ON THE WHEEL

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 472, 10 August 1899, Page 4

ON THE WHEEL

| By

Cyclos.

There is every likelihood of the Pioneer Bicycle Club and the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Club joining forces. Prominent members of both clubs favor the proposal, and it is safe to say that it will be carried out. The new club will attend to the amateur branch of athletics and cycling only, and when it gets going those League men who predicted the downfall of amateurism in Christchurch will be tearing their hair and pitching more fairy tales about the Cyclists’ Alliance and Athletic Association.

The more prominent men in the League, those who run the show, pull the wires, etc., are getting tired af parading before the public as supporters of amateurism, and are now coming out in their true colors and booming cash cycling a bit. They were given the hint by some League men outside Canterbury to stop slandering the Alliance and do a little towards strengthening the position of the professional cyclist. We shall soon hear of the League passing a resolution to drop its alleged amateur branch and run cash only. The Cyclists’ Alliance will then come along and meet the League on level ground. And the Alliance being the only amateur cycling sports governing body in New Zealand will be recognised by all governing bodies in the land. “ The League of New Zealand Wheelmen (says an English cycling journal) has been recognised as the governing body of cycling in that colony.” I must correct this par, as it is calculated to mislead other journals. The League of New Zealand Wheelmen is the governing body of cash cycling in this colony. The New Zealand Cyclists’ Alliance governs amateur cycling, and has done so ever since cycling became a sport. The Alliance was in exis‘ance twenty-seven years before the League was ever thought of. The League’s wire-pullers, as u Prodigal,” of the Sydney Referee., calls those who are at the head of the League of New Zealand Wheelmen, have captured another lamb to assist them to carry out their programme. This time the League, or rather the Executive, has deliberately broken one of the principal rules in order to secure the services of a man who will support the wire-pullers. They have foisted an auctioneer who, “ has opened a department for the growing trade in bicycles,” on to a seat on the Executive. Now, this is too bare-faced altogether. Any man who deals in bicycles is not eligible to hold any position in the League, and no man who sells bikes would have had the ghost of a chance to get on the League had he not been the nominee of the League wire-pullers. League management at present is as rotten as it well can be.

So far as the monetary considerations are concerned, there is not an overwhelming inducement for the Australian cracks to'visit the World’s Championship Carnival at Montreal, Canada. At that meeting the first prize for the One Mile Professional Championship of the World is only £4O, whereas £3OO or £4OO will be distributed amongst the placed men in the next Austral Wheel Race. The final race for the Grand Prix, the first prize of which was worth £320, was decided at Paris on Sunday, June 25. The distance was 2000 metres, and as theie were many competitors several

heats were necessary. Bourillon and Jacquelin, the speedy French cracks, and Eden, the Dutchmen, were defeated in their heats by a couple of dying Italians in Tommaselli and Momo. The two latter and Meyers, of Holland, contested the final, which produced a very exciting race. After a great go, Tommaselli won by inches from the Hollander, who was only separated from Momo by less than half a foot. The time was 4min 12 3-ssec.

Summersgill, tho cyclist who was beaten by Paul Albert, the German rider, in the recent English N.O.U. Championships, during his short career has won prizes and medals amounting to close on £lOOO in value

A cyclist recently sued a Pontefract publican for the value of a bicycle lost from the premises while the rider was obtaining refreshment inside the hotel. The judge non-suited the plaintiff, because the cyclist had not given the machine in custody of the landlord • orhis accredited agent, and His Worship suggested that means should be adopted whereby owners of bicycles could be readily known by innkeepers. By and by, perhaps, wheelmen will have their photos, enamelled on their machines. America’s great quartette of unpaced riders is now retired, muses a U.S. exchange. Hamilton, of Denver, whose unpaced record of Imin 55 2-ssec was lately allowed ; Clinton Coulter, whose record of Imin 39 l-ssec created so much, consternation; Walter Sanger, whose best mark was 2min l-ssec, tying Hamilton’s record ; and Fred Titus, the “ unpaced king,” are all out of the game. One of the latest freaks which has been devised is due to a Hornsey (England) inventor, whose object was to reduce the resistance of the air in cycling. To dothis, he has devised a machine on which the cyclist lies at full length, face downwards.

It is little wonder that racing is to be boomed in Germany next season, when the promoter can command such profitable gates. On one of the days of the Berlin Grand Prix last year, £3750 was the sum drawn, as much as £1 being paid for a seat. What will eventually prove to be the most important improvement since the invention of the pneumatic tyre is the new self-adjusting ball bearing. .By means of a marvellously clever device, the bearings adjust themselves to the exact point where there is the least friction. If the bearings are too loose, the weight of the rider forcing the balls against the disc causes the latter to wind itself up to the proper fit. If too tight the opposite action takes place. The inventor is Mr J. B. Dunlop, the inven» tor of the pneumatic tyre, and the device is regarded among experts as a decided improvement. Next season it will probably be incorporated into the best class of machines.

The Pioneer Bicycle Club’s delegates to the New Zealand Cyclists’ Alliance are Messrs A. H. Cotter and W. Gunson.

What promise to be a very sensational match was recently arranged in Paris. M. Rene de Knyff, who paced Huret, the winner of the Bordeaux-Paris Road Race, wagered 2000 francs to 1000 that Huret could beat M. de Lucenski’s 10-horse power automobile over a 250 kilometres (about 155 miles) course. The other side took up the challenge, and the following conditions were arranged :—Lucenski, with his car, and Huret, with his machine, to start from Tours, the latter to be paced by De Knyff, Charron (winner ParisBordeaux Motor Race), Giradot, and other famous chauffeurs, tho first arriving at Paris, Porte-Maillot, to be the winner.

By the latest English files I see that J. Platt-Betts has entered into competition racing, and to the surprise of all concerned succeeded at his first attempt in defeating such cracks as F. Chinn (champion sprinter of England), J. Green, Gascoyne, and others in an important five mile scratch race, after a grand neck-and-neck struggle with Chinn.

The records committee of the N. S. W. Cyclists’ Union received from O. S. De Lissa application for the 10 miles record put up on July 1. As the ride was not in accordance with the rules of the union, the committee had no power to grant the certificate. W. Maidment also applied for the 50 miles record made on May 24, and instructions were given him to obtain proofs and certificates, when the ride would be recognised. F. T. Bidlake, the English expert, is thoroughly enamoured of free wheels. He says : —Some writers talk of the trouble of going from fixed to free wheels. To me the annoyance is to revert from free to fixed. After free wheeling one is disgusted by having to keep on moving the feet, by having those frequent chances of doing nothing thrown away. One loses that exquisite steadiness of motionless travel through grease, round corners, and in tight places in traffic. To me the return to a fixed wheel seems like a backward step into the dark ages. I crave for it on my tandem ; I must have it on my new machine as soon as Mills can be persuaded to produce it, else my roadster Whippet will oftener get an airing than my lighter, speedier Raleigh. Nor do I claim to be unique. I firmly believe the free wheel is coming for everybody. The growth of brake power opens the way to this consummation. .As brakeless riders come to use modern rim brakes instead of pussycat strokers they will learn never to back pedal, and from that it is a simple step to the great emancipation of not even having to follow round when the pace is as high as you want.