and when used in pouring rain and over muddy roads these are apt to become set and stifL It is advisable to look over the screws and bolts of a brake as one does other portions of the cycle, and payment for this attention will follow sooner or later. The value of the ohange-speed gear to the tourist is becoming more manifest every day (states en English exchange). We know of a keen lady cycliste to whom, in the old single-gear days, forty miles was a long