Evening star., 1897-01-16
SOME CYCLE CHAT

The policy Of taxing bicycles has been
put into operation much nearer home than
is perhaps generally supposed. There Is
little village in Maryland, not many miles
from this city. which has a government of
Its own, and town council and mayor AS
usual, the town council enacts the ordi-
nances for the government Of the town
and devises means for raising revenue. At
a recent meeting the city fathers decided to
pace tax of 81 upon ill bicycles owned
by residents Of the village. The regulation
vas passed in due Order received the sigma
ture Of the chief official and with due cere-
mony was Put into execution.
All Of the residents who owned bicycles
did not take fayorably to the scheme. The
objections were more strenuous than the
city fathers imagined. and the enforcement
Of the regulation did not bring as much
money into the municipal treasury as was
calculated. The matter was taken into the
court by some of the bicyclists and the
court sustained the plaintiffs and could not
see why wheels as a vehicle were discrfrn-
mated against The result was that a de-
cision was rendered declaring the ordinance
to be unconstitutional
In the attempt to lower records every
thing Is taken into consideration Even the
lightest thing that would prove in the least
count. The successful trainer leaves notIl-
ing undone which will help his charge. De-
tails which the general public would con-
sider Insignificant are regarded as imDor-
tant by the racing men and their hackers.
all OF which tends to show to what a fine
point the record-breaking mania has been
reduced. In this style of racing the Amer
lean riders are far ahead, though for long
distance racing the European racers lead
Take the case of a rider being paced by
quad. There Is another rider on the track
f011o L. L.
Ieliowing nim' as ne hangs close to the
rear of the PAGERS. No one for a moment
would think that the first man behind the
quad would have a big advantage, from a
racing point OF view. over the man who
rides Immediately behind him and is second
from the pacing machine. Yet this ia tr1,c
The second man to keep up has to expend
greater amount Of exertion than the man
directly behind the PAGERS. The explana-
ton Is simple enough. The big pacing ma
chine, In cutting through the air. creates a
sort OF vacuum in its trail The man
VINO follows directly behind gets the fulI
nenene ~, OF the vacuum, and the air rushing
IN acts as sort Of a suction and helms to
force him along. Not so with the second
man behind the pacing machine. Conse-
quentiy, to overcome the advantage gained
by the man in front he has to nedaj thai
much faster, meaning more work and nors
exertion for him.
In 1893 John s. johnson. while at Inde-
pendence, Iowa, rode Quarter miIa
standing start, paced, In the remarlahIy
fast time of % seconds. This record has
never been equaled. and is one of the
oioest WORLDS records in existence While
numerous attempts have been made to
lower 1t, not one has been successful. and
from present indications the record will
stand few years longer. Otto Ziegler.
win ny1rg start. unpaced, made the dis
tance in two-ffths of a second above the
time. while the English record for the
same distance and the same riding as
Liegier Is 2S 2-5 seconds. Johnson made
the fast time soon after the Introduction
Of the quad. and while he has never been
apie 10 equal the record. > he has come the
closest to 1t of any riders. Ruring his
recent trip to England he rode the dis
lance In one-f1fth of a, second above the
time. ...tal
The time has come wt,eu experiments are
numerous in the line II substituting for
the chain some other driving power for
the bicycle. The public is well acquair ted
with the Introduction of the chainless cycle
and the bevel gear. While the latter has
given favorable results, it has not as vet
been able to reach the plane occupied by
the chain. one of the rudiments of phys
les being that In transmitting power 1t is
necessary to employ an appliance that
gives the least friction One prominent
manufacturer maintains, that the beveI
gear is In no way equal to chain, upon
the ground that in transmitting power
the easiest methods and methods which give
the least exertion are requisites. and thus
lar the chain serves as lhe mos. practical.
The chairman of the racing board will
not accept records which are merely an
nounced In the newspapers. Competent
offctals, and at least one L. a. W. repre-
sentative, must be present to act in the
mistakes In the past. w. w. Hamilton does
not hold the paced mile record because of
slight infraction of the rules. The case of
NJ. F. Dirnberger Is brought to mind. In
he
Louisville to demolish the records, and
with the assistance Of big corps of train
ers made careful preparations. For TWO
weeks he rode there until he was in prime
form and ready for the big undertake
Dlrnberger succeeded in lowering several
records. but few weeks later was In
formed that his labor was for his pains.
He did not know that such events required
saEctioning by the racing board and in
consequence never had his records accepted.
One Of the causes that is believed to have
advanced the bicycle in popularity Is varie-
ty iI the color of the frame. There was
time when 1t was only possible to secure a
wheel the enameling on which was Of
solid black color Year by year changes
were made. and at the present time BIZ
cycles are turned out the frame and rims
OF which are almost all of the colors Of the
rainbow The percentage of black en-
ameied wheels is very small compared with
the other colors now in use. though there is
hardly any doubt the black Is used mere
generally than any other color. There is
no prospect Of an abatement of the demand
for multi-colored frames. in spite of the
Characterization Of such by local house.
that all riders of gaily colored machines are
ursalaried advertising agents for the par
ticUlar machine. The business of manufac-
turing enamel for bicycles has grown to
wonderful proportions.
There are some manufacturers who have
held out against the demands Of some of
the riders. and persisted in turning out
only plain black enameled frame, but the
coming season will witness change in
their policy. These manufacturers have
endeavored in vain to stem the tide of
multi-colored frames. but to keep in the
trade they are obliged to deviate from their
former methods. Why cyclists prefer a
gaily colored wheel is something that is
hard to understand. There was & time
when this could be explained by the fact
that many riders prefer something out of
the ordinary, but now that the multI-colors
nave sprung into general use. there exists
no good reason. There is really no ad-
vantage in having a bright-colored frame,
beyond possibly 1t does not show the dust
as much as plain black frame. On the
other hand. scolored wheel will show the
resulfs OF wear and will chip more readily
than one In black
The bicycle in the patent office is classed
In division No 7, which atncludes bicycles