MOTOR CYCLE NOTE.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 5, 1 March 1911, Page 570

MOTOR CYCLE NOTE.

'lt is really a most - remarkable fact that the sport and pastime of motor cycling—which for a year or two appeared to hang fire in this country—has 'so - rapidly regained its lost ground and reached the pominent position it holds to-day. When one seeks for a single main reason to account for this, none is forthcoming; but by looking back, and comparing the present-day mount with its antediluvian sire/ one can see the many small contributory causes which in the aggregate were sufficient to hold the sport back until they were overcome. We know to the full how unpleasant a side-slip is with even the modern low frame motor cycle, from whose saddle it is now possible to slip as the machine slips, and so avoid' coming a cropper with the machine. What it was like to have a fall with the old-time machine, with its lofty frame and high centre of gravity, is now luckily only a memory. In those days the trouble was not over with the fall, for even after picking the machine up it was a Herculean task to get it going afresh. And then, again, the tire troubles. Non-skid tiies were not obtainable, while the canvas in the ordinary variety was a continual source of tiouble. With the present day scientifically constructed "Dunlop" studded cover, tire troubles are fortunately few, whilst thousands of miles can now be ridden on one cover, even when fitted to the driving wheel of a powerful motor cycle. Moreover, those early machines were under-powered, and the process of evolution came to a dead halt until manufacturers realised that what was necessary was to give the machine sufficiency of power to fulfil the demands of the road. .