120th Anniversary of George Wyman’s Coast to Coast Ride – Part 22

June 29 – Across America on a Motor Bicycle

(Angola to Buffalo, NY)

“I spent two hours in a repair shop in Angola the next morning, June 29, and at the end of that time the repairer pronounced the forks mended sufficiently to carry me through to New York. I did not feel as confident about this as the repairman did.

I got to Buffalo by 11 o’clock, and after a visit to the post office, I rode out to the E. R. Thomas automobile and motor bicycle factory. There I met Mr. F. R. Thomas for the first time, and I must pay a tribute to his generous hospitality, which I shall always remember.

The factory building is no longer standing but the front offices are, and proudly still showing the E.R Thomas name

His kindness was all the more magnanimous when it is remembered that I was riding the product of a rival maker. The first thing Mr. Thomas did was to send my bicycle inside and have it seen to that it was supplied with oil and gasoline. Then he learned that my forks were in bad shape, and he ordered men to get to work and make a new pair for it and finish them at night. The men worked in the factory until 9 o’clock that night on my forks, and had them ready for me to make an early start in the morning.

For all this Mr. Thomas. would not accept payment. In the meantime he showed me through his factory, and then lent me an Auto-Bi, on which I took a trip about the city.”

June 30, 1903
(Buffalo to Rochester, NY)

“I left Buffalo at 5:20 a.m., determined, if possible, to get to New York by July 2. and join in the endurance run to Worcester that started on the third.

After I had gone 10 miles the lacing holes in the belt broke away again. I then put on the old original belt with which I had started from San Francisco and which I had removed at Chicago. but still carried with me. Everything went finely for the next few miles, and then the connecting rod of the motor broke. Everything seemed to me to be going to pieces. There was nothing for it then but to pedal, and I churned away for five miles into Batavia.

It was only 9 a.m. when I got there, and it took until 3:30 p.m. to get the repairs made so that I could start again.
I was looking for a time-related photo and found this NOT related to this story AT ALL, but this happened in Batavia in 1885, and I’m not sure how?!

It went all right until I was 12 miles from Rochester, and then the valves got to working so poorly that I could not make more than five miles an hour with it. I managed to reach a cycle store in Rochester, and there I went to work, intending to get it fixed and ride half the night to make up for lost time.
The cycle store he went to was Regas, who made this interesting configuration and located in this building

It was of no use. I worked until 11 p.m., and then gave it up until morning. I realized then that the motor and bicycle were suffering from crystallization. There were no flaws or defects of any sort in the parts that were breaking. They were just giving out all at once, like the Deacon’s famous shay that lasted him so well and so long and was not weaker in any one part than in another.
What George is referring to “the Deacon’s famous shay” from the 1858 poem called The Deacons Masterpiece, by Oliver Wendall Holmes Sr…and this section of it

FIRST OF NOVEMBER, — the Earthquake-day, —
There are traces of age in the one-hoss shay,
A general flavor of mild decay,
But nothing local, as one may say.
There couldn’t be, — for the Deacon’s art
Had made it so like in every part
That there wasn’t a chance for one to start.
For the wheels were just as strong as the thills,
And the floor was just as strong as the sills,
And the panels just as strong as the floor,
And the whipple-tree neither less nor more,
And the back crossbar as strong as the fore,
And spring and axle and hub encore.
And yet, as a whole, it is past a doubt
In another hour it will be worn out!

In spite of all my troubles, I had made 80 miles that day, and I still had hopes of being in New York in time for the fireworks.”

July 1, 1903
(Rochester to Cayuga, NY)

“It took until 11:30 o’clock the next day, July 1, to get the motor working, and then I started from Rochester with C.O. Green, superintendent of the Regas Company, and W.L. Stoneburn, the bookkeeper, riding with me as an escort.

They accompanied me 20 miles to Fairport, over roads so muddy as to be nearly impassible. Not far from Fairport, when I was alone again the hoodoo asserted itself. First the connecting rod worked loose, and soon after the belt ends gave way. I lost as little time as possible, however, and at night I reached Cayuga, with the satisfaction of having covered 70 miles during the short day.”

George would spend the night here at the Mansfield Hotel, right behind the train depot at Cayuga, that building with the garage door