The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-13
RIDING A BICYCLE At
81 MILES AN HOUR
Tremendous Nerve Force Is Required
and a Punctured Tire Would
Mean Death.

New York, Dee. I2-Arthur E. Wills.
holder Of the worlds motor-paced hour
record Of 81 miles and '942 yards. describes
the sensation OF going a mile minute,
In the New York World. as follows:
..-rbe sensation of riding a bicycle at the
rate of 81 miles an hour Is thrilhng tor
the reason that one Is always on lhe
,-.--e OF "A serious accident.
.i5lirina nv ride l endeavOred to con-
..,-,.sta All nv energies on the necessity
of sticking close 10 the roller OF the mo
Tor Ia my record race now and again
I tore my thoughts away TO glance at the
HE board in the cenler of the track ON
his was written the various tunes. with
vas or was not inside of Paul Guignard' 5
record of 50 miles and So yards which mad
stood since July. 800 g,
- gor inside this from the start and
kept So. but despite my anxiety 70 glance
TID was AFRAID 10 do so often, tor the
moment I took my eyes OFT the roiier l
lost several yards and II was no easy
matter TO pick that up. Tor you iose the
wind protection of the motor III 'front.' OF
n trained in Munich eleven days for
tl., trial IL was on the lIJh or August
that I made the record From a stand
ing start covered the Ilrsl SIX anu :
quarter miles i'm g minutes . SECONDS; 1
had a very high gear 1851 rms taxes
"a terrible amount of pushing Inc reau-
-r who has never tried for a record might
fancy Tndt once AOu ECl SbiAA6 III
becomes mechanical. but il Is far from
being as simple as that
"The wind was getting up all the time
and toward the finish was bioWlhg
mighty hard This didn't matter while "
was in ms teeth because the motor shield
sheltered me. but as we came along the
other side of he track with the Wlnu pc
hind us. il naturally caught the motor
AID swept II ahead Of me at least a yard
and then 7 had to sprint like mad to catch
H. AIv old sprinting experience came IN
handy here Berlin would slacken trl-
IL, for mo 10 catch up. but We dared not
Jose ground. for TO fall behind the old
record meant loss Of a new one. l had
The advantage of the best track for q
trial Of this kind in the world but still
there were bad places in the bankings.
and when I was going over these my
cycle would leave the ground altogether
for two or three yards, and then come
down With bang that would almost
shake the life out of me. 1t was an awful
uervv time. Nv back wheel would try
and creep up the banking. and every time
took the banking il felt Ike running
,rtp a brick wall.
Somewhere about half way I thought
my arms or wrists would break the
strain on them was so terrific. To make
matters worse my legs were getting terri
.l- sore and Chafed and I felt every mo-
n1ent that tire would break or some
thing 60 wrong with the motor. If either
OF these had happened there would have
been no more A. T. Wills. An ordinary
fan would not have been SO serious. espe-
clallv II 10 happened on the straight
away-that would have meant a loss OF
some Ssin-but a fall as ] was leaving
the hankinE-the most likely place for it
20 happeT'-wOuld have shot me into the
ratings. and then all would have been
over. II anything should have happened
20 the motor or tire nothing would
have saved me- from a horrible death.
"On the whole il was an experience
would not care to repeat very often.
have established the record and feel
strongly temptedg telzfet some one else
break it,