THE RENAISSANCE OF THE BICYCLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 193, 4 January 1913, Page 2

THE RENAISSANCE OF THE BICYCLE

ITS VPS AND DOWXS. A writer in "Outing," in the course of a discursive chatty article on cycles and cycling, informs us of the 'startling fact that in the U«ited States, twelve years ago the centre of the most remarkable, boom in cycling and cvele manufacture that the world has s'een, the "wheel, as our American cousin culls it. lias fallen almost wholly into desuetude. In the course of a whole, day in New York, he says, one might count impon one's fingers the number of cyclists to be seen. In 1890. at the height of the boom, the cycle factories of America, turned out 31,000,000 dollars worth of machines. Five years later the animal output had declined to 5,000.OIW) dollars, and remained at this low level till two years ago, when an increase in output again began to set in. During 1012 it was estimated that :SOO,000 bicycles were made in the United States, of a total valuo of something over 0,000.000 dollars. The bieycle manufacturing industry is now practically centred in the hands of twelve large companies, and some of these are turning their attention to the produc-t-ion of bicycles of a plainly-finished, substantial type, in which, the -principal qualities sought for are doing much to reinstate the bicycle industry.