Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1896 — AN EXTRAORDINARY RACE [ARTICLE]

AN EXTRAORDINARY RACE

When the Bextet Bicycle Goes Against the knpire State Express. One of the most extraordinary races on record is scheduled for the sth of June. On that date six athletic cyclists, beaded by Dan Cabanne, of St. Louis, all riding on one machine’, Called a “sextuplet,” will endeavor to beat the Empire State Express, whlab is the fastest railway train in the world. The race is to be over one mile, at a point where the huge flying locomotive may safety Crowd on its greatest speed. In order to test the claims of the makers of the "sextuplet,” that, with their machine, the unaided muscles and sinews of man can carry him more rapidly than the most perfected application of the powers of steam, a five-mile track is to be laid at the side of the New York Central Railroad, near Poughkeepsie, and here the test will be made. It is necessary that the trnek should be five miles in length, as the full speed of the sextnplet cannot be attained in less than two miles, and it takes two more to come to a stop so that the six riders may alight safety. The race will, therefore, be over the third or center mile of the track. The start will be so timed that both train and oyetWts will commence the racing mile together and then both will be sent along At the utmost speed. The sextuplet is a bicycle in every sense of the word. It has only two wheels, but it has seats and pedalling gear for six riders. In the hands of the front man only is the steering apparatus. The whole machine is built of aluminum, and though it is 156 inches long over all, with a wheel base of 125 inches, it only weighs 13714 pounds. The machine is said to be such that it could bear a weight of 20,000 pounds. It is geared to 196

inches. If the men to ride it can turn their pedals three times each second, as is the train record for a mile will be beaten 2 2-5 seconds. There are four sprockets used in gearing, so that at each revolution of the pedals the bicycle moves ahead 42 feet. The friends of the sextet claim that with good riders the “bike” will prove that it is the fastest method of locomotion on earth.