The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-06-29

HIGH TURNS ON SAN FRANCIsco's TRACK.
scheduled for July 4, among them the
Poorman road race at Cincinnati and the
Observation-Disclosures road race between
those cities.
Allen and sachtlebeu have just completed
their wonderful trip around the world,
Frank G.. Lenz is pedaling through the
wilds of China on his globe girdling tour,
Tom Roe is speeding toward San Francisco
in his endeavor to cross the continent in 65
days and break the S6-day record, and
Frank Beedleson is working his one leg for
all it Is worth in an attempt to ride from
San Francisco to New York.
That bicycling is not the sport of a state
or a section is demonstrated by the fact
that three splendid new tracks have Just
been completed at such widely divergent
points as Waltham, Mass, Chicago and
San Francisco. The Chicago track is the
most interesting of the three to wheelmen,
for the reason that over it will be run the
great races for the international champion
ships ON Aug 7-12. The track, which is
situated in the Chicago baseball park, on
the South Side is one-third Of mile in
circumference, and the surface is composed
of nearly three inches of the finest Joliet
gravel laid over bed of screened macadam.
On the turns the banking for 150 feet
reaches height of 6 feet. There are two
straight stretches each Of which is 436 feet
long The turns are 35 feet wide, the back
stretch 25 feet and the homestretch 40 feet.
One hundred arc lights will be erected so
that the admirers of wheeling at the
Worlds fair may witness night racing.
Chairman Raymond expects that at least
1000 bicyclists will be entered for the Ma
II A s,,N. . ,,I
August. Among the racing men who will
probably compete are the champions or
crack riders of a dozen countries.
The new 5-lap track of the Bay City
wheelmen near San Francisco is probably
the most remarkable wheeling course in
America. 1t is egg shaped, and the turns,
which are plank platforms covered with
two inches of well tamped concrete, are
banked up 10 feet high When a rider
strikes the turns, he is almost at an angle
OF 65 degrees with mother earth. The in
cline is so great that a wheelman must ride
at high speed or tip over. What bicyclists
term 'loafing" is consequently impossible
on the Bay City track for the reason that
the rider who does not maintain good pace
will be very apt to find himself tangled up
with his wheel at the bottom OF the 49,
foot embankments. At top speed riders on
this track are at right angles with the sur
face of the turns just as if they were on the
level, and to a spectator they seem to be on
the point of falling over. They would do
so were it not for the fact that their speed
practically offsets the power of gravity.
This high banking was absolutely neces-
sary, for the turns are so sudden that riders
could not make them successfully were the
track laid level. The straight stretches of
the course are only 1856 feet long, but there
is quite an extended parabolic curve in the
approaches to the sharp turns where the
high banking occurs. The home stretch is
only 80 feet wide, and except at the turns
the outer edge of the track is six inches
higher than the inner. The course is very
fast, and some record breaking may occur
during the July race meets.