CYCLING NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5160, 19 October 1895, Page 2

CYCLING NOTES.

. SOME RECENT INNOVATIONS. | [IIV 111,0011 Elt.l Now-a-days one is almost afiaitl to \ buy an expensive bicycle, so rapid t are the alterations and improvements , which are being made in that interl esting machine. Still, if everyone JL. really regarded this feeling, there i would be no bicycles sold, and the [ stimulation and inducement which i the existing large demand creates, ' would be entirely lacking. Therefore it comer, down fo this: a man , must display some enterprise and ' take the risk that his acquisition" will I be superseded by a better articlo i before it is superannuated, when ho i buys a new bicycle. Besides Collier i two-speedgoars andsuch-like laboursaving and speed-increasing attachi incuts, a more radical innovation i than anything yet dreamt of, is tho J self-impelled roadster, at present ' being tried in Paris—a bicycle pro- ! pelled by a gasoline motor stowed ' within the rear wheel. Considering p that there are some three hundred * , dog-carls, buggies, and other similar ■ carriages to be seen about the streets 1 of Paris which are driven by gaso- ' line, which is preferable to electricity for the purpose, it seems not unlikely 1 that success will follow with tho ; bicycle, At present in England the : use _ of mechanically propelled i carriages or vehicles of any kind is ' | practically prohibited on tho high- ; ways and by-ways by Act of Parlia- W ; ment-, limiting the speed to a very ™ ; restricted pace; but steps are now ; being taken to repeal the law on tho subject, as it is recognised that as far as road tralllu is concerned, it is ' quite within the range of possibility to imagine that the time is coming when it can bo said that tho horse has had his day. A Masterton man who, possessed of the bicycling fraternity's partiality to short stages and long beers, complains of the infrequenoy of "pubs" on all the best roads of this district, has overcome this depressing disadvantage by running balf-a- » dozen nobblers of good old colonial into his pneumatic tyre, with a suction tube terminating at the crossbar, so that the weary one can refresh without dismounting. The pressure does not at all becomu relaxed, as our ingenious friend, who fortunately at any time prefers his ale aerated, inflates by a few blasts from the bellows, the tire to within au ace of bursting pressure, and gets his beer exactly as he likes it. Teetotallers, lam told, can vary the j prosciiption by loading up withW lomonade. r»A resident in this district, who is a more or less accomplished violinist, has lately been smitten with tho cycling craze, lie has now quito •' mastered his machine, and on moon- 4* light nightsl may, it is said, frequently be seen spinning lightly along the roads, and playing his violin at the same time I Tho effect is strangely weird, and the fairy : like approach and equally strange and sudden departure of tho mystic musician, has on a number of occasions seriously alarmed nervous peoplo. Certainly it is—to sav the lcast-astouishing, to have the full ' force of some charming littlo air, such as "Tommy Hake Room for Your Uncle," or " Billy, You're a Daisy," sprung on one, at tho deep and solemn midnight hour, and then fade away iu a straggling string of , shrinking sound. Somo people think the "cyclo-violinist" is trainiing for an engagement with the -1 * laust Family! v ~ The " bicycle built for two," is much talked about, and sometimes seen. Anovelideais tho arrange, ment of a tiny seat for a child, in front of an ordinary B ingle bicycle, so that papa may take baby out for an airing! At auyrate a certain cycling uncle was seen in Masterton, taking his little nephew oat, in the manner above desoribed, only a few days ago. ... : - ;