ANOTHER BICYCLE BOOM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11637, 15 August 1905, Page 3

ANOTHER BICYCLE BOOM.

The English cycle industry is experiencing another "boom," which is all the more remarkable when compared with the utter of the trade Jlast year. The demand for bicycles slackened steadily for seven years, ever since, in fact cycling became a fashionable passing craze.° Shares in some' cycle companies, Mr F. A. Mackenzie tells us in the Daily Mail, were on offer at 3d each, ' actually two-thirds of the cycle agents in the country failed to meet their liabilities last year, and the manufacturers counted their unsold machines by the thousands. It looked as if the cycle trade was dead. Then a leading Coventry 'firm decided to fight the cheap American bicycle, and put on. to the market a new first-class machine for eight "guineas, a price which is subsequently lowered to JV 15s. Other companies followed the lead, and one of them turned otit'a machine for ,£6. .The demand for bicycles increased as if by magic, and at the end of May 'the Coventry factories were working sixteen hours a day, and employing eight thousand men, while the total output of ythe eight leading firms is reckoned at fully six thousand finished bicycles per week, and stocks are- down to the low-water mark. '"This year eight guineas is recognised as the standard price for a cheap, good machine among many of the first firms." Whether the price pays has yet to' be learned. The extended use of automatic machine tools,' some o£ them costing as much as .£BOO, and the partial employment of women labour, has niade it possible to put out the machines, biit wages in some departments have gone up rapidly, and the demand for "liners," the men. who receive Is 9d per hour' for painting the straight lines on | the frames, is greater than the supply. There are indication^ of a* rise in prices before long, though the action of the firm that produces the £6 machine, in' refusing to make any alteration in its price-list, will prevent them getting much higher. A rep. match will be held in the hall With all their cheapness, these bicycles are declared to be carefully made of good materials, and they ljave driven the American machines off 1 ÜBe market. Cuy l " ously enough, the recrudescence of the . demand for ordinary bicycles has been accompanied by the collapse of. the motorcycle, which, after a brief and noisy career, is giving place to the more .sociable small motor-car.