CYCLING

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 707, 24 September 1903, Page 13

CYCLING

Mr D. Crozier was accorded a welcome back to Auckland by the members of the Auckland Cycling Club on Friday. The proceedings were of a very enthusiastic nature throughout. The Rudge-Whitworth Cycle Club intend having- their opening- run to Cornwall Park on October 3. Lady riders are particularly invited. !*. ♦ * * The crack American riders., Ivor Lawson and Flovd M’Farland, will be passingthrough Auckland by the next A. and A. steamer, (he Sonoma, bound for Sydney. At the N.C.U., England, champion meetS. Jenkins won the quarter-mile and five mill’s events. A. S. Ingram got the quarter-miks amateur, and L. Meredith the twenty-five miles amateur championship. * * • Miss M. Foster beat Miss Palmer’s fifty miles South Roads (Eng.) record of 2hr 38min IBsec by 24min 16s recently. Her time was 2hr 14min 2sec, which also beats L. Meredith’s time over the same course by 7min 40sec. She was paced by a motor cycle. * * M ♦ . -It the New South Wales League of Wheelmen's cycling carnival, in October. the scratch races will probably be run on new lines. Points will be given to the leaders at the end of each lap, so that much of the hangingback as at present exists in long- distance ex-ents will be done away with, and a five miles race will not be determined by a one-lap go. * sir fl fl November 28, December 5 and 12 are the dates chosen for the Austral Wheel Race Meeting, to be held on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The prize-money amounts to £lO5O, £550 going for the wheel race.

'rhe Dunlop Tyre Company have patented an improved single tube racing tvre, which will be available for the coming season. The new features of the tyre arc that it is easily repairable, and further that the fabric pocket has no lap, which is claimed to do away with any possibility of the tyre bursting. Racing men who have examined the new tyre are much taken with its lightness and resiliency. Theweight of a single tyre is from 9oz to 10oz. Racing men before fitting up their mounts for the season should have a look at the latest production.

The celluloid bicycle handle has fairly established itself as) the standard, and seems in a fair way to. drive felt, cork, and rubber off the market (says an English paper). This may fairly be taken as an example of the survival ol the fittest. Rubber, indeed, hasi long since gone out of fashion for the purpose, as it proved intolerably dirty in use. The same objection applies both to cork and felt, which both have the property of absorbing and retaining large quantities of dirt. In fact, the wisdom of making the handles of absorbent material is vei-y doubtful. The perspiration from the hands collects dust from the road, and carries it into the pores of the material, and we have noticed several cases in which cuts upon the fingers or hands have been caused to fester apparently for this reason. It is, of course, possible to wash the handles, but it is difficult to do this thoroughly, while the texture of the felt suffers considerable alteration in the process, and cork is apt to crack and split. Cork handles, and especially the variety in which the cork is reduced to a mere veneer, are always troublesome in this way, and suffer from being leaned against walls, while, a fall is generally fatal to them. Celluloid, on the other hand, is non-abslorbent, it is clean and cool to the touch, and is capable of enduring a great deal of rough usage. It will ‘certainly produce callosities on the palms of the hands, but this applies with almost equal force to the other varieties of handles. On the score of smartness and good appearance there is nothing to touch celluloid, though one could wish that some of the makers would be content with a more modest colouring than they at present affect.