While Burt Munro’s ‘world’s fastest Indian’ is the most famous record-breaker to use Springfield iron as its base, it certainly wasn’t the only Indian used in land speed record attempts. Let’s not forget that the first-ever certified absolute motorcycle world speed record was set by Gene Walker on his 994cc Indian, at Daytona Beach in 1920. While he ‘only’ recorded a 2-way average of 104.21mph (167.56kph), this was faster than anyone else had done under the watchful eyes of a neutral (ish) sanctioning body – the FIM – who still oversee international records. Glenn Curtiss was supposedly timed one-way back in 1906 at over 136mph on the same stretch of beach, but that was an unsanctioned record with questionable timing apparatus, and was not averaged out with a return run.





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