CYCLING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 308, 18 June 1896, Page 3

CYCLING.

During last year there were 2,200 applications in England alone for patents in relation to cycling. Cyclist Porta draws £5 a week insurance in case of accident. Recently applying to increase the insurance to £2O a week, the company refused. Porta then confidently remarked:—“ When I was not insured my arm broke me without trying. Now I get £5 a week insured. I try my neck to break, and cannot even skin my ankle.” Michael used a 112 gear recently when racing in Paris against Jacquelin. After the- match, the little W elshman covered 7 miles in 12min 49 2-ssec, to which every mile must have been down to wbrld-s record time.

The Yankees are the greatest advertisers on the face of the earth. They make a study of it, and many striking and novel advertisements are to be met with in looking over American files. Here is one from a cycle maker who has been acting upon the injunction to “ search the. scriptures” to a purpose somewhat less exalted than was intended : —‘fWho hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath much wrath ? Verily, he who owneth a high grade bicycle which costeth him SOdol. and 10 per cent, off for cash. For behold it breaketh and casteth him into the dust, yea, even into the mire, and costeth in the end many pieces of gold. But if your wheel is a ”

An interesting table of speeds has been compiled by an English cycling paper, with a view to showing that the cycle is near the top of the list. The first record given is that of light, which travels 196,000 miles a second, a pace which even the most ambitious record breaker will never want to move at, and the last record on the list will not be attacked often. It is that made by a man in a tub, viz., a mile in 70 minutes, or 6 miles in 7 hours. Slow as this pace is, I expect tbe common snail’s pace is a long way behind it, only that no one has yet had patience enough to check a snail’s mile. Second on the list is electricity, 188,000 miles a second. As it has been calculated that an earthquake will travel round the world in 3| hours, this movement is accorded third place. . Sound gets over a mile in ssec, without pacemakers, and the frigate bird has been known to fly 200 miles in an hour (probably in America). The Australian crow has a record of 2min 40sec for a mile, not round a track, but straight away of course, for a crow-fly is always supposed to be straight. Most likely in this instance the start was given from a shotgun fire. A bicycle has been ridden over a mile in Imin 25sec, and a running horse travelled a mile in Imin 351 sec. A man has run the same distance in 4min 12f sec, while a man rowing takes smin Isec, and walking 6min 23sec, or swimming 27min 21 2-ssec. A duck’s time for a mile is set down at 40sec. This was no doubt timed by a sportsman after the “ competitor” had just missed an ounce of N 0.3 A mile on a bicycle in Imin 11 3-ssec 1 This was ridden in America, of course. The venue was a suburb of Denver, Colorado, the date 27th March, and the “flyer” was M. O. Dennes, a member of the Denver Wheel Club. He was lifted along by a first-rate blizzard blowing down—or up, for there was a slight upgrade—a straight stretch of road at the rate of 50 miles an hour, and his mount was geared to 107 in. He was timed by four watches, two at each end, and as he flew over the startingpoint the two watches were snapped at 2.45.352-5, the other two registering 2 46.47 as he crossed the finishing tape. Dennis is a butcher by trade, which is a singularly appropriate calling for such a slippery customer. He was unable to stop his machine within half a mile, and for a time he was utterly unable to use his voice.

The English cycle thief (says a contemporary) has hit upon an effective method of “ obliging a lady.” With all the outward semblance of a gentleman, he frequents parks and other popular haunts of lady riders. Having selected his victim, he suggests that her tyres are too soft. He kindly offers to pump them. Then he tightens the nuts, and, having displayed an amount of tender solicitude which draws copious expressions of gratitude from the fair recipient, he suggests that he had better try it just to see that all is right. Of course permission is given, and the lady has a rude awakening. Two ladies were victimised in one day by this means recently. The Melbourne Bicycle Club, after paying all accounts, has a credit balance in hand of £1,600. The Club ought to expend a portion of it in laying down a first-class track, which is very much needed in Melbaurne. Out of the 1,592 fatal accidents on the road in England in 1894, traction engines were responsible for 15 deaths, tram cars 55, other road vehicles 1,166, horses alone 252, perambulators 4, while 30 were attributed to cycling. As this number includes both those riding cycles and those ridden on by them, it will be seen what an awfully dangerous vehicle the cycle is!