Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/66

 Popular Science Monthly

���With the ever-ready motorcycle, hills are not necessary adjuncts to bob-sledding. This machine develops between sixteen and twenty horsepower and is capable of hauling a hundred men

��The Motorcycle Becomes Popular for Sledding Parties

THE horses on the Adirondack and Swiss lakes, who earn their oats during the winter months by pulling long bob- sleds of pleasure seekers over the ice, stand a fair chance of resigning in favor of the motorcycle.

The illustration shows thirteen men enjoying a ride on the power exerted by one motorcycle. If there were forty men on the bob-sled instead of eleven the motor- cycle wouldn't say a thing but would speed along possibly at increased rate to show its capability. The machine develops between sixteen and twenty horsepower, and through the reduced gear could pull as many as a hundred men with compara- tive ease. A chain on the rear wheel is the only concession which is made to the ice.

There is one record of where a motorcycle pulled a five-ton truck with sixty-two full- grown and healthy Americans aboard. Of course this record was not made on ice.

��Turning a Motorcycle Into a Motor Ice- Sled

WITH the frozen Hudson River stretch- ing away in the distance like a broad ribbon of smooth glass, Michael Cimorelli couldn't resist the temptation to make a motor ice-boat out of the motorcycle that was standing idle in the garage.

Accordingly, he took his machine apart and by using the engine, rear wheel and accessories made an ice-boat which covered a mile and seven-eighths in two minutes.

Part of the frame of the motorcycle was anchored in the fore part of the ice-boat and the rear wheel was carried in the forks to propel the boat. Tire chains gave trac- tion over the ice and the rear rudder, steered from the wheel, guided the boat. The gasoline tank was placed in the extreme rear behind the driver's seat as shown in the illustration below.

The boat is capable of speeding over the ice in record time, or of navigating the city streets during weather suitable for sleighing.

���Part of the frame of the motorcycle is anchored in the fore part of the ice-boat and the rear wheel is carried in the forks to propel the boat. The gasoline tank is in the rear

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