The Angling Cyclist 



137 



Some Pedal Bearings. 



You want to ride a wheel properly, don't 

 you. You do not care to make it any harder 

 work than needs be. You are anxious to ac- 

 quire the maximuna of distance and speed 

 with the minimum of power and exertion, of 

 course. Well, do this, and you will accom- 

 plish your desires. Keep j'our knees in and 

 your feet straight on the pedals. Drop your 

 heel as the pedal comes up. This will admit 

 of your pushing it over the dead centre when 

 its highest point of revolution has been 

 reached. 



When the lowest point in the pedal's revo- 

 lution has been reached, do not leave off 

 pushing, but point your toe downward, and 

 pull the pedal backward with the same claw- 

 ing motion that a clucking hen uses to un- 

 earth the juicy grub for her brood. Do this 

 slowly at first, and in a very short time you 

 will fall into the habit of doing it uncon- 

 sciously. When this occurs you have learned 

 the art of pedalling, an acquisition to your 

 cycling almost invaluable where comfort and 

 speed are sought. 



795 Miles of Them. 



In round numbers there were 700,000 bicy- 

 cles made and sold in America last year. To 

 the uninitiated the stupendity of this output 

 is not definitely expressed in these five ciphers, 

 preceded by a single seven, but take the 

 wheels from the frames of the machines, lay 

 one flat upon one another, as though they 

 were but exaggerated coins, and the result 

 would be a column over 130 miles high, just 

 1,275 times the height of Washington Monu- 

 ment. 



Supposing all of the wheels thus stacked to 

 have been supplied with wood rims, as the 

 greater number of them really were, and you 

 will find that it required more than 660 miles 

 of stock to meet this one detail of cycle con- 

 struction. Since only 20 or, at the best, 25 per 

 cent, of the rock elm produced is finally select- 

 ed by the wood-rim maker as fit for his pur- 

 pose, fully 3,000 miles of this wood is cut, 

 worked and submitted to meet the demand 

 solely created for it by cycle manufacturing. 



Replacing the wheels in their frames, mak- 

 ing them once more a complete bicycle, place 

 these bicycles in a line, the steering wheel of 

 one machine touching the rear wheel of the 

 one in front of it, and the product of '95 shows 



a continuous line of bicycles 7!)5 miles in 

 length. 



When one stops to study these figures, and 

 to consider that they will this year be in- 

 creased fully one-thii-d, some idea may be 

 formed of just what a great industry the 

 building of bicycles has grown to be, and no 

 longer will the student wonder at its efl'ects 

 upon other lines of business apparently in no 

 wise connected with it. 



Will Furnish Literature Free. 



The Chicago Great Western Road has introduced 

 something of a novelty on its Chicago, St. Paul and Min- 

 neapolis Limited Express. This line does not believe in 

 the so-called nev^s agents, and never has the vender of 

 newspapers, cheap literature and decayed fruit, at ad- 

 vanced prices, been permitted to operate on the Chi- 

 cago Great Western trains. As a most refreshing sub- 

 stitute each of its limited express trains is supplied with 

 a free library of newspapers and current periodicals. A 

 beautiful little catalogue containing a list of six daily 

 jjapers, three illustrated weeklies, and eight monthly 

 magazines is placed in each sleeping car section before 

 the departure of trains from Chicago and Minneapolis, 

 and all of these are absolutely free to passengers maiting 

 application to the porters for them. The newspapers 

 may be kept outright if desired. 



The " Drop Frame " Pattern. 



That, by reason of the "drop" or "loop" 

 frame employed for women's wheels, they are 

 less rigid than the diamond-frame models sold 

 for men, is generally recognized, but it is not 

 known to the average rider that there is so 

 great a difference in the comparative stiffness 

 of the styles that a " drop-frame " wheel invari- 

 ably sags in the middle after having been some 

 time in use. The sag is in the lower tubes 

 running from the bottom bracket to the head. 

 Because of the absence of the top tube used in 

 men's wheels, the weight of the rider continu- 

 ally puts a springy strain on the lower tubes 

 and upright strut, with the result that after a 

 year's use the upright, or diagonal tube, where 

 the seat post fits in, and the head, where the 

 handle bars go in, will be found to have sprung 

 nearer together. To demonstrate this, meas- 

 ure the space from the upper end of the head 

 tube to the upper end of the seat post on a new 

 wheel of any make, and then measure the same 

 space on a wheel of the same make that has 

 been used for a season, and see if the distance 

 is the same. It will be found that in the old 

 wheel the distance will be a little less than in 

 the new one, showing that the upper ends of 

 the vertical tubes have been drawn nearer to- 

 gether, or, to put it more truly, the frame has 



