TRANSPORT TIPS FOR TRADESMEN.
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Particularly Addressed to Those Who are Replacing Horsed Vehicles by Motors, or Contemplating So Doing.
THE ANNUAL, motorcycle show has called special attention to the products of this, the lightest and cheapest branch of the motor industry, and it may be interesting to consider to what degree vehicles classified as motorcycles and cyclecars can he employed by traders for utility purposes.
Motorcycle Possibilities.
In certain businesses, as, for example, in the dis. tribution of newspapers, the merits Of the motorcycle are obvious, because successful competition may well
depend on the saving of FL few minutes of time. In
the majority -of 'businesses', however, this is not the case. Nevertheless, there are possibilities of em ploying motorcycles to advantage in many businesses in which pedal cycles are at present, employed. A pedal cycle is, of course, cheaper in the first instance and cheaper to run, but the rider's powers of endurance are limited, and in this respect, and also as regards speed, the light niotoreycle has very considerable advantages. It seems not improbable that motorcycles of the scooter type, but representing considerable improvements as compared with the crude designs at first brought forward, might, in quite a number oi businesses, be advantageously employed for effecting quite small express deliveries over considerable distances. In most cases in which a trader may use motorcycles or motor scooters fa. Such purposes, it is important that the , fullest possible publicity for the fact should he secured. To quite a. considerable extent the use of the machines must be justified, not on a straightforward monetary basis, hut on the grounds that their presence indicates to present and possible customers that their owner runs his business in a thoroughly up-to-date manner and spares no expense to give the best possible service. ,
• Three-wheelers.
The employment. by traders' of three-wheeled vehicles, either in the nature of sidecar combinations or of the cyclecar class, can be more often justified on plain business grounds. The combination of a motorcycle and a sidecar often strikes those who have no practical experience of it as being a somewhat unmechanical arrangement, attractive to those who revel in high speeds and take little account of danger, but not by any means a trader's vehicle. This judgment would be, hardly a fair one. In actual use the sidecar is quite a practical 'device,
• and the degree of danger associated with its employment is in no way prohibitive. Sidecars are built in many forms. They are now to he had so designed as to provide accommodation for two or three pa,ssengess travelling in considerable comfort. They may also be had with substantial box bodies for the conveyance of -goods. °riven a suitable motorcycle and a substantially built sidecar, a load of 3 to 4 cwt. can be dealt. with safely. The power of the motorcycle in such a case must be, at least., fairly high, but we have to remember that very high speeds are neither necessary nor economical. Consequently, the engine power may be lower than in the case of a smaller vehicle intended for private use.
There must he many traders in country towns and in suburhsn districts who would find a single sidecar
combination adequate for the prompt conveyance of all their deliveries that cannot be conveniently handled with a horsed cart or by .employing boys with bicycles. As compared with the 'normal type of light four-wheeled motorvan, the sidecar combination should be very, cheap in operation so far as such items of fuel and tyres are concerned. It will, probably, be a little more apt to suffer from trifling derangements while in use, but there should be no great -difficulty in finding a driver whose mechanical instinct is sufficiently developed and whose experience is good enough to deal with these small matters. The enthusiastic motorcyclist generally has a much more thorough knowledge of his machine than the average motorcar driver.
The Three-wheeled Cyclecar.
In addition to the sidecar combination we now have on the market a certain number of threewheeled cyclecars which represent attempts to provide equivalent, accommodation on equally cheap machines, the design of which is really more mechanical. One of the points of the sidecar combination is that on occasion the sidecar can be detached and the motorcycle used as a solo mount. It is then capable of going anywhere at very considerable speeds. When this class of service is not required, it would seem that the advantage should really lie with the three-wheeler designed solely as such. Large mirabers of firms have obtained excellent resultswith three-wheelers of the Auto-Carrier class. These were built specifically for trade purposes, and, when employing three-wheelers of the hew designs that are now being marketed, we have to remember that regular trade work may quite possibly prove too stiff for machines intended only for pleasure use. Finally, we have light four-wheelers, the structure of which is really more on the lines of a 3notorcycle than of a motorcar. Some of these, with trifling modifications, may make very useful little delivery vans, provided their work is not too rough. Price for price, they are likely to be somewhat more fragile than the corresponding three-wheelers for various mechanical reasons. At the same time, if the work given to them is not excessive, they may be preferred as. being smarter in appearance and, therefore, as giving a better impression of the class of tkeir owner's business.