The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-04-08
Bicycle MN ARE BUSY
THE CHAINLESS WHEEL THIS SEA
SON is NO LONGER AN
EXPERIMENT
CYCLE PATHS NEED REPAIR
Riders Are Earnestly Urged to Send
In Their Dollars for Cycle
Path Tags at
Once.

Now Is the winter of our discon-
tent, in the parlance Of Shakespc are, GER
tainly does not apply to the bicycle deal
ers. Indeed, this is the most suspicious
season for the wheel business, and sew
eral thousand wheels have been sold and
traded within the past ten days. There
are only about half dozen exclusively
bicycle houses in the city, although as
many other firms carry bicycles and make
a specially of that line. Business has
been of a most satisfactory character, tha
wheel dealers report, and in most cases
the only difficulty experienced is to get
wheels fast enough to supply the trade.
Bicycle manufacturers have the manu-
facture of wheels down so fine now that
it seems scarcely possible that any fur
Their Improvement could be made. The
chainless wheel this year is lighter by
five pounds than the product of 1899, and
no longer an experiment. Indeed, the
question often presents itself, 'Win the
chainless supersede the chain wheel now
in popular use?" No adequate answer
can be vouchsafed, as the manufacture
of bicycles contains very large element
of uncertainty Who knows but ten years
from now we may be riding an altogether
different model? However, the chain
wheel is in many ways satisfactory, and
unless the chainless can compete with the
chain wheel, the latter will remain the
bicycle of popular use.
St. Paul has in the neighborkood of six
ty miles of cycle paths, but it will require
large outlay to put them in repair, g
several long stretches of path have been
entirely destroyed during the winter and
spring, and, without exception, the entire
cycle path system will need considerable
repairing.
OF the 1900 cycle path badges that have
been placed in the hands of secretary
Slime, of the Cycle Path association, 800
have at this time been disposed Of, and
within thirty days it is expected that the
greater portion of the 1900 will be sold.
Needed repairs on all the paths will re-
quire no small outlay of money, and as
result it will be necessary to sell consid-
erably more badges if any new paths are
to be built.
A meeting of the directors Of the st.
Paul Cycle Path association Will be held
tomorrow afternoon at 5, in the rooms
of the Commercial club. The Associated
Wheelmen will meet Tuesday.
The bicycle racing season in the East
will be opened at Vailsburg, N. j., on
May 10, and If weather encourage, week
earlier.
Cooper and Kiser are in New York,
training on. the road and at Berkeley
Oval, pending negotiations for trade
backing for their trip abroad. If ar
rangements cannot be concluded they will
go to Louisville and begin practice for
the early races until their possible, later
departure for the exposition and the in
ternational championship races. at Paris
in August and September. Newhouse,
I<imble. Maya and Stone are already at
Louisville, and Fred Sims, Mertens, Nc
Eachren, Turville and Thompson are do
ing their preliminary work at Woodside
Park, Philadelphia.
wheelmen who tour abroad will find
the foreign edition of THE Cyclists
Touring Clubs Handbook and Guide for
1907 of assistance. Part l is preliminary,
and gives mass of information as to
hotel arrangements made by the club,
railway and steamboat rates, a wheel
mans vocabulary in four languages. and
many useful hints to wheelmen. Then in
three divisions covering the continent
come list of towns, with names of hotels,
a statement of their charges, and the
addresses of the clubs repairers. The
compilation is prepared under the direc-
ton Of e. r. Shipton, the secretary of
the Cycling Tourists club, and will doubt