MOTOR-CYCLING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18412, 19 June 1925, Page 6

MOTOR-CYCLING.

NOTES. Under 192-5 competition rules in U.S.A.. professional men, have Keen divided into two elates. A and B. Every race meeting must include oneclass ]> niul one amateur event. By tliis method the T> men, as they improve iu technique and expormess in handling their machines, graduate into Class A, and provide a nucleus from which the. leaders are constantly built up. The amateurs will race among themselves until thev roach (he point where they wish to turn professional, when they automatioallv enter Class B. The advantage of Clns s B is that riders have a more. equal chanco again.?'., men of their own status than would ho the case if they were forced compote wiili seasoned veterans. Included in the Cla.v-; A men are names familiar to Australian followers of the sport—Paul Anderson, who made moior-rveling history in Australia on i.lio Indian. Johnnv Seymour, Balph Hepburn and Jim Davis, being among them.

MOTOR-CYCLE PRICES

CONTINUED REDUCTIONS

Prices of nß>tor-cycles continue to fall and scarcely a week passes but the pages of the ''Motor Cycle" record either a reduction in the prieo of somo existing model ov tho introduction of a new typo at an abnormally low figure, etates that publication. Where will it end_? Will those large manufacturing concerns, which by reason of their up-to-dato methods of production and enormous outputs can produce cheaply, end lrv; ousting their .smaller competitors from the trade? History would point to a negative answer. I'athcr will tho firms which are forced to go under owing to tho fact that they aro no longer ablo to sell a'/ a profit, split up and appear again as one, two or evendhrco firms of smaller isize—•'back-yard firms" if you will have it so, but each of them with its own clientele, and each of them selling enough machines to enable it to carry on in a small way. Thus the total" number of machines made- by small manufacturers will not decrease' and may even increase.

Specialists there .aro and specialists there always will bo. but the so are in an enviable uosition, for they n;o their own way ami produce their specialised machines; and provided they do not over-produeo thev are assured of reasonable sales at reasonable, prices. It is not the f specialist who is in danger but the manufacturer, or more often assembler, ol the average sound straightforward motor-cycle. Ho it is who buys 75 per cent, of his parts leady made, and, therefore, the- selling price of his product is governed by the price at which ho buys. Unless he can induce the- manufacturers of engines, gear boxes, forks, etc.,: to soil at a lower figure he is reduced to the alternatives of cutting quality, or going under. To neither of these does he willingly submit, and ifc is greatly to the credit of the British motor-cyclo manufacturer that so far he has, considered as a whole, resolutely declined to reduce the quality of essential parts.It is hardly fair to expect the.public to pay more for a motor-cycle- than the price at which it,can be sold economically by a firm with efficient'plant and up-to-date methods. Yet. there, arc thousands who 'prefer to buy'a'machine with a certain individuality of its .own, for which they are--willing ■ to pay. a pound or two extra. The existing situation has bad its parallels in many other, tfades—one may instance an almost exactly , s imila> period in the cycle industry—-yet: these, trades have settled down to steady and stabilised.business of a more satisfactory nature than before. Added to this ray of hope modern motor-cyclists usually know what they want, and,very few want exactly the: same thing. '.Therefore, there is a chance, and a' good chance, for every manufacturer who sells a sound article at a reasonable price. ' The moral is obvious: the smaller makers should study the question of individuality' in design: