CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 215, 19 February 1915, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

There can be little doubt, if any at ill, that in the matter of weight distribution many motor cycles leave something to be desired. The point is one which affects not only the stability of the construction as a whole, but tin comfort of the rider and case of steer- , lny as well. Vibrationary effects are produced in more ways than one. In the first place, we have road shocks which ar„ responsible for the bulk of the trouble, and, secondly, the vibration set up by the engine in it's working, and which may range from a slight tremor to a' series of oscillatory movements which are disconcerting and uncomfortable in the effect they produce upon the rider, and in the manner in winch they wear out the driving tyre. The machine, generally speaking, is adversely affected bv'the'two species of vibrations, and no matter how well the problem of' springing has been tackled, unless weight distribution has also received its share of attention, the measurees adopted cannot be regarded as wholly efficient. „P n c of most appreciated cifts that King George received at Christmas time came from th 0 Maharajah Scindia, of Gwalior. This gift, which was formally presented to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace, consists of'forcv-one ambulance cars, four officers' cars, five motor lorries, and ten motor cycles. A brassy plate, with the inscription "Scindia." is attached to each vehicle. This welcome, consignment .of cars has been placed by the King at the disposal of the naval and military authorities. There will be no Inter-State Motor Car Reliability Contest between Sydney and Melbourne this year, this important annual event being dropped owing to the Automobile Clubs of N.S.AV. and Victoria having decided that it would be inadvisable to hold the test this year on account of the war.

CAR WASTAGE AT THE FROXT. , The destruction of cars, motor lorries, ami motor cycles at t.lie front, is so ' great that the British Army lias had to - create a special service for their removal'and repair. Train loads are made 1 no and sent off almost daily to the rear. Evidently the order ia to gather up 1 everything having the least resemblance to a motor vehicle, for such is their condition that one would hesitate to 1 apply th e wotd motor-car to some of the units taken off the v.Teekago trains, says the Motor (England). In this central depot every facility is enjoyed for easy handling. Cars, parts of cars, heavy lorries, steam tractors, crushed motor-bicycles. are picked up by the cranes, carried away to . the repair shops, or given a place in "Rotton Row," as the scrap heap has been designated by the soldiers. j 'A mechanical transport officer examines each unit lie decides what repairs are needed, or whether the vehicle must be marked down as "scrap." Within a short distance of the receiving depot is an important French motor car factory, which has been entirely taken over by English soldier mechanics. Here scores of lorries are being repaired every week. One could weave muih romance around these damaged ears, and probably it would not he half so strange as the reality. Thus at one end of "Rotten Row" was a group of W. and G. taxi-cabs taken direct off London j streets in the early days of August, and hurried into Xorth-cast France. One of them had bullet, holes through the metal dash in such a position that if & driver escaped ho must have, done so miraculously. Close by were two German cars, a Benz and a Dixi, which hail been captured from the enemy, used by English officers, evidently abandoned by them, and finally sent to tlx* rear in such a condition that lie would be an 1 enterprising mechanic who would attempt to repair them, rmmodiatelv behind these was a Ford or the wreckage of a. Ford On the opposite side of the alley a group of soldiers proudly pointed to a Sunbeam they had reconstructed. The cur had suffered badly from shell fire, but by taking parts from fivi> other abandoned chassis of the sam\ make they had been able to produce ft complete machine, the- only new part tlioy had asked for being a radiator. German cars are not at all rare. In some case 8 they are captured outright: in other cases they have been abandoned by their original owners in too much of a hurry to destroy them completely, and have later been picked up by our I own men. In making repairs to a German car. a certain difficulty Is experienced in securing the necessary parts. The workmen, however, display considerable ingenuity in making parts by hand, or wlierp this is noli really prac- [ tieable, some other and similar chasis is i stripped for the necessary parts. Out of two damaged, cars it is often possible to make one. serviceable machine. Cars marked a? scrap are never wTiolly condemned. The various unitu are taken out, examined, sent to the storeroom and used at sume later period. The Germans, when abandoning a car, do not appear to have grasped the necessity of making it permanently useless. Very often the magneto is taken away when the bearings run dry. Such a car can be made fit for service In a couple of days. Accidents are responsible for the damage to most of the cars. Judging from the condition of mudguards, running boards, wheels. or the absence of these parts—cases of colliding when running at high speed are not. infrequent. It must be remembered that drivers at the front are always in a hurry, and that they have to run over mere apologies for roads, and that tlie traffic at times in very congested. There arc evidences of destruction by shell. A. | six-cylinder Sunbeam attached to tin' l staff of an English General was brought ! in after a shell bad exploded on the ! front mud-guard. Both men on the front scats wen: killed. A German lorrv which had been under lire tvas swine down by the crane. There were a score or more of bullet marks on the side doors, several shot.q had gone through the radiator, and finally it was evident tliaf, a shell hud burst just under tlie front axle.

War service is an effective rcvealer of weak points awl defects in motor construction. The men doing repair work know that so-and-so's car bad faulty designed steering knuckles, that t'n<* springs of a well-known make pive trouble under tbu strain of war. tbat tlie gear-box of a high-grade car will not withstand constant use, that a chassis noted for its simplicity is really not simple to dismount and Assemble. All this information finds its way hack to tlie makers, and results in improvements—indeed lias already resulted in I improvements, to the ear. The English I method of dealing with ear wreckage | at the war is the only practicable one. At the sight of some of the wrecks buried under a layer of mud or coated with rust, one may wonder what has been 1 gained by sending them to tlie rear, lint j the men who have to gather up the damaged cars 'have not the time, and frequently lack tile ability to discriminate. Appearances are often deceptive: : a good cliasis may be bidden under a layer of mud, and a machine winch look:.' unreliable ltuu* in reality be very eheap1i- and uui;-kiy put into service again. There is economy ill dealing with lar.vc nuiuiicrs. All ill,. stall' at this firitisli repair depot iu Franc,' is military. Tlie

officers, in addition to their military training, have had long experience in the motor industry. Many of the privates are motor mechanics who have joined for the length of the war. They are in uniform, but work at their own trade. A new world's record was established in connection with the recent six days' bicycle race held in Chicago (U.S.A.), when a distance of 2504 miles was cov-' eral by the winning team, Oscar Egg (Switzerland) and Vcrri (Italy). 11. J. M'Namara, the crack X.S.AV. rider, who trained with .1. Moran (Boston) finished second. The previous best six days' figures were 277")% miles, recorded in Paris by A. Goullct and .T. Fogler in 1913. The Australian record is 2035 miles, established by Messrs. Goullct and Hehir in Sydney in 1912. Experiments carried out by experts in England have proved that motor engines do not "knock" when benzol (produced from coal) is used as a fuel. Tests nroved that vehicles under load knocked badly, necessitating reduction in throttle and setting back of spark with petrol, whereas with benzol the same engines could not be made to knock. The reason claimed lor this phenomena is that a benzol and air mixture fires in a different manner from petrol and air when a certain critical temperature is reached. For the latter this temperature is much lower than that of benzol and air. The new manner of firing, once this critical temperature is reached, and in the case of petrol and air, partakes more of a detonation than a normal inflammation. This seems to show that a petrol and air mixture is much more "sensitive" to temperature than benzol and air, and in fact i-t was proved by an electrically-heated wire, that benzol does require more heat to ignite it than petrol. Engine knock has so generally come to be regarded as merely a matter of loose bearings, f" v 1 win deposits, faulty ignition timing, or 'ack of lubrication, that the proof tbat tlie particular fuel used may be the direct cause of it is a point of great importance. EVen if benzol were not to be preferred on its all-round merits as a fuel, it would nevertheless be valuable to mix with petrol, as it has been proved that such a mixture is a preventive of the knock so often experienced with puro petrol. In America bad roads have forced motor cycle, manufacturers to ■ equip their machines with large sized tyres, and in this country the difference in t.ie sizes of covers fitted to _ English and American machines respectively is most marked. The. average rOad in this countrv calls for tyres with larger air space than is usually provided for m English tyres, made to suit English conditions. Motor cyclists are now beginning to realise that bigger tyres are essential to comfortable and economical motoring on our roads. In this respect the Australian Dunlop Rubber Co. specialises on big covers, supplying large sized tyres' that are made to withstand rough riding on rough roads. In a fine 32 page catalogue this company illustrates 17 all the various sizes of motor cycle, covers, now made by them, m addition to giving valuable information relative to the selection and care of tyres.