The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-11
FOLLOWING MOTOR MACHINES.
Dangers Experienced by Fast Cy-
cIists Who Ride After PAGERS.

"A bicyclist who follows motor pace
| risks his life every time he goes into a
race. The excitement of the game an6
| the incessant danger that turks in the
| sport are too strong to be resisted.
Il would just as soon take my chances
with the fellow who put himself inside
a barrel and went through the rapids at
Niagara Falls as follow pace in a race
on the high-banked tracks. The chances
of coming out alive each time are pretty
much the same.
Yet | ride in the races every chance
that l get. You see. unpaced races have
no attraction for followers of the game
There is no life in them and people won't
go to see them. In a motor-paced race
the spectators know as well as we dorhat
we may break our necks at any moment
and the exciting uncertainty of the sport,
with its spasms of danger, keeps them on
edge all the time.
Imagine. if you can, how it feels to
be whirling around a ten-lap track like
that at Madison Square Garden behind
motor pace at 100 clip; every time you
go up one of those twenty-five-foot banks
you feel as if you were going over preci-
pice. But you mustn't let that disturb
you for an instant. There's your pace
half dozen inches in front of you and
you must cling to that rear wheel. The
rider who loses his pace has lost his race.
Few of the spectators know how very
much depends upon the motors. / never
let my eyes get away from the rear wheel
of my motor. and if q tire should come off
the motor, or if the motor should blow up
or anything should give way 1 have TO go
right into it and take what's coming.
There's no chance of getting out of it.
Il tell you the man in his barrel at Nj
agara has a better chance than we have.
Only last Monday morning an accident
happened to one of my motors while l
was standing at Madison Square Garden.
My PAGERS had gone around the track two
or three times to get used to 1t when the
steersman's handle bars twisted on the
high bank. The men were tossed off their
machine as if they had been struck by
lightning. The motor slipped down the
steep bank to the floor and lay there puff
ing and sizzling as if it were going to
burst. The men shot down the bank into
t and the steersman had his chin badly |
tut.
Il was waiting with my wheel. ready to |
Jump in and follow them when they gave |
he word, and there would have been an
when the accident occurred. As it was
he motor was smashed to pieces.
Accidents in following pace are not so
requent on outdoor tracks as inside 1
lon't think poor Floyd Mcfarland will
yer cross saddle again as the result of
lis accident at Madison Square Garden
month ago. He was riding a fifteen-mile |
aced race with Johnny Nelson, and the
Whole race was a chapter of accidents |
Both motors gave out, third was patch
d up, and the two were following it !
Witty, when it stopped and the two rid
RS crashed into it. Mcfarland was car
led unconscious to the hospital, where he
) now. and Nelson was badly cut up |
bout the face. Nelson hasn't won a race
ince.
Just a week before that Harry Elkes
ad narrow escape at Boston He was
-ading by ten miles in a motor-paced
ace with Jimmy Moran and Harry Cald-
ell when his motor tire blew up, and he
as hurled to the track unconscious.
Perhaps the most remarkable escape /
all was that of Frank Waller. who was |
blowing Judge and Stafford in a race
18th Miller, at Nashville in October. 1899
he sprocket wheel of the motor caught
n the low bank; Judge shot headfore-
ost into padded post Stafford plunS
into the front seat and Waller turned
double somersault over the pair. The
en- and motor were uninjured.
Just year ago Frank StarbHek and
:. j. Wilkinson got terribly mixed up and ,
auled in motor paced race at Balti-
ore. Wilkinson lost his head and the
otor dashed among the spectators. Both
ders were seriously injured and l be
we Starbuck lost leg
There has never been a sadder catas-
ophe than that at the Waltham track
May 80 of last year. Harry T.. Miles. | =
Lynn, and w. +. Stafford, OF Boston |
ere pacing a race, with 20,O00 people
lking on, when Champion in his eager
SIS to get more speed spurted and his
rewheel touched the rear wheel of his d
)tor He was flung headlong to the in
Id. Miles and Stafford, on the next pac- p
: machine. tried to escape Champions |
1tor. and plunged off the high trace | o
ainst the electric light pole. Both rid | a
We're hurled headfrst against the | +
ie. They died the same day.
SO you see the risk is always there and | cl
: danger plentiful. But / ash still IL | e
e sport, for l want to beat Fixes.
We been following the pace for only .
ar and | have won every event bul |
II. got $1,000 in purses. broke the worlds
'ords twice for twenty-five miles and
de the indoor record for seventy-two I'll
les. | have ridden the fastest mile
de this year in competition-one min 4