The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-03
CHAINLEss BICYCLES.
SIX Firms Will Place Them on the
Market All Under the Pope Patents.
Brooklyn Eagle.

1AochAyu EdSle
With the passing of every week the SS
model is so much nearer and the interest in
TINS topic has spread from the makers to
me dealers, and then to the public mind.
GREAT Things nave been limited at about q
chalnlesS Wheel but almost the same pre-
oictons were made in the fall of SO and the
year before that, and no definite informa-
tlon about the cycle market of 9S has yet
been given to the public. They are as much
az sea as In the years when the heralded
chainless appeared not but they are evinc-
ing an unprecedented interest in the sftua-
ton. In the first place, the cycle making
neld has been greatly narrowed by the re-
cent cut in prices. The first cost of cycle
manufacture is very great, and ii is only
the very largest firms that can afford to
make and sell a really first class wheel at
the present market price. The market Is
being cleared of the smaller dealers at a
rate that may be gathered from the state
ment that twenty-one failures in nineteen
days followed the reduction instituted by
colonel Pope. Where there We're almost
one thousand different cycles on the market
or 81 there will be probably less than half
that number in 80, when the market has
been cleared of the leftover stock. The
field Is thus left to the larger and weather.
manufacturers, and the situation is prac-
tically III their hands.
Now 1t can be announced that at least six
of the largest firms in the country will
place chaiEless wheels on the market in
large numbers. and thus for the first time
the chainless model will be In general use.
That these machines will supplant the old
style chain gear within the next year IS
not claimed by their most enthusiastic sup
believed that next years sales of the chain-
less will approximate more than a small
percentage of the sale of the chain model.
The same firms will probably continue the
manufacture of the chain wheel. and the
coming year will mark the experimental
stage in the career of the chainless-itS
probationary stage, when the public VIII
either adopt or discard 1t.
One reason why the new model cannot be
expected to supplant the old model next
year will be the increased cost for a chain
less, considerably in excess of $lo0, propa-
lily. Until the makers have got back the
cost of the very expensive new machinery
there is not likely to be any reduction in
the price. The public last year, and Tor the
past few years have been demanding
cheaper bicycles, and it is, therefore, far
from likely that they will now pay an in
crease over the old high-grade price for an
unknown quantity. There IS a certain num-
any price, but until the buyer has seen the
machine thoroughly and successfully tested
he will stick to the old-style chain Wneel:
The expected return from abroad of Colonel
Albert A. Pope, A. q. SpaHlding and W. A.
Redding has started the interested ones 70
talking even more than their departure ola.
That their trip had some bearing upon the
chainless wheel there is no doubt. Colonel
Pope has bought up nearly every american
patent similar in design to the style or
chainless he will make. He has, however,
contracted to allow the Spaulding, Keating,
Warwick, Barnes and Sterling mahuIac-
turers to make a chainless under his patent
rights. This machine is to be similar 10 the
Acatene gear of the English, 1t is said. This
is a DeVel gear device Will iWo SH6dSAii5
cogs at either end of a power rod-a pair
OF the cogs being fixed where the front
and rear sprocket wheels OF the chaln
wheel are placed. The power rod will run
through the lower right rear stay, making
an extremely neat mechanism, guarded
from the dust and elements and great
things are claimed for 1t. 1t is said to have
been given an extraordinarily severe test
ing at Hartford where it is frequently seen
upon the streets, and to have stood up won
derfully. few models of the Wheel are
expected to be sent to different parts OF the
country within a short time.
Regarding the present condition or the
market as may have been expected, the pig
makers are beginning to feel better, with
the smaller ones forced out of the compell-
ton. Colonel Pope openly declares that he
wished to clear the field, and ne has cone
So and the business is now setting down
to a substantial basis where the wheels are
sold at fair profit.
The days of d9 in the cycle trade are
gone and it is now nearing the surVlVal OF
the fttest stage devoid of the extraordi-
nary conditions that have heretofore Sur
rounded 1t. There is no other instance II
history where the makers of an article or
commerce have guaranteed 1t for long
neriod and surrounded it with other similar
inducements to the extent that has been
done with the bicycle. What has heretofore
been spent in lavish advertising, ETC., viii
now remain In the pockets of the pur-f
chaser He has become too keen to pur-A
chase gold bricks and the fate OF the chain /
less rests with itself.
If it is proven to be superior TO the chain
wheel It will sell In limited numbers at any
rrice-in great numbers at fair price II
not it will drop into the pit OF faliure
where so many supposed improvements on
the chain gear have gone.