For "pace-making" on racing tracks, motor cycles ranging up to 24 h.p. have been used; but these are essentially "freak" machines of no practical value for ordinary purposes. Even 3-4 h.p. cycles have set up wonderful records, exceeding fifty miles in the hour, a speed equal to that of a good express train. In comparison with the feats of motor-cars, their achievements may not appear very startling; but when we consider the small size and weight, and the simplicity of the mechanisms which propel cycle and rider at nearly a mile a minute, the result seems marvellous enough.
During the last few years the tricycle has again come into favour, but with the arrangement of its wheels altered; two steering-wheels being placed in front, and a single driving-wheel behind. The main advantage of this inversion is that it permits the fixing of a seat in front of the driver, in which a passenger can be comfortably accommodated. The modern "tricar," with its high-powered, doubled-cylindered engines, its change-speed gears, its friction clutch for bringing the engines gradually into action, its forced water circulation for cooling the cylinders, and its spring-hung frame, is in reality more a car than a cycle, and escapes from the former category only on account of the number of its wheels. To the tourist, or to the person who does not find pleasure in solitary riding, the tricar offers many advantages, and, though decidedly more expensive to keep up than a motor bicycle, entails only very modest bills in comparison with those which affect many owners of cars.
The development of the motor cycle has been hastened and fostered by frequent speed and reliability contests, in which the nimble little motor has acquitted itself wonderfully. A hill a mile long, with very steep gradients, has been ascended in considerably less than two minutes by a 3-1/4 h.p. motor. We read of motor cycles travelling from Land's End to John-o'-Groats; from Calcutta to Bombay; from Sydney to Melbourne; from Paris to Rome--all in phenomenal times considering the physical difficulties of the various routes. Such tests prove the endurance of the motor cycle, and pave the way to its use in more profitable employments. Volunteer cycling corps often include a motor or two, which in active service would be most valuable for scouting purposes, especially if powerful enough to tow a light machine-gun. Commercial travellers, fitting a box to the front of a tricar, are able to scour the country quickly and inexpensively in quest of orders for the firms they represent. The police find the motor helpful for patrolling the roads. On the Continent, and especially in Germany, town and country postmen collect and deliver parcels and letters with the aid of the petrol-driven tricycle, and thereby save much time, while improving the service. Before long, "Hark 'tis the twanging horn" will once again herald the postman's approach in a thousand rural districts, but the horn will not hang from the belt of a horseman, such as the poet Cowper describes, but will be secured to the handle-bars of a neat tricar. Thus history repeats itself.