CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 880, 17 January 1907, Page 12

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

The Auckland and Otahuhu Rudge Touring Club will hold a sports meeting at Otahuhu on February 2.

Mr. W. B. Leyland made the run from Wellington to Auckland, via New Plymouth, in 3% days, the Darracq bringing him through in good style, despite the bad roads.

There is a. movement on foot (says the Canterbury “ Times”) to get up a hundred miles New Zealand road race, for prizes aggregating £lOO. Mr. W. McAllum, who successfully carried out the road race at West Eyreton, has the matter in hand, and is convening a .meeting of representatives of clubs from Christchurch. Kaiapoi, Rangiora, Oxford, Oust and West Eyreton, to be held at Rangiora on January 17, to discuss the proposal. It is suggested that the course should be from Christchurch to Oxford, via Rangiora, and back to the city, via Sheffield.

The afternoon meeting organised by the Canterbury Automobile Association, to be held in the Exhibition sports ground on February 7, provides for ten events, which include bending races, tortoise races, starting and stopping races, Turk’s head and pig-stick-ing competitions, thread-the-needle races, potato races, tilting at the rings, glass of water races, lady passenger races, and tube changing competitions.

A. V. Doherty, 3% min, won the tenmile road race promoted by the Otahuhu Rudge Cycling Club on Saturday. O. Malvern was second, and W. Taylor and J. S. Foubister a dead heat for third.

Owing to the continuous wet weather there has been no motoring in Auckland of late. The roads are in a fearfully bad state, perhaps worse than they have ever been before at the time of year.

Something of a surprise was occasioned by the arrival of Piet Dickentmann in Adelaide by the Barbarossa toward the end of last month. Dickentmann, it will be remembered, visited Australia in company with Thaddeus Robl some three or four years ago, and since has been successful on the Continent. No word was received that either he or his companion, Kind, was coming, owing, perhaps, to the trip being a flying one. It is expected, however, that if arrangements can be made, these riders will give exhibitions of pace following. Dickentmann holds the world’s long-dis-tance pace championship. He also holds the record for 100 kilometres (62 1-5 miles) in 1 hour 6min llsec.

A very important step has been taken by the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, with the object of removing, as far as possible, what may be termed the “ fictitious horse-power evil.” Very wisely it has decided to give official sanction to as simple a formula as possible, and naturally enough the rating is based upon cylinder dimensions. Obviously, however, it is only applicable to petrol engines, and even for them it cannot represent the actual horse-power that is available, since there are many features other than cylinder dimensions that have a very pronounced effect upon the power an engine can give. The formula is, 'therefore, merely intended to be used as a rough-and-ready guide for the use of purchasers of cars, and the result of its application amounts to nothing more than an estimation of the minimum horse-power that may be expected. Figures obtained by its use are, nevertheless, approximately correct for most present-day engines. The official formula is the bore of cylinder squared, multiplied by the number of cylinders, divided by 2%, the product being the rated power. Of course this formula is for rating only, and it is not to be considered as an accurate or scientific calculation of actual horse-power. The probabilities are that the British automobile manufacturers will adopt this rating for their catalogues.

It is a matter of common knowledge (writes “Fortis”) that the fundamental elements of tyre comfort in motor cars is larger tyres and larger wheels, and the necessity for their adoption is becoming more marked every day. On the score of economy the car manufacturer bought and fitted tyres as small as possible, and endeavoured to absolve himself of all responsibility concerning them. That is to say, once the car was delivered the buyer had recourse only to the tyre-maker. Many otherwise good cars were spoiled in this way, and it was at last realised that a decided change was taking place. Judging from the specifications in detail of several of next year’s patterns, both wheels and tyres have been increased, wheels ranging up to 36in in diameter being

common, and only the lightest of the single-cylinder runabouts have 30in wheels. Four and four and a-half meh tyres were considered truly ponderous two or three years ago; now they have become common, and the sin is no longer the exception. The motorist has continuously and consistently demanded a more durable type of tyre, and the manufacturer has not been slow to respond, and it has been proved that with bigger tyres complamts are growing less each year.

Probably more nerve, alertness, and quickness of judgment, followed 'by instantaneous action, are required in driving a racing car in one of the big international motor races than in any other form of sport, an example of which is afforded in an incident that occurred in the recent big American automobile contest for the Vanderbilt Cup, which, but for the intuitive and lightning-like grasping of. the situation, might have resulted in a bad, if not a fatal, accident. The actors in this exciting incident were Duray in his Dietrich car and his mechanician. At the moment when the struggle was most intense, a tyre-carrier, to which a removable rim was attached, broke loose, and threatened by its violent slashing, to make a hole in the petrol tank placed underneath. Duray’s mechanician, perceiving what had happened, bent over from his seat and caught the flying rim, and, at the same instant, the powerful Dietrich, piloted in masterly fashion by Duray, took a dangerous “ hairpin” corner at full speed. The centrifugal force exerted by the pace of the car and the weight of the rim which he held in his hand almost overbore the mechanician, and he would certainly have fallen had not Duray, seeing at a glance the perilous position of his assistant, caught him by one hand while holding the steering gear with the other, and dragged him back to his seat without in the least slackening his speed. Such is the nerve of the men who handle the huge racing monitors in the big international motor contests.

The advent of the motor-car has drawn attention to the fact that the average road surveyor, in planning a new road or repairing an old one, seems quite unable to get out of the bad habit of giving an excessive camber to his road. This practice, adopted with the idea of draining the road, always defeats its own object, because too much slope in the sides of a road renders it so uncomfortable that all traffic works up to the highest point. Thus all the wear is concentrated on the crown of the road, apart from the fact that the slow traffic necessarily becomes an obstruction to the faster traffic. Where the traffic is heaviest, holes and hollows form, which collect the water, and this water is the most powerful of all destructive agents on roads. Water laying too long on roads is abosrbed, and softens the surface, which becomes cut up by traffic, and more holes form. Road surveyors know this well,and the slope of a road from crown to sides is designed to carry off water. But it can be overdone, and usually is. It would be better to lay the road flatter, and thus secure more even wear over the surface, if at the expense of slower drainage while the surface is new.

“The Story of a Great Ride” is the title of a booklet which shows the cycling capacity of a woman in good training. To ride day after day an average distance of 128 miles would, in itself, be a great accomplishment for most cyclists; to include in this some of the worst roads in England makes it still greater. Storms had to be encountered which reduced the roads to quagmires in places, and caused hotel-keepers in the wilder parts to warn the fair rider that she proceeded at the risk of her life. Miss Rosa Symonds well-known as a vegetarian cyclist, left the Marble Arch, London, to ride almost round Great Britain. Her route was from London to Land’s End, thence due north to John o’ Groats, the uttermost extremity of Scotland, and back to London. Four times before had Miss Symonds accomplished this journey, her previous best being 15 days 21 hours 32 minutes. This fastest time was accomplished bn a bicycle fitted with a two-speed gear, but she now essayed the task on a bicycle fitted with a three-speed gear.

The ordinary monthly meeting of the Auckland Automobile Association took place on Tuesday. Dr. Purchas and Mr Rhodes were appointed judges to decide as to the result of the North Island Reliability Contest. It was decided to return to

Messrs. Ryan and Co. their entrance money for the contest, the disastrous fire having destroyed the cars which were to take part. Mr. McDonald’s entrance fee was also returned, his car having been wrecked when on the trip to Auckland. The next run was fixed for January 26, when the meet will be held at Princes street. The run will be to Cornwall Park, where the members will be the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Petford at afternoon tea.