The Speed Girl

Reprin­ted from Octo­ber 25 1919’s Everywoman’s

Who knows the joy of the open road on a per­fect autumn afternoon?

Pic­ture the King’s High­way rolling smoothly down over the moor into the little val­ley where an old-fashioned river­side inn is half con­cealed by an opales­cent mist! The purl­ing brown waters of the stream make rip­pling music under the moss-grown arches of the grey stone bridge. And then the great road winds on up the hill oppos­ite until its brown streak is lost amidst the dis­tant trees.

The Real Joy.
The silk-clad girl lolling on the cush­ions of a big lim­ousine may see these things. But she does not really feel them, she does not drink in their full beauty. It is her sis­ter on the motor-bike who learns the true spell of the coun­tryside, who gets the intox­ic­a­tion of speed and col­our and move­ment — the joy of the open road.

Motor cyc­ling as a sport for girls has come to stay. The mod­ern girl is not con­tent to sit perched up on a pil­lion or embed­ded in the close con­fine­ment of a side­car. She is out to have a bike of her own, and to ride it her­self. Noth­ing less is going to sat­isfy her.

The Train­ing.
In the strain and stress of the war all these ideas have been changed. Motor cyc­ling demands a cos­tume fash­ioned more or less on mas­cu­line lines. The war finally abol­ished the pre­ju­dice against girls wear­ing some kind of rational dress. The lady motor cyc­list des­patch riders attached to the Brit­ish Army com­manded uni­ver­sal admir­a­tion. They were sub­jec­ted to rigid mil­it­ary dis­cip­line, and their life was a very hard one. Out early and late, often in driv­ing rain or bit­ter cold, entrus­ted with urgent mes­sages of the utmost import­ance, and respons­ible for the clean­ing and main­ten­ance of their own machines, these intrepid girls put up an achieve­ment which their coun­try will never for­get, and which, incid­ent­ally, has washed away the last trace of pre­ju­dice against motor cyc­ling as a healthy pas­time for women.

Advice.
Here are a few sug­ges­tions for the begin­ner: Spe­cial machines are built for ladies, but the best advice is to get a man’s machine of a suit­able type and to wear a cos­tume fash­ioned on the same model as those of the war-time des­patch riders. Girls who have had exper­i­ence in muni­tion factor­ies or as land work­ers ought not to have much dif­fi­culty in set­tling the details of their attire.

The prob­lem, of course, is to choose a rig-out that will be per­fectly neat and work­man­like on the road, and which will at the same time all the fair rider to present an appear­ance not devoid of fem­in­ine charm when enjoy­ing a cup of tea at some way­side hostelry.

Short rides, say, fif­teen or twenty miles in fine dry weather do not present any spe­cial dif­fi­culties. But the girl motor cyc­list who is out to do her sixty or hun­dred miles at all sea­sons will be well advised to make care­ful pre­par­a­tions. Warm under­cloth­ing should be worn, and the neck should on no account be open. For foot­gear easy-fitting water­proof leather boots — and above these puttees, or bet­ter still, leather leg­gings, if funds will run to them. Prob­ably the wisest plan of all for the lady-rider is to wear a suit of grey, or fawn-coloured over­all of some rain­proof mater­ial. These can be pur­chased at quite reas­on­able prices, afford a com­plete pro­tec­tion, and can be slipped off in a few seconds at the journey’s end or dur­ing a meal en route. Ser­vice­able leather gloves are an abso­lute essen­tial, and for headgear it would be dif­fi­cult to beat one mod­elled on the lines of those worn by the lady motor cyc­lists of the R.A.F.

The Choice Of Machine.
In the choice of machines the would-be girl rider had bet­ter be guided by the advice of her men friends. A medium-powered machine, some­where in the neigh­bour­hood of a 3-h.p., should be selec­ted, and prefer­ably with a two-stroke engine, as these are easier to start and cause much less vibration.

A machine for a lady’s use should have a clean run­ning engine. Oil is all very well in its way, and so is dust, but when you get them in quant­it­ies, and mixed, they are apt to be a sore trial to the flesh.

Here is a simple explan­a­tion of a pet­rol engine for the bene­fit of the abso­lute novice.

The motive power is caused by the explo­sion of a mix­ture of pet­rol gas and air in a closed cyl­in­der, thereby for­cing down a pis­ton which com­mu­nic­ates its power through suit­able gear­ing to the back wheel. The explo­sion drives the pis­ton down. As the pis­ton comes up a valve is opened and the burnt gases are forced out the through the exhaust pipe. As the pis­ton comes down again another valve is opened and it sucks in a new lot of explos­ive mix­ture. THis is com­pressed on the suc­ceed­ing up stroke. The moment it gets to the top it is fired by and elec­tric spark, there is a new explo­sion, and the whole oper­a­tion of four strokes as described above stars again.

Obvi­ously, the two prime essen­tials are to have the explos­ive mix­ture ready to be sucked into the cyl­in­der and the elec­tric spark to set fire to it at the right moment. The lat­ter is accom­plished auto­mat­ic­ally by the mag­neto, a clever device con­sist­ing of a coil of wire spin­ning between two mag­nets. Mod­ern mag­ne­tos are very reli­able and require no atten­tion except an occa­sional oiling.

Less Risk.
Girl riders should adopt side­car rather than solo machines. There is less danger or skid­ding, and it is best to have a friend with you, both for company’s sake and to lend a hand in case of a punc­ture or other breakdown.

Here are a few don’ts to fin­ish up with:-

1. Don’t ride a motor bike unless both brakes are act­ing perfectly.
2. Don’t for­get to see that the pet­rol and oil tanks are full before starting.
3. Don’t stop unless you can pos­sibly help it when des­cend­ing a hill.
4. Don’t ride fast round corners or try to show off by doing clever “stunts”.
5. Don’t try to eco­nom­ise by rid­ing dam­aged or worn tyres. Noth­ing is more likely to land you in heavy expenses.