Motohistory Quiz #67:

We have a winner!

(6/30/2009)

 

As I thought, this one went down fairly quickly. In fact, the first person to send in an answer sent a correct answer. This was Bob Kent of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, who identified it as the engine of a Nimbus, made in Denmark. Bob described his first recollection of the Nimbus, stating,“ Years ago I attended my first Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group National Rally, held in Welland, Ontario. There I saw four Nimbus motorcycles, three with sidecars.  I had never even heard of a Nimbus, let alone seen one.  A simple, innovative and functional motorcycle.”

 

For nearly four decades, Fisker & Nielsen Ltd. of Copenhagen made only a single model, a 746cc air-cooled inline four-cylinder with shaft drive. The Nimbus appeared first with an intake-over-exhaust head, but was later updated to an overhead-valve configuration. It had a very simple strap metal frame and a trailing arm front suspension, which was later replaced with a telescopic fork. For more information about the Nimbus, click here, here, and here. To reach the Nimbus Club USA, click here. For the Chicago Nimbus Club, click here.

Photos for our quiz were provided by Guy Young. Congratulations Bob Kent, your Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma is on the way.

 

Motohistory Quiz #67

(6/30/2009)

Okay, Motohistorians, it is time for another Motohistory Quiz.  So be quick at the keyboard because this one should be a lot easier than the last one.

Just be the first to tell us the brand and nation of origin of the engine pictured here, and you will receive a highly-coveted personalized Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma. It will set you apart from the crowd.

Just send your answer to Ed@Motohistory.net.

 

Wingers revisited

(6/30/2009)

 

Dick and Wanda Winger of Sweetser, Indiana are pillars in the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. Dick served on its board of directors for 24 years, and Wanda served as its membership director for 22. When the AMCA Foundation was created a little over a year ago, both moved to its board of directors to help guide this fledgling, but important educational non-profit organization.

In 2000, the Wingers built a 4,000 square-foot facility on their property to house their own collections. We visited shortly thereafter, then returned recently to see how things had changed. The building behind the Winger's home in Sweetster is not just a motorcycle storage barn. It is climate-controlled, nicely appointed, tidy, and well-organized as a private museum. Though it is not open to the public, the Wingers are proud to share it with friends who appreciate our history and heritage.

 

What has changed mostly at the Winger Museum is that the collection has gotten larger and much more diverse. While the collection of motorcycles includes the requisite Indians and Harleys (Dick and Wanda are seen above on a recently-acquired 1937 ULH), there are also European and Japanese brands, plus some very special vehicles including a three-wheeled Morgan and a beautifully-crafted accurate and operable recreation of the 1885 steam-powered Roper (pictured left). However, there is a special place in the Wingers' hearts for the classics built by Ignaz Schwinn, the Henderson and the Excelsior. They have have five Hendersons ranging from 1915 to 1930, the crown jewel of which is the recently-restored 1915 (pictured right). In all, there are more than 40 motorcycles in the collection.

 

Dick Winger's interest in the Excelsior and Henderson brands has made him a student of the recent ill-fated venture of the Hanlon brothers to resurrect the Excelsior. In addition to two of the latter-day Excelsiors, Winger has the actual clay model used in the styling of the motorcycle (pictured left), plus the original prototype frame used to fabricate jigs and tooling. Beyond the business challenges that the Hanlons were unable to overcome, many believe that acceptance of their motorcycle was hampered by weight and awkward styling, the most conspicuous feature of which was a monstrous leading-link front fork and fat front fender. Winger has modified one of his Excelsiors to demonstrate what might have been. Trimmed of fat and fitted with a conventional telescopic front fork, it is indeed a beautiful cruiser that looks like it weighs half of the stock machine sitting next to it (pictured right).

 

In addition to their motorcycles, the Wingers have several classic automobiles including a 1917 V12 Packard, a 1932 V12 Pierce Arrow, and a 1900 Locomobile steamer. These are flanked by a racing car collection that includes five open cockpit midgets and an Indian-powered micro midget. Then there is the extensive collection of more than 100 pieces of Charles Lindberg memorabilia, and Dick's growing collection of World War II artifacts. How often are you apt to see a Messerschmitt ME109 engine (pictured left) and the skin of a B24 bomber that crashed in France. Winger exhaustively researched the history of this crashed bomber, chasing leads all over the United States to track down its crew, several of which survived the crash. All, Winger found, were deceased except one, which was found living in Indiana not 20 miles from the Winger home.

 

I visit to the Winger Museum will make one appreciate not only the decades of service that Dick and Wanda have dedicated to the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, but the effort they have put into organizing, preserving, and documenting the motorcycles, cars, and artifacts in their own collections.

 

The Double-barreled Bullet

(6/292009)

 

In 2005, when I was curating the motorcycle segment of the Wheelz Exhibition for the Columbus College of Art and Design (see Motohistory News & Views 10/5/2005) I met a young man named Aniket Vandahn who informed me he was designing and building the lower end of a V-twin that would carry the barrels of two Enfield Bullets. At the moment, it sounded to me a bit like an idea whose time had passed it by, but the same could be said about the Bullet itself, and it seems to be carrying on quite nicely, thank you. Furthermore, the discussion with Vandahn revealed that this was not just some hare-brained plan that would never make it off the drawing board. He clearly understood the challenges he would face, and he took the engineering discussion to a level that soon left me behind. Vandahn even pointed out that the idea was grounded in historical tradition; that before they earned worldwide fame for their big singles and vertical twins, many British companies built V-twins for both sport and transportation.

 

I heard nothing more from Vandahn until a few weeks ago when he delivered not just photos of the running motorcycle, but video of it on the road. And this was no test mule or cobby prototype. Named the Musket, Vandahn's Bullet-based V-twin is a beautifully finished motorcycle with graceful lines and clean, Bullet-like simplicity. He writes, “I have put 800 miles on the motorcycle and she has started first kick, every time.” The builder reports that the bike will be on display at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days next month.

 

To learn more about this fascinating home-built motorcycle, click here and here.   When you play the video, turn up the sound. It is marvelous!

 

Some surprises at Tennessee

no-reserve auction

By Mark Mederski

(6/28/2009)

 

With the market for collectible motorcycles a bit soft for all but the best machines, auctions have become a good place to get a deal, especially when there are over 400 lots to be sold at no reserve. This was the case in Columbia, Tennessee on June 25 when motorcycles and artifacts accumulated over three generations were put up for sale by Sam Goodwin. The setting was the actual premises of the Goodwin shop, where the motorcycles for sale included a very nice 1947 Indian Chief, several Panheads, an early Royal Enfield, a Scott Flying Squirrel, and even a Brough (pictured right). Amazingly, a quarter of the offerings were old Hondas. And it did not stop with motorcycles. There were a couple of rough Model Ts, a very nice model A, half a dozen hit and miss engines, and a crashed Cessna aircraft (pictured below).

 

While milling about among the potential bidders on preview day, I was taken by the strong interest in the old Japanese machines.  These, when sold, brought pretty solid prices, even the 1970s vintage. If you know what a Lilac is, consider the fact that a grungy but complete one sold here for $6000! One experienced large collector offered his opinion that the best Japanese machines are just starting to move up in value, and that we'll see greater action in coming years. Ditto the prices on the British bikes, including the aforementioned Royal Enfield and Scott, especially when one considers that these machines were mostly not running and generally not well presented at the sale.  Of course, experts can see a diamond even when it is covered in decades of grime.

 

But I would be telling tales if I said the Harleys were selling strongly.  Auctioneer Jerry Wood had to work hard to sell a beautiful black 1965 Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide—one of the most sought-after FLs—for $13,000. Other Panheads and certainly Sportsters were had at very prices.  Of course, one could not fire up many of these machines, and this certainly depressed their prices. For complete results of the sale, click here.

Photos by Mark Mederski.

 

Festival of the Norton

Celebrates 50 years of the NOC

By Les Archer

(6/27/2009)

 

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Norton Owners Club presented The Festival of the Norton at Donnington Park over Fathers' Day weekend, attracting an amazing collection of Norton motorcycles and an international contingent of their owners in what can only be described as a spectacular celebration. The club must be congratulated for undertaking such a large and difficult project. There were Nortons of all ages and sizes everywhere. There were expertly devised static displays, demonstration areas, and of course the Donnington Circuit was available for the racing bikes to perform. Visitors arrived from many nations on machines immaculately prepared, keen to take part in what was surely the largest assembly of the marque in history.  

 

I accept that I am a bit biased, but you must agree that even after all these years the thunderous noise of a 500cc Manx engine bursting into life is truly awesome. It was thus that Norton enthusiast Roy Richards, founder of the National Motorcycle Museum at Birmingham, described the sound of my own Moto-Cross Manx machine. Such a shame he is no longer with us; how he would have enjoyed this week-end.  The bike, however, was there, being the sole survivor of the original four we built in 1951 and 1952. It sounding as good as ever, and I even managed to get a short ride, reminding me that I shall forever be grateful to Roy for undertaking the rebuild to its original condition, and to Mike Jackson—Old MJ—who master-minded the operation.  

 

The weekend provided us many a trip down memory lane. Old and new friends met to discuss old times and experiences, and there was frequently a touch of the unexpected. For example, I had almost forgotten my early road racing days with Norton when they gave me a brand new 500cc Manx at Blandford in 1949.  That engine put a con-rod through the crankcase, but how amazing it was to see it now installed in another frame. I could not resist a photo with that bike. A final family touch is that before the war Donnington was one of my Father's favorite circuits when he was riding the New Imperial and Velocette machines. Known in those days as "The Aldershot Flyer," he would have been this week-end getting us together to celebrate his 100th Birthday. We had to have a drink to that!   Thanks for the memories.

Photos by Les Archer.

 

Vintage Japanese meet

celebrates its 21st year

(6/26/2009)

 

The 21st Annual Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Meet is scheduled to take place August 14 through 16 at the White Rose Motorcycle Club grounds at Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Always regarded the highlight for the vintage Japanese motorcycling community in the Mid-Atlantic region, this meet has drawn venders and collectors from all over the world. The hosting facility includes a club house with a restaurant, clean restrooms, and showers for all campers. Vending will open at 7 a.m. on Friday. Admission is only $5.00; $40.00 for venders and campers. For more information, E-mail Indianrobn@aol.com.

 

Wheels Through Time to open in July

for 7th anniversary celebration

(6/26/2009)

 

The Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina will open its doors to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 11 and 12 for a special weekend in celebration of its 7th Anniversary in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The Museum, which suspended its day-to-day operations last December, was founded in Mount Vernon, Illinois before moving to Maggie Valley seven years ago. The special anniversary event will include demonstrations of rare four- and two-wheeled vehicles, consistent with the institution's slogan: “The Museum that Runs.” Wheels Through Time curator Dale Walksler states, "The museum collection has continued to grow larger than ever, with many new machines on display unseen to the public eye for nearly half a century, so we are expecting a fantastic turnout for this special event.”

 

Although Maggie Valley's transportation history mecca is not open daily, the Museum has continued to fulfill its mission to educate and inspire multi-generational audiences as to the history of American transportation through private openings and special public events. Currently, the collection includes more than three hundred of America's rarest and most significant motorcycles (pictured here is a 1913 Henderson), and new acquisitions are made on a regular basis. Other special events this summer will include openings July 24 through 26 during the Motorcycle Mama's Smoky Mountain Ride-In, and August 14 through 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, click here.

 

 

(6/25/2009)

 

You readers of Cycle News are familiar with “Archives,” Larry Lawrence's weekly feature about the great events and great people in the history of the American motorcycle sport. How he cranks out such consistently high-quality work week after week is a constant amazement to me. But Larry also has time for a blog entitled The Rider Files. To check it out, click here.

This year the ISDT Reunion Ride will move to Ohio.  Entry and banquet reservation forms are now available.  The easiest way to get all the scoop is to just go to the Penton Owners Group web site forum.  Click here. 

 

Back in the Day MX is a site built for YZ enthusiasts. Click here.

 

Eddie Boomhower and George Ireland have created a web site called Racer Reunion that all dirt track enthusiasts will enjoy, but especially those from the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Click here.

 

If you want to build a web site, don't come to me. I have barely figured out how to position pictures with my ancient Contribute2 system. But there's another Ed Youngblood who may be able to help. He's a Texas Tech PhD who teaches web site design because he believes in—according to his own web site--advancing “ consumer adoption of digital media, particularly by the have-not side of the digital divide,” which is probably most of us. To check out what Dr. Youngblood offers, click here.

 

And on the subject of web site design, I would be remiss to not mention that it is Matt Scheben of Full Throttle Creative who keeps me and Motohistory propped up. Matt is an enthusiastic motorcyclist who also runs Columbusbiker,com. To see his web site, click here. To learn about his web site development and administration services, click here.

 

Dean Adams has done a nice piece on his SuperbikePlanet web site about Giacomo Agostini, who turned 67 on June 16. To read it, click here.

 

Irving Vincent, the guys down under who make Vincents go like hell, have a new web site. Click here.

Leo Keller has sent us links to YouTube videos of Simson and MZ Six Days riders from the 1960s . Click here and here.

Last month we posted a review of “Big Sid's Vincati,” by Matthew Biberman (See Motohistory News & Views 5/29/2009), which has become the subject of a positive review in the New York Times. Click here. The NYT review was followed with a notice in The Valve, an on-line literary journal. Click here.

 

Courthouse Galleries of Fine Art in Portsmouth, Virginia will open an exhibition July 3 entitled “Freedom: Evolution of the Motorcycle.” For more information, click here.

 

Doug Klassen's 40on2 blog has photos from the 25th Annual Arizona Antique and Classic Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet. Click here.

 

There's great history and great photos on the new Falcon web site blo. Click here.

 

Vintage Husky expert Rob Phillips reports having found

motorcycles used by Steve McQueen and Bengt Aberg. For more information, click here.


Three's a charm for Smith
at Gilmore
(6/24/2009)

For the third year running, Japanese motorcycle collector Roger Smith of Clarkson, Michigan won the People's Choice Award at the 14th Annual Gilmore Museum Concours of Vintage Motorcycles on June 15. Smith won the award with a Suzuki X6 Hustler in 2007, a Honda CBX in 2008, and a 1962 Honda CL72 Scrambler this year. The Scrambler had just been featured in the magazine of the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club in an article penned by Smith about metal working and fender restoration. Best in Show was won by Dietrich Roth of Grand Rapids, Michigan with his 1956 NSU Max. About his third successive People's Choice Award, Smith said, “It gives us a pretty good picture of current trends in the antique motorcycle collecting community. The Japanese brands are really coming to the fore as the teens of the 1960s move into an age group where nostalgia takes over and they can afford to create and support motorcycle collections. The classic European and American brands will always be revered, but the Japanese marques are really gaining interest and popularity.” For more information about the Gillmore Museum, click here.  For pictures of the Gilmore concours, click here.

 

(6/22/2009)

Terry Good has arguably the world's finest collection of pedigreed motocross factory bikes, a treasure he approaches with the mind of an archeologist. While the bikes in his collection are strikingly beautiful, nothing is done to them that would erase the evidence of their use. They are “restored” as faithfully as possible to the last moment of their racing lives, not to the first moment they emerged new and shiny from the racing department. For example, if the frame or cases of a motorcycle show bare metal where a legendary champion's boot rubbed away the paint, that evidence of its history will not be altered or repainted. A 1971 Yamaha YZ637 ridden by Torsten Hallman still has on its one-off, sand-cast throttle assembly the blue electrical tape that Hallman's mechanic applied to it in 1972. 

To unearth the history behind his rare one-of-a-kind motorcycles, Good has conducted extensive research and forged fast friendships with many of the living legends of motocross. These include Hallman, Sten Lundin, Joel Robert, Roger DeCoster, Hakan Andersson, Pierre Karsmakers, Marty Tripes, Kent Howerton, Johnny O'Mara, and many more. Now, all of this: the machines, the history, the men, the friendships have come together in a book entitled “Legendary Motocross Bikes: Championship-Winning Factory Works Bikes,” authored by Good. In landscape format, this stunningly beautiful book contains studio-quality images of 20 of Good's machines as well as historical photos of those bikes in action. In addition to Good's text, there are signed anecdotes, reminiscences, and testimonials by the champions who rode them. There is a foreword by American Honda team manager Dave Arnold, and, consistent with the book's scholarly quality, an index is provided. “Legendary Motocross Bikes,” published by Motorbooks, will hit the shelves on August 1. To acquire a copy from the author's web site, click here.

Norbert Schickel's motorcycle, introduced in 1911, may be one of the most under-appreciated technical achievements in the early history of American motorcycling. It was the first two-stroke built in America, it had the first twist grip transmission control, the first rotating magneto spark advance, and the first flywheel/crankshaft combination built from a single forging. Its patented designs included a hinged rear fender, a spring fork, and a one-piece cast frame/fuel tank combination. Among the many better-known companies that paid royalties or licensing fees for Schickel's patented features were both Indian and Harley-Davidson.

Today, thanks to the scholarly work of Ken Anderson, a mechanical engineer and the grandson of Norbert Schickel, we can have a better understanding of the innovative qualities of this unusual machine through his new book entitled “The Illustrated History of the Schickel Motorcycle.” With access to Schickel patents, photos, business documents, and family archives, Anderson provides a rare insight into an inventive genius and the operation of an early American motorcycle company. Included among the book's 90 images are original Schickel Motor Company photographs dating from 1911 through 1924. “The Illustrated History of the Schickel Motorcycle” makes a significant contribution to the body of work that has been published about the early motorcycle industry. To order a copy, click here.

For those who may not know, a “BCMC” is a Big City Motorcycle Cop, and it is also the name of a new diary of a motor copy by sometimes Motohistory contributor Gary Smith (See Motohistory News & Views 1/31/2008 and 2/12/2008). Smith's qualifications for such a book are unimpeachable since he served 16 years in the Traffic Enforcement Division of the LAPD where he declined promotions so he could stay in the saddle as a BCMC. In 1976, he transferred to plain clothes and finished his 23-year law enforcement career tracking down felons as a bounty hunter for the Department. In 1981, he took up a second 20-year career with American Honda, working in special events and safety programs. During that time, he served a number of years on the Board of Directors of the American Motorcyclist Association. “The BCMC,” expected off the press August 20, tells the story of young motor cop Pete Felix during the turbulent 1960s. About the adventures BCMC Felix, Smith says, “The names have been changed, but the stories are true.” The book will be available on Amazon. For more information, E-mail Smith at gss10166@comcast.net.

 

Cristine Sommer Simmons has been collecting photos of women motorcyclists for 30 years, and now they have come together in “The American Motorcycle Girls, 1900 to 1950: A Photographic History of Early Women Motorcyclists,” just released by Parker House Publishing. In context of the current buzz about how many women are buying new motorcycles, Sommer Simmons' book provides convincing evidence that this trend is nothing new. In addition to some 400 photographs, there are interviews with many of the women featured in the book. At 240 pages on high-quality paper, “The American Motorcycle Girls” includes a foreword by Karen Davidson, great granddaughter of William A. Davidson. For more information, click here or E-mail the publisher at tim@tgparker.com.

 

Kevin Cameron's “The Grand Prix Motorcycle: The Official Technical History” describes the creation and development of grand prix road racing motorcycles over a 60-year period, including full technical specifications for the machines discussed. The book also reveals the role that riders have played in working with technicians and engineers to refine the world's most sophisticated racing motorcycles. The text is illustrated with detailed illustrations by Pepe Burgaleta, showing each bike in profile. There is a foreword by Kenny Roberts Sr. “The Grand Prix Motorcycle” is available for $39.95 from Bull Publishing. To access the publisher's web site, click here

 

Max Bubeck, now 91, is one of the truly colorful characters in the American motorcycle sport. An unbending Indian partisan, even after the brand was long gone, Bubeck made his mark in 1938 when he won the Novice Division and took second overall at the grueling Greenhorn Enduro. When the Greenhorn resumed after a hiatus due to the Second World War, Bubeck came back in 1947 and astonished all by winning the event on an Indian Four. Bubeck recalls that feat with the attitude he has used toward all things in his life, stating, “I didn't think it could be done, so I did it!” Bubeck went on to set land speed records aboard his Chout—a Chief/Scout hybrid—and undertook much of the development work that resulted in the Warrior TT, Indian's last motorcycle. These and other tales of Bubeck's remarkable life have been compiled by Tim Cunningham in “Bubeck! The Life of One of America's Motorcycling Legends.” At 206 pages, this fabric-bound hardback book contains many historical photos from Bubeck's own albums. It is $30.00 plus $5.00 shipping. To order your copy, or for more information, E-mail Maxuzi@aol.com.

 

Johnny O'Hannah, the uncle of American motocross, is lately earning the international acclaim he was so often denied by fate, bull-headed team managers, a biased media, and petty officials during his racing career. Having taken Bercy by a storm earlier this year (See Motohistory 1/7/2009), O'Hannah has notched a four-page interview in Motoverte. Unfortunately, since this is a French language magazine, the truth about this great sportsman will once again go largely unnoticed in his home country.

Margie Siegel continues her “Seasoned Citizens” series in the August issue of IronWorks magazine with a study of the 1947 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead, the last of the Knucks. Siegel explains how the Motor Company invested war revenue in new manufacturing equipment that would enable production of the hydraulic lifters that would arrive with the Panhead, while it ramped up production of its Knuckleheads to meet the growing post-war demand for new civilian motorcycles. For Harley-Davidson, this demand translated into sales of 20,000 1947 models, including over 4,000 Ds and nearly 7,000 FLs. The motorcycle photographed for the story is owned and was restored by Russ Hogan. Photography is by Dana Shirey. For more information about IronWorks on line, click here.

 

The July/August issue of Motorcycle Classics gets pretty wrapped up in café bikes, featuring brands that one does not immediately associate with the café style, such as a toaster tank BMW and a couple of XL Harleys. There is also an article by Alan Cathcart about Tom Mellor's Triumph Bonneville speedster. Other stories focus on the Vincent Black Shadow, a 1937 Zundapp KKS500, a 1963 Moto Guzzi Falcone Sport, and the Laverda Jota 180. Margie Siegel writes about the 1974 Kawasaki H1. MC also reports on Harley-Davidson's latest attempt to turn history into case, the 2009 XR1200, another iteration of a Sportster with dirt track styling. As always, excellent photography throughout the publication fairly pops, thanks to its top quality paper stock. For information about Motorcycle Classics on line, click here.

 

The August issue of Automobile contains a feature by Don Sherman about Honda's growth in America entitled “Still nifty and thrifty at 50.” Aided by a nicely-illustrated time line, Sherman summarizes Honda's march to success through the introduction of the 50cc Super Cub, the CB750 four-cylinder, the S600 and Z600 small cars, the Civic, the Accord, and spin-off of the Acura brand designed to move loyal Honda buyers into a pricier product. Honda became the first Japanese brand to manufacture in the United States, and, unlike most other world car manufacturers, has ventured successfully into marine, power products, generators, and other products the sale of which have made the company the world's largest internal combustion engine manufacturer. Sherman points out that for Honda even the sky is not the limit since soon a new twin-engine HondaJet—manufactured in America —will come on the market. With a cover price of $4.99 ($5.99 in Canada), Automobile can be found on newsstands. To reach the magazine on line, click. To read Motohistory's tribute to American Honda's 50th Anniversary, click here.

 

Indians returning to

George Hendee's farm

(6/20/2009)  

The Friends of the Farm at Hilltop, Indian founder George Hendee's estate in Suffield, Connecticut, will be hosting a George Hendee Day and Indian Motorcycle Rally from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 19. Hendee lived at Hilltop Farm where he raised prize cattle from 1915 to 1940. His 20,000 square-foot dairy barn is currently under restoration by the Friends of the Farm and will be reopened as an environmental and agricultural learning center. To learn more about the project and the history of Hilltop Farm, click here. For more information about the rally, E-mail Paula Hodge at paula.hodge@cox.net.    

 

US Motorcycle Hall of Fame

names Class of 2009

(6/19/2009)  

The Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum has announced nine inductees in its Class of 2009. These include clothing and accessory manufacturer Bob Bates, off-road champion Randy Hawkins, suspension pioneer Gilles Vaillencourt, off-road rights advocate Mona Ehnes, writer and safety expert David Hough, entrepreneurs Geoff and Bob Fox, racing team manager Gary Mathers, and racer/tuner Chuck Palmgren. The induction ceremony will take place on the evening of December 5 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. More information will be available on the Museum's web site. Click here.

 

Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame
names Class of 2009
(6/19/2009)

The Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame has announced eight individuals and two groups to be inducted at the fourth annual Hall of Fame Induction Banquet & Reunion, to be held October 24, 2009 at the Renaissance Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Centre, Toronto, Ontario. They include motocross competitor and organizer Carl Bastedo, the Canadian Race Communications Association, show producer and collector Bar Hodgson, international competitor Ivor Lloyd, competitor Duane McDanials, legendary dirt track racer Don McHugh, course developer and trainer Ken Morgan, competitor and team manager Jimmy Sehl, the Steel City Riders, and hill climbing champion John Williams. For reservations and more information, click here.

   

Mederski shifts gears

(6/18/2009)  

Mark Mederski, who retired recently from a 27-year career with the American Motorcyclist Association and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, has formed Mederski Vintage Motorcycle Services, a company that will provide certified appraisals, guidance on collections and estate management, exhibit design and event management, and restoration resources. For more information, reach him at motormark@columbus.rr.com. Mederski recently participated in Motohistory's Tribute to American Honda. To read his contribution, click here.

 

(6/16/2009)

 

Our special Motohistory Tribute to the 50th anniversary of American Honda got more readership and more feedback than anything else we have ever posted on the web site since its creation in 2003.

 

Steve Doyle writes:

 

Applause, applause!  Excellent tributes all!  Makes me glad to have grown up in the 60s and lived with the fledgling Honda company.  Honda is still my choice of motorcycle today, although I have four brands in my garage.  My favorite ride is my 1991 750 Nighthawk, original owner......don't think it will ever see a second in my lifetime.  I'm waiting semi-patiently for Honda to bring us another "standard."

 

Thanks, Steve, all the credit goes to our nine guest Motohistorians and Matt Scheben, my web site guru, who made the Honda Tribute possible.

 

Dick Lepley, one of the contributors to our Honda Tribute, followed up with some photographs from the 1972 American Honda dealer convention, held in Washington, D.C. Lepley writes:

 

Hello again, Ed. The photos attached were taken at the ‘72 Honda Convention.  They include the Dick Mann Honda Four that won Daytona, a very young-looking Soichiro Honda, and the ill-fated 750 four-cylinder powered snowmobile...complete with transmission.  The engine was tucked into a rather large, heavy Polaris-developed chassis.  A friend of mine who was hired by Honda because of his snowmobile background told me he was with Honda engineers at Yellowstone when this thing was tested against other sleds.  He told me they got to an area where they had to jump the sleds a bit, and the Honda test rider displayed a bit of arrogant attitude.  When the test rider jumped the Honda it landed and buried itself in the snow in a rather clumsy, embarrassing manner.  The only other Honda sled I ever saw was the rear-engine, tiller-steered White Fox, a number of which were test marketed. I wonder if any of the 750 sleds still exist.

 

Thanks, Dick, I wonder how many of our Motohistorians even knew that Honda built a snowmobile. I confess that I did not. Regarding the Dick Mann Honda, I'm sure that much of the credit for that historic Daytona victory should go to crew chief Bob Hansen, in addition to Mann and Honda. Truth is, the cam chain tensioners on the Fours were not up to the punishment of 200 miles under racing conditions. Hansen and mechanic Bob Jameson discovered this early in the week, and totally rebuilt the engine. They also warned the other three teams of Brit riders and Japanese mechanics, but were ignored. Consequently, all failed to finish except Dick Mann's bike, and in the waning laps it was failing as well. Victory was achieved through Hansen's strategic coaching and Mann's experience and personal discipline. The Japanese actually got angry with Hansen because he was telling Mann to slow down to save his engine. They did not understand that Hansen had calculated the closing speed of Triumph-mounted Gene Romero and knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Whether the Dick Mann Daytona Honda survives is still a mystery. We previously published a story about the search for the Daytona Honda (see Motohistory 11/24/2003). According to Bob Hansen, it is possible that the “Mann bike” put on display by Honda at various events was actually Tommy Robb's machine, refurbished and painted with Mann's number.

 

As we all know, the great lost Hondas seem to have a way of turning up eventually (sometimes from the storage rooms of the Honda Motor Company), and perhaps one day the machine confirmable as Dick Mann's Daytona winner will suddenly appear. Motohistorians who would like to read Dick Lepley's essay can click here.

 

Bob Jackson, former editor of Motorcycle Product News, writes:

 

Nice stuff on American Honda. The picture of its first Southern California facility especially resonated with me, as one of the first magazine interviews I did, in 1971, was with American Honda's Matt Matsuoka, a really nice man.

    

Recently, I, experienced a bit of a sad time with the company. For the past 20 years, I've been on the advisory board for the Los Angeles Ride for Kids, a Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation fund-raising motorcycle ride. Since the inception of the Ride for Kids series—and there are nearly 40 of those events across the U.S. now—Honda has been the title sponsor for the rides. For first few years, the L.A. ride began at various locations, but for the past few it has started and ended at American Honda headquarters in Torrance. For the past 15 years or so, one of Carolyn's and my ride day duties has been to pick up the 20 dozen assorted bagels donated by a company in Van Nuys, and have them on the AH headquarters by 6 a.m. This year, the ride was on the first Sunday in May, and for some reason I was seeing virtually nobody I knew of the Honda staff; then I found out why. The previous Friday, 61 people in American Honda's motorcycle division had opted for early retirement, due to a large extent to the economy. They were “history,” and I missed them a lot. They were some beautiful people.

    

Something that a lot of people never knew, unless you were close to the industry, was the work-load the AH motorcycle people had. I'm sure a lot of people, knowing the size and scope of the Honda brand and seeing the huge Torrance facility, thought the company had endless amounts of motorcycle-related employees. In fact, it usually had a "cadre," which, as you know from the definition of the word, is as close to a skeleton crew as you can get. For many years, I had to travel to AH a couple of times a month in the four or five months leading to the Ride for Kids, for committee meetings that typically started at 7 p.m. There was hardly a time that I didn't see somebody I knew from the motorcycle division just leaving work for the day.

 

Thanks, Bob, for sharing this very personal information. We just received a press release about the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation/Honda Ride for Kids relationship. Ride For Kids President Mike Traynor pointed out that with American Honda's strong backing, the organization has conducted 400 rides to date, raising over $50 million for the PBTF. Motohistory readers interested in learning more about the program can click here.

 

Motorcycle Hall of Famer Don Brown wrote to share some interesting history about an industry in transition following Honda's entry into the American market.  Brown, who was with Triumph importer Johnson Motors (JoMo) at the time, writes:

 

Since my job at JoMo was responsible for sales and marketing, dealer and business development, new model orders, and product development liason with with the factory in England, we were very much aware of what the arrival of Honda meant to our industry. Honda wanted to form a new trade association that would be more  involved with safety issues  than the old Motorcycle, Scooter and Allied  Trades Association (MS&ATA) was at the time. Through their spokesman, Matt Matsuoka, they asked if I could help by bringing Triumph in as a member. I was able to convince JoMo to join, and the organization was started with Yamaha, Suzuki, Yambert Advertising, JoMo's advertising agency, and Honda. Called the Southern California Motorcycle Industry Safety Council, it became a success and eventually achieved a merger with the MS&ATA, creating the Motorcycle Industry Council, which later spun off the Motorcycle Safety  Foundation. These are the two organizations that still lead the industry today.

 

Thanks, Don, for sharing some of the ways that Honda and other Japanese companies influenced the industry behind the scenes. Incidentally, Don Brown is the man who commissioned designer Craig Vetter to create the Triumph Hurricane, planned originally to be built by BSA.  Motohistory readers who would like to read a dialogue between Brown and Vetter about that project may click

here.

 

And speaking of Craig Vetter, also a Hall of Famer, he sent us a short essay under the title of “Little Changes to Make It More Better.” Craig writes:

The Baby Boom Generation was awakened to motorcycles in 1959 when Mr. Honda introduced his revolutionary 50cc Cub. Honda's timing could not have been better. He was making motorcycles for our generation. Old timers made fun of Honda. “The Japanese can make good bicycles,” they said, “but they will never be able to make good motorcycles.”

I was a student in the Industrial Design School at the University of Illinois when I saw my first Honda. It was a sunny, crisp, winter morning in 1962-3 when another student silently glided up to the school post office to get his mail. The sun behind made his spokes sparkle. I watched from the seat of my idling and smoking Vespa as he retrieved his mail, got back on his machine and silently rode off. No kicking! He had an electric starter! No sound. No smoke. No oil spot on the sidewalk. I had just seen my first Japanese motorcycle: a Honda 50cc Cub. Fifty years later I remember it as if it had happened this morning. 

Old time riders liked big Harleys and English bikes. There was nothing here for them. But the Baby Boom generation was already beginning to show we were different. Honda had raised the standards for motorcycles and we liked what we saw. Although they were followed by Yamaha, Suzuki, and Bridgestone, the word “Honda” meant any Japanese bike. Compared to all other motorcycles produced before, Hondas were jewelry. 

Motorcycle design was transformed, I believe, because there actually was a person named Honda behind these motorcycles called Honda. Who would you rather buy from? A “General Motorcycle Company” or from a man who is proud enough to put his name and reputation on the line? Five years later, when I entered the motorcycle business, I used my name, too. It makes a difference.

And speaking of the Honda Super Cub, readers will recall that American Honda associate Steve McMinn wrote a technical analysis of the Honda Super Cub (click here.)

Wish you could still buy a Super Cub? Photographer and former AMA staffer Rick Kocks sent us a link to a web site reporting that San Yang of Taiwan is about to introduce the Symba—a modernized version of the Cub—into the U.S. market this year. The Symba has a close kinship to the real thing because San Yang produced Super Cubs under license from Honda for 40 years. The Simba is 100cc with a four-speed Honda-type “automatic” shifting mechanism. If quality is up to modern standards, the time could be right for this Honda copy cat in the U.S. market. Click here and scroll down for more information.

Official American Honda 50th Anniversary logo used with permission.

 

Lambert & Butler's

vintage motorcycle cards

(6/15/2009)

 

Here are more motorcycle cards, distributed with Lambert & Butler's cigarettes in the United Kingdom in 1923, from the Ken Weingart collection.

49 in a series of 50:

Wooler

The text on the back of the card reads:

In this machine the tank is used for petrol only, giving a capacity of over two gallons with a “fool-proof” reserve. Half-gallon of oil is carried in the sump, this being used for gear box as well. The gear box and engine are in one unit. The final drive is carried out with only one chain, adjusted with a screw at rear of engine.

Last in a Series of 50:

Zenith “Super-Eight”

The text on the back of the card reads:

Fitted with twin-cylinder J.A.P. engine, 85.5 mm. bore by 85 mm. stroke, three-speed Sturmey-Archer gear box and all chain drive. This machine holds nine British and ten world's records, all made by Mr. H. LeVack between Oct. 27th and Nov. 24th, 1922, outstanding performances between 100.29 m.p.h. for 5 miles, and 100 miles at a speed of 74.78 m.p.h. with sidecar and passenger.

 

Happy 50th,

American Honda!

(6/11/2009)

Fifty years ago today, American Honda was incorporated.  It was a moment that would begin to redefine the American motorcycle industry.  Arguably, proving itself in the competitive U.S. market was a necessary step in establishing Honda as one of the most creative and influential companies of the latter-20th century.  In celebration of American Honda's 50th anniversary, we have invited nine noted historians, journalists, and Honda experts to share their thoughts on Honda in America.  To read our Motohistory 50th Anniversary Tribute to American Honda, click here.

Official American Honda 50th Anniversary logo used with permission.

 

Motohistory:

the short version

(5/31/2009)

 

Sorry, Motohistorians, but we have not been able to prepare a full update for May. At the end of April I found myself involved in organizing a new exhibit at the Antique Motorcycle Club of America Gallery at the Auto Museum at Hershey. When I wasn't on line or on the phone, I was in my overalls (as pictured here) supervising the installation of the exhibit for its June 1 opening.

Entitled “Fast from the Past: Competition Motorcycles of Yesteryear,” the exhibit features over 40 motorcycles dating from 1908 to 1978. Among those on display are examples of board track, dirt track, endurance, road racing, motocross, speedway, observed trials, hill climbing, drag racing, and land speed motorcycles. The only post-'78 motorcycle is the spectacular J&P Cycles record-setting Bonneville streamliner (pctured below). And there are some significant pedigreed machines, such as a Leo Payne dragster, the Big Base Indian on which Ernie Beckman won the brand's last AMA national in 1953, and the Ace XP4 on which Red Wolverton set his legendary speed record.

 

Pulling these motorcycles together in a month required six to seven hours a day, and I simply had no opportunity to write or edit for my web site. Still, below you will find some material I had been holding for publication. We have a feature about George Yarocki, one of the true treasures of the antique motorcycle community, an interview with Mitch Boehm who is re-launching Moto Retro Illustrated, and a review of “Big Sid's Vincati,” a book that tells how the assembly of a motorcycle also rekindled a family relationship.

 

I hope I can get back on track in June with the usual full potpourri of News & Views. In the mean time, if you have the opportunity, please drop by the Museum in Hershey and check out the new exhibit. The broad purpose of these exhibits sponsored by the AMCA Foundation is to educate the public at large to the beauty and historical significance of the motorcycle. This exhibit has been designed accordingly. There are color-coded symbols on each label to indicate what type of competition each motorcycle was used for. There are also placards that explain each of the main categories of competition. And there are some great graphics from the archives of the AMCA.

 

To learn more about the Auto Museum at Hershey, its location and hours, click here. To learn more about the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, click here.

Lead photo by Bill Wood.

 

 

Summer camp at Fort Yarocki

By Larry Barnes

(5/30/2009)

 

The board of directors of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA) has long understood the need for a centralized repository of antique motorcycle literature. Members need a resource for accurate information about a brand and model of the motorcycle(s) they are working on or thinking of acquiring. To address this need, a committee headed by Steven Slocombe began searching for a physical location. But, with today's Internet technology it became more efficient and logical to build a virtual library. Not built from bricks and mortar, this library would be constructed on a computer and server, accessible on-line through the AMCA's website. I was chosen to initiate this project, and I began to scan old literature and parts manuals into a database.

 

Our first big opportunity came when I learned that renowned Indian expert George Yarocki (pictured here) would make his vast literature collection available to the AMCA for its virtual library. At 80-years young, Yarocki is undoubtedly the world's most knowledgeable Indian 101 Scout restoration expert and parts machinist. He has built countless 101s over the years, and, along with his dear wife Milli in his sidecar, has probably ridden more miles on 101s than all the rest of us combined. So when George offered his literature collection for scanning, I jumped at the opportunity to go to Torrington, Connecticut, where he lives. Torrington, founded in the 1700s, is a postcard beautiful town in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains. Here, George's shop, which is fondly called “Fort Yarocki,” is built in an old dairy creamery that he converted some 30 years ago. While he sold off his machine shop business some time ago, he kept half of the buildings for his Indian business, which really feels like an Indian “workshop” rather than a retail store. There are welding equipment, lathes, sandblasting cabinets, paint booths, and dozens of old Indian frames and parts stacked everywhere.

 

While it took me several days just to figure out how to get around Fort Yarocki, I recognized it immediately as a heaven for any Indian motorcycle fan. There's nothing fancy, but it is absolutely amazing. For example, when George is going to work on a bike for a customer, he fires up a tow motor (pictured  here) and lifts you and the bike up onto a flat roof where you push the bike off the skid and into a special upstairs room. Here you will find no fancy hydraulic lifts. Just block-and-tackle chain hoists to lift your bike onto one of George's wooden work tables. I noted on three of these tables a trio of Indian Powerplus machines in various stages of reconstruction. George has been researching Indian's Powerplus models for the AMCA judging program, and I noted that many of the parts on all three bikes were chalk labeled with the model year. Although I did not press George for shop time, he took an interest in the history of my Dad's 101 Scout, and soon the machine was on George's “Number One” table, a spot that other 101 owners have waited years for. George quickly diagnosed that its magneto was dead, and he vowed to attack it the next day.

 

Inside George's office is a veritable museum of antique motorcycle literature and photographs; each one carefully hand-labeled by year, make, model, and description. The guy is clearly a fanatic for organization. Every drawer, shelf, and box in every one of George's buildings is hand-labeled. As George explained, “a drawer isn't worth anything unless it's got a label.” This facilitated our task, but as my wife Debbie and I began to scan George's literature collection, we began to realize how truly massive and significant it is. It begins with original 1900 factory brochures, drawings, and specifications, and goes up through the mid-1950s. There were tens of thousands of pages to be scanned about almost any motorcycle ever made in the United States . In addition to Indian, he collection contained documents about brands like Flying Merkel, Yale, Marsh, Cushman, and yes, even Harley-Davidson. The most valuable pieces were locked inside a giant antique safe each night to protect against fire or theft. And the whole compound is enclosed by chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Hence, the name “Fort Yarocki.”

 

So here Debbie and I were, sitting at Fort Yarocki unfolding rare and delicate pieces of paper and placing them face down on the scanner; one page after another. While this may sound boring to some, to me it is great fun. It's absolutely amazing to read the information that is contained in those pages! Do you need to see the inside of 1915 engine before you tear it apart? Do you want to know what year had what part or accessory on it? Or do you want to know how to ride, maintain, and work on an antique motorcycle? It's all there.

 

George built this collection over the past 30 years so that antique motorcycle enthusiasts could actually find what we need, when we need it. And, as we all know, finding correct information about a bike can be a very difficult and time-consuming exercise. In my opinion, George, his wife Milli, and his sister Ruth Deming should have a special place reserved for them in motorcycling's Hall of Fame for the many years they have meticulously catalogued, copied, and sent documents to motorcycle restorers all over the world. They have done this at a price that barely covered their costs, let alone the value of the information contained. George likes to tell how he never sold originals, only copies. . . except for that one time when Harley Davidson wanted to buy a piece that had been signed by Arthur Davidson. “I needed a new car, so I sold that one,” laughs George. “But I still can still make you a copy of it,” he added.

 

Today it makes more sense to scan the material digitally and transmit it via the Internet so anyone with a computer can download the information they need. Wit this method, the Yarockis will no longer have to unfold each rare and delicate document, put face down on a copy machine, copy, and “snail mail” it to a customer. Now, much of the collection is now available to all AMCA members online at a reasonable cost, organized and searchable by year, make, model, and description. At least this can be said for what we've scanned so far, but by George's own estimation, it would take us a year, full-time, to scan his entire collection. Because the task is so daunting, we have tried to start with the documents that would be most useful to AMCA members. Yarocki welcomes this project because he would like to retire from the literature part of his business in a few years, sell it to a collector or a museum, and thereafter concentrate on fixing motorcycles for the rest of his days, which is what he seems to enjoy most.

 

And speaking of fixing bikes, when George gave the signal it, was time for us to go work on my Dad's Indian. Or perhaps I should say go watch George work on my Dad's Indian. He is the maestro and you are there to assist and learn, or fetch a wrench or wipe a spill. I spent the better part of two days hanging over his shoulder, watching his deft fingers rebuild a Splitdorf magneto from the ground up (pictured above), including replacing all bearings and wires, measuring and shimming for proper shaft clearances, and recharging the magnets. Although George performed almost all the work himself, he does it in an instructive manner so that in the event the customer ever has a breakdown, he will be able to make repairs himself. While I'll never be able to re-build a magneto like George did, at least I now have the knowledge of what could go wrong and how to fix it.

 

After completing repairs and reassembling the magneto, Yarocki tested it with his own amp measuring device that runs the magneto at a speed equivalent to 50 MPH for an hour. After that, if the spark plugs won't start a paper towel on fire, it goes back to the bench for more tuning. Fortunately, my revitalized magneto passed with flying colors! After the magneto was re-installed in my bike, its timing checked, the heads de-carboned and bolted back on, and the oil pump was checked and adjusted, it was time again for the tow motor which lowered my bike and I to the ground very gently. After just a few kicks, it roared to life. With minimal carburetor tuning it simply sat there and purred. It hadn't run that well in, oh, say, 75 years or so. Now, with a good running Indian in the beautiful foothills of Connecticut, each work day each work day began and ended with a run to a small café somewhere in the area. I rode with Tim Raindle, another 1929 Indian rider who is a traveling vintage bike enthusiast from the United Kingdom. Raindle discovered Fort Yarocki a couple of months ago and never left until his visa expired in late July. He felt the learning he gained by working with George was priceless, and it was clear that Milli and George enjoyed Tim's company as well.

 

But don't get the idea that just because George is one of the nicest people you will ever meet he can maintain an open door policy for unlimited visitors. He works on bikes only by appointment, and usually only with the owner looking over his shoulder to learn. His mission is to pass along as much information and techniques about antique motorcycles as possible. When not in the shop, he is usually on-line conducting research. The man never stops!

To learn more about the AMCA's virtual library project, click here and go to "library."

 

MotoHistory Interview:

Moto Retro Illustrated's Mitch Boehm

(5/29/2009)

With the economy down and magazine publishing expecially feeling the pinch, veteran journalist Mitch Boehm (pictured below) has decided to take a big risk for something he loves--classic motorcycles--as he launches Moto Retro Illustrated as an independent venture.  Motohistory had the opportunity recently to talk with Boehm about his plans and why he thinks he can succeed.

 

1. Mitch, you have a long history in publishing and motorcycle journalism. Why don't you give Motohistory readers a quick overview?

 

I grew up in northern Ohio during the 1970s riding dirtbikes and racing motocross, then moved to Salt Lake City for college in '80, where I split my off-days racing MX and riding streetbikes. Somehow I lucked into a job with Art Friedman and Motorcyclist magazine in '85, and did four years there as a staff editor before moving to American Honda's product testing department in '89. I did three years there, mostly working on new bikes from the concept/sketch stage all the way to production, then got rescued by David Edwards to be Cycle World's Managing Editor in '92. I enjoyed my time at CW, and would probably still be there had it not been for Friedman calling me in '93 and offering me the Editor-in-Chief job at Motorcyclist. His plan was to step down from the top job, become a senior editor, write stories and not deal with the headaches of running a major magazine – the budgets, the personnel stuff, the hassles, etc. It's funny, too, cause that's basically what I ended up doing 13 years later with Brian Catterson, who we'd hired from Cycle World. I was thoroughly burned out, so he and basically swapped jobs. He took over the Editor's chair, and I worked for him, writing stories and happily ignoring all the headaches, which were coming fast and furious with all the management changes at Petersen-Primedia-Source Interlink. My 13 years as Editor of Motorcyclist was a hell of an experience from a bunch of perspectives; I learned a lot, had a lot of successes there (the magazine's first million-dollar issue, for instance, and an issue that sold 100,000-plus copies on the newsstand), worked with some really good folks (I hired Gordon Jennings early in my tenure) and published some great stories. But current bikes, which are all so good and so much alike these days, got a little boring after so many years, and my interests increasingly turned to the classic/retro stuff. Which is where the concept for Motorcyclist Retro came from. It was something I'd been cooking up since I began vintage roadracing with AHRMA in '95.

 

2. A little over a year ago you launched Motorcyclist Retro , but only three issues appeared before your parent company klled it. We heard from a lot of people who liked the magazine, and they were stunned when it ended so quickly. Can you tell us what happened and why?

 

I believe to this day the publisher missed a huge opportunity by killing Motorcyclist Retro so early. It wasn't losing money; in fact, I just heard from a source that it actually made a small profit, so I still don't quite understand the thinking. Not only did it sell surprisingly well on the newsstands during 2008 (more than 20,000 copies of each of the three issues were sold), it opened them up to a new way of selling magazines, a new business model, one that's significantly different than the way most large publishers do things in this country. The old model for large publishers such as Source Interlink and Hachette is to basically give the magazines away and generate the bulk of their revenue from ad sales. This is done through cheap subscriptions and relatively cheap cover prices. They – and hundreds of other publishers – have basically trained readers in the U.S. over the years to expect cheap magazines, which is fine when there's plenty of ad revenue to go around. But when the economy contracts as it's bound to do on occasion, ad revenue shrinks, and publishers are in a bind. It's happening now on a massive scale. What magazines such as Motorcyclist Retro – which had a cover price of $8 – did is open them up to a new business model, one that would allow them to expand into some niche markets and build profitable magazines that would be largely recession-proof. Revenue comes from actual sales of the magazine, via subscriptions and newsstand sales, and also from advertising. It's a blend, not a one-way street.

 

Anyway, right about the time Source announced that Retro would be bi-monthly (6 times a year) for 2009 (this was in late 2008), and that subscriptions would be available (something I'd been begging for), the economy began to free fall, ad revenue for most of Source's larger magazines dried up, and the higher-ups decided to cut all new projects and startups, and focus on core businesses. So they axed Retro along with a handful of other magazines, and also cut about 100 jobs. I was pretty bummed for a couple of weeks, as the concept for Retro was something I'd been planning and working on for years. But then I decided to do it on my own under a different name. I knew there was a good market for the concept I'd come up with – coverage of dirt, street and mini bikes and culture from '65 to about '85, with an emphasis on Japanese motorcycles – and I figured I'd make a go of it. So I changed the name tentatively to Motorcycle Retro and have been laying the groundwork for a new vintage magazine that would continue in the knobby marks of the original. It's been a huge undertaking, and there are times I feel totally overwhelmed, especially now with the full website about to come online, and getting the first issue ready for the printer for publication and distribution in June. But it's also been challenging and fun.

 

3. We hear you are ready to re-launch your new project, but that it will be by a different name. Can you tell us what the new package is going to look like and why you are changing the name?

 

Motorcycle Retro is obviously very much like Motorcyclist Retro, so I've changed the name to Moto Retro Illustrated to kill any confusion and put the issue to bed once and for all. The guts of the magazine – the bikes and years we'll cover, and the in-depth coverage, research and writing – will remain. I knew using a name so close to the original could be a problem, so when I decided to start my own project I called two top managers at Source Interlink and asked them about my use of Motorcycle Retro. Neither felt it would be a problem, and advised me to go ahead. (They weren't going to put that in writing, of course.) After all, they'd just killed the magazine, and had bigger financial fish to fry. But over the last few months I think the company has taken a fresh look at the market, and recently told me they'd challenge my use of the Motorcycle Retro, which is the primary reason for the change. I don't want this to end up in court, of course.

 

The change is difficult and expensive for me because I've already done a lot of promotion for Motorcycle Retro, secured a URL of the same name, and gotten readers and the industry used to the name. But Moto Retro Illustrated will be fine once I get the word out, and readers connect the fact that I've been behind both projects. It's funny….readers I've communicated with don't care one bit what the magazine's called. They just want what's inside, and I'm fixin' to give them plenty of it in June when the first issue hits, and then again in October when issue two comes out. We're quarterly, so we're doing two issues this year (due to our late start), and four next year. If things go well we might even be bi-monthly in 2011.

 

4.  Clearly, it is a very tough time for the motorcycle industry.  And the economy is having a devastating impact on magazines and newspapers. Big titles are disappearing right and left. This means you are facing a double challenge: a tough product in a tough market. Tell us what has motivated you to take on this kind of challenge. 

 

Well, that's the beauty of the business model I've adopted for Moto Retro Illustrated. We're not dependent on the ad community or the larger economy for operating revenue; individual readers, folks who buy subscriptions, are our key… they'll determine if we're successful or not. I'm not disparaging advertisers here. We want them in our magazine because we feel our readers are the best possible enthusiasts to get in front of; they're more affluent, more passionate, more experienced, own new and old bikes, and generally have the time to spend on their old-bike enthusiasm, which means they spend money, which is exactly what advertisers want. I honestly feel the current retro market, made up largely of baby-boomer motorcyclists who cut their teeth in the late '60s, '70s and early '80s, is a lot larger and more powerful than folks give it credit for. There are thousands and thousands of enthusiasts out there who can't get enough of the bikes and culture we're celebrating – the Elsinores, RMs and YZs, the Maicos and Huskys and Pentons, the CB750s, H1s, Water Buffalos and Yamaha 650 twins, and the folks that collect, restore, race, ride and keep them relevant today.

 

Inspiration comes from my parents Al and Elaine, both of whom passed away in the past 18 months. They got me into bikes early and encouraged my participation as I grew up, and I'll always be grateful to them for it, as motorcycling has been the most important part of my life over the years. Doing this magazine keeps me closer to them, and I know they'd appreciate seeing in print.

 

5. Motohistory has written before about how vintage and classic motorcycle publications seem to be a tough sell in the U.S. market.  Many have come and many have gone. So we're sure Motohistory readers are pleased that you are one of the courageous ones trying to carry on for those of us who love old motorcycles and motorcycle history. Give us the details. When does the first issue appear, what is the frequency, how much does it cost, how can we subscribe, will it be on newsstands? And is there anything Motohistory readers can do to help you, beyond becoming buyers and subscribers? 

 

Thanks, Ed, for the opportunity to tell the industry about my project! I certainly hope the magazine is successful, from a selfish point of view, for sure, but also because there isn't anyone doing exactly what we're doing, and I know for a fact that baby-boomer enthusiasts are screaming for this sort of publication and want it to be viable and successful.

 

Here are the basics: We're quarterly, but since we've gotten a late start this year, issue one will appear in June. Issue two will appear in October. For 2010, we'll do four issues – in January, April, July and October, one per quarter. Subscriptions and single copies will be available by mail through our website (www.motoretroillustrated.com), and we'll also be on sale at select motorcycle shops across the country (a list of participating shops will be on our website). Subscribers and single-copy purchasers from our website will get their issues delivered to their doors in a protective polybag so they're as fresh and tear-free as they day they were printed. Cover price is $9.99, and a one-year subscription (four issues) is $39.95 – definitely more expensive than your average magazine. But we're not your average magazine, and you get a lot for your money – a large-format magazine built with thick, glossy paper and filled to the brim with superb writing, kick-ass photography and the sort of deep research and behind-the-scenes stories you won't read anywhere else, all on the bikes and moto-culture you remember so fondly. For those who saw or bought copies of Motorcyclist Retro, the experience will be every bit as good, and in many ways better.

 

As for what your readers can do other than give us a look (and hopefully subscribe!), they can communicate with us – send us their old photos from back in the day, photos of their new projects, what they'd like to see in the magazine, old stories, whatever works. We love this stuff!

Editor's Note: At presstime, the Moto Retro Illustrated site wasn't yet up, Boehm and his programmer having a few bugs left to work out.  Boehm reports that the site will be live soon and thanks readers and subscribers for their patience.

 

 

(5/29/2009)

 

Many motorcyclists have heard of Big Sid Biberman, an expert Vincent mechanic and historian whose wrenches and writing have brought and kept Vincents and Vincent lore alive over the decades. Fewer have heard of Matthew Biberman, his son, who, lacking his father's mechanical gift, turned his interests to literature and learning to become a Shakespearian scholar, now teaching literature and creative writing at the University of Louisville. Traveling these different paths, as adults Sid and Matthew rarely spoke, but the reality of their kinship harshly imposed itself when Big Sid suffered a near-fatal heart attack. Matthew, panicked by the event, sought to connect with his father by promising him to help build a Vincati, a hybrid consisting of Vincent's legendary engine in Ducati's superb SS900 chassis.

The unanticipated result of this project is laid out in “Big Sid's Vincati,” by Hudson Street Press, a modern-day memoir reminiscent of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” This book, by Matthew Biberman, is an irresistible combination of step-by-step motorcycle construction mixed with a powerful story of a father and a son, the disintegration of a family, and how the Bibermans rebuilt their relationship by building a motorcycle. In the process, Matthew learned some of the mechanical skills for which his father had become legendary, and Sid found the time to better understand his son's love of literature as well as motorcycles.

This is definitely a recommended read for any of us who believe that motorcycles are not just machines, but vehicles that bring out the best in people. It is available from Hudson Street Press. For more information, click here.  

Editor's Note: Motohistory had the pleasure of visiting with the Biberman's nearly three years ago when the Vincati was in its final stages of construction. To read that story, go to Motohistory News & Views 6/4/2006).

 

Motohistory Quiz #66:

We have a winner!

(5/1/2009)

The engine shown in our Motohistory Quiz belongs to an Ardie BZ350, built in Germany.  Our first reader with a correct answer was Mats Munklinde of Hjarnarp, Sweden.  A number of readers guessed Jawa, and even more thought it was the German Adler, which is a pretty close guess. 

Ralf Kruger, one of our German correspondents, tells us about the rare Ardie:

 

Besides the well-known big brands such as DKW or Zündapp that provided first class two-stroke-powered bikes, there were among the post-war German brands a multiplicity of small manufacturers that enjoyed the boom in motorcycle sales that increased every year from 1948 through 1954. While most used “bought-in” engines supplied by Sachs or ILO, the renowned Ardie company, based in Nürnberg, used mostly their own engines.

The BZ350 was the final new development of the Ardie firm, which was named after its founder Arno Dietrich. Its two-cylinder, two-stroke engine answered completely the demands of experienced riders of the time who sought more power in combination with operating efficiency. The BZ350 deserved better success than it got, but played only a secondary role to the quite successful Adler MB250. Being offered for sale too late from year's end of 1954 until 1957, only about 500 examples were built, but even this low number is not certified. Its comparatively big displacement made for plenty of torque, and today's few owners of this rare motorcycle (it is believed, that there are no more than about a dozen anymore in Germany) tend to rave about its smooth running behavior and power throughout the range, rated as 20 HP@5000rpm.

 

The BZ350 had a bore and stroke of 60mm x 61mm, resulting in 344cc. A four speed gearbox is driven by primary chain; the clutch works on the crankshaft. The BZ350 chassis debuted with a plunger rear suspension. A more modern swingarm rear suspension was never developed because it was regarded inferior for sidecar use. Despite this dated feature, many other elements of design were truly modern. These included a robust double loop frame, a modern telefork, and wheels with big, full-width drum brakes. Regrettably, Ardie was a prominent victim of the decline in the German motorcycle market that began in 1955. Production ceased in 1956, though Ardies were still available for sale into 1957.

As we mentioned above, Adler was a very reasonable guess, and because so many thought this, we'll just show you a photo of the Adler as well (above).  Thanks, Ralf, for your history of the BZ350, and congratulations Mats for winning our Motohistory Quiz.  Your Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma is on its way.  Concerning the rarity of the machine, Mats told us, "I had a look in the member lists of our two largest clubs and found about 15 Ardies still living in Sweden, and only two of them are 350s.

 

Motohistory Quiz #66

(4/30/2009)

Okay, here we go with another Motohistory Quiz.  Be the first to name this rare engine and its nation of origin, and you will become our newest Motohistory Know-It-All, confirmed through your own personalized diploma.  Your friends will shiver with envy.

So rush to your keyboard and send your answer to Ed@Motohistory.net.

 

The mechanical, mythological

Mind of Don Bradley

(4/30/2009)

 

There is no doubt that quality graphics contribute to the prestige of a corporation or a special event. A logo, an image, a mascot that captures the imagination and speaks of creativity and style certainly infers those qualities on the entity it advertises. Take for example the Riding Into History Concours d'Elegance, an event at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, begun in 2001 that has quickly become arguably the most prestigious motorcycle concours in the eastern United States. Yes, it's in a classy setting, and it is done by people who pay great attention to detail, but there is no doubt that its reputation has been incalculably enhanced by the work of graphic artist Don Bradley (pictured above), whose promotional beautiful poster art is like nothing seen before at a gathering for cars or motorcycles.

 

Don Bradley, born in 1939, grew up in Winter Garden, Florida . His father died of cancer when he was just four, so he was raised only by his mother. He recalls, “We were poor. My mother had to work, so I spent a lot of time alone, but she always had plenty of papers, pencils, and paint for me to entertain myself with.” Bradley adds, “I drew for hours on end, and it became a way for me to bring my fantasy world into reality.” However, as a teenager, Bradley discovered motorcycles, which pushed his art aside. “I always liked mechanical things,” he explains, “and at about 14 I abandoned the drawing board and really got into motorcycles. I loved riding and wrenching, and I did a little racing, mostly with BSA Gold Stars.”

 

After high school, Bradley went to college and returned to his art. He landed a job as an illustrator and went on to become an art director. When that company went out of business seven years later, he went to RCA where he became a technical illustrator. He kept his hand in his creative work by freelancing, but by 1980 he was burned out on drawing. He found a ragged old 1952 Vincent Black Shadow, and he was bitten again by the motorcycle bug. He recalls, “I immersed myself in motorcycles. I worked as a salesman and then the sales manager at a thriving Honda dealership, and when a competing Honda dealership came up for sale, I bought it.” In the late 1980s, Bradley sold the business to turn his attention to motorcycle restoration, and again to his art. He explains, “Restoration combined my two loves. I feel like creating a painting and restoring an old motorcycles are both works of art. They are just different media.”

 

A whole new period in Bradley's work opened up when he did some motorcycle t-shirt art for his grandchildren. People reacted positively to the t-shirt, so he began to design others. His designs featured an accurately rendered vintage motorcycle with a cartoon creature onboard—a star on a Gold Star, a tiger on a Triumph, a shadow-like cloud aboard a Vincent, a Manx cat on a Norton Manx—and they had a touch of the crazed quality of Ed Roth's hot rod art of the 1960s, except they were far more refined and impeccably executed. But the t-shirt art evolved from cartoon fantasy into a strange and otherworldly mythology featuring strikingly beautiful women aboard motorcycles. The change came with a wild Vincent-riding woman (pictured below), originally created as t-shirt art, that took on a whole new significance when it was used as the promotional graphic for the Riding Into History Concours in 2004.

 

With a positive response to the Vincent woman poster, Bradley launched a new series that brought together the fastidious attention to detail that was required as a technical illustrator at RCA with the otherworldly mythical creatures living in his artist's mind. With is originals executed in one-quarter scale in acrylic on illustration board, Bradley reports that he typically spends six months on a single work. He explains, “I research and study the motorcycle in great detail; its design, its history, and its cultural significance. On the original painting you can see every nut, the threads on bolt, even cotter pins.” But the women who ride these machines are anything but realistic. They are lithe, elegant, elongated, vigorous, curvaceous, openly sexual, and often intimidating. They are Valkyrie, banshees, temptresses, and sometimes demonic. They are women to die for; women to die from. The result is a shocking contrast between the near-perfect photo realism of the motorcycles and the creatures who ride them.

 

“The Seven” (pictured above) features a mid-1960s Honda RC174 six-cylinder grand prix machine. Bradley has taken the liberty of removing the fairing so that he can reveal the detail of the engine and chassis. The story in the painting is based on Japanese mythology and literature, featuring the goddess Benten (or Benzai), the only female among the Japanese seven deities. In mythology, Benten selflessly married a dragon in order to protect the Japanese people. Bradley's wild Benten, her nudity only slightly hidden by bit of Samurai armor, has mounted her RC174 to do battle with the dragon, raising her sword in battle. This work was adopted by the Riding Into History Coucours as its 2006 design.

 

“Time Tangle” (pictured above) depicts a 1947 Moto Guzzi Bicilindrica 500cc racer. The curvaceous woman riding the machine is leaping fearlessly into space as the cobblestones of the real world crumble away under her wheels. She is entangled in a ribbon-like time line that has on it names of great grand prix champions. “Time Tangle” appeared as poster art for the 2007 Riding Into History Concours.

 

“The Light Brigade” (pictured left) honors the memory of the British 13 th Dragoons whose charge of October 25, 1854 at Balaklava during the Crimean War was made famous by the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. In this case, the charge is aboard a 1957 Triumph TR6 Trophy Bird which is rendered in blue and ivory (the original was orange and ivory) to match the blue of the uniform of the 13 th Dragoons. The militaristic woman aboard the machine is wearing such a uniform in fantasy styling to fit her lithe body. Below her are the smoldering remains of war.

 

“Katrina” (pictured right) places a 1916 overhead-cam Cyclone racer before the devastating horrors of nature. Swirling behind the nearly naked woman aboard the motorcycle is the violent vortex of a hurricane, devolving into a black hole. The rear wheel of the Cyclone shatters the surface of a board track as the machine leaps into space. “Katrina” became the poster art for the 2008 Concours.

 

Drawing from the well-know verse from the Book of Revelation, “Behold a Pale Horse” [And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed] (pictured here) may be Bradley's darkest work yet. Death, as a woman, is astride a 1937 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead on rocky terrain. Skulls hang from her tunic and beside her is a road marker pointing to the River Styx, which souls must cross to enter the underworld.

 

“Blue Angel” (pictured right) features a beautiful woman reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich, the German actress who gained international fame through her performance in the 1930 motion picture “Blue Angel.” She is astride a 1929 BMW R11, wearing only a head scarf, white gloves, white panties, and white silk stockings. A sign pointing toward “Luft Rennen” indicates she is on the way to the air races, reminding us that BMW was once a leading aircraft engine manufacturer. Above her in the sky are bird-like fantasy air racers. There are BMW and NSU logos on the wings of two of the aircraft. “Blue Angel” was featured at the 2005 Riding Into History Concours.

 

This year's signature art for the 2009 Riding Into History gathering is “E. Pluribus Unum,” (pictured above) inspired by the Great Seal of the United States that can be found on the obverse side of an American dollar bill. The motorcycle is a 1937 Knucklehead and its woman rider is costumed in the various components of the Seal. Her cape is like the wings of an eagle, her shield features the thirteen stars and bars, and in her fist are the thirteen arrows emblematic of the original thirteen colonies.

 

Bradley has also created original art for the Cycle World Rolling Concours, and his work has appeared in major galleries, including the Norton Gallery in West Palm Beach, Florida. He counts among his influences the Russian artist Romain de Tirtoff who worked under the name Erte, the American magazine illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, and the Brandywine school of painters. Giclee prints of Bradley's motorcycle posters are have been produced in limited editons of 100, and are available for $475 each, except “Black Lightning” and “Pale Horse” which are available for $375 and $275, respectively. His signed caricatures on 12x17-inch heavy stock are available for $50 each. For more information about Don Bradley's art, click here. To compare images by Erte, click here. To compare imagers by Leyendecker, click here. To read about the Brandywine Painters, click here.

 

Editor's Note: Don Bradley has appeared before at Motohistory in regard to his motorcycle restoration work. For over two years, Bradley and his friends restored a pair of BSA's in celebration of the 50 th anniversary of BSA's remarkable five-place sweep of the Daytona 200 in 1954. Pictured here are Myles Raymond (left), Bradley, and Nick Simpson (right) with the motorcycles, which were featured in an exhibit at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum in 2004, and have since been exhibited internationally. To read more about the exhibit, go to Motohistory News & Views 4/28/2004 and 5/21/2004. To read about the BSA restoration project in which Bradley was involved, click here.

 

Rolf Witthoeft,

winner in all saddles

By Leo Keller and Harry LaClair

(4/29/2009)

 

In the late 1960s and ‘70s, Germany was one of the leading nations in what we now call “Enduro sports.” Who among enduro enthusiasts does not remember BMW, Hercules, Maico, or even Zuendapp? Herbert Schek, the tall guy from the Allgaeu Hills, is legendary as an off-road competitor (see motohistory 2/2008), but there were more than a dozen German world class riders contemporary with Schek. One of the most successful was Rolf Witthoeft, who was one of the title heroes of Robert Poensgen's book “Sieger in allen Saetteln” (Winner in All Saddles). Born 1944, Witthoeft started racing in 1962. With a beginner's license, he entered his first enduro on a 50cc Kreidler. He also competed on this machine in trials, motocross, and on grass tracks. With a laugh, he recalls his first sponsor: Kreidler gave him a heavy duty front fork and a modified seat for his 50cc “Mustang.”

 

In 1964, Witthoeft swapped his little Kreidler for a 100cc Hercules (pictured here in 1967). His dizzying success on this machine led Hercules Team Director Alfred Winkler to offer Witthoeft a factory ride by mid-season. The end of his first full year as a factory rider found Witthoeft in second place behind Zuendapp factory star Lorenz Specht. A year later, Witthoeft won his very first ISDT Gold Medal at the Isle of Man. By 1967, he was racking up notable victories. These included the German 100cc Enduro Championship, the OMK Trials Medal, and his second ISDT Gold medal at Zakopane, Poland as a member of the West German Trophy Team.

 

Unexpectedly and quite suddenly, at the end of 1967 Hercules pulled all support from its factory enduro team, despite all that Witthoefts had achieved. Witthoeft remembers that he immediately asked the Austrian Puch company if they wanted him ride for Puch, then he hopped into his car and drove to Graz to pick up one of the newly developed 125cc machines. However, upon arrival he learned there was no motorcycle for him because the factory enduro bikes were not yet finished. Rather, they gave him a Puch that had been used for display purposes. Still, out of the gate Witthoeft (pictured above on the Puch) was unstoppable on the new bike. In addition to winning the German National Enduro Championship titles in 1968 and 1969, Witthoeft also won the newly-created European Enduro Championship titles both years. At the Garmisch-Partenkirchen ISDT, he was a member of the victorious German Silver Vase Team, garnering yet another Gold Medal. Few were surprised when Zuendapp showed interest in the fast guy from Schleswig Holstein and offered him a factory contract in 1970.

 

From 1970 through 1976, Witthoeft and his Zuendapp remained a nearly unbeatable combination. He earned five German National Enduro Championships, five European Enduro Championships, six ISDT Gold medals, and became the overall winner of the 1973 U.S. ISDT in Dalton Massachusetts (Pictured above at the ISDT in Czechoslovakia, 1972). He was also a member of the German Trophy Team in 1975 and 1976, the last year that a West German team won the Trophy. He is also legendary for other racing achievements. For example, at the Fisherman's Harbor road race in Bremerhaven, Witthoeft took his factory Zuendapp motocrosser and installed street tires. Racing on the cobblestones of the old city harbor streets (Pictured below), the other riders on Maico, Yamaha, and Morbidelli were left clueless as to how to compete against Witthoeft as he went wide open, crossed-up, and drifting through the corners, riding enduro style on the streets. It was as if he single-handedly invented Supermotard that day.

 

At the end of the 1976 racing season, Witthoeft announced his retirement. His rapidly growing motorcycle business (he owns a Kawasaki dealership still today) left him little time for competition. However, after 15 years of competing nearly every weekend, retirement proved an uneasy fate. When, in 1978, a “750cc and greater” class was created, the Kawasaki dealer heard his named whispered on the wind, and he got to work. Witthoeft took a twin-cylinder KZ750 and built an awesome enduro machine (pictured right on which he promptly won the championship against the BMW armada in the aptly named “Bull Rider Class.” BMW was not about to take this defeat lightly, so they promptly hired Witthoeft away from himself, making him a factory BMW rider (pictured below). Witthoeft considers winning the 1980 European Championship title and winning the Vase at the 1980 ISDT in Brioude, France to be the crowning achievements of his career.

 

In the 1980s, BMW began to refocus its attention away from national enduro championship and toward the Paris-Dakar Rally. Sensing the shift, Witthoeft got back to work in his workshop and created another twin cylinder enduro racer. This time a 510cc using a KLX250 chassis and an enlarged KZ440 engine became the special machine (Pictured below) on which he campaigned the European Enduro circuit. By this time—approaching the age of 40—he said he was riding “just for fun,” but this did not stop him from always being extraordinarily successful. And it was on this very machine that in 2000 he re-emerged after many years of retirement to compete in a Classic Enduro in Germany, making it clear to all present that for him winning an enduro was just like riding a bicycle. You just don't forget how, nor had he forgotten how to climb the steps of the winner's podium to collect his trophy.

 

In 2007, Rolf Witthoeft announced his retirement from the vintage competition at the end of the year, stating that the Schimmeldewog Enduro would be his last ride. “I've been lucky to have avoided serious injury, and don't want to press my luck,” stated the nine-time German, eight-time European, and two-time (each) ISDT Trophy and Vase winner. “Although I'm pretty sure you'll see me at one or another enduro, or maybe on the trail, sometime,” added the Champ in parting. Indeed, in 2008 did not see Witthoeft riding vintage competitions, but when Motohistory called him some weeks ago he told us that he wants to visit one or two events this year. He laughs, “No, I will not take a bike with me. I will come as a spectator.” Of course, we will be at all surprised if he changes his mind at the last minute, bring a bike to ride—just for fun, of course!

 

To reach Rolf Witthoeft's web site, click here.

Photos, top to bottom:

Rolf Witthoeft, 1967.

On the 100cc Hercules in 1967.

Aboard Puch at the Alpenfahrt in 1969.

At the ISDT in Czechoslovakia, 1972.

The 1975 Harbor Race; "Inventing" supermotard.

Aboard his Kawasaki in the "Bull Rider Class," 1978.

As a BMW factory rider in 1979.

Aboard his 1981 ISDT motorcycle at a vintage enduro at Zscopau in 2007.

Witthoeft's "last podium," Herb Scheck on the right.

All photos provided by Leo Keller.

 

 

What's in a Name?

By David Wright

(4/27/2009)

 

More than 50 years after production ceased, the Vincent motorcycle is held in high regard throughout the world of classic motorcycling. How strange then for a name that has achieved such iconic status, that for most of its 27-year production run—from 1928 to 1955—it was badged as Vincent HRD and actually written and spoken about as just HRD by the press, factory employees, machine owners, and motorcyclists at large.

 

The tank badge illustrated here shows one obvious reason why that was so, for the HRD name dominates and Vincent comes very much second best. But how did this arise, for most people know that the Vincent HRD Company Limited was established by Philip Vincent, and as a confident, young 20 year-old he could surely have been expected to have his name upfront.

 

HRD

At this point, we should offer a reminder as to what HRD stands for and how it came to be incorporated into the name of Philip Vincent's new company. Howard Raymond Davies was a man with a successful competition career that included second place in the Isle of Man Senior TT of 1914 on a Sunbeam, and victory in the Senior TT of 1921 on an AJS. He also worked in the motorcycle trade for the likes of AMAC carburettors and Hutchinson Tyres in the early 1920s, before deciding to go into business as a motorcycle manufacturer in 1924, giving the machines he produced the initials HRD.

 

By the time of the 1925 TT races, HRD Motors Limited had been in production for less than a year, but few were surprised when the company submitted entries for the world-famous event. However, everyone was truly stunned by the successes achieved, for Howard Davies took second place on one of his 350cc bikes in the Junior TT and then rode to victory on a 500 in the Senior at record-breaking speed, vanquishing the race machines of almost 20 other manufacturers along the way. It was a superb performance, and one that may just have received a boost at his mid-race pit stop, for a report on the race said, “he had a hurried drink of champagne and went off again feeling quite refreshed.” Ah, those were the days! Above is the Howard Davies 90 Model.  Even today its lines are attractive.

 

Howard Davies' TT victory in 1925 should have provided the foundation for business success, but though demand increased, larger premises were taken, and another TT victory came in the 1927 Junior with Freddie Dixon riding, that was not enough, because Davies' motorcycles were priced at the top end of the market. The economic climate was poor, and HRD Motors Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation at the end of 1927.

 

Vincent HRD

It was against this background of a failed business by a widely known TT winner and respected member of the motorcycle trade that a young, unknown and inexperienced Philip Vincent took his first steps on the road to becoming a motorcycle manufacturer, by purchasing the name of HRD for £400 (some say £500) in the Spring of 1928. That acquisition is partly explained by the fact that Vincent was an admirer of Howard Davies and his products, for in later writings he tells how “Howard Davies was the idol of my teenage years” for his competition successes, and how the models launched by Howard Davies towards the end of 1924 “seemed so right and correct.” He also revealed that the title Vincent HRD was adopted for his new company “in the hope that Howard Davies famous monogram would overcome motorcyclists' natural reluctance to buy an untried new model;” by which he meant the one that he would be offering them!

 

A Hard Road

Given his admiration for the designs of HRD Motors, one might expect Philip Vincent's first motorcycles to have borrowed some features of Howard Davies' fine-looking machines, but that was not the case. Indeed, whereas the original HRDs benefited from the input of established designer E.J. Massey, the new Vincent HRDs were very much a do-it-yourself design job. And they looked it; the magazine The Motor Cycle describing them as “hardly pretty.”

 

The new Vincent HRD company tried to maximise the benefits of its links to HRD by advertising the original company's TT successes of 1925 and 1927 as though they were its own, and even claiming after it had been in production for a few years: “The reputation for speed and reliability already established, we have cut the great expense of continuous racing and trials and the saving effected is reflected in the improved specifications and improved prices in our 1933 models.” It was actually Howard Davies' great expense and racing efforts that were being referred to!

 

Vincent HRD's output was so low in its first few years that there was no opportunity for it to go racing, and Philip Vincent had put an end to any thoughts that he might personally go racing when he accepted his father's money to found the firm, for as he put it, “my parents would only agree to form the company for me in return for a faithful promise that I would never indulge in motorcycle racing.” But, for all that, one sure-fire way for a company to obtain world-wide publicity at the time was by racing, in particular at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races. Founder of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, Titch Allen, explained in later years how important the TT races were to manufacturers of the early days with: “The TT dangled handsome rewards in front of the many enthusiastic manufacturers struggling to make a name for themselves in what was an overcrowded industry. The TT was the only really effective shop window for sports machines, for there were then no palatial dealers' showrooms, and advertising and publicity was in its infancy as an art. The customer with sporting instincts took his cue from TT entries and TT results, and consequently it was almost obligatory to have a go at the TT if you manufactured sports machines. It was undeniable, too, that the TT was the best testing and development ground in the world.” Philip Vincent realised this, as did his Chief Engineer Phil Irving, and the Vincent HRD Company Limited made its first Isle of Man TT entry in 1934. While its performance was nothing to shout about, it did get the firm noticed and, allied to an improvement in the economic climate, Vincent HRD sales took off in the mid-1930s.

 

Vincent

We opened by telling how for most of the production run of what we now call Vincent motorcycles, they were actually known as HRDs. But then, in an attempt to boost sales, Philip Vincent visited the United States in the Spring of 1949 on a promotional tour. While there he realised that many Americans did not distinguish between the customarily abbreviated form of the Harley-Davidson name—HD—and the logo of his company that so prominently featured the initials HRD. So upon his return to Britain a new logo was devised that saw his motorcycles badged just Vincent, a mere 21 years after the start of production.

 

Editor's Note: To learn more about Vincent—the man and the brand—refer to our Motohistory Tribute to Philip Vincent to which author David Wright was a contributor. Click here.

 

 

Don Emde named

VMD Grand Marshal

(4/26/2009)

 

The American Motorcyclist Association has announced that 1972 Daytona 200 winner Don Emde has been named Grand Marshal for AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2009, which will take place July. Emde's selection ties in with the fact that BSA has been chosen this year's commemorative marque. Emde began his professional racing career aboard a BSA, winning two Amateur-class national championships to earn a national number and a BSA factory ride in 1971. That year Emde was among the top three road racers in the nation, surpassed in points only by Dick Mann and Kel Carruthers. In accepting the appointment, Emde said, "I consider it a real honor to be asked to be the AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days Grand Marshal. There's so much of motorcycling represented at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, from the road-race course to the swap meet to the motocross track to the half-mile at the fair grounds in Ashland.” Emde, pictured her with his restored BSA dirt tracker, was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. To read his Hall of Fame bio, click here.

 

Spring 2009 IJMS

now on line

(4/25/2009)

The Spring issue of the International Journal of Motorcycle Studies has just been posted.  James J. Ward takes us to the 1950s where he traces the origin of a rare batch of AJS 10Rs, which were Matchless G45s rebranded for sale in Venezuela. This issue's Roundtable offers fascinating new takes on the classic biker flick, “The Wild One.” Other essays in this issue trace the more recent history of motorcycle rights: Gary L. Kieffner highlights police bias against motorcyclists in the American Southwest and Midwest, while Darilynn McClure offers a tale of involvement in the rights movement.  IJMS is the only on-line peer reviewed scholarly journal about motorcycling. To check it out, click here.

 

(10/23/2009)

Cliff Steimle, President of the non-profit Historic Highway 80 of California, is looking for articles, information, and photos about motorcycle use of this famous “sea to sea” highway. Steimle writes, “I know that in the early teens, Ed Fletcher, a pioneer San Diego businessman, sponsored a contest to see which would be the quickest route to the Coast from Phoenix, to L.A. or to San Diego. I would like to know if Cannonball Baker or any other motorcyclists took part in that race.  We have a number of old photos with cars crossing the old plank road through the sand dunes, but nothing with motorcycles. I do have a number of old Motorcyclist magazines from the '30s & '40s, but not a full collection.  Any help Motohistory readers can offer will be greatly appreciated. For more information about Historic Highway 80, click here. If you have information, write to Cliff at cliff.s1978@hotmail.com.


Wheels Through Time Museum
sets land speed records
(4/22/2009)

At the season's first speed trials sanctioned by the East Coast timing Association, the Wheels Through Time Museum team captured five new land speed records, all aboard motorcycles more than 60 years old. The oldest—a 1930 Harley-Davidson 750cc Model D, was determined to be the oldest machine ever run at an ECTA event. Museum curator Dale Walksler rode the motorcycle to a speed of 90.307 mph, breaking the prior record for the class by over five miles per hour. Other weekend achievements by the Wheels Through Time team include four more class records.  John Swanson, of Brethren, MI set the Modified Vintage Production 1000c.c. Gas class record on a 1948 Harley-Davidson WR with a speed of 78.783 mph.  Mark Hutchinson, from Ft. Wayne, Indiana also recorded successful results in various classes with his 1941 Harley-Davidson ULH.  Hutchinson set two records in the Modified Vintage Production 1350c.c. Gas class and later entered the Production/Vintage Production 1350c.c. class and recorded a top speed and new record of 95.176 mph. For more information about the Wheels Through Time Museum, click here.


J. Wood announces
monster auction
(4/20/2009)

What has been described as the largest auction since the sale of Flint Indian Sales in 1991 will take place in Columbia, Tennessee on June 25. The sale will include over 385 antique and classic motorcycles and scooters, caches of parts, and antique Ford automobiles, all at no reserve. Auctioneer Jerry Wood states, “The owner of this collection filled the building, then built mezzanines and filled those, and then he tied motorcycles from the roof trusses—on everyone one of them all the way across! And it will all go in one day to the highest bidders.” Inspection day for buyers will be June 24. The event is produced in cooperation with Bator International. For more information, click here.

 

 

That's Sir Sammy to you

(4/19/2009)

 

In an interesting story pinned by Alan Cathcart, Cycle News reported recently that Sammy Miller has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty the Queen of England. Miller's racing career spanned six decades which included in the top tier of Grand Prix road racers, though he later became popularly known for his world-class skill in observed trials. He won more than 1,300 trials events, was British Trials Champion 11 times, and twice won the European Trials Championship, which was the sport's highest achievement in the days before the Trials World Championship was created by the FIM. He also earned nine gold medals at the International Six Days' Trial. Since retiring from active competition, Miller became founder and curator of the Sammy Miller Museum located in New Milton near Southhampton, where more than 400 historic bikes are on display. Two of the rarest, pictured here with Miller, are his 1939 supercharged AJS V4 and his 1949 AJS E90 Porcupine. To tour the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum on-line, click here.  To see a video of Sammy Miller at the Bultaco 50th Anniversary celebration in Spain, click here.

 

Photograph of Sammy Miller courtesy of Alan Cathcart.

 

(4/17/2009)

 

As reported previously at Motohistory, May 8 and 9 will bring motorcycles to the Quail Creek Lodge on California's Monterey Peninsula. For more information about the Quail Creek Motorcycle Gathering, including the Bonhams & Butterfields auction, click here.  Designer and  Motorcycle Hall of Famer Craig Vetter has been chosen to select the motorcycle best depicting leading technology for presentation of The Innovation Award. 

Scotty Brown brought to our attention a web site with great pictures of historical speedway bikes and riders.  Click here.

 

You will find some great photohistory on the 13 Rebels MC web site. Click hereand go to “pictures.” To acquire copies of the pictures seen on this site, E-mail Van Maldonado at vhands1@verizon.net.

The 18th Annual Vintage Motorcycle Show, presented by the Heart of America Motorcycle Enthusiasts, will take place at the Kansas Airline History Museum on June 7. To get more info from their really cool web site, click here.

This year's International Six Days' Trial Reunion Ride will be held October 2 and 3 in the hills of southeastern Ohio, hosted by the Enduro Riders Motorcycle Club. For more information, click here.

 

Remember the GL1000, when Gold Wings were big but not nearly so big as they are now? For information about the Naked Gold Wings High Plains Gypsy Run, to be held August 12 through 14 in Deadwood, South Dakota, click here.

 

The Wheels Through Time Museum is having a special one-day opening on May 14 for the Smoke Out Long Road Ride sponsored by The Horse magazine. For more information, click here.

Issue Two of Brennraum, the KTM on-line magazine has been posted, including an article about 1984 and 1985 250cc Motocross World Champion Heinz Kinigadner. To read the story, click here.

Have you heard of a million-mile Harley? Do you believe in magic? Click here. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. It was not at all fair and balanced.

Brough Superiors and their owners will gather at the Rhinebeck, New York fairgrounds on June 12 and 13. For more information, E-mail Brough@fiteng.com.

 

Café Racer to host
trio of ride-in bike shows
(4/15/2009)

The U.S.-based quarterly Café Racer magazine will host three ride-in bike shows this year, beginning June. The first event jumps off on June 20 at Delilah's during the annual Mods and Rockers Day sponsored by Ton-Up Chicago. A U.K./European round will take place June 28 at the Ace Cafe, London, during the annual Triton and Cafe Racer Day. The third event will be held July 25 at the Mid-Ohio Sport Car Course during the AMA Vintage Days celebration. Shows are open to any professional or amateur custom motorcycle builders with a taste and flair for low bars and high performance. The winners at each event will be featured in Café Racer and prizes from sponsors Pirelli Tires, Vanson Leathers, and Old Bike Barn will be awarded in the following classes: Best British Café Racer, Best Japanese Café Racer, Best European or American Café Racer, and Most Radical Café Racer. Entries can be made by sending photos to here. Entrants must be fully functioning motorcycles that are ridden into the show area under their own power. For more information about Ton-Up Chicago, click here. For the location of Delilah's Chicago, click here. For information on AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2009, click here.

 

O'Hannah shows Stewart,
other stars how to wield a Sharpie
(4/14/2009)

On the eve of the Jacksonville Supercross on April 3, Johnny O'Hannah, the uncle of American motocross, made a personal appearance at Andy Kent's Beach Boulevard Motosports to sign autographs with America's top rider. James Stewart said, “Johnny may not be a podium finisher on the track, but he runs rings around me with a Sharpie. I discovered tonight I still have a hell of a lot to learn.”

Actually, Stewart didn't say that at all. We made it up.

Photos courtesy of Foxy O'Hannah

 

Event organizes looking for motorcycles

(4/12/2009)

 

The Eyes on Design Exhibition, scheduled to take place at the historic Ford Estate in Grosse Pointe, Michigan June 21, will honor Willie G. Davidson with its prestigious Lifetime Design Achievement Award. The organizers are looking for Harley-Davidsons from the last 100 years to put on display. Judging will be conducted by automotive industry design professionals with Peter Egan, columnist for Cycle World magazine serving as special guest judge. Individuals who have motorcycles they would like to put on display may E-mail Andy Sirvio at arsirvio@sisuprint.com or call 248-821-2390. For more information on the event, click here.

 

In addition, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum is looking for motorcycles from 1924 through 2009 to display at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days 2009 in celebration of the 85th anniversary of the American Motorcyclist Association. To see a complete list of the classic machines the Museum is looking for, click here.

(4/10/2009)

“The Café Racer Phenomenon,” by Alastair Walker, is scheduled for publication by Veloce Publishing later this summer. At 96 pages in paperback with 100 color and black and white images, this book covers the rebellious spirit of the 1950s, interviews with bike builders, the best and worst of café racer manufacturers, personal memories from the 1960s and ‘70s café racing scene, unique prototypes and special café bikes, many previously unpublished photos, and a global directory of café racer information. Its foreword is by Paul Dunstall. It is priced at £14.99. For more information, click here.

 

The May issue of Cycle World contains a feature by John Burns entitled “Happy Birthday, Mr. Ninja!” in celebration of the 25 th anniversary of the Kawasaki GPZ900R—the legendary Ninja—a motorcycle that defined a new market niche that would become known as the “sport bike.” Burns reveals that we can attribute the motorcycle's name in the U.S. market to Mike Vaughan, who was Kawasaki's director of marketing at the time, and who was an avid student of Oriental history (Vaughan even had a sail boat named Ninja). It had been Kawasaki's American advertising agency's idea to call it the Panther. With its narrow 900cc DOHC 16-valve engine, compact size, and full racing-style bodywork, the Ninja was like nothing previously seen in the retail market. Performance backed up its speedy appearance when the bike achieved 120 mph in a quarter mile—the fastest production machine yet seen—at its press intro. It also did not hurt the Ninja's sales when Tom Cruise—the super cool “Maverick”—zipped around on one in the motion picture “Top Gun.” Two years after the Ninja, Suzuki upped the ante with its alloy-framed GSX-R, and the Japanese were all off to the races with street bikes that inspired the kids and horrified the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. To reach Cycle World on-line, click here.

 

The May/June issue of Motorcycle Classics contains a cover story by Alan Cathcart about the Steve McQueen Triumph M?tisse replica that is currently in production at Metisse Motorcycles Ltd., the Oxfordshire company licensed by the Rickman brothers to carry on the name and the tradition. Only 300 examples will be built and sold for a price of $18,500 (£12,999). These breathtakingly beautiful machines, exquisitely photographed for the story by Kyoichi Nakamura, carry McQueen's signature on the tank, a feature authorized by Chad McQueen. As he does with many of his articles about special and historical machines, Cathcart gives it a ride, concluding, “I'm sure Steve McQueen would have approved of what son Chad has done by allowing it to be built with his name on the tank. It's a lasting tribute to a good guy—as well as a reminder that Triumph . . . is still in business with some exciting plans for the future.” He adds, “This is just the start of the Metisse comeback.

 

The issue also contains features about the 1993 Honda CX650T trubo, the little-known 1,260cc Ducati V4 Apollo, and a curious Matchless/Gilera hybrid. To reach Motorcycle Classics on-line, click here.

 

The May/June issue of IronWorks contains an article by Margie Siegal about the Curtiss motorcycle, focusing specifically on a restored 1907 twin owned by Wes Allen. Siegal describes the company's technological superiority in the first decade of the century, then how the lure of the emerging aircraft industry drew Glenn Curtiss away from motorcycles. Excellent photographs of the Allen machine are provided by Stephen Jacobson.

 

The issue also contains a story by Editor Dane Gingerelli about J&P Cycles on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, and a technical feature by Bert Baker about the history of the motorcycle drive train. While IronWorks almost always carries an historical feature, it is mostly about the current V-twin custom scene. However, with a strong emphasis on old school bobbers and choppers, the chronological boundaries between then and now definitely become blurred—or perhaps we should say less relevant. To reach IronWorks on-line, click here.

 

The April issue of VJMC, the official The Appublication of the North American Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club, contains a cover feature by Jan Ringnalda about the Honda CB1100R, which he states can be arguably claim the title of “the ultimate air-cooled four.” This early-80s European production racer was built in limited numbers, produced 115 bhp, and was capable of speeds approaching 150 mph. Its performance, style, rarity, and legacy have made it a very desirable collectible, which Ringnalda reports has spawned many cosmetic wanabes. He mentions some of the clues in distinguishing the fakes from the real thing.

 

The issue also contains features about restoring a Honda Dream and the significance of the Honda C100 Super Cub. VJMC is a controlled-circulation magazine, not available on news stands. It is received by VJMC members as a benefit of membership. To learn how to join the North American VJMC, click here.

 

After more than two years of research and development, Chris and Barbara Betjemann are on the verge of publishing their much-anticipated “BMW/2 Restoration Manual.” This exhaustive work contains 512 pages and 425 photographs that systematically take the reader through every aspect of disassembling, overhauling, restoring, and maintaining the /2 BMW models. In addition, the text is highlighted by 60 often-amusing original drawings by Barbara Betjemann. So time is running out for the pre-publication special price of $90.00. After publication, the book will be $105.00. There are no plans to sell it through retail or internet book sellers. It is currently available only from Barrington Motor works, LLC. For more information, click here.  After publication, it will also be available from Bench Make Works (click here) and Cycle Works (click here).

 

(4/8/2009)

 

It's still a mystery

 

About a year ago we published a photo of a scooter sent to us by Frank Hutchinson of Cumberland City, Tennessee. Now, Hutchinson writes:

 

Well just got back from the Spring meet for Cushmans. I took the little scooter with me, and of course it was a hit. Still, nobody can name it. Since it seems to be a lost item with no name, I am going to get it running and paint it up beautifully and name is Fred #1. To complete it, I am in need of an 8-inch wheel. A few people thought a Tote Gote wheel or a Mustang wheel might work. If any of your readers can help, I will appreciate it.

Okay, Motohistorians, can anyone help Fred find a wheel for Fred #1. And we're still looking for an answer to the main mystery. What was this scooter called before it became Fred #1. Note the curvature of the front frame tubes. This is a very unusual shape, not seen on other scooters to our knowledge. If you think you have a wheel that might fit, Hutchinson can give you a lot more specs, Write to him at CCityCustoms@aol.com.

 

(4/6/2009)

A leading maker of die-cast models is looking for an Indian Roadmaster Chief—preferably a 1953—on the East Coast, that can be used for measurements, reference photos, and notes to create a prototype. If you qualify, write Ed@Motohistory.net and we will hook you up.

 

Lambert & Butler's

vintage motorcycle cards

(4/4/2009)

 

Here are more motorcycle cards, distributed with Lambert & Butler's cigarettes in the United Kingdom in 1923, from the Ken Weingart collection.

47 in a series of 50:

Triumph

The text on the back of the card reads:

Manufactured by the Triumph Cycle Company, Ltd., Coventry. Established 1885. Four large factories capable of accommodating 2,500 workmen. Over 20,000 Triumph motor cycles were supplied to the British and Allied War Departments during the European War. Engine 4 h.p., all-chain transmission, spring drive, patent spring forks; equipped completely ready for the road, with electric lighting set and bulb horn. Equally suitable solo or with sidecar. Other models from 2½ h.p.

48 in a Series of 50:

Velocette

The text on the back of the card reads: The 2½ h.p. Velocette is the lightweight with the capabilities of a heavyweight. It has many important features. Lubrication—

mechanical patent pump system, sump cast integral with the crankcase. The cylinder has a double exhaust port and very deep fins. The frame is built with duplex butted loop tubes giving great strength and rigidity. A new patent steering head with lubricating device is fitted.

 

Motohistory Quiz #65:

We have a winner!

(3/31/2009)

 

In terms of response, this was one of the most interesting quizzes we've done. I knew I would not fool the Vincent experts, but I did not expect to be overwhelmed by dozens of quick answers, most of which were correct. The first was from Lindsay Brooke, who identified our quiz picture as the Vincent Amanda just three minutes, 59 seconds after I sent out my Motohistory Update Notification. Brooke, from Plymouth, Michigan, is the co-author of “Triumph in America” and also has published an article about the Vincent Amanda. Brooke not only correctly identified the Amanda, but sent us a fine account based on his research for his previously published article. Here follows Lindsay's contribution:

 

The rather neglected looking hull in the photo is a Vincent Amanda water scooter. The first and only Amanda I've ever seen was hanging from the rafters at Ken Grzesiak's British Only parts emporium in Michigan in 1990. The craft was complete but needing a full restoration. When I asked Ken about it, he told me that a few weeks before a British gentleman named Roy Smith had visited British Only and said he'd helped design the Amanda.

 

Ken gave me a copy of Smith's business card—he was manager of diesel engineering at General Motors in Detroit. I contacted him immediately and we arranged a lunch. He arrived with a stack of original photos showing various Amanda components and technical drawings, as well as illustrations of the three-wheeled car conceived by Vincent. There were also photos of Smith and his colleagues in the Vincent drafting department at Stevenage.

 

As Smith told me the story, the Amanda was produced by Vincent in 1957 and ‘58 after the company had ended production of its famous V-twin motorcycles. Amanda was the world's first “personal watercraft”—the predecessor to today's JetSkis and Wave Blasters. It was named for the daughter of British businessman E. Werner, who brought the concept to Philip Vincent. The forward-thinking Vincent sensed the opportunity and assembled a team to develop the craft. Smith at the time was a young design draftsman who had joined Vincent in late 1951 after his first job at aircraft enginemaker Napier.

 

No doubt when Vincent considered Werner's idea, he envisioned another potential outlet for his company's new two-stroke industrial engines, the T10 (100cc single) and T20 (200cc twin). These piston-port powerplants were gaining favor with go-kart builders as well as makers of lawn mowers (Qualcast) and garden tillers and implements (Farm Fitters). To adopt the engines for marine use, Vincent developed a “log” prop drive unit for the engines, which were started by a pull cord. T10 models got a two-bladed prop while the T20s were three-bladed.

 

Amanda featured a unique throttle/steering linkage, via twist-grip and control rods from the “handlebars” to the rudder. As on today's personal watercraft, Amanda was designed to circle slowly without its rider, allowing him to climb back on board from the water. The steering would go to full lock naturally while the throttle immediately snapped back to idle.

 

The two-piece molded fiberglass hull was built at a specialist factory set up by Vincent in Llandwrog, North Wales. Its construction employed the hand-layup process common in fiberglass boatbuilding. The colors were molded into the plastic—bright red on the upper section and white underneath. Inside the hull styrene blocks were mounted on the port and starboard sides to ensure buoyancy should the vessel be swamped. A skeg was bolted to the bottom of the hull.

 

The vessel's one-gallon fuel tank was mounted ahead of the engine and rider. Some of the molds incorporated port holes in the upper hull for engine air intake and exhaust, while others reportedly plumbed the exhaust out the transom.

 

The Amanda development program was rushed, according to Smith—roughly six months from drawings to prototype in late 1956. The initial prototype, nicknamed “The Whale,” appeared ready for testing and early demonstrations on a lake near London failed to show any major problems. Philip Vincent was said to be very encouraged with the Amanda's performance; the T20 model would get up on plane quickly and was capable of 28 mph.

 

But lurking in this pioneering craft was an Achilles' heel—the polyester resin used in the hull material. Sourced from the Bakelite Resins Co., the resin used in the first batch of production hulls was thermally unstable. The troubles didn't surface until the Amanda landed in the U.S. Vincent had struck a deal with an American distributor based in Wausau, Indiana, who ordered 200 Amandas (worth £500,000, noted newspaper reports) in June 1958. The distributor was ahead of his time, realizing the vast U.S. could be a huge market for a zippy “water scooter.” According to a report in Britain's Evening Standard, the American sales agent planned to order 6,000 more Amandas pending acceptance of the first batch.

 

But disaster struck the first time the Amanda was demonstrated on a U.S. lake. It was a hot, sunny day, and as the engine heat rose, the combined ambient and engine thermal loads caused the plastic surrounding the engine house to sag, then collapse. Everyone watching on shore, including the press, saw the rider sink slowly beneath the waves to become a swimmer, right before their eyes. Sunk with him was the public image of Vincent's latest sporting machine.

 

Tragedy in the Amanda saga doesn't end there. Veteran Vincent employee and factory tester Johnny Penn drowned while testing an Amanda near Mersea Island, off the Colchester coast. The craft Penn was riding was found adrift three months later, according to contemporary press reports. Penn was the second Vincent tester to die in the line of work, Henry Pennington having perished on a Black Shadow near the Watford by-pass.

 

When the U.S. demo debacle occurred, Vincent's trusted “right hand man” Ted Davies was already in the States on company business. He went straight to Wausau to investigate the problem.

 

“Based on Ted's appraisal, we determined the hull needed internal reinforcing—perhaps a tubular frame,” recalled Roy Smith. But that was the Amanda's legacy: The original idea was fantastic, but the product was not thoroughly tested and developed before it was ready for market.

 

Today, Amandas in “water-worthy” condition are scarce. When I wrote a feature on Smith and the Amanda for Classic Bike magazine in 1995, editor Philip Tooth then knew of only a few examples in Britain. It is unclear how many were shipped to the U.S., which would've likely been the craft's largest market.

--Lindsay Brooke

 

We also learned from Vincent expert Somer Hooker that the Amanda pictured in our quiz—taken at the Barber Vintage Festival last October—belonged to him at the time, but has since changed hands. Somer sent us a link to an image of a nicely restored example. Click here.

 

American motogiro organizer Bob Coy also sent us a personal account. He writes:

 

As a kid, I remember that Nissongers in New Rochelle, New York had a warehouse full of them. I couldn't convince my dad to get me one though. They may have been imported for one of the amusement parks in the area, such as Playland in Rye, or Fronteerland on the Meadows, or maybe for the Worlds Fair. I distinctly remember standing there looking at them and hearing about the overheating problems that were associated with them, and that the engine would get so hot it would fall through the bottom.

 

Antique Motorcycle Club of America Foundation Chairman Peter Gagan reported:

 

At the Vincent Rally last year in Colorado, some of us had an opportunity to set sail in the only currently running Amanda. It was a lot slower than the motorcycles, and was not what I would call a seaworthy vessel. Certainly not recommended for non-swimmers.

Robert Watson, former editor of MPH, the Vincent HRD Owners Club magazine, sent us a photograph of himself aboard the restored Amanda at the 2008 North American Vincent Rally. Similar to Gagan, Watson states, “It was running a little ragged due to the altitude, but still not something that would set any speed records.”

 

Thanks, Robert, for the photo. To my eye you look a little tense aboard that

thing.

For more images of the Vincent Amanda, click here. And, believe it or not, while researching this topic, we discovered that there is now a Vincent Amanda shoe. Click here. Hope it walks better than its namesake floated.

 

Thanks to one and all who participated in Motohistory Quiz #65, and for the many interesting comments and accounts. Congratulations to Lindsay Brooke for winning the quiz to become our newest Motohistory Know-It-All. Lindsay, you diploma is on its way.

 

Motohistory Quiz #65

(3/31/2009)

 

Okay, Motohistorians, it is time for another Motohistory Quiz. What is this and what in the world does it have to do with motorcycle history?

 

Be the first to send us the correct answer and you will be the next to joint the elite ranks of the Motohistory Know-It-All, verifiable through your own personalized Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma, complete with my signature and a cheesy gold sticker.

 

Send you answer to Ed@Motohistory.net.

 

 

Abraxas Bultaco

A memoir in celebration of

Bultaco's Golden Anniversary

By Jeff Thompson and Sean Ahern

as told to Karen Kentosh

(3/31/2009)

 

In 1971, a trio of young Ohio men set out on the Great Road Trip to the Pacific Ocean. As it turned out—perhaps not so surprising for the heady times of the ‘70s—the trip gave them more than just spectacular scenery. In fact, it was the quiet beauty of Crater Lake that gave them pause to let their minds wander and imagine where their lives could go. What they imagined was a Bultaco franchise.

 

It all probably started with Sean Ahern, a 25-year-old Air Force dude from Newark, Ohio, who bought his first motorcycle in 1965 in the Philippines where there wasn't much by way of transportation. As an afterthought, he also bought his first dirt bike there. Back in Ohio, Sean met Jeff Thompson in college and convinced him he absolutely needed a dirt bike too, an idea for which Thompson did not need much convincing. They went riding in the strip-mined lands of southern Ohio, and through a chance encounter they met another dirt bike enthusiast named Bill Swanson. Swanson and his brother Dave had owned a Bultaco shop in Columbus some years earlier. They all started hanging out and riding together.

 

In 1971, with the summer off, the guys found themselves at loose ends. Jeff was finishing his first year of teaching, Bill had an ulcer from being a banker, and Sean was still going to college. As adventurous, adrenalin junkies—and yes, a little wacko—they decided to hitch-hike across the country. It was, after all, the full-blown Era of the Hippie. Jeff says, “We had no idea what to expect, such as snow in the mountains in the summer!” Their gear wasn't what you'd call adequate. A plastic tarp was their tent, they backpacks were homemade, and they figured hygiene was for squares. They did not care, because the Open Road called!

 

Sean, Jeff, and Bill began their serious hitch in Denver, and one of their rides—an eccentric English professor—took them to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. From there, they hitched through Idaho and Oregon. Of course there was no money for motels or lodges, so they camped wherever they could and washed up in gas station men's rooms. This devil-may-care, can-do attitude was a common trait of the three; they enjoyed every challenge as well as each others company.

 

At Crater Lake, heavy snow buried their plastic tent on the side of the old volcano. It was so cold, their water canteens froze, but the guys saw the fun in all of this. When the blizzard passed, they played in the snow and rode their plastic tent like a sled down the slopes of the crater. Jeff admits, “We might have been stoned!” As they marveled at the beauty of the fog rolling in over the crater's rim, the eternal question that confronts young men echoed across the lake, as if a cosmic parent were booming, “Well?! What are you going to do with the rest of your lives?” After their great experiences on the road, they didn't want to go back to their ordinary, boring loves. Rather, they wanted to do something different. As they compared notes, the solution became obvious. They all loved dirt bikes, and they shared a certain world view, so there it was: they would open a motorcycle shop, even though none except Dave had any idea what that actually meant.

 

After hitching as far as Sacramento and more adventures on the road—including being arrested twice for hitch hiking on a California Interstate—they limped into Reno and bought bus tickets to Salt Lake City, where Bill's wife retrieved them and took them home in a VW bus. Back in Ohio, the fellows hadn't altered their thinking. They were high on the exotic, Spanish Bultaco dirt bikes, convinced that everyone would want one, and they were the guys to sell it to them! So they set out to fulfill their dream. Dave knew the Bultaco franchise procedure and took care of incorporating the company. Sean's mother, Molly, rented them a quaint little building that was an antique shop not far from her home in rural Jacksontown, Ohio, about 30 miles east of Columbus. It was a conservative little town where long-haired hippie freaks were generally frowned upon, but the location provided one distinct advantage: it was about five miles from the Honda Hills motocross track, which was Dirt Bike Central for the area. It was just the right place and the right time, as if Fate and Luck had decided to smile and ride off with them into the sunset on Bultacos.

 

A Bultaco rep was only too happy to bring his wares to them. He demonstrated the bright red Sherpa T by doing wheelies in their parking lot, and the guys' blood ran hot with bike lust for the new machine. They each put up $2,500 and got a local bank to fund their floor plan. The only obligation was to purchase a few dirt bikes and a parts package, so they launched their dealership, which then named “Abraxas.” Sean remembers, “It was one of those words that reflected the zeitgeist of the 1960s and ‘70s.” Abraxas was a mystical, ancient pagan deity, plus there was also the chart-busting album by Santana by the same name. Whatever the source, it was a name they though fit quite well with Bultaco.

 

They hired a mechanic named Doug McKittrick who could fix anything and make parts out of thin air if he didn't have them. He was invaluable to the operation. For example, druing a bargain-hunting trip to a Bultaco dealership going under in Nelsonville, he used his eagle-eye to zero in on and acquire what they needed for pennies on the dollar. Adequately stocked, Abraxas moved into the little antique shop and splashed colors of blue and yellow across the walls. They furbished their showroom with posters, painted their own signs, bought used display cases, got some old desks, designed their logo and stationery, then put an old couch on the front porch, overlooking historic Route 40, the National Road. Locals craned their necks trying to figure out what the heck was going on in there.

 

For some people, money isn't everything. According to Jeff, “Profit was not our middle name; love of the business was enough for us.” They paid themselves “in kind.” For example, Sean managed the day-to-day operations for a fish sandwich and beer everyday for lunch. Bill managed the banking, the set-up of new bikes, and the repair shop. They all got new motorcycles, helmets, and other accessories, which they used for awhile and then sold as used—a process they facetiously referred to as “product testing.” That old hippie philosophy of sharing the joy and providing a quality product was their guiding star. The bikes were fun for them and they wanted their customers to have big fun too. They prepped their bikes with a loving care beyond what most shops provided, and they frequently modified them with better, stronger parts. And they didn't just sell the bikes, they raced them. They all competed in races and trials. Bill rode a Pursang for motocross and an Astro set up for short track racing. Sean rode a Matador in enduro competition, and Jeff rode a Sherpa T in observed trials. Jeff says, “We were hands-on guys, and our service and parts stocking was enhanced by our Personal riding experiences.”

 

Jeff's special calling was in-your-face marketing and promotion through every avenue he could think of. They promoted observed trials events every month, got sponsors, put together a calendar, a newsletter, and advertised through wiper-blade fliers at Honda Hills and other events they attended. In addition, they confidently sold bikes to their friends who saw how much fun the guys were having. By 1974, they were doing so well that they decided to expand. Southern Ohio was a hotbed of enduros and off-road riding, and they selected a site on State Route 33, which was the main drag through Lancaster, leading straight to the rugged hills of the region along the Ohio River. Dave bought a plot at 33 and Coonpath Road, financed the building, and acted as general contractor. But it would be no 2x4s or aluminum siding for this shop. Jeff—always a fan of Buckminster Fuller--designed five geodesic domes, found a company that built the triangles for the dome structures, and cleared them through local zoning. Ever keen to marketing, he figured these unique buildings on the highly-traveled Route 33 would attract attention to the shop and provide additional brand recognition.

 

A friend who was a civil engineer did a free site survey, but discovered that surveying five inter-connected octagons was not easy. Each corner had to be precisely located for the footers and bolts sunk in the concrete floor had to match holes in the dome sections exactly. The guys worked on the domes themselves as time would allow, and Dave hired Chris Haines as the site superintendent. It took a couple of weeks to get all the pieces bolted together for three 39-foot and two 26-foot domes, which housed the showroom, retail counter, storage, service and repair shop, office, and restrooms. To entice buyers, the guys had built a test track, complete with jumps, around the five-acre perimeter of the property, and for the trials riders they created obstacles by piling railroad ties. When it was all ready, the new Abraxas threw a big open-house and blow-out party in the domes to announce their arrival. Demo rides were provided for eager customers.

 

For the next couple of years, Abraxas continued to fly high. But the world was turning and changes were happening that included a gasoline embargo and a recession. Then, cheaper, better, and more reliable motorcycles from Japan began to penetrate the American dirt-bike market. Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki dealerships were opening all over the place. Perhaps the boys' new expansion came a little too late. Pehaps they had overextended themselves. No doubt they suddenly had way more competition than they were used to. But they'd had a good ride. Business cycles come and go, and so do specific brands of motorcycles. After five years of fun and success, the guys took stock of the situation, and, like they had before, decided it was time to move on. The Abraxas adventure had started on a high note, and that's how they ended it. To this day, Jeff, Sean, Bill, and Dave are all still friends with great shared memories. And in a stroke of irony, the famous Abraxas domes on Route 33 have now become an antique shop.

 

Photos, top to bottom:

On the road to adventure in 1971. Left to right: Jeff, Sean, and Bill Swanson.

Jeff Thompson busy on a Saturday at the first Abraxas shop in Jacksontown, Ohio.

Dave Swanson at the Alpina display at the Jacksontown shop.

Doug McCittrick aboard a rare 100cc Tiron.

The new shop with its hand-painted sign, opened in 1975.

Bill, riding a Pursang at the test track at the new dealership; distinctive domes in the background.

The sales and parts desk at the new shop.

Bill, in the new showroom in 1975, with an inventory of nearly 30 new Bultacos.

The Abraxas domes at night, as seen from Ohio Route 33 near Nelsonville.

The old Abraxas shop today, now the U.S. Post Office in Jackstontown , Ohio .

Jeff and Sean today.

 

Red and Helen's

excellent adventure

(3/30/2009)

 

Born in Iowa in 1902, Charles “Red” Wolverton was an all-round motorcycle competitor who excelled at hill climbing, enduro, and both board and dirt track racing, but he is probably best known as the first man to travel more than two miles per minute aboard a motorcycle. That achievement took place on a cold and blustery day in November, 1923, when Wolverton straddled a special-built four-cylinder Ace on the recently-completed Roosevelt Boulevard near Philadelphia and powered the machine to timed speed of 129.61 mph. Wolverton believed that the motorcycle had more, but reported that it began to shake uncontrollably at 129 mph. Not content just with the solo record, Ace mounted a sidecar on the machine and Wolverton rode it to a record of 106.82 mph. Ace grabbed headlines by offering $10,000 to any other manufacturer who could beat their record, and Wolverton became a nationally-known hero overnight.

 

In 1925, Wolverton married Helen Frankowski and borrowed $300 to enter a partnership in a Harley-Davidson dealership in Philadelphia. In 1929, he relocated to Reading, Pennsylvania where he successfully ran a Harley-Davidson dealership until his retirement in 1956. Prior to serving as a test rider and record breaker for Ace from 1923 through 1925, Wolverton worked as a development rider for Excelsior-Henderson, conducting high-altitude tests in the Rocky Mountains and riding year-round in and around Chicago, where the company was based. In addition to his versatile riding skills, Wolverton was valued for his understanding of the mechanics and engineering of a motorcycle, and for this reason was recruited by Harley-Davidson in 1951 to test a new engine still under development. Red and Helen loaded gear necessary for six weeks on the road into their sidecar rig and set out for Milwaukee. There, the factory engineers removed its engine and installed a pre-production 1,200cc motor that would eventually be designated the FLH.

 

The Wolvertons began their journey by heading south to Louisiana where their daughter and son-in-law, Jack and Dottie Vanino, were stationed at Camp Polk. Jack, a Sergeant Major in the 318 Tank Battalion, was responsible for training tank crews for combat in Korea. From there the Wolvertons headed west, through Texas and into Mexico, traveling as far south as Mexico City. The high compression of their experimental engine required high octane gasoline, so when it became difficult to find, they turned around and headed north, returning to the United States in California. Traveling up the coast, they paid visits to long-time friends Ed Kretz, Ben Campanale, and Dudley Perkins. Campanale and Perkins were both fellow Harley dealers. From Northern California the travelers turned eastward and into the mountains, visiting Yellowstone National Park along the way. Summarizing the journey, Wolverton said, “We went 10,500 miles in six weeks and didn't have one day of rain. We were either behind it or in front of it, but we didn't see a single drop.” He added, “Everyone was wonderful everywhere we went, and I never felt better in my life than I did on that trip.” While the couple set their own pace and stopped when and where they pleased, on occasion they would complete more than 500 miles in a day, achieving a trip-long average of more than 250 miles per day.

 

Upon returning to Milwaukee, the factory switched out its test engine with Red's EL, and the Wolvertons returned to Reading. The engine that Red and Helen tested went into production in 1954. To read Red Wolverton's official Motorcycle Hall of Fame bio, click here.

 

Editor's Note: Red and Helen Wolverton took snapshots of their 1951 long-distance ride, and these were passed on to their daughter Dottie Vanino. Dottie and her husband Jack have kept the family motorcycling traditions alive through a lifetime of service to the motorcycle sport and the American Motorcyclist Association. Dottie was the first woman delegate to the AMA Congress, and she published a regional newspaper called “Cycle Chatter” from the 1950s through 1973. Jack served as an AMA District Referee for 20 years. While the story of the Wolverton's long-distance ride has been told before, Motohistory is especially indebted to the Vaninos for providing the Wolverton's photographs that were taken during the trip, which have been used to illustrate this story. It should be noted that Red Wolverton had the curious habit of making notes right on the face of his photos, rather than on the reverse side as most people do.

 

All photos courtesy of Dottie and Jack Vanino.

From top to bottom:

Helen and Red Wolverton with their Harley-Davidson sidecar rig.

On the highway in Mexico. Wolverton's hand-written note says, “On Pan American Highway in Mexico.”

Helen reloading the motorcycle after a night's stay in a roadside tourist court.

In Mexico.

Visiting Ben Campanale's dealership in Pomona, California. Wolverton's hand-written note says, “Benny Campanale, Pomona, Calif, 1951.

At Dudley Perkins' dealership in San Francisco.

On the road in Colorado . Wolverton's hand-written note says, “Entering Colorado High in the Rockeys.”

In front of the Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee at the end of the trip. Wolverton's note says, “Back to H-D Factory.”

 

The two-stroke engine:

A short review of a long evolution

By Ralf Kruger

(3/27/2009)

 

When Alfred Angas Scott (pictured here) opened his new enterprise, the "Scott Engineering Company," in 1909 to build motorcycles, two-stroke engines had their place for use as stationary engines in heavy industry. But Scott stood nearly alone in his conviction that two-strokes were suitable for larger motorcycles as well. His "Squirrel" motorcycle was the first wholehearted effort to apply two-stroke power in the class of big motorcycles where four-stroke engines prevailed. Two-stoke engines then did not compare with four-strokes for power output, so they were thought to be suitable only for the smaller and cheaper class of motorcycles.

 

However, there were good arguments for greater use of the two-stroke. Theoretically, they should have double the power of four-strokes because they have a combustion cycle with every turn of the crank. Furthermore, they require no complex and expensive valve train, which makes them smaller and lighter than four-strokes, and less expensive to manufacture. These theoretical advantages required proof through development, and in the case of Jorgen Skafte Rasmussen (pictured here) in Germany, that development led to DKW becoming the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer by 1928 (for more about Rasmussen see Motohistory News & Views 4/10/2007).

 

As with any internal combustion engine—including the four-stroke—successful development of the two-stroke depended on an understanding of the charge-changing cycle which, in the case of the two-stroke, is referred to as “scavenging.” Historically, this development can be subdivided into five segments. These include:

 

1) Simple piston-port two-strokes, whose inherent problems and limitations led to:

 

2) Development of "twingles" as done in exemplary fashion by Garelli and Puch. The limitations of twingles led to:

 

3) “Blown” twin-piston engines using forced air induction as seen in DKW racers, and the British Dunelt.

 

4) Next came “reverse scavenging.” Patented by Adolf Schnürle in 1925, it was acquired by Rasmussen for DKW in 1932, then was further developed by Richard Küchen for Zündapp in 1933.

 

5) Finally, the era of the “modern” two-stroke arrived after the Second World War when MZ's Walter Kaaden discovered and developed the “dynamic gas flow” engine.

 

1. The basic piston-port engine

In the simplest three-port two-stroke engine—known as the piston-port two-stroke—the piston's top edge operates the exhaust port and transfer port, while the lower edge of the piston controls the inlet port. Driven by combustion, the downward-sliding piston opens the exhaust port first, allowing pressure caused by combustion to escape. Shortly thereafter the downward-moving piston passes the scavenging port, also called the transfer port, allowing the fuel and air mixture to flow in from the crankcase, the introduction of which further helps push the remaining burned charge out the exhaust port. When the piston reaches bottom dead center and begins to move upward, it closes both the transfer and exhaust ports so the next combustible charge can be compressed within the combustion chamber. With this upward movement, negative pressure is created beneath the piston, and as its skirt passes and opens the induction port, a fresh charge of fuel and air is drawn into the crankcase, ready to be transferred to the combustion chamber with the next downward stroke. Likewise, negative pressure in the crankcase draws in more fuel and air from the carburetor. The process is completed with a single 360 degree turn of the crankshaft, unlike the four-stroke which requires separate strokes for induction and exhaust.

 

There are disadvantages to such a simple design. The relationship between changing pressures above and below the piston, and the distance and size (timing) of the exhaust and transfer ports are critical to performance. The exhaust port must open first in the cycle to allow pressure above the piston to quickly drop below the pressure in the crankcase. Otherwise, spent exhaust gasses will be forced down through the transfer port and into the crankcase, reducing or eliminating proper induction as the transfer port opens. This problem is called “flow-short-cut.” Even if flow-short-cut can be avoided on the downward stroke, the simple three-port two-stroke remains inefficient because there is no physical isolation between incoming and exhaust charges, as is provided by the mechanical valves in a four-stroke. Because the exhaust port must be above the transfer port for the reasons described above, there is a time span when the scavenging port is open that some of the fresh fuel charge will be driven, unburned, out the exhaust. This is especially true when the transfer and exhaust ports are located on opposite sides of the cylinder, as was the case in many early two-stroke engines. Port size and timing are always a compromise because the more efficiently the exhaust port allows spent gas to escape, the less effective it will be in keeping the new combustible charge within the cylinder.

 

Because all access and departure port windows are in the cylinder walls, port timing and dimensions are very limited. For example, in a four-stroke, the exhaust port can remain open for a complete 180 degree upward stroke of the piston, during which no new incoming fuel charge is allowed to affect pressure to reduce efficiency. With the closely-located piston ports, induction and exhaust are only momentary in relation to the rotation of the crankshaft. This results in mediocre performance in an engine that, in theory, should have better performance characteristics.

 

Many methods were tried to improve scavenging in the three-port two-stroke. One was the so-called “deflecting piston.” (pictured here) Its crown was shaped with a “nose” intended to deflect the incoming charge away from the exhaust port. This method seemed to work with low-speed flow, but not so well at higher speeds. Furthermore, the nose tended to overheat (simple air-cooled two-strokes actually achieve some of their cooling through part of the fresh charge unavoidably escaping through the exhaust port), and its presence resulted in a less compact combustion chamber. The deflecting piston proved not to be a solution, although it was used in most engines of the era.

 

2. The development of the twingle.

As a consequence of this situation, which for the time seemed unsolvable, as early as 1919 the Italian firm Garelli designed a twin-piston engine. This design featured two pistons driven by a single rod and crank pin, which moved in two cylinders under a single, shared combustion chamber (pictured below). With its twin pistons and single combustion chamber, the design has earned the nickname “twingle.” The separate cylinders are ported so that one is responsible for inlet and exhaust timing, and the other for scavenging. Under this arrangement, incoming and exhausting gasses are better separated, and deflecting pistons prone to overheating are not required. Scavenging is always “direct flow,” meaning it never reverses on itself. Power output and fuel efficiency were improved somewhat, but there are disadvantages to this design as well. For example, it has a large combustion chamber designed for good flow rather than high compression, the “center-wall” between the two cylinders is difficult to cool, and the twin-cylinder engine is more expensive to manufacture.

 

In 1923, the Austrian firm Puch created a better version of the twingle. The principles of this design can be traced back to a design by Ferdinand Kindermann originating in 1877 that consisted of opposed cylinders with pistons converging into a common, disc-like combustion chamber (pictured below). Imagine this engine bent into a “U,” (pictured below) and voila, the Puch twin-piston engine is born. The novel and crucial feature of the Puch was a shared, forked piston rod that causes the two pistons to move asynchronously (with the exception of tdc and bdc where the leading piston "waits" for the trailing piston), creating unsymmetrical port timing. The "exhaust piston" leads the "scavenging piston," which means that, as usual, the exhaust piston has already opened the exhaust port before the scavenging port opens on the down-stroke. The fundamental and deciding difference to a conventional design is the closure of the exhaust port before the transfer port is closed by the trailing piston on its way up to tdc. This factor means a recharging effect is possible without the danger of losing fresh mixture into the pipe.* Tuned correctly, this design provides for less loss of charge as well as longer scavenging. The design offers greater torque spread, smooth running under partial load, and lower fuel consumption in comparison to the conventional three-port two-stroke. However, the forked rod could be problematic at high speeds. The engine worked best under 5,000 rpm, and despite Puch victories at Monza in the 1920s, the design was regarded almost “agricultural” in its tractor-like economy and ability to pull at low rpm.

 

In the long run, the Puch twingle (pictured here) proved a disappointment because it did little to close the power gap to the best four-stroke engines. With its improved scavenging time, what the Puch design brought out was that crankcase pressure had become the limiting factor to further two-stroke development. Without finding a way to increase crankcase pressure, better scavenging alone could not adequately increase the charge in the combustion chamber.

 

3. The “blown” two-stroke.

This is exactly what DKW did in the 1930s when it built U-rod twin-piston engines with “direct flow” scavenging, then supercharged the induction through a variety of methods. At first, the German brand used a “Ladepumpe,” an additional piston that functioned as an air pump (pictured here) and doubled output from 40hp per liter to 80hp per liter. With a full understanding of the Puch's weak points, DKW replaced the “U” rod with a master rod that included a pivoted, articulating “slave rod,” and water cooled the cylinders and head to reduce operating temperatures. But it was the supercharging of the engine that provided the quantum leap toward more power. The technology was applied to both two-piston “singles” and four-piston “twins.” Various models used both piston-pump supercharging and rotating blade supercharging.

 

With supercharging by "Ladepumpe,” greater attention had to be paid to inlet port timing to prevent resonance forces from pushing the inlet charge back into the manifold. Many different systems for controlling the inlet port were tried, including reed valves to barrel-type axial rotary valves. Both systems had limitations at higher rpm. While a lot of attention was paid to improving induction, until then little attention was paid to exhaust system designs. The exhaust pipes on all of these bikes were simple “straight-through" megaphones tuned for maximum flow to eliminate back-pressure that might have impeded the exhaust. Still, by comparison to previous two-stroke methods, DKW's success was enormous. Its Model ULD achieved 120hp per liter then moved upward to 150hp per liter in its final pre-war version in 1939.

An interesting sidebar to supercharging development was England's Dunelt, which used a “step-piston” design on a 500cc machine in 1921. Later, on its 250cc Model K in 1926 (pictured above), marketed this design as “supercharged.” The step-piston had a larger diameter at the lower portion of the piston, intended to draw more mixture into the crankcase. It is a novel concept, but was fraught with production and reliability problems. Specifically, it was difficult to achieve two different concentric bores in the cylinder, and the piston experienced distinctly different expansion rates between its upper and lower skirts. Furthermore, the pistons were very heavy, which limited reciprocating speed.

 

4. Adoption of reverse scavenging.

In 1932, DKW's Jorgen Skafte Rasmussen bought Professor Adolf Schnürle's patent for "reverse scavenging," directing engineer Dr. Herbert Venediger to apply it to DKW's designs. This "reverse scavenging" method was originally developed for big, slow-running stationary two-stroke Diesel engines used by the Deutz heavy industry company founded in Cologne in 1864. The design was developed in different variations patented by Schnürle in 1924 and 1925. Further development now lay in the hands of DKW because Deutz had no interest in the perfection of small, fast-running Otto-type ignition engines.

 

The fundamental difference with reverse scavenging as compared to the conventional lateral scavenging (with a single transfer port just opposite the exhaust port) is that two transfer ports are aimed directly at the back wall of the cylinder, which serves as a deflector. The charge flow is guided up to the combustion chamber where it loops down toward the exhaust port, thereby achieving a better scavenging, both for exhaust and for filling the cylinder. The piston's dome in this type of engine is even and much lighter, resulting in better mechanical durability and possibly higher reciprocating speeds, and in turn allowing for a more compact, efficient combustion chamber. Accepted fuel consumption for the two-stroke of the era was 500 grams per horsepower per hour. The Schnürle-ported engine reduced this immediately to 400g/hp/h, then eventually to 300 g/hp/h, which put it into the range of a four-stroke in terms of economical operation.

 

It is important to understand that Schnürle's patents referred to a certain symmetry based on the shape and location of the scavenging ports which were always aimed at the back wall of the cylinder. When introduced by DKW, the design proved efficient enough to cause serious consternation among other manufacturers. Either they would have to pay costly fees to DKW to use the design (which DKW didn't seem interested in doing anyway), or new designs would have to be developed to avoid patent infringement. This was the course taken by Ardie in 1935 with its “x-cross scavenging” as well as similar developments by Villiers and Sachs. How much Zündapp, DKW's main competitor in Germany to the time, was bothered by this achievement became clear when Managing Director Hans-Friedrich Neumeyer demanded in 1932 that Chief Engineer Richard Küchen (pictured here) immediately design a new engine incorporating reverse scavenging through an original design. It is reported that Küchen, enraged by the demand, created the new design overnight and slammed in onto Neumeyer's desk the next day! Küchen's definitive improvement over the reverse scavenging method used by DKW was a third transfer port—called an "assisted scavenging control port"—located opposite the exhaust port. This port was directed upwards at a very steep angle to improve the control of the flow from the main transfer ports. The method was highly successful and went into production in 1934 with the Derby 200 (engine pictured above). However, DKW successfully sued Zündapp, which was required to pay a penalty of one million Reichmarks! This was a painful judgment indeed, considering the price of a Derby 200 was between RM560 and RM620. Incidentally, today this decision is seen as incorrect, especially after WWII when all patents on reverse scavenging were voided, giving all manufacturers free use of the design.

 

5. The expansion chamber and rotary valves.

It is believed that the 1954 125cc IFA/MZ two-stroke single built by Walter Kaaden's racing department was the first un-supercharged motorcycle to achieve 100bhp per liter. This high power output with such a small engine was the result of DKW's Erich Wolf's one-off 1951 racing exhaust pipe with expansion chamber and end-cone, and Daniel Zimmermann's rotary disc valve, scientifically analyzed and eventually combined and tuned by Kaaden (pictured here). The rotary disc valve made asymmetrical port timing possible to allow independent control of the intake of fuel. The tuned resonance pipe with its diffuser, expansion chamber, and reflecting cone end allowed engineers to retrieve the lost portion of unburned fuel that flows out of the exhaust port of a more conventional two-stroke. Resonance in the exhaust system could be tuned to result in improved scavenging and useful back-pressure at precisely the right moments, timed to the stroke of the piston. The properly designed expansion chamber works as a pump to bring a new fuel charge into and through the engine. The speed of the exhaust gasses are so much higher than fresh mixture speed that negative pressure is created throughout the system, further increased by the exhaust pipe's diffuser, even to the mouth of the carburetor. Then, when the expansion chamber is filled with unburned gas and transfer ports are closed for the power stroke, the reflecting cone at the end of the exhaust pipe creates back pressure to drive the charge back into the cylinder, thus creating a kind of resonance-driven supercharging.  Expansion chambers can be built in very sophisticated shapes for compact fit within the motorcycle chassis.

 

Engineers at DKW and other companies had recognized prior to the Second World War that different mufflers affected power output. But in most case they were searching for the quietest muffler with acceptable power for street use, not for higher speeds and improved efficiency for racing, noise be damned. However, it was not until Richard Küchen's nearly forgotten third transfer port was "rediscovered" and featured in the 1959 MZ racers that the company's best two-stroke performance was achieved. The third port resulted in improved cooling, better durability, and better scavenging, which resulted in more power. In modern application of this design, the result is 400hp per liter motorcycles as seen in today's Moto GP 125cc and 250cc classes. It is a number that surely would have astonished even Alfred Angas Scott.

For more information about the Scott Flying Squirrel, click here. 

To learn more about Alfred Angas Scott, click here, here, or here. For more about two-stroke engines, click here, here, and here. For more about how the two-stroke expansion chamber works, click here, here and here.

Rasmussen photo courtesy of Audi Tradition, Auto Unionl.

Kaaden photo courtesy of FIM press office.

 

My first and only Indian

By Bill Karson

(3/25/2009)

 

Even though I was only nine years old back in 1956, I knew I was a motorcycle rider. On those hot summer afternoons, there was nothing better than hanging out in front of the company store in the small coal town where I grew up in western Pennsylvania. The store was next to the post office, right there in the center of town. It was the closest thing we had to a shopping center, and everybody would show up there sooner or later.

 

But, we weren't interested in everybody. We were there to see the ‘cycles! A guy would rumble in on a big Indian, a Harley, or a Vincent. He'd slowly slip down the sidestand, swing a leg over the bike, and do something mysterious with the gas petcock. Then, as the rider sauntered into the store, or the post office, he would always do the same thing. He would give us “the look.” What was “the look?” It's hard to explain. It was kind of a smile, kind of a smirk. Maybe it was the way they cocked their heads. Maybe it was the way they moved. But, it sent a clear, strong message: “I'm different, I'm doing something that makes me happy. I'm riding a ‘cycle. I've got more balls than you. Don't you wish you were me?” Boy, did we ever!

 

Every biker knows “the look.” It's one of those things that binds us together. It sums up thousands of good feelings, bits of secret knowledge, the thrill of tempting the odds, the joy of a warm breeze in your face, and the satisfaction of enduring a cold ride to work in the rain. Most of all, it says that bikers are different from everybody else. And, it says that we know that all those chumps behind the steering wheel wish that they could be us!

 

Before a rider was into the store, we kids were around the ‘cycle like a swarm of gnats. Back then, almost all of them were American, either Indians or Harleys. Occasionally, a guy with a lot of money would show up with a British Vincent, and, very rarely, something as exotic as one of those puny lightweight Triumphs. The bikes were big, heavy, and loaded with chrome. They smelled of gasoline, and the hot engines ticked as they shed their heat. They were magnificent. Of course, the arguing would begin right away. My nine-year-old buddies and I were firmly divided into two camps, the “Harley-Killed-Indian-‘cause-it's better” guys, and the “Indian-will-be-back-‘cause-it's-better” boys. I was in the Indian camp. After all, just look at it! The styling and paintwork made an Indian look like it was doing 80 when it was parked. Sure, the Harley was new, but it's just plain compared to an Indian. A Harley was interesting, but an Indian made my heart skip a beat. But, like all Indian lovers, I had to live with the facts. Indian hadn't built a bike since 1953, and all I had was the hope that they would come back.

 

Because I was only nine, of course I couldn't ride a motorcycle. The closest thing we had was my cousin Joey's old bicycle, with a cracked frame, bad brakes, and bald tires (pictured here). Close enough. Joey's bike became the vehicle that would transport us to Daytona, the Isle of Man, or anywhere we imagined. Whenever I rode it, it was, in my mind, an Indian Chief.

 

One of our regular rides was an ongoing dare. We would dare each other to ride down Conemaugh Avenue as fast as possible, and then make it around a blind corner known as—you guessed it— Dead Man's Curve. The street was gravel, the hill was long, and the corner was a 90-degree left-hander with just enough of a slant on the inside that you could make it at top speed. Problem was, a big lilac bush hid any oncoming cars from the rider's view. The dare was to see if you had the ya-yas to take the corner anyway.

 

Traffic was scarce on that street, and I had made the corner many times until a fateful day in June, 1956. I confidently pedaled down the hill, crouching down to cut wind resistance. I lined up outside, and hit the apex of the inside berm with just the right amount of rear tire slide. My pleasure turned to horror as I cleared the lilac bush to find that I was ten feet in front of a '56 Chevy, coming at me. With no brakes, I hit the front bumper full blast, and the world went into slow motion. It seemed like half an hour passed as I was launched from the bike, over the hood, and into the windshield of the Chevy. The next day, I woke up in the hospital with a hood ornament gash in my belly, a concussion, a broken wrist, and severely bruised hips. I recovered before my tenth birthday in July, but the incident caused a discussion in our house that went on for months.

 

My Mother was locked into the position that “He'll never ride a bike again.” But, my Dad thought what I really needed was a decent bike (Thank God for my Dad!). As Christmas approached, Dad and I went looking at bicycles. We went to the Schwinn store, and I saw some neat bikes. They were all in the range of $39 to $79. Then, my Dad took me over to see his buddy, Eddie Kaszycki, who owned the Johnstown Cycle Center. Eddie was an Indian Dealer who sold, fixed, and raced motorcycles. When my parents first got married, they lived in an apartment in a house that Eddie owned in the west end of Johnstown. Eddie and his shop were both classics. Eddie was a real character, a brash, round guy who would break out a couple of beers whenever my Dad showed up at the shop for a visit. My Mother didn't like Eddie because she hated motorcycles. I can remember my Dad getting into big trouble when I was about three because he took me to a TT race somewhere to see one of Eddie's bikes racing. But, I loved Eddie, and I loved visiting his shop. I mean, a whole showroom filled with Indians, Harleys, racing bikes, leather. . .I was in paradise!

 

So, my Dad asked Eddie if he had any bicycles. Eddie directed us to a corner of the showroom where I laid my ten-year-old eyes on the holy grail, an INDIAN BICYCLE! It had chrome fenders, Wald motorcycle grips, Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, and hand brakes (pictured above). It was fantastic. Best of all, the frame had had a big Indian logo, and the chain guard said “Indian Motorcycles – Springfield Mass. “ I had died and gone to heaven. Here was an actual Indian 2-wheeler that I could ride right now.

 

My joy was cut short. Dangling from the right hand brake was a price tag that said $115.00. Even for a ten-year-old, it didn't take much savvy to know that $115 was a lot more than the Schwinns we had seen. I had three brothers, Dad worked in the steel mill, and I knew we weren't rich. But, I wanted that Indian bike, so I asked Dad if his buddy Eddie could give us a deal. Dad took Eddie over to the farthest corner of the showroom, where they talked quietly for a couple of minutes. Then, Eddie burst out in a loud voice: “No, Bill, that's a special Indian bike. I've got to sell it for that price.” Then Dad, in an equally loud voice, said, “Well, Eddie, If that's the best you can do, I guess we'll look at the Schwinns again.” I was crushed. No, worse. My life was now worthless. On the ride home, Dad tried to console me, “Geez, Billy, I wish we could have afforded that Indian, that's a real nice bike. But, the Schwinn will be okay.” I understood. I hated it, but I understood.

 

Two weeks later, my brothers and I were up early to see what kind of loot Santa had put under the tree. It was one of the best moments of my life when I saw that gleaming new Indian bicycle leaning on its kick stand, just waiting to take me everywhere. I immediately realized the con game that Dad and Eddie had played on me. Even more important, I realized that my Dad really did understand me, and that he knew what was going on inside my head. It's one of the reasons that I really miss my Dad these days.

 

My Indian bicycle did take me everywhere. There were 50-mile Sunday rides that went so far away that I didn't tell my folks where I went until I got back. My Indian took me to my first job on a farm, then to caddy at a country club, and to deliver newspapers every morning for four years. I raced it, wrenched it, waxed it, and loved that bike. Then in 1963 I did something really stupid: I painted it! Later that year, I realized that it was wearing out, and I needed a good bicycle for the paper routes, now both now morning and afternoon. I traded the Indian in on a new Schwinn. Who knew that someday it would be worth a fortune? Now, I'm many bikes older, including five Hondas, two Husqvarnas, an Italjet, and now an “old fart's” '83 Yamaha Virago twin. I liked most of those motorcycles, but I've never loved any of them as much as the one without a motor, my first and only Indian!

 

Author's postscript: With this story is a picture of me and my Indian bicycle, taken in the summer of 1957. I have searched the web, but have not found any information on this type of Indian bicycle. From an eBay listing for a 1956 Schwinn ad (pictured above), it appears that it may have been a special edition built by Schwinn and based on the high-end Schwinn Corvette. The Schwinn has the same S-A 3-speed gears, chrome fenders, cantilevered frame, hand brakes, and 1-3/4” middleweight tires that were on the Indian. It does not show the saddlebag, and the Wald motorcycle grips that were on the Indian. I have never seen another Indian bicycle like mine, and I will appreciate any information—especially pictures—of this model. Contact me at karson@atlanticbb.net.

 

 

(3/23/2009)

 

Last month we presented a brief history of the practice of long distance riding in America (see Motohistory News & Views 2/28/2009). That story referred to the Iron Butt Rally, although it was certainly not a history of the Rally or the Iron Butt Association. A documentary of the 2007 Iron Butt Rally and a history of the organization can be had in the video “Hard Miles” by Abracadabra Presentation Graphics, Inc. This one hour presentation explains the Iron Butt Rally and covers the most recent event primarily through the stories of its participants. It is a good human interest tale about those who find challenge and satisfaction in riding a motorcycle over 11,000 miles in 11 days. However, I found even more interesting one of the bonus features, which consisted of Michael Kneebone explaining the history of the quarter-century-old rally and formation of the Iron Butt Association. Kneebone remains the guiding light and indefatigable promoter of the event and practice of long distance riding. For a copy of “Hard Miles,” click here.

 

Wood and Bator announce

huge auction; no reserves!

(3/21/2009)

 

Bator International and J. Wood and Company will offer a huge collection of over 380 motorcycles in Columbia, Tennessee, June 25, and there are no reserves! In addition to quantity, the sale offers quality and variety with lots such as a 1924 Brough Superior, a 1948 Scott Flying Squirrel, a 1933 Royal Enfield V-twin, a 1947 Indian Chief, and a rare 1977 Harley-Davidson Confederate Edition. In addition, there are Cushmans, Simplexes, Triumphs, Allstates, and more than 50 Harley-Davidsons and 50 Hondas. Less common marques on the block include Rokon, Lilac, NSU. Ural, and Dniepr. In addition, there are automobiles and oddities such as a 1929 Ford Model A Roadster clown car and a crashed Cessna aircraft. For more information, click here. In the mean time, if you are looking for results of the recent Bator/Wood Daytona auction, click here.

(3/20/2009)

 

The Riding Into History Concours d'Elegance will return to the World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Floriday on Saturday, May 16. Grand Marshals will be Motorcycle Hall of Famer Craig Vetter and Speed Channel star Dennis Gage. Proceeds for the event go to the Buddy Check 12 charity for breast cancer. For more information, click here.

 

Motohistory is where you find it. A guy finds an old Penton; notes that the engine looks better than the rest of the bike. Discovers a sales receipt in a can of nuts and bolts with the bike indicating that the Sachs engine —never ever started—was purchased at the Goodwill store. No kidding. Click here.

To see clean bikers behaving badly, click here.

 

For lots of action and information for U.S. central gulf coast vintage motocross riders, click here.

 

The Indiana Vintage Off-Road Motorcycle Enthusiasts organization has posted its 2009 schedule. To access the IVORME web site, click here.

 

Dirt track great Scott Parker will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in a ceremony at the Fillmore Theater in Detroit, Michigan on August 12. For more information, click here.

 

Yamaha fans will certainly enjoy the vast store of information on Ludy Buemer's web site. To check it out, click here.

 

The Carlisle, Pennsylvania Import-Kit/Replicar Nationals, scheduled to take place May 15 through 17, will add a vintage import motorcycle class this year (1979 or older). For more information, click here.

For photos of old military motorcycles, click here.

 

And speaking of American dirt track racing, fans of the sport will be interested in the good work of the White Plate Flattrackers Association. To access their web site, click here.

 

Vintage Honda enthusiasts will enjoy Bill Silver's web site. Click here.

 

For a listing of vintage motorcycle meets, check out the British Bike Connection. Click here.

 

Hemmings will be adding a motorcycle class to its Stratton Mountain Concours this coming July 19. They are looking for bikes 1979 or older. For more information, click here or write Craig Fitzgerald at cfitzgerald@hemmings.com.

 

We've written before about the Kansas Motorcycle Museum (see Motohistory News & Views 12/7/2006 ). To check out its new web site, click here.

 

Will Stoner is hosting a swap meet at the York Expo Center, York, Pennsylvania on April 5. For more information, click here.

 

The Reading Eagle of Reading, Pennsylvania, recently did a great story about the Reading Motorcycle Club, announcing that the club will publish a hardbound book in celebration of its upcoming 100th anniversary. To check it out, click here.

 

A story about the Blue Ribbon Coalition 2009 Breakfast of Champions can be found here.

 

For vintage Jack Pine Enduro photos, click here.

 

The new Classic Motorcycle Company in St. Louis, Missouri, offers an interesting and unusual vintage and classic motorcycle inventory. Its grand opening, featuring BBQ, an open house, and a bike show, will take place April 18. To learn more, click here.

One of the nicest persons Motohistory has had the pleasure to interview was the late Bob Jorgensen, a kind and clever man who loved steam engineering and history, and built a functioning replica of Sylvester Roper's steam motorcycle.  Now, Bob's son Pat is building a web site about his father and his achievements.  To check it out, click here.  To read our story about Jorgensen, go to Motohistory News & Views 7/14/2004.

 

Wheels Through Time

offers a '47 Knuck

(3/17/2009)

 

The Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, North Carolina has announced that it seventh annual raffle will deliver a 1947 74 cubic inch Model FL Harley-Davidson Knucklehead or an alternative cash prize of $20,000 to some luck winner by November, 2009. Tickets for the raffle are available for $10, or for a donation of $50, participants can receive seven tickets and a free WTTM T-shirt. All proceeds will go to building new exhibits and helping maintain one of America's leading motorcycle museums. Although Wheels Through Time recently suspended regular hours open to the public, the Museum is still available for visitation by appointment. To purchase raffle tickets, send name, address, and phone number with your donation to WTTM Annual Raffle, P.O. Box 790, Maggie Valley, NC 28751. Tickets are also available online. For more information about the raffle and the Wheels Through Time in general, click here.  And while we're on the topic of Wheels Through Time, we should note that some of the best shows from the Museum's on-line Time Machine are now available on DVD.  For more information, click here.

 

(3/15/2009)

 

Veloce Publishing has just announced “The BMW Boxer Twins Bible” by Ian Falloon, covering most air-cooled models from 1970 through 1996 (R45, R65, G/S and GS models are not included). To book contains a description of boxer development for two and a half decades, including a detailed look at the groundbreaking and class-leading R90S and R100RS. With a year-by-year and change-by-change analysis, it contains all engine and frame numbers, and technical specifications by year. There is also a chapter on racing development. In hard cover with dust cover, in 8½ x 11-inch format with 160 pages and more than 200 images, “The BMW Boxer Twins Bible” sells for $59.95US or £29.95UK. To contact the publisher, click here.

 

VMX No. 37 contains stories about the 1982 ultimate CZ400, the 1979 Mugen 390, and the 1982 Yamaha IT250j. In addition, there are features about German vintage enduros, the 1975 Jawa ISDT 350, the Pro-Fab Yamaha, the 1957 Adler MB250 motocross twin, the 1982 Yamaha YZ125J, the 1972 Kawasaki 100 G4TR, the 1969 Maico 360, Bultaco's 50 th anniversary celebration, and the 2008 International Six Days' Trial Reunion Ride. As always, the photography is eye-popping. To contact VMX on the web, click here.

 

“A Third Wheel: The Eccentric Alternative; A Guide to Sidecars and Trikes,” by Simon Potter, has just been announced by Panther Publishing Ltd. This book is a guide for those willing to take the plunge into the unknown with their first sidecar fitting or trike conversion. It explains what bikes are suitable for conversion, from old British singles to modern Japanese multis. It contains a guide to trike and sidecar suppliers, sources of accessories, and web sites that contain useful information. In soft cover with 150 pages and approximately 200 photos, “A Third Wheel” is available for £12.95 plus £2.50 postage and handling. To contact Panther Publishing, click here.

 

Bed of Knuckles

(3/13/2009)

 

You've heard of Eastern religion practitioners who rest on a bed of nails. Well, either Matt Olson has adopted some new weird religion, or he was just so tired after returning from Daytona that he could fall asleep anywhere. We stole this photo from Cyril Huze's blog of March 15, 2009. Huze thought it funny enough that he declared it his photo of the week. To check out the post, click here. And check out the comments. One guy is positively pissed because someone has enough engines to sleep on, and he doesn't have any. He even goes so far in his humorless attack that he indicts the whole of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, for which Matt Olson is Youth Coordinator.

 

For those of you who do not follow Cyril Huze's blog, you should. There's a new posting daily, and it is characteristically novel, informative, and unpredictable, and often learned. To check it out, click here. And while we are on the topic of Huze's blog, fans of the three-wheeled Morgan will find interesting a second post of March 15 that reports on a modern rendition created by Peter Larsen of Seattle, Washington. Huze calls it “theater on the road.” Indeed! Click here.

 

 

New paintings from Aziere Art

(3/11/2009)

 

Painter Stephanie Azierre-Sattler has released two new paintings of interest to Motohistorians. “Adrenalin” depicts dirt track legend Scott Parker during his first national win in his long career as an AMA Grand National Champions. The original pastel in 15x22-inch format is available for $1,000. Ten numbered artist's proofs in full original size are available for $110 each. Fifty numbered, limited-edition Giclee prints are available in 13x20-inch format for $80.

 

Also new from Aziere-Sattler' studio is “The Mascot,” the artist's interpretation of the famous image of 1920s racer Ray Weishaar and his piglet mascot which some believe gave rise to the term “Harley Hog.” It was a moniker that the Motor Company resisted for many years, then finally in 1983 embraced and adopted as the acronym H.O.G. for its Harley Owners Group. The original oil of this recently completed painting is available and prints are pending.

“Sister Speed” captures the Cobb sisters, Erica and Karlee, on the salt at Bonneville. Erica, age 17, holds a record in a 1,350cc at 130.392 mph. Karlee, age 14, holds records of 107.391 and 110.724 in two of the 500cc classes. The original painting is in oil. A limited edition giclee 18x30-inch print of “Sister Speed” is available for $195.00. Only 50 such prints will be produced. Ten artist's proofs in 24x36-inches are available for $325.00 each. For interest in this Print, please respond to email or Contact us personally. For more information about "The Mascot,” "Sister Speed," and “Adrenalin,” contact the artist at 660-221-7792 or click here.

 

 

Unusual Eustis

(3/10/2009)

 

Long gone are the days when Antique Motorcycle Club of America national meets attracted American brands almost exclusively, with these being dominated by Indians and Harleys. The best of the great American classics can still be found at any AMCA meet, but changing tastes and new generations of collectors are bringing out a greater variety of equipment representing a worldwide panorama of brands. The AMCA Sunshine Chapter meet, held at Eustis, Florida at the end of February, seems to have a special ability for attracting the unusual, the seldom seen, and the offbeat.

 

This year's Eustis meet had one of the best representations of BMWs seen recently anywhere, ranging from pre-war models to /2s and /5s. Preeminent among these were a half-dozen from the collection of Floridian Jack Wells. But BMWs were dead orthodox compared to some of the other motorcycles on display. For example, Blue Moon Cycle brought out not only an eye-popping blue Hungarian Panonia with Duna sidecar—a vessel that would stir the lust of Buck Rogers—but also a Victoria Avante (both pictured above), a lovely little deco German moped not likely to be seen within American gatherings.

 

Then there was the better-than-new Montgomery Ward Mojave recently completed by David Burgess. Many have never heard of this ill-fated attempt to compete with Sears in the American mail order market, and those who know of the bike have likely never seen one in this fine condition (pictured above). The Mojave, built in Italy to styling specs suggested by Bud Ekins, was one of the many faux scramblers that looked better than they performed, proving mainly that looking like a Rickman didn't assure handling like a Rickman. In addition to his rare Mojave, Burgess demonstrated his eclectic tastes by displaying a variety of machines including a fabulous Matchless-powered three-wheel Morgan (above) that sounded even better than it looked.

 

There were many customs as well, some brought out to compete in the AMCA's period modified class, and some just for the fun and hell of it. Wheels Through Time Museum curator Dale Walksler unveiled his beautiful Harley “VEL,” a hybrid composed of an EL engine, a VL frame, and much hand-shaped sheet metal (pictured above). Also among the stunning customs on display was a Square Four to die for (right). Ariel purists might consider this bike an abomination, but to see it was to understand it. With bobbed fender, it made the Square Four's remarkable compactness even smaller, wrapped in a package of chrome and red and gold metal-flake paint. And of course we should not fail to mention every teenager's dream, an XLCH engine with a Cushman Eagle tidily wrapped around it.

 

Eustis is not one of the larger of the AMCA national meets, but it is one of the most interesting, bringing to light the winter projects of builders and restorers from all over the Eastern United States, especially those from the north who are sick and tired of a long winter.

 

 

(3/9/2009)

 

Historian and journalist Terry Stevenson writes from New Zealand:

Hi, Ed, my next project for an article is finding out more about the Yamaha fuel-injected, liquid-cooled GL750 four-cylinder, two-stoke that was displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1972, then in France the following year, but disappeared before making it into production (pictured here). There was a bit of a furore made about it coming to market, then nothing. It was quickly forgotten. It was featured on the cover of Cycle News or Cycle World in late 1972 or early '73, about the same time as announcement of the RZ201 rotary prototype, which also did not go into production.

If you know anything about this bike, or perhaps someone who might know anything about it from the time, please put me in touch with them. I'm also trying to find as many photos as I can. Contact me at tappit@paradise.net.nz.

Okay, Motohistorians, I will confess to being out of my depth here. I know nothing about the Yamaha GL750, but I'll bet some of you do. If you can, please give Terry some help.


Lambert & Butler's

vintage motorcycle cards

(3/7/2009)

 

Here are more motorcycle cards, distributed with Lambert & Butler's cigarettes in the United Kingdom in 1923, from the Ken Weingart collection.

45 in a series of 50:

Scott Squirrel

The text on the back of the card reads:

The Scott has a water-cooled, twin-cylinder, two-stroke engine—a design notable for its simplicity owing to its absence of valve mechanism, and for its smooth and even power delivery. In this latter respect the two-cylinder two-stroke is equal to the four-cylinder four-stroke. The Squirrel model illustrated is the Scott sporting type.

46 in a Series of 50:

T.T. Sumbeam

The text on the back of the card reads:

Engine 3½ h.p. single-cylinder Sumbeam 77 x 105. 492c.c. with light moving parts, highly efficient and very fast side-by-side valves, three-speed countershaft gear, clutch hand operated. This machine won the 1920 and 1922 Senior Tourist Trophy Race in the Isle of Man, the 1922 French Grand Prix, the 1922 Italian Tourist Trophy Race, the Austrian Championship, and many other important events throughout the world.

 

(3/5/2009)

In response to our story by Mick Duckworth about the unique “face cam” Chater Lea, introduced in 1925 (Motohistory News & Views 2/24/2009), Kevin Cameron writes:

Strange, therefore, that when the British motorcycle industry was told “Export or die” by the British Board of Trade immediately after the Second World War, they all reverted to clattering pushrods. The last pushrod win at the Isle of Man took place in 1932 at the Junior TT.

 

An interesting observation, Kevin. People talk about how the British failed as a result of their hidebound adherence to tradition. But it is not as if British motorcycling did not have an OHC tradition as well.  That one they apparently ignored.

 

Motohistory Quiz #64:

We have a winner!

(3/3/2009)

Bob Heywood of Dayton, Ohio writes, “It's a Skat-Kitty, manufactured by Projects Unlimited in Dayton. It featured a cast aluminum frame that included the front fender.” Bob is correct on all counts. The Skat-Kitty, pictured here, was one of the smallest vehicles on the market during the 1960s. It was licensable for the street and available through the Sears catalog for $179.95. Or, you could get one by saving S&H Green Stamps (remember those?). It had a 2.5 horsepower four-stroke engine, and for someone with a family (maybe a small family), a sidecar was available. Though it does not show well in this photo, the chassis of the Skat-Kitty was a one-piece aluminum unit extending from the front fender through the rear.

This example—a 1965 model—was a kitchen table restoration project by Jeanne Smith of Middletown, Pennsylvania. It is currently on display at the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey. The manufacturer of the Skat-Kitty is still in business, making some pretty high-tech stuff. To read more about Projects Unlimited, click here. For more information about the Skat-Kitty, click here. To reach the AMCA Museum web site, click here. For those of you too young to remember S&H Green Stamps, click here.

 

Congratulations, Bob, your personalized Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma is on its way.

 

Motohistory Quiz #64

(2/28/2009)

 

Okay you Scootohistorians, it is time for you to step up and show us what you know.

Be the first person to send us the name of this tiny two-wheeler, and we'll send you a personalized Motohistory Know-It-All Diploma.

Send your answer to Ed@Motohistory.net to become rich and famous. Well, maybe not so much, but all your friends will still envy your encyclopedic mind.

 

A brief history of

the American LDR

(2/28/2009)

 

Perhaps it is in the American character to over-reach, or maybe that vast expanse from sea to shinning sea is just too inviting, but for whatever reason, Americans have had an obsession with crossing the continent in the shortest time possible. A transcontinental crossing has always required extraordinary human endurance and will, but with the advent of the motor vehicle it became a test of technology as well. Those who have chosen the technology of two wheels to traverse great distances have chosen the name LDR —the Long Distance Rider (or, in the case of the act itself, Long Distance Riding)—and their linage dates back to the earliest days of motorcycling. This is a brief history of the LDR, and like most “brief” histories, it does not pretend to be comprehensive or complete.

 

In fact, it was a motorcycle, not an automobile, which became the first motor vehicle to cross the continent when George Wyman (pictured above), who is arguably America's first LDR, traveled from San Francisco to New York City aboard a wheezing little 90cc single-cylinder Marks California motorcycle, arriving at his destination on July 6, 1903, 51 days after his departure. Much of his route was over railroad beds because great expanses of the West did not yet have roads and highways. The first woman to cross was Effie Hotchkiss (pictured below), who rode a two-speed Harley-Davidson from New York to San Francisco and back in 1915. Actually, there were two pioneer female LDRs, because Effie's mother, Avis, rode along in a sidecar.

 

For Wyman and Hotchkiss, crossing the continent was feat enough. However, motorcyclists, being the kind of competitive souls they are, began to see how quickly they could ride from coast to coast nearly a decade before Effie took her ride. City-to-city endurance competitions had existed back to 1903, but as roads and motorcycles improved and LDRs became more ambitious, two achievements emerged as the Holy Grails of long-distance riding. Holy Grail the Greater was the transcontinental ride between New York and either San Francisco or Los Angeles. Holy Grail the Lesser was the Three Flags Run, achieved by traveling from Canada through the United States to Mexico, or vice-versa. In 1906, when Effie was only 14 years old, Indian dealers Louis Mueller and George Holden crossed the continent in 31 and a half days, cutting 20 days from the time set by George Wyman. Then, in 1911, Volney Davis reduced the record to 20 days, 9 hours, and 11 minutes aboard an Indian.

 

The man who would become America's greatest LDR was Erwin “Cannonball” Baker (pictured below). Baker had begun his career as a motorcycle racer, earning national recognition when he won the Amateur class at the first race ever held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909. Baker, however, was a bit too robust for the spindly racing machines of the era, but he found his true calling in long distance riding. In 1914, Baker made his first transcontinental crossing in 11 days, 12 hours, and 10 minutes. This noteworthy achievement turned into a 30-year career wherein Baker made 126 crossings with both motorcycles and automobiles. Though his name was always associated with Indian, he became a gun for hire and the best in the business, ready to take on a transcontinental ride for anyone who would pay his fee. In 1922 he reduced his time to six days, 22 hours, and 52 minutes. His last crossing took place in 1941 when, at the age of 60, he rode from Los Angeles to New York in six days, 6 hours, and 25 minutes. In this case, Baker was not going for a record, but was subjecting an engine of his own design to the ultimate field test (see Motohistory News & Views 9/12/2007).

 

For a period of time, the Indian and Henderson camps became great rivals for transcontinental bragging rights. In 1917, Alan Bedell broke Baker's record with a crossing of seven days, 16 hours, and 16 minutes aboard a Henderson. Then, in 1923, there was a veritable LDR shoot-out between Wells Bennett for Henderson (pictured here) and Paul Remaly for Indian. In May, Remaly set out on an Indian Scout to break the Three Flags record then held by Henderson, completing his run in 46 hours and 58 minutes. Bennett came out the following month aboard his Henderson and knocked the record down to 46 hours and 9 minutes. Remaly promptly responded in July with a run of 43 hours and 21 minutes. Then to put the icing on his cake, a month later Remaly set a new transcontinental record of five days, 17 hours and 10 minutes. What once had been an exercise in human endurance and motorcycle reliability was becoming a race where speed was more and more the determining factor.

 

In 1935, Detroit Harley-Davidson dealer Earl Robinson rode a 45 cubic inch Harley from New York to Los Angeles in 77 hours, 53 minutes. Then, later in the year, Earl and his wife Dot (pictured below) boarded their sidecar rig and set a new record of 89 hours, 84 minutes. The following year, Fred Dauria and Bill Connelley crossed in a specially equipped Harley sidecar rig with an auxiliary fuel tank in 69 hours, 46 minutes. Unfortunately, some aspirants were not above shenanigans. Also in 1936, Indian rider Rody Rodenburg set out to take back the record from Harley's Robinson. He completed his run from New York to Los Angeles in 71 hours, 20 minutes, but it became widely reported that he cheated. Still today there are a variety of stories about what Rodenburg did. One story relates that he loaded his Indian in a truck. Another says that he and a friend hooked it to the back of a fast V8 Oldsmobile, which they took turns driving. Yet another version of the tale credits him with having two identical Indians, down to their engine numbers. In this story he stashed his first bike outside of New York City, raced across the country with a friend in an automobile, then mounted his second Indian to complete the ride. Whatever the case, his record is not acknowledged today, and Robinson would retain the title aboard a Harley for more than two decades.

 

The next assaults came from the Penton family from Amherst, Ohio. Noted for their off-road enduro accomplishments, both John and Bill Penton had won the legendary two-day Jack Pine Enduro in 1954 and 1958 respectively. As Jack Pine regulars, they were friendly rivals of the Robinsons, and in the year following his first Jack Pine victory, John set out on a BMW R69 (pictured here) to break the transcontinental record. Departing New York City on June 8, 1959, Penton made it to Los Angeles in 52 hours, 11 minutes, and 1 second, stopping by the road to sleep for about 45 minutes along the way. His black BMW was bone stock, modified only by borrowing the large fuel tank from his brother Ted's white R69. Seven years later, Ted Penton and Bill Cleaver knocked down the Dauria/Connelley Harley sidecar record by completing the trip with their BMW rig in 60 hours and 49 minutes. Recently, on the 50th anniversary of his ride, John Penton was present the prestigious Iron Butt Association Extreme Rider Award, becoming only the third man in history to earn this honor. The other two are Wells Bennett and Cannonball Baker.

 

A decade later, in August, 1969, BMW rider Tibor Sirossy broke Penton's solo record, traveling from New York to Los Angeles in 45 hours and 41 minutes. However, an era was coming to an end. For a number of reasons, coast-to-coast barnstorming had become less fashionable. With concern growing in America about death and injury on the nation's highways, record-breaking on public roads was thought by some to be more foolish than heroic. In fact, as early as the mid-1920s, the Motorcycle and Allied Trades Association had ceased to certify LDR records because it implied approval of illegal speeding. Thereafter, riders certified their times by clocking in at a Western Union station on departure and arrival. Manufacturers were not reluctant to assume bragging rights for an individual accomplishment, as the U.S. BMW distributor had done with Tibor Sirossy's (in the advertisement pictured above), but car and motorcycle brands no longer openly backed transcontinental record-breaking, as they had with Baker, Bedell, Bennett, Remaly, and others. They no longer needed to, because the same year that John Penton set his record, the huge, high-banked Daytona International Speedway opened its doors, and many similar facilities followed. “Official” speed and endurance records could now be conducted in a safer, more controlled environment with more accurate and reliable time-keeping.

 

But the American LDR did not disappear. Rather, he (or she) evolved by creating more sophisticated challenges that rely on strategy in addition to endurance and reliability. The prerequisite to calling oneself an LDR today is the Thousand Mile Day, covering 1,000 miles in 24 hours. Technically, one can do it easily within interstate highway speed limits. Completion of a certified Thousand Mile Day qualifies one to become a member of the Iron Butt Association, which today has an international membership approaching 38,000. Michael Kneebone, who was a principal in founding the IBA in 1987 along with Dick and Fay Hoffman, explains, “It's really an informal network. There are no dues, and once a member, always a member. However, we believe there are about 14,000 Iron Butters who are currently active.” The IBA functions as a social nexus for those interested in long-distance riding. Through stories on its web site and participation in its forum, enthusiasts exchange information about motorcycle preparation, maintenance, travel strategy, personal training, and nutrition. In this way, the IBA fosters a higher level of safety and responsibility among LDRs. In fact, the typical Iron Butter regards him or herself as rational, careful, safety-conscious, and prudent as a motorcycle rider. Many are rider education instructors, and they are positively offended by the notion th