The Motosacoche.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 October 1906, Page 343

The Motosacoche.

Messrs. Herbert H. Smith have supplied us with the following extract from the Motor Cycle, of. May 21st., 1906: — 'it is a matter of regret that the competition for light-weight motor bicycles held by the Allgememe Motor-fahrer-Verband over a course of 178 kilometers in the Vienna and Semmermg district on the 6th inst., was attended with such bad weather. The conditions were most unfavourable, as the rain fell in torrents, and turned the streets into a veritable quagmire, which proved a serious obstacle not only for the light-weight machines, but also for heavy ones, and even for autocars. Of the eleven motor cyclists who started, only two managed to complete the course. In the competition were three i£ h.p. Austria, three i\ h.p. Motosacoche, two \\ h.p. Schiebert, and three \\ h.p. Bree motor bicycles. The winner was Hemrich Drager, on a Motosacoche, in Bh. 15m.., representing an average of just over thirteen miles per hour. Baumgartner, on a \\ h.p. Bree, finished second in 9 h. 17 mm. The result, considering the unfavourable weather, is very good. The bicycles complete, with the motor and fittings, weighed from seventy-seven pounds upwards, and the winner carried a twelvestone rider over the 109 miles of heavy roads at a rate exceeding thirteen miles per hour, including the climb of the Semmermg hill, which in Austria is considered a score for the light-weight motor bicycle.

Mr. Henry Sturmey, the well-known English motorist and authority on cars, recently wrote to The Motor, London, as follows • — Admitting the pleasure of riding in a six or eight cylinder car, it must also be admitted that a great deal of comfort and smoothness of running will be found m a good smgle-cylinder vehicle, properly equipped m the way of fly-wheel. Last week I had a friend staying with me for a few days who brought his smgle-cylinder Cadillac with him, and I had a very pleasant run on it. Except for a few seconds at starting, or when the spark was left advanced a little too long on a stiff grade, the throbbing of the engine was barely noticeable, so that under general conditions of driving, the car ran as smoothly and as steadily as all but the most fastidious could desire, and when the remarkable difference in complication and number of parts is taken into consideration, I really do not thmk that, for the use of the" average man," there is much in favour of the smglecylinder. I took my friend for this run over a fairly undulating country, and it was really remarkable the way in which the little car took quite considerable grades " on her top," so that we only got on the low gear — there were only two speeds — three or four times in a 20 miles run, which, after all, is not very much to grumble at.