CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XIV, 3 October 1896, Page 428

CYCLING.

THE danger in pace-making is even greater than in ordinary racing, and the more men that are pnt on the machine the greater is the liability to accident. This is due to the fact that it is hard work to get so many men to work well together. Very few riders can work well together on a quad, and an excessive amount of training and practice is required to make any team capable of setting a pace for a good racer. To begin with, the captain or steersman must be a man with exceptional nerve, for his position is the most dangerous if the machine should begin to wobble or break down, and the safety of all the others depends greatly upon his guiding the wheel. Accidents on the quad are numerous, and several instances are on record where the captains of the crew avoided injury to the riders by their unadulterated nerve. It is only necessary to mention one or two of these to show the character of the danger, and the cool way in which all mishap was avoided. Roma Dow, the captain of a team in the States, was going at full speed one day, when the spokes of the front wheel began to snap. There were nearly a thousand pounds of flesh on the machine, and any sudden stop would have caused a sad mishap. As it was the plucky captain kept his discovery to himself, and after the three-quarter pole was passed he gave the order to slow down. Had he announced the snapping of the spokes to the riders they would have become ‘ rattled ’ and the machine would have collapsed. The great fear riders have of an accident to the pace-making machine has been shown by exploding a pistol near the track, when every man jumped off the machine in a bunch, supposing that the tire had exploded. The danger is so great that every man wants to save himself, and he gives no more thought about guiding the wheel. A New York manufacturer has in course of construction what he calls a quindecuplet, a wheel to accommodate fifteen riders, and there are no passengers. Everyone has to work his way. The quindecuplet when completed will be the most remarkable thing ever turned out of a bicycle shop. The sextuplet which some people think can be propelled faster than the Empire State express, has become an old story, and an English firm has already turned out a machine with twelve saddles. This fifteen-man wheel is a far greater undertaking than the duodecuplet, for the strain and the consequent necessity for strength and nicety of construction multiply in increased proportion as the number of riders is increased. It is for a lot of Brooklyn riders that the new wheel is being built. The big machine travels upon three wheels, and abaft the front saddle, occupied by the steersman, it is practically two seven-men bicycles, joined up side by side. The forward, or steersman’s wheel, will be twentysix inches in diameter, the two rear whels thirty inches. The tubing of the bracket forward, into which the frames are inserted, will, owing to the enormous weight and strain, have to be of double the ordinary thickness, which is one-sixteenth of an inch. The frame tubing will be almost solid, one and a quarter inches in thickness. It will be doubly re-inforced all around. The finest of steel tubing will be used. The gear will be 168, more than twice that of the ordinary tandems, and each revolution, with a force of those fifteen pairs of legs back of it, will drive this centipede of cycles about 168 feet. There should be no terror in the bicycle smash-up now. The greatest objection to the collision, slip, tumble, or any other of the numerous accidents to which the cycler is natural heir, has been removed. When your wheel breaks down, you take it to your repairer and send the bill to your insurance company. If you break your leg, fracture a rib or dislocate your vertebrae, you can have them paid for, spot cash. There is a company in Boston which undertakes to insure bicycle riders against accident, charging a semi-annual premium of $3 for a policy, with $lOOO limit. One thousand dollars is what the company considers the life of a bicycler to be worth, and that is what his family receives if, like the faithful pilot, he sticks to the wheel and meets his death. Upon the theory that a man who cannot ride might as well be dead, the company also pays $lOOO for loss of both legs. The loss of both hands is estimated to t>e worth the same amount, as is also the destruction of both eyes. He who comes out of the wreck with only one leg left to pull, or one foot, will receive $5OO. A disputed point is settled as to the value of two hands, the ratio being estimated at two to one in favour of the right. Should the right hand be lost its former proprietor can spend #5OO learning to become left-handed, but should he be compelled to part with his left hand he only gets $250 for it. It will be readily seen that it pays better to lose the right hand, and it is therefore suggested that cyclers pass to the left of cable cars and dangerous vehicles, after the English fashion. This would bring the high-priced hand into the greatest danger and $250 clear profit to the pocket of its proprietor should it be severed.