CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue I, 4 July 1896, Page 14

CYCLING.

BY

G. LACY HILLIER

(Joint Author of ‘ Cycling ’ in the Badminton Library.) THE CHOICE OF A CYCLE. THE choice of a cycle is necessarily a matter to be decided in the main by financial considerations, but these considerations should not always weigh exactly in the manner which they would appear necessarily to do at first sight, for it may be at once laid down as an axiom that the more a man is dependent on his own personal labours for his livelihood, the less can he afford to ride a cheap and nasty cycle, and run the risk of a disabling accident ; this is why it may be noted in passing that the English cycle makers need never fear competition from abroad in the matter of very lowpriced bicycles. Obviously, therefore, if by any means possible, the cyclist who can ride, and who desires to get the utmost satisfaction out of his riding, should purchase a firstgrade make of machine. There is not, nowadays, the vast difference which used to exist between the qualities of the machines turned out by various firms, because the cycles now made are adjustable, and are consequently turned out in standard patterns, and made from standard parts, and these parts are supplied by big firms, whose sole business is the making of such component parts of cycles ; and as it thus happens that very much the same parts are put together by workmen who are equally skilled in the labour they undertake, the result is, of course, a general average of excellence all round.

It is not wise, either, to purchase absurdly high-

priced cycles—that is, cycles especially dubbed high-grade, and listed at prices far in advance of those fixed by the acknowledged leaders of the cycle trade. Such listing is only arranged to catch the newcomer in the sport—of the new class which is likely to pay a fancy price, on the off-chance that the machine is really that much better ; nor is it wise to purchase from persons who, unacquainted with the trade, are simply handling cycles because there is a boom in them. *Ve sutor ultra cr epidam is an excellent quotation in this case, and I doubt not that the advisability of adhering to it will come home to many people at the end of this season.

Thus the reader will note that the very first thing to do in the choice of a cycle is to go to the local representative of a well-known firm identified with the making of high-grade cycles, and to take his advice in the matter. It will be noted that I specially said about * the cyclist who can ride ’ is to purchase a good machine, and my reason for that cautious statement is that the novice, the beginner who is in the throes of his early struggles, would

be very ill-advised to go through these early stages on an expensive machine, because the damage that is bound to be done to such a mount by the falls which it would encounter, would be certain to do it a very great' deal of harm. It is as well to get through these early stages on a hired bicycle, or upon a strong second or third-grade mount, which will be heavy, clumsy, and ill-finished, but quite good enough for the novice who knows no better, until the point of comparative expertness is reached, and then the cycle for habitnal riding may be purchased. Nowadays there is really but one type of machine — the rear-driven safety—and the variations of pattern are in the main only variations of detail. The only exception to this rule is the Bantam, a cycle which, in some ways, stands by itself, and is very popular with many riders, so that, with the exception referred to, the chooser has the one point pretty well settled for him. A fallacy which is often found amongst purchasers, in the earlier stages of the sport, is that of supposing that lower wheels will make them safer, * because they will be nearer the ground.’ As a matter of fact, within reason, the size of the wheels has absolutely nothing to do with the matter, but the height of the crank-bracket from the ground is the determining factor, for the user, to ride oomfortably, must have his leg at reasonable stretch, and therefore must sit at a certain height above the pedals.

Were the crank bracket placed lower, so as to bring the rider lower, there would be, of course, the everpresent danger of the pedal striking the ground. Another minor point may also be noted in this connection —viz., that the higher above the ground the rider sits the less appears to be the liability to side slip. Opinion is much divided between equal wheels, and a steering wheel bigger than the driving wheel, and it is usually suggested that if the wheels were of equal size, one spare air tube would serve for either wheel ; but the matter is not of any vital moment, and the choice may be made irrespective of any special consideration of the point. It is always advisable to take a standard pattern cycle, rather than wait whilst all the buyer’s special ideas are put into it. In fact, just now the cycle-making trade is much too busy to worry over special orders, and in the same way the chooser should take very great care not to ask for out-of-the-way, or eccentric fittings, all of which give trouble, and upset the machine as thought out by its original designer, this latter being a point which should not be lost sight of.

The designer of a modern cycle is not a man who works simply by rule of thumb. He does not, as bicycle makers did at the start of the trade, just take so much material and put it together. He designs the machine on the drawing-board, and thinks out all its details, and the resulting vehicle should not be pulled about by the first novice who comes to buy it; I therefore plump very emphatically for taking standard pattern machines, from the depot of the local agent for the make chosen. The choice may be guided in some degree by the advice of expert friends, but here again much caution should be exercised, for, beside the class of cyclist who is interested in some make or other, and the man who is what is called a * maker’s amateur,’ there is an if possible more dangerous class still to the novice, composed of persons who are constantly discovering phenomenal makers of cycles, of whom one never beard before and never hears again. There are of course geniuses in cycle-making who blush unseen, in out-of-the-way corners, but their talents only serve to enable them to occasionally approximate the results attained by the big

makers, with their splendid machinery which secures mechanical accuracy, their expert workmen to handle that machinery, and their long, and in many cases dearly bought, experience. Let the chooser of a cycle be careful to take advice from none of the former.

The question of purchasing second-hand cycles is one which also needsconsideration under this head, and it is certainly of considerable importance. Many riders who cannot afford to buy a new machine of the highest grade are content each year to purchase second-hand a firstclass cycle of the previous year’s pattern, and thus secure a good mount at a moderate price. This is an excellent plan, with one reservation. The purchaser of the second-hand machine must himself be sufficiently expert to know exactly what he is buying, and the novice does not possess that expert knowledge, and is consequently likely to be hoaxed in a very unpleasant manner. This is especially the case when the machine offered in an advertisement is described as a ‘something pattern ’ Safety bicycle. This form of advertisement can only deceive the unwary and the ignorant. A bona fide seller of a bona good cycle will describe it by its actual name, and will not describe it in the ambiguous terms which are set forth above. The word ‘ pattern ’ means practically nothing nowadays, because, as has been pointed out above, the actual variations in general design are very small as compared with the general agreement or the outlines of any safety bicycle of the rear driving type. To sum up, the general result of this paper is to advise the beginner, when he chooses his cycle, to buy only a well-known make, to buy it locally, so as to have the assistance of the local agent, to adhere to standard patterns, to avoid fads and the ephemeral novelties of the hour, to let someone else be the * vile body experimented upon ’ with all such novelties, and there to leave the matter. No advice is here tendered to the expert, for the all-suffi-cient reason that the expert knows exactly what he wants, has definite views on all points, and can size up entirely to his own satisfaction the merits of any one of the marvellous contrivances offered to him by sanguine inventors—contrivances of such merit, according to their inventors, that, if but 50 per cent, of their claimed efficiency materialised in use, cycles would soon run by themselves —which I may add, for the novice’s information, they at present do not.

At the general meeting of the delegates to the New Zealand Cyclists’ Alliance held at Christchurch last week, the following records were passed :—Road — Christchurch to Dunedin, J. O. Shorland 22b 13mm ; Dunedin to Invercargill, R. McKenzie, 9b 54% min ; Napier to Wellington, F. F. Fabian, 22b 40min. Track —Ten miles, S. Macdonald at Dunedin, z6min 19 2-sth sec ; quarter mile, C. H. Jones at Christchurch, 32 2-sth sec; one and a-half miles, S. Macdonald at Dunedin, 3 min 39 4-sth sec ; two miles, H. Thompson, 4min 32 4-sth sec; three miles, H. Thompson, 6 min 5z 3-sth sec; one mile and a-half, H. Thompson, 3tnin 26 15th sec ; one mile, H. Thompson, zmin 13 2-gth sec ; half mile, H. Thompson imin 5 3-sth sec ; one mile, H. Thompson 2tnin 12 i-sth sec ; fifty miles, J. O. Shorland 2h 14mm 4osec ; 100 miles, J. O. Shorland 4h 39mm sisec ; twenty-five miles, J. O. Shorland ih omin 4osec ; five miles, J. O. Shorland umin 55sec ; ten miles, J. O. Shorland, 24min isec ; five miles, H. Thompson, umin 45sec ; ten miles, H. Thompson 23mm 3isec ; twenty-five miles, H. Thompson 59mm 3osec ; one hour, H. Thompson, zgmiles 360yds, all at Christchurch. A useful suggestion has been acted upon in Wellington, where stables for standing bicycles in, where they will be cleaned and oiled for a fixed fee per week, have been opened.