Cyling and Motoring Notes

Levin Daily Chronicle, 13 February 1917, Page 3

Cyling and Motoring Notes

From tlic. Dunlop Rubber Company zi i; Australasia. Limited, for the week | 3rd February, 1917. [,

Some interesting particulars are related by "Cycling" (England) in connection with the first successful attempt by any cyclist to ride 20 miles in the hour. It was way back in tho, 80's when the high bicycle was 'in vogue that there was keen rivalry amongst the then knights of the wheel to cram twenty miles into CO minutes. The amateur champion of those days was 11. L. Cortis, who won all the English path championships in 1879 and 1880 with one exception in the latter year. The hour record then stood at 18 miles 1530 yards to the credit of C. H. Christie, of the Oxford University. On September 2nd, 1880, Cortis made an attempt on the hour's record on the Sirrbiton track (square with unbanked coiners and! a cinder surface), paced in turn by four of the host amateur riders in O. E. Liles, J. E. Griffiths, S. Kemp, and G. L. Hillier, and this constitutes the earliest recorded instance of pacemakers being deliberately arranged for to assist a record breaker in his effort against time. At 18 miles Cortis was inside record, when two of the paces fell and Cortis was brought down and considerably cut about. A few days later he made another attempt. covering '19 miles 1420 yards in the hour, but still short of the coveted "20." In July 1882 a

three miles invitation scratch race was held at the Crystal Palace cinder track (circular) and it was arranged at the termination of same, Cortis should be continued to be paced by a number of speedy riders. The effort was successful, ten miles was covered in 29minj 58sec. and 20 miles in 59:nin 31 4-ssec. In the hour, the unprecedented distance of 20 miles 300 yards was negotiated and the ride became world famous. A few months later Cortis in a paced 20-miles match against Hon. Lan Keith-Falconer rode 20 miles in 59 minutes 20 1-5 seconds. This was his last public performance on English soil. He was married the next day and shortly afte.'sailed for Australia. Cortis, who was a doctor, settled down at Carev.ii, N.S.W., where he died in 1885 ye n . s at the age of 28 years. In l-HQ a tablet was erected at Bathurst in il e C'elists cf X. S. W., in mem >0 o!

£. and's great rider. "!.<* above bings home to cyclists today wi.at th.j safety bicycle and h't; 1 unl •[ t.yiv has done for cycling, "twenty in the hour" being easy accomplishment by any first-class rider on tho road, whilst one of Australia's best road riders, Don Kirkham has unaided negotiated 100 miles on an out and home course on the road,. in the wonderful time of 4 hours 36 minutes, an average of nearly 22 miles an hour.

Stealing motor ears must .be a lucrative business in America. In Chicago some 2500 cars have been stolen during the last 10 months.

According to the Australian Motorist, the British light car is stated to be too limited in capacity as regards body room for Australian conditions. It says the ''Light Car" (England) complains that the utility l market is not catered for iby British manufacturers. It advocates cars of 20-25 h.p. costing complete £325; but surely there is a market for something smaller and cheaper. What do our Australasian readers think? As one of the earl}' motorists in Australia and being closely connected l 'with motoring in all its phases, the writer has no hesitancy in advocating a £250 to £275, 4-cy.linder, 12-15 h.p. light car for tho Australian roads and Australian market. An efficient 12-16 highspeed of engine (Englis) is ample for average motoring in this country. Such a car provided with liberal radiator dimension, good 'clearance, strong! and efficient springing and a. reasonable wheelbase, would find a ready market in this country and what is more it will have to come if the American invasion is to be met. Standardization in conjunction with the huge engineering plants now in England should enable some of the English car manufacturers to cater for this trade en American lines, but English efficiency and quality. There is a huge market in this country for an English car of the type specified. Is there not an English concern that will bid for this buisnefis as soon as the war is over F C. J. Lowis, who recently established new motor car figures for the run from Albany to Armadale (W.A.) by negotiating the 238 miles in shrs 25 inins., came into conflict with the local authorities, and he was fined and mulcted in cost totalling £25 14s for furious driving. At this rate it will probably be may a long day 'before any motorist will attempt to better the existing record.

From an American who was recently engaged in airship construction near

London , and was in that city during severtl Zeppelin raids, the "Scientific American" has gathered the' following particulars of the method hy winch one of the Zeppelins was destroyed. Hie attacking aeroplane carried suspended at a suitable distance below it a light grnppling iron, for engaging and tearing the envelope of the Zeppelin. On the grappling iron was mounted an electrical ignition device connected by cable with a swith placed near the aeroplane pilot. In the case when this device was successfully used, London had ample notice of the approach of the enemy, and ! the aviators had time to rise to sufficient height for a swooping attack on the dirigible. The exploding device was drawn successfully across the envelope, ripping it open so that the .liberated gas could be-ignited' by the spark.

Messrs Alex. Jewell and J. Walsh had an unenviable experience during their recent attempt on the SydneyBrisbane motor car record. They left Sydney with a military despatch from Brigadlier-Geneilal Kamateiotti to the' Queensland military authorities. The story of the ride is told by Mr Jewell as follows:—"There was a fine crowd to see us off from the Sydney G.P.O. We ran to Wiseman's Ferry, 60 miles, in If hours. Crossing the ferry here, and crossing the Hunter river further on, took quito 25 minutes, but we reached Singleton a few minutes before 8 p.m. having covered 142 miles of the worst of the roads on the New South Wales side in 5 hours. We continued to Muswellbrook, where we were informed that for two days rain had been falling over the country ahead. We were very disappointed, as we had expected to make fast time over the good roads of the Scone district. ■ We rain into heavy rain, but, notwithstanding we managed to do 32 miles per hour to within about eight miles of Armidale. There we had to cross a (bridge, but on reaching it we found that a traction engine had ibtrokenl through the middle of it. We lost about H hours trying to devise some means of crossing, and eventually wo plunged through the creek. It 4.5 a.m. when we ran into Armidale, soaked to the skin. I had nearly forgotten to tell that about 25 miles on the Sydney side of Tamworth we had a puncture.- Wo had a lot of gates to open and to close in the same locality, and the red clay was very sticky. However, with all the disadvantages we felt satisfied to hit Armidale when we did, having then covered 335 miles in 13J hours. After taking-on petr»l and having a meal we left again at 5.25 a.m., and then our troubles really began. The roads and the mud became worse every mile we travelled. We had no mudguards, and not being able to keep our goggles clear, we

abandoned them. The result was our oyes were always full of mud and water. However, we ran the 60 miles to Glen Innes in 2 hours. W 7 e did 33 miles per hour to Tenterfield and 20 miles to Wilson's Downfall in another hour. . Through rain and mud we splashed to Warwick, doing this stretch of 50 miles in 1} hours. We had been advised all through to abandon the trip, and this advice was repeated when we got to Warwick just about 12.30 p.m. Having fixed our four set cf non-skid chains (we already had worn out three sets) we took the road again for Brisbane at 1.15( the whole town turning out to see us. A.s we ploughed through the soft black soil, the wheels churned it up, and threw it off like water off a water wheel, and it took us five hours to cover the 30 miles from Warwick to the top of the range at Spicer's Gap. We had a great time travelling backwards and every other way to get through, but we got there. Then came the trip down this side, and you can judge the sort of" time we had when I tell you that in one side-slip down the range we got across a tree and it took 1$ hours to extricate ourselves from the position. Eventually we got to Peake's Crossing where we stepped for half an hour to wash the mud out of our eyes. It took ten minutes to free the steering column and connection. A little after 10 p.m. we .got to Ipswich, and eventually to Brisbane about 11.15 p.m. The total distance we covered was 677 miles and we did l it in 32J hours including all stops."

The ca,r used was a 45' li.p. G-cylinder Studebaker and the previous best time for the jurney was 36 hours 50 minutes by a 12 li.p, Talbot driven by Messrs Joss and Lang. The present" holder expressed the opinion that given favorable weather conditions that the trip can ibe accomplished in 22$ hours.