CYCLING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 298, 9 April 1896, Page 3

CYCLING.

What has become of Auckland’s “women of the wheel?” Since Miss Reynolds went away I have not seen a rider of the fair sex out, but perhaps they ffy round about dusk. Cycle races form such a feature at local amatuer gatherings, that I would urge upon the authorities to add to the number of wheel events that figure on -their programmes. The record fiend is at work again down South. L. Barclay of the Otago Cycling Club has put up 2hrs 37mins 15sec for the 53 miles between Dunedin and Balclutha J. W. ‘Jones has decided not to make the attempt of lowering Fabian's Napier to Wellington record. A philosopher, says Wheel Talk, is a man who is able to extract consolation from a damaged wheel and the walk home it causes him. In several suburbs (says the Melbourne Argus) the Chinese laundry man no longer stays at home waiting for custom. He has become Anglicised to such an extent that he shamelessly flouts the Factories Act by riding a bicycle, and doing his own canvassing while delivering his starched and glossy goods. A Morrinsville correspondent writes me for an expression of opinion as to which is the best of the two men —Wally Kerr (who rode at the recent Australian meeting) or E. Reynolds (of Auckland). The subject is rather a delicate one, as we have never seen the pair together, but if my country friends want my opinion I should say that Reynolds could knock corners off the New South Welshman. The French tax on bicycles brings in close on £BO,OOO per annum. There was an immense attendance at the St. Kilda Cricket Ground to witness the Martin —Parsons match. Results:— 1 mile. —Martin (America) 1 Time 3min 27sec. Won by six inches. 5 miles. ] Dead heat Time lOtnin 49 4-ssec. 10 miles. —Martin 1 Rain fell during this race and made the asphalt track very slippery. Won easily by a length. Time 22min 42 l-sth sec. The Argus on the Martin —Parsons match: —“ Both men raced up to their high reputations, both were in their best form, and less than afoot separated their machines at the end of the first and third events, while the second was a dead heat: Martin won the match, and the spoils are to the victor, but the contests were so remarkably even that the vanquished was deserving of as much praise as his conqueror With the worst of the luck and the worst of the pacing—none of which was worthy the occasion—he rode brilliant and dogged races, and when all was over the first to congratulate him was Martin himself.” Apropos the moto-cycle a company is being started in Paris (says the Cyclist) with a capital of 700,000 francs, to manufacture horseless cabs RThe dead heat 5 miles in the Martin — Parsons match was done in lOmin 49 4-ssec. British amateurrecord is lOmin 26 2-ssecat Catford. Stocks (unlicensed) did 9min 51 l-ssec at Catford, and Barden lOmin 154-sec on the same track. The American Class B record is lOmin 7 2-ssec.

In his match against Parsons at St. Kilda (Victoria) Martin rode a 96 gear, Parsons rode a 76 gear.

The following statistics showing the value of cycles exported to the colonies will be of interest: —

W. A. Thomson, of Oamaru, who recently established a fifteen mile record for New Zealand by riding from Oamaru to Otepopo comes North to live, and will try and lower the record from Napier to Wellington. A Christchurch firm have just completed a cycle with several novel features. It appears to be a practical chainless safety at last, combining other important advantages, such as a variable gear, variable stroke, and no dead centre. In appearance there is no great difference in design to the every-day cycle. In place of the ordinary bottom bracket, cranks, chain wheels and chain there is substitu ted a special bracket, pivoted to which are two special quadrant levers. Instead of revolving in the usual way these levers rock up and down describing an arc, entirely obviating dead centre. To the pedal end of each quadrant is secured the end of a wire cord (or combination of cord and chain) which passes around a clutch drum on the side of the rear wheel axle. Then up over a small pulley (fixed to the frame under the seat) and down and around another clutch drum on the other side of the wheel; from thence it goes forward and is secured to the other pedal lever. In operation, when one lever is pushed down, the cord turns the clutch, which grips the wheel and drives the machine. The connecting wire up over the pulley, winds the other clutch back, and lifts the other pedal level ready for the next stroke. As the driving mechanism is independent of the wheel any length of stroke may be taken from almost nothing up to 16 inches. The variable gear is obtained in a remarkably simple manner by the peculiar shaped quadrants. When the cranks are half-way down the cord pulls on the minor axis.

The man who rides his bicycle at night and becomes acquainted with stationhouse lodgings because his light goes out may rejoice, says a New York exchange. An electrical expert has come to his aid with a lamp that begins to burn the moment the bicyclist gets astride his wheel and never stops shining until his feet rest again on terra firma. Whether he gets on or off, with premeditation or hurriedly, the brilliant little disc keeps time to his movements. The bicyclist himself furnishes his own light. The revolution of the wheel generates the electricity and its rays are thrown by a new form of reflector, that is a twin patent with the lamp. The apparatus weighs about a pound and a half. The electrical arrangement is produced by an intermittent current, taken from a permanent magnet. As soon as the bicycle wheel revolves the armature produces a brilliant electric spark. This is concentrated by an incandescent lamp, the globe or bulb of which, perfectly round, is about one-fourth as large as the globe of the usual electric office lamp. Naturally, the quicker the bicycle moves the more brilliant is the light. Going at an average speed it shoots a bright, white fixed ray, that one can almost read by it seventy-five feet away. The chief advantage claimed for the new light is that it is non-extinguishable. It never goes out except when the machine is at rest, and then a light is not needed. We are certainly far behind our American cousins in originality. ‘ The Bicycle Cinderella ’ is the latest division of smart society across the Atlantic. All the dancers are mounted on bicycles, and previous to the eventful night several rehearsals are deemed necessary, in order that the performers may become throughlv proficent in executing the evolutions laid out i master of the terpsichorean art Am a signal all mount their wheel, and to the rhythm of music go through a number of intricate figures. Quadrilles, lancers, and marches are the favorite dances. The barn dance on wheels has not yet been brought within the possibilities.

The Thames people have formed an Amateur Athletic and ’Cycle club. Mr E. A. Ransom, of Danevirke, Hawkes Bay, says the local paper, has just completed a novelty in the way of a new bicycle tyre. It is a pneumatic leather tyre, and has been in use a day or two, and seems in every way satisfactory. As compared with the rubber article, the advantages of the leather tyre are that it can be made at a quarter of tho cost, and it is confidently expected that it will last four times as long. It is made of stout material, and does not seem to be at all the worse for contact with stones, which would damage a rubber tyre. The sway of the bicycle promises to increase by even greater proportions than before (writes a contemporary). The popularity of wheel machines as convenient vehicles for pastime is already enormous. In New York, for example, a cycle exhibition attracted over a 100,000 visitors a year ago, “ before the decree had been issued,” the World explains, “that anybody without a bicycle was nobody.” Additional importance is being daily given to bicycles, however, by discoveries of their commercial usefulness. Their possibilities in this way are immense, as the Americans have found out. Machines propelled by horses have been invented by a person who claims to have distanced with it a crack four-oared crew in a three mile race. Bicycle lawnmowers are in use. and so are cycling machines for carrying mails and luggage. A “ cyclist companion ” for ladies has recesses for thread, needles, hairpins, a comb, a mirror, and brush, and other useful and ornamental articles of daily use. In Fracne a military tri-bicycle has been devised from which riflemen can fire without dismounting and an American inventor has patented a rifled cannon for field service, mounted on a tricycle or duplex, a rapid-fire magazine gun being attached to the handle bar, and discharged at will by the pedal motion. The bicycle, in fact, is being rapidly applied to industrial and warlike uses by sea and land, and is completely revolutionising methods of locomotion. Notwithstanding Parsons’ defeat by Martin in the match last Saturday says “ Cyclometer,” I doubt whether the American is a better man than the Australian. Martin has never in his life covered a mile in the time that Parsons has, and their time for that distance (2.27) which is even slower than the New Zealand standard time, shows that it must have been a waiting race. The time for the five-mile, however, is very good. There is no doubt that Martin is just now in his best form ; his riding at Sydnes on the previous Saturday proves that. He is to be congratulated on defeating such a man as Parsons, who has shown himself to be one of the front rank wheelmen of the world.

1895. £ 1894. £ Victoria 58,200 37,278 New Zealand 24,241 16,197 New South Wales .. 21,107 12,084 South Australia 13,933 8,910 West Australia 13,443 1,815 Queensland... 8,303 4,058 Tasmania 2,493 1,349