Cycling and Motoring Notes.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 2 September 1915, Page 4

Cycling and Motoring Notes.

From tho Duniop Rubber Company of Australasia, for the week ending 21st August I'Jlu. J. E. Fahey, tlie overlandiug cyclist, who is endeavouring to establish now figures, lor tlie Transcontinental ride from Port Darwin to Adelaide, is making lair progress. According to telegrams received by tho Duniop Rubber Company. Fahey readied tlie daly Waters Telegrapn JJepot (4.0/ miles) after six days hard ridingmachine and tyre trouble delaying him considerably. A later advice .states that Powell's Crook Depot (about od'i miles from Darwin) was reached on the 10th instant—(Fahey started on the 2nd instant) —alter a heartbreaking plug against a lierco gale. In the circumstances the ovorlander has done well to reach Powell's Creek in nine days from Darwin, lor he is -on rising country. It took lloicheuback, who holds the record, 8J days to cover the same stages going the other direction with the fall in his favour. As no further word has ibeen received for six days since his last wire, l'ahey has passed through botli Tennant's Creek and Barrow's Creek telegraphic (Stations without wiring, or lie has struck trouble and been delayed. The length oi these two stages two respectively 131 miles and 190 uiiles. LATER.—The following telegram has been received lrom Fahey, and rends as follows Tennant's Creek. Broken chain wheel crank long walk temporarily stuck up no chance record. J. Booth, the crack Victoria motor cyclist, recently established in Sydney a new Australia competition record, by covering live miles in d minutes., 43-2.5 seconds. An American Sporting paper announces that the I'aris-Rouhaix race - one ot the French Road Race classics ha.-> been abandoned lor i'JIo. As the route goes right ithrough both France and Herman lines, wo should tlunk so! There is an absolute uoom 111 cycle racing in the United States. It seems to be as popular there as it was in England twentylive years ago, and ill this country sixteen years back, iilustrations oi a recent meeting held at -Newark depict packed stands .mil grounds, reminiscent ol the Melbourne Cricket Ground on "Austral Day" back in the "nineties." Motor cyclists will iind that' they can obtain slower running oy making all joints between carburetter and engine absolutely air-tight. i'islt glue and insulating type will be found useful in this direction. Also see that lio air is leaking into the engine by way of the valve caps, plug and compression utp through being loose or having broken asbestos and copper washers. A worn valve guide may caiue leakage. Attention to these points will render tho engine much easier to start. li the engine is hard to start another reason may be unit the adaptor or elioko tube is too large or that the jet is too small Another symptom of too "small a jet is when" the engine wjll not take extra air and occasional tiring back into tho carburetter occurs. file remedy is to nt a jet sufficiently large that at leal hall the available ;t:mouiit oi extra air can be taken at 1 nil speed. It a carburetter take»> full air at moderate speed with the throttle lull open, either the air slide is not properly adjusted or the jet is Loo large. A spluttering engine may 'be due to a partly choked jet. A gauze screen choked with dirt and too iargc a jet both cause overheating. A dripping carburetter is> due to a punctured float, dirt in the needle seating, air vent m float chiimber cap stopped up, point oi needle valve worn, dirt in tho weight mechanism inside the cap. Always use as much air us possible without causing tlie engine to KiiecK or ulow back through the -arbuicLter—air is eneaper than petrol.

It ift reireshing in these times oi in-

creased. prices to come across an Australian nianulacturing concern actually reducing prices to the jmblic. the linn is question is tho well known Duniop Company—the largest rubber Manufacturers in the Southern Hemisphere—tliey having announced a considerable reduction in idle pricc oi tlieir popular cycle tyres, also in various types of their wide range of motor cycle tyres. Tho Company states; that despite the lower prices, no reduction lias been made in the quality of these goods, the-same high standard being maintained.

The war lias proved tlie' vital necessity of some means of re-starting an aeroplane engine without the necessity of the aviator having to leave the machine, eveu for a moment, A clever contrivance has just been uivented iu England—it taking the form oi a light self-starter,weighing with littings, battery, gears etc, only 84 lbsTests proved that this outlit was capable of turning a 00 h.p. Daimler aeroengine for two minutes at 50 revolutions per minute, and the outfit proved in ©very way a success. Hitherto attempts to provide a good' self-star tor have failed, owing to the difficulties in regard to the question of weight.

When a motor cyclist has trouble with a broken engine valve he seldom realizes what an enormous strain it works under. It has been figured out that a mechanically operated- valve in a motor cycle engine opens against a total pressure of from anything from •10 to 1201bs, accordfag to the area