S94 
FOREST AND STREAM^ 
[Nov. 14, 1886. 
BEFORE TAKING A RIDE. 
When a new rider gets a new wheel he is often at a 
loss to know just how to keep it in the best condition. At 
the first introduction there is something alarming about 
a new bicycle. It is such a perfect piece of mechanism, 
so finely finished and delicately adjusted, and with such 
a "touch-me-at-your-peril" look about it, that it seems 
almost to belong to another world, free from the finite 
imperfections of this. However, the new soon wears off, 
and with each scratch or rust spot or dent which appears 
the rider gets on more familiar terms with his wheel, and 
soon he begins taking liberties that he would not at first 
have dreamed of. 
He experiments with the adjustment of the wheels, 
takes the bicyle to pieces to examine the bearings, and 
tries all kinds of cleaning and lubricating compounds on 
the chain. 
To paraphrase the Greek philoaopher's favorite axiom, 
it is well to "know your wheel," and. the man who has 
acquired a practical knowledge of the mechanism of his 
mount is sure to derive a greater amount of pleasure from 
his cycling experience than the other fellow who, through 
incapacity or laziness, or because he does not have to, 
knows nothing about his bicycle. 
A beginner when starting out for a ride should attend 
to three "things. He should see, first, that every nut is 
tight, as on a new wheel especially nuts sometimes work 
loose without much apparent provocation, and a loose 
nut may mean a bad fall or a crippled wheel. The screw 
that clamps the handle bars in position is perhaps the 
most important one to see to, for any looseness here is sure 
to result disastrously. Then it is just as well to see that 
all is right about tbe saddle clamps and cranks. But next 
to the handle bars the wheels deserve the most attention, 
for not only is there danger from loose nuts here, but the 
life and easy-moving qualities of the bicycle itself depend 
in great measure upon the attention paid them. When 
once the rider has assured himself that the nuts are tight, 
he has guarded against accident so far as is possible be- 
forehand. Next he should ascertain whether the running 
gear works freely. A good way to do this is to lift the 
bicycle clear of the ground, watching the wheels mean- 
while. If everything is right, they will both roll back- 
ward and forward several times till the center of gravity 
is equalized. The front wheel naturally revolves more 
easily tban the rear, which has the additional friction of 
the chain to overcome; but if either wheel is sluggish and 
halts before the backward swing has begun, something is 
wrong. It may be that the bearings need oiling, and in- 
cidentally it may be as well to remark that one cannot oil 
his wheel too much, while it is comparatively easy to 
err on the other side of oiling too little. Too much oiling 
causes an overfiow which collects dust, but this is easily 
wiped off, and aside from appearances is of no conse- 
quence whatever. It is said that once a week is often 
enough to oil a bicycle that is ridden short distances daily, 
and a few drops of oil carefully applied in the oil hole, and 
not around the outside, are sufficient in any case. 
After the wheels are oiled, if they still refuse to revolve 
easily, the trouble may be due to a faulty adjustment. In 
the case of the front wheel, which is not hampered by 
the drag of the chain, it is sure to be due to this cause. 
The nuts should be loosened and the cones eased up till 
the wheels run freely; but care should be taken that the 
bearings are not too loose, in which case the wheel will 
have more or less play and the wearing surfaces of the 
bearings will suffer. The test for play, however, should 
be made after the nuts are tightened, as with the bear- 
ings properly adjusted there will always be play before 
this is done. 
If the rear wheel shows no life now the trouble is with 
the chain, and this should be taken off and cleaned and 
each joint oiled, and the inner surface lubricated with 
some good preparation, such as graphite, till it loses its 
kinks and stiffness and runs over the sprockets as if it 
was a pleasure. 
The novice now is sure of two things, for he knows 
that the parts of his bicycle are securely held together, 
and that the running gear is in proper working trim. 
Before setting off, however, it is just as well to put a lit- 
tle more air in the tires, provided they need it. Even 
new tires will not hold air under pressure for any great 
length of time, for no one has yet succeeded in making 
an infallible valve that cuts off the escape completely. 
Regarding the proper amount of air to put into the tire 
there is a wide diversity of opinion. The manufacturers 
and professional repair men generally pump the tires 
about as hard as if they were solid rubber, and the benefit 
of the air cushion is altogether lost. At the other extreme 
are the riders who keep their tires so flabby that any sud- 
den, jar throws the shock on the rims. The happy medium 
lies somewhere between. As a general rule it will be 
found that soft tires make more comfortable riding, 
while hard tires will last longer and are faster. 
Soft tires are not more liable to puncture, but wear on 
the inner edge next the rim. 
The rider who has gone over his wheel something after 
the manner indicated knows that everything is in good 
working order, and he is sure to derive more pleasure 
from his ride than if this assurance was lacking. 
Almost as Dangerous as a Porcupine. 
First Cyclist— I always get nervous when I see a 
woman crossing the street ahead of me. 
Second Cyclist— So do I. They have so many pins in 
their clothes that if a fellow collides with them he is 
almost sure to puncture a tire. — PearsorCs Weekly, 
i iW -* * ^ ^ » »rJ^ n ^ rtx 3iX II, if. 1^ « * * ^ Jt A 
REPORT YOUR LUCK \ 
With Rod or Gun I 
To FOREST AND STREAM, \ 
New York City. t 
As others See Us. 
The New York Sun makes the following extracts from 
a review of cycling and the cycle trade which appeared 
in the London Times: 
Z^"In many respects this is one of the most surprising de- 
velopments that has ever taken place in the manufactur- 
ing industry of the United States within the same length 
of time. When it is remembered that less than eleven 
years ago there were only six firms engaged in the busi- 
ness, with an output of a few thousand bicycles, where 
there are now more than 500 leading firms, with a product 
of 1,000,000, and innumerable smaller ones, which will 
probably add 200,000 more, comment seems hardly neces- 
sary. As nearly as can be known, more than 3,000,000 
bicycles are already in use in the United States, and some 
authorities make the number greater than this by nearly 
1,000,000. Even the smaller estimate shows that nearly 
one person out of twenty-four of the 70,000,000 people 
have already taken to the cycle as a matter of 
business, amusement or health. In France, where the 
number is known because of the collection of a tax, the 
proportion is thus far only one in each 250 of the popula- 
tion. As the mountainous districts of the United States 
are not generally thickly populated, and the country as a 
whole is more level than in Europe, it is not diflicult to 
understand the rapid development of the cycle as a means 
of travel; on the other hand, the fact that in many parts 
the roads are ill adapted to the use of cyclists during a 
considerable part of the year would seem to have a dis- 
couraging effect on this development. * * * In spite 
of the large domestic demand, such an unlooked-for 
growth as this is certain to have an effect upon the 
bicycle industry in other countries. The high price of 
labor, which some think a draiwback, is really an advan- 
tage, because high-priced labor is so efficient, and its in- 
genuity in the devising and manipulating of machinery is 
so highly developed that the labor cost of the completed 
article is less than it is with lower-priced labor working 
under less favorable circumstances. * * * It would 
be idle to make predictions about the future of what is 
really a new industry, but in any event it is plain that what- 
ever the result may be, the United States must be reck- 
oned with as an element in it. Unless there is some check 
in the demand, it seems likely from the activity shown 
by transatlantic manufacturers that from 40,000 to 50,000 
cycles of high quality and of American make throughout 
will be offered in the English market before the close of 
the season of 1897. * * * The one question of .interest 
in a way to the user of the cycle, but of absorbing inter- 
est to the investor is, 'How long will it last?' " 
A Sportsman's Bicycle. 
New York, Oct. 28.— Editor Forest and Stream : Why 
don't some first-class firm get up a sportsman's wheel ? 
I will try to explain what I mean by that. There are a 
few friends of mine who are old at gunning, but new to 
the wheel, or quite so, who claim that the large tire, say 
Sin. , is best for country roads. I am too new a rider to 
give an opinion, but should think that their argument 
holds good. They also claim that a gear case is abso- 
lutely necessary for rough country riding, as, for in- 
stance, on Long Island, where the roads are mostly 
sandy. 
I have a cheap wheel with l |in. tires, and find it not 
quite to my taste when I run off the path into the ruts 
along the roads. Next spring I want to get the best 
wheel in the market f^ just such riding. 
George E. Jahtzee. 
A FIRST ATTEMPT AT YACHT 
BUILDING. 
BY E. P. MORRIS. 
It has been for some years my special ambition, outside 
of the serious purposes of life, to own a boat of my own de- 
sign, and, so far as it was possible, of my own construction. 
This summfr the ambition has been reahzed, and I have 
thought that an account of the process and the result might 
be interesting to the readers of the Forest and Stream 
who may be touched by a like ambition. 
For the work of designing my only equipment came from 
Kunhardt's "Small Yachts" and from the columns of the 
Forest and Stream, though before the' boat was finished I 
read Dixon Kemp's "Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing," 
and used some formulas from his larger "Yacht Architec- 
ture." I knew at first very little about mechanical drawing, 
but had perhaps a better acquaintance with mathematics 
than most men retain after leaving school or college. 
I followed the course with which many readers of the 
Forest and Stream are doubtless familiar, copying pub- 
lished designs on a different scale and making the calcula- 
tions to see whether I could get results agreeing with those 
given in the books. I tried model making also, taking oft" 
the models and working backward and forward — that is, 
using the drawing to correct the model and the model to cor- 
rect the drawing. For body plans I found it worth my 
while to make a complete set of curves, miniature Jrame pat- 
terns, which were cut out of ^in. pine and worked down the 
edge with sandpaper into true curves. This method, which 
would be too slow for an expert designer, has two advan- 
tages: it enables one to get the exact curve by successive 
approximations, which can be tested by drawing on a sepa- 
rate bit of paper until all the curves are harmonious, and it 
also makes it possible to ink the body plan more neatly than 
I at least could do with battens. In these ways I worked 
out several designs, one of which I submitted to the yachting 
editor of the Forest and Stream, with many questions as 
to the probable behavior of the boat. This was the only 
help I had, except from books. 
When 1 came to the design from which I hoped to build, 
I redrew it half a dozen times, making slight changes each 
time and going through all the calculations, even to the 
The new rule of the road originated by the Larchmont Y. 
C. last spring, and just adopted by the New York Y. C, is 
a most peculiar one, heretofore unknown in yachting. One 
direct result is to give oflBcial recognition to a practice that 
has heretofore been recognized as both unsportsmanlike and 
dangerous, that euphoniously known as "hogging the Une." 
According to the new rule, in the case of a start down wind 
any yacht which may be so fortunate as to get a berth at one 
end of the line has the right to run the length of the line, 
no matter what risk or delay she may cause to the fleet at 
large. While nominally devised to prevent fouls and dis- 
putes in maneuvering, it is a direct means of producing 
them. While it is most difficult to frame a rule that will 
cover all the possibilities and contingencies involved in the 
start of a race, it seems to us that the new rule is entirely in 
the wrong dhection, and that a far safer and more reason- 
able solution of the dithculty would be that advanced by us 
in connection with the Vigilant-Defender protests last year. 
This was nothing more than that some official declaration 
should be made to the effect that the rule now in force to 
govern the passing and rounding of marks applies as well to 
the marks at the starting line as it now does by inference. 
By this construction a yacht which is on her proper course 
to cross the line has the right of way over another yacht 
that is further from the mark than she is, whether the latter 
be close hauled or free. 
Unless this new rule be passed by the great majority of 
American yacht clubs, and we see no reason why it should 
be savQto preserve uniformity with the two clubs that 'have 
adopted it, a most undesirable degree of confusion must 
exist, a yacht sailing under one rule one day and another 
the next; a state of affairs which yachtsmen have labored 
for some years to escape from. 
The FoBBST AKD Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday, and as much earlier aa practicable. 
Eten if the rule were good beyond question, it was a 
mistake for one club to adopt it; a rule ot this kind should 
be adopted by at least a majority of the clubs, else matters 
should be left as they are. There was no pressing necessity 
for the passage of the rule last spring by one club without 
consultation with others, and the presence of two rules of a 
contrary nature in the same locality is plainly wrong. The 
whole tendency of the clubs about New York for some 
years, in the absence of an association or any specific agree- 
ment, has been toward uniformity and harmony in the 
ru.les, to the benefit of yacht racing. Any attempts of indi- 
vidual clubs at independent legislation are steps in the wrong 
direction. 
LAPWING— BODY VhiXf. 
amount and location of the ballast. I also used different 
scales, ^in., lin. and Sin. The last was a waste of labor, for 
1 could not get far enough away from my drawing to tell 
whether the curves were fair or not. The plans as they 
were made were pinned up on my walls, and this test fre- 
quently showed errors which had parsed unnoticed before. 
For this plan also I made a complete set of moulds on a lin. 
scale, and I went over the calculations two or three times, 
using Dixon Kemp's tables, the formulas in "Small Yachts" 
and a rough method of my own devising. 
Finally a table of offsets was made and the body plan was 
enlarged to the full size. I had no convenient means of 
drawing a full-sized sheer or waterline (half-breadth) plan, 
and this enlarged plan was used for bending and setting up 
the frames without having been faired up. But it is easy to 
draw within -^in. and even closer, and this when enlarged 
would be correct to :^in. There was some risk in it, but in 
fact the work proved to be entirely satisfactory. 
On the large drawing the planking was taken off and the 
bevels were drawn. For the latter 1 used a simple method, 
suggested by an acquaintance, which I have not seen de- 
scribed in the books. The frames were sided Ifin., which 
is about one-seventh of the distance from frame to frame. 
For so short a distance as 1ft. the curves of waterlines 
and diagonals are practically straight lines. If then the dis- 
tance, for example, between No. 6 and No. 5, measured 
along a diagonal in the body plan, is Sin. , the distance from 
one edge of No. 6 to the other on the same diagonal would 
be fin. By establishing a number of such points I fixed the 
curve of the beveled edge and, to avoid confusion, marked 
it in red ink. This saved all bother with angles and was 
very accurate. 
The dimensions were chosen after much comparison of 
designs and boats. The measurements are as follows : 
Length over all......... 37ft. 9in. 
l.w.l 18ft. 
Overhang, forward 4ft. 6in. 
aft 5ft. Sin, 
Beam, on deck 6 ft. 7in. 
' l.W.i. 6ft. lin. 
Draft 4ft. 
Least freeboard 1ft. 8|in. 
Sheer, forward lOin. 
aft.. 4in. 
C. B., from bow Oft. 9in. 
C. L. R. , from bow (without rudder) Oft. 9in. 
C.E., from bow Oft. 5iu» 
Displacement 6, 4251bs. 
Ballast, iron on keel 3,4401ba. 
inside, about 5001bs. 
Sail area 404sq. ft. 
