The Motor World

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17351, 16 May 1924, Page 12

The Motor World

NOTES AND NEWS BY

"RADIATOR"

In Birmingham there is one motor- i cycle to every thirty-one people., while m Glasgow th© proportion is one to 185. A Bill to authorise motor-cycle rac- : ing on English roads has passed its . first reading in x tne House of Com-! mons. * 1 J- L. Emerson, th© popular Brooklands rider, will this season b© astride a 37)0 c.c. Bradshaw engined mount, t which is to be known as the Matador. I To take a motor-cycle to Austria, j a guarantee equal to the value of th© ' outfit must he supplied, while, to enter Hungary the Customs fee is £7O peri outfit. During 1923, in fighting legal cases on behalf of its members the National Cyclists’ Union of Great Britain recovered a sum of £1969 as compensation for damages. 217' cases being dealt with. Local motor-cyclists are beginning to \ prepare for the annual overhaul which it is customary to give machines in j order to have them ready for the open- j ing of the new season in August or i September. Stratton, the young Indian rider, who visited Australia recently, won the six miles Victorian track championship at the Easter Carnival. Disney, on a Scout, secured honours in the 100 mile road race. To protect himself from the cold last Sunday evening a rider was observed to be wearing four waistcoats, an ordinary coat, and three overcoats. He had quite a performance to go through to find his money to pay for the benzine he was purchasing. The Germans are awakening to th© value of motor-cycle reliability trials and arc not taking any half measures in promoting fixtures. There recently started at Cologne a 2000 mile trial, more or less making a tour of Germany in seventeen davs. Among the 12/ entries were twelve different Jtnghsh makes, ranging from 150 c c to /o 0 c.c. ' , Last Saturday afternoon a rnotorcycle overturned in Onebunga. and a.tho, ; gh only len for a ft,,- horns It h S dr, Y c r being attended to m the hospital someone stole the sparking plugs, which were new and had oniy been fitted a few days’. pre-' v ‘° us Jy. Although the outfit is relbV te<i u°, hav t. cn P s,z<,< 3 anrl crashed through two fences the only damage in +h? an .d a few dents in the front of the side-car body. The present test giyen by the c-ity traffic department for a certificate, of competency for driving a motor-cycle is hopelessly inadequate, states ‘an Auckland writer. Almost anyone who can put up a moderate showing on the short run passes muster and is privileged to ride the roads irrespective of whether he knows anything of by-laws or traffic signals. Drastic, enforcement of these by-laws and the enforcemerit ot traffic discipline on the part of all motor drivers is urgently needed. Ihiring February the imports of raotor-cveles into England reached the record low level of £1539; of this amount. £i47 was the value of the parts and accessories." the artuai number of machines imported heinrnineteen. The state of the erenort market was February’s figure being £165,020. Comparative Februarv export figures are given below: £ £ £• Motor-cycle? 45,931 -1(3,576 accessories 15,946 25,081 61.44* Total 54,849 76,912 165,020 NEW ZEALAND ROADS. AN EXPERT’S OPINION. Some remarks concerning the roads of New Zealand were mad© by M. M. P. Fusy, manager of the Michelin Tyre Company, who has spent three hundred days in motoring during the past 3* ear > and has made an extensive acquaintance with the roads in the North Island from Palmerston North to Wellington, and from Picton to the Bluff. He also has travelled extensively in other parts of the world and has seen roads under all conditions. “ The great trouble with your roads is that they have no foundation,” said M. Fusy. “If you make repairs to these roads, they are just as bad again in six months' time. I believe that the matter hinges on the shortage of money for this work. Before the war we had good roads m France, said M Fusy. in reply to a question, “but when the war came there was no money to repair them. The roads in many cases were built by the Romans, so you can't blame the foundations. Why, in some cases the foundations are as -deep as nine or ten feet.” Seeing that the trouble was not with the foundation, he added, it was decided that the roads must be dealt with on a new system, and the only remedy was in the hands of the motor road emgineers. wtjo decided that a new form of tyre was necessary. Thus it came about that a big t.vre of greater resilency was constructed and after many tests this was found to deal satisfactorily with the problem.

BIGGER TYRES ADVOCATED. From what I know of the North Island roads, that is, from Wellington to Palmerston North, and other roads on both coasts of the North Island, they are as bad as those of the South Island,” said M. Fusv. “In the South Island, the worst roads are in Southland; they are something terrific. One cannot drive at more than fifteen miles an hour on them. In these days, the motor is not a luxury, it is a necessitv to the business man. It is really wasting a man's time to drive at fifteen miles an hour to get the best out of his car, and to drive it in the way most suited to the construction of the car he must drive at thirty miles am hour. Indeed, forty miles an hour is not a bad speed. Anything from thirty to forty miles an hour is quite safe, both lor the driver and the other users of the road. Of couse, I do not mean that j such speeds should be attained in town, but on the country roads. Ij> an agricultural country, such as New Zealand, where your towns are so far apart, it. is a necessity that a speed such as I have indicated should be used. The onlv alternative is that motorists should us- bigger tyes.” M. busy consider tnat New, Zealand offers more attraction to tourists than any other country in the world, and he considers that many more would come jto Zealand^ and would bring their | some of‘the rivers, principally i'n The main tourist area in Blenheim’ and the * M est Coast.

MOTOR-CYCLING PARS. i A little dry oatmeal rubbed on tha hands after they have been in petrol I ‘"'ill prevent them chapping. j A creaking car door can be remedied I if you rub the hinges with a moistened lead pencil. This remedy is cleaner and less troublesome than oil. | The finest, leadlight glass can be ! mended so that cracks can hardly be. seen if the broken pieces are carefully joined with a cement made of isinglass dissolved in spirits of wine. Tar may be removed from tyres, etc., with phenyle and water. The carbolic won’t injure the rubber. Don’t throw away old tyres. Strip the rubber off, and cut into a few dif-ferent-sized pieces. They make firstclass sleeves when you meet with tyre t trouble. j In cleaning windows and screens, use | glycerine and methylated spirits ill I equal quantities. Rain will then not trouble you. To file a washer, first press it with a vyce into the cross grain end of a piece of wood, and file washer and wood together. Wipe the porcelain of plugs before trying to start the engine in damp weather, as a film of moisture will often interfere with the sparking. A speaker at a meeting of the Wairarapa Farmers’ Union in Masterton, when discussing the railway strike, remarked ; “ While I was coming through the Manawatu Gorge the other night, I was nearly pushed into the river bv a huge double-decker lorry laden with pigs.” “ Road hogs!” was the interjee-. tion from another member. The Hon R. F. Bollard, Minister of Internal Affairs, has informed the Wellington Automobile Association that it was proposed to make provision in the Motor Vehicles Bill giving the Gov-i ernor-General power to make regula lions fixing, among other things, the maximum speed of motor vehicles. The executive had made a protest against motor-car racing on public roads. The noise of motorists approaching the churches where worshippers are at service, particularly at main thoroughfares, was referred to in a letter received from a city congregation at the last meeting of the Wellington Automobile Club. The communication drew attention to the “ unnecessary and prolonged tooting of horns.” They were quite aware that a warning note was necessary at intersections, and safety had to be considered, but suggested that influence should be brought to bear to prevent this from continuing “ to be the great distraction it is. at present, to worshippers.” Tt was de- ! scribed as becoming a serious annoyance. The club decided to draw attention to the matter in its next circular to members. London automobile journals state that twenty-five new motor-’buses are being placed on the streets in that city every week, but. the increase is not quite so great as appears, as a number of the new vehicles replace those of the older type, which are withdrawn. Last year, however, the London General Omnibus Company carried no fewer- than 1,184,000,000 passengers, which is an increase of 193.000,000 over the previous twelve months. Further, the 'buses covered the. trerriendous distance of 129.000,000 mliesf showing an increase of 24,000.000 miles on the dis tance covered in 1922. The popularity of the 'buses is growing to such an ex--tent that they are seriously affecting the tube railways. THE TYRE TRADE. More than 45,000,000 automobile pneumatic tyres were manufactured in U.S.A. in 1923, and the sales value of tyres, tyre repair materials and sundries shipped during the year totalled £124,122,800. These marks established new records, for the best previous output of pneumatic casings was 41,000.000 in 1922, when the sales value of finished products of the tyre industry amounted to £118.245,000. Ever)- branch of the tyre manufac- ■ turing business, with the exception of | the solid tyre field, in 1923 went j ahead of its previous high mark Some I 60,000,000 inner tubes were made last year, while in 1922 the production of this item totalled 51.000,000. Solid tyre production in 1923 was 769.057, j compared with 874,003 in 1922. The ! sales value of pneumatic casings alone ; reached £97,734,000 in 1923. ■ The importance of the tyre industry twill be appreciated when it is under 'stood that the sales value of all manufactured rubber goods shipped last : year amounted to £196,315.600. The | tyre business handled over 63 per cent ! of this volume. | CRAWLING ON TOP GEAR. | If you want to drive very slowly on j top gear, you must retard t.he ignition sufficiently. If you don't, crawling on top gear will be represented by a series of jerks, and engine “ staggers,” and transmission snatches. When an engine is accelerating after a top-gear crawl, the ignition can usually be appreciably further advanced than when its slow speed is being maintained on a practically closed throttle. Under the latter conditions, the ignition should be retarded as far as possible, assuming that the timing is normal, and that the details of the ignition are in fair order. If there, is the slightest advance in the occurrence of the spark, if it occurs before the pistons reach their top dead centre, snatching and staggering cannot fail to be evident in top gear crawling.