CYCLING AND MOTORING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 178, 14 December 1912, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTORING.

The long-standing world's unpaced bicycle record, which stood at 25 miles 1508 yards, to the credit of the French rider, Marcel Berthet, has at last been beaten. The new record has been established by a young Frenchman named Oscar Egg, who succeeded in covering unaided 26 miles 400 yards. Berthet's figures had stood since .June, 1907. Word is to hand from England of a very fincp erformance by a rider named M. G. Selbaeh in the North Road Club's 24 hour race. This event is an annual unpaced one, and the 'winner, Selbach, covered 20li miles in the first 24 hours, and 394 in the full day. This fine road performance eijuals the previous best figures. Special motor cars have been purchased by the police authorities of Paris, a novel feature being racks at the back of the cars, on which two or more bicycles can be carried. inspectors and detectives can be conveyed in these cars to a certain point, whereupon the force divides, some of them riding off on the cycles in different directions. seems a very effective method of rounding up criminals.

The boom in the motor eyclei ndustry in the United States can be gathered from the fact that over 80,000 machines will be marketed this season, and even this big output will not, it is anticipated, meet the demand for mot6r cycles. A prize of rCuOO has been offered to the Boval Automobile Club of England, to be awarded for the best carburetter. The donor. .Air. G. K. Chamberlain, founder of the Automobile Club of America, leaves the decision to be settled by tests organised by the B.A.C.'s technical committee. The conditions for the tests are now being arranged. If it is the aim of manufacturers to improve the accessibility of the driver's seat, what is really wanted is a. tilted steering wheel or steering column, preferable to the former. One or two makers have adopted this practice at different times, and it certainly seems to have many points in its favor. With the present 'design of cars, where the steering column is raked at an acute angle, and the wheel conies close to

the seat, it is often difficult for a portly man, especially -when he is wrapped in a tig coat, to manipulate himself in * driver's seat. A tilting steering wheel could be embodied without difficulty, and could be made on sound mechanical lines, such as would not be likely to induce any clement of danger once the ear, is in motion. • ■