The cover of Jeffrey W. Alexander's excellent new book, 'Japan's Motorcycle Wars'
Jeffrey Alexander has produced, in Japan's Motorcycle Wars: An Industry History (UBC Press, 2008) a scholarly account of the deepest origins of the Japanese motorcycle industry, exploring a host of tangential issues which impacted the early and later development of the industry as a whole. The book is academic in tone and structure, and feels like a doctoral thesis; he explicitly states that it isn't meant to be a 'motorcycle book', and there are few exemplary photos, but anyone seriously interested in Japanese motorcycle history would find the book a rewarding read.
Production line at the Fuji 'Rabbit' scooter factory in the late 1940s; definitely a hand-built body, at the least! And a different world from the highly centralized, efficient, and modern production lines Japan became famous for in the 1970s...
The gem of the book, interestingly, isn't the author's; it's a translation of a series of interviews conducted in Japan in 1972, of the Executives of several failed companies, and several interesting characters important to the Industry, including Kenzo Tada. These excerpts provide a diamond-hard insight to the ruthless and aggressive tactics used by successful companies to get ahead and stay there, including breaking agreements and cutting off supplies of vital components to competitors. The book also clarifies the attitude of the Japanese government, and agencies such as MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) which promoted all industries post-war, whose influence gave a great boost to certain companies, most notably Honda.
The Honda Type A moped, their first production model from 1946, using surplus generator motors.
In a far-sighted series of moves (and in total contrast to Britian or the US), massive cash incentives were granted to companies willing to adopt new techniques which benefitted several industries at a stroke, and which rewarded the development of the Japanese economy as a whole. As an example, MITI gave Honda 400,000 yen to investigate whether die-casting would give more accurate results than sand-casting his aluminum parts, and a further y100,000 when the experiments worked. Honda calculated, as did MITI, that the payback point of installing the die-casting equipment would come when production leaped from hundreds to thousands of units per month. Cash infusions and consequent increases in the volume of motorcycles produced are all listed in the book, which mentions as well the boost (like an Archibald Low rocket in fact) to all the major industries when the US forgave Japan's war reparations debt.
The Tamagawa Olympia Speedway races on November 2, 1949, with tens of thousands of spectators for Japan's first post-war race.
Alexander makes an argument that the successful motorcycle manufacturers post-war had all undertaken technically challenging munitions contracts during WW2, in which their production lines (out of necessity) were designed for use by unskilled labor - all of the skilled labor having been called off to war. This gave Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki especially, a great advantage over their dozens of rivals, as they all had experience with mass-production techniques, where any part was interchangeable with another, without the need for fussy and expensive 'hand assembly'... and therein lay the doom of the handbuilt motorcycle.
Racers at the Tamagawa Speedway races on November 2, 1949; the first and third bikes are Meguro singles with Harley-Davidson forks (Meguro built H-D clones under license from the 1930's); the second bike is an Ariel Red Hunter clone by Cabton.
There are a few choice anecdotes buried in the text: "Immediately after the war, Honda took some time off from manufacturing and whiled away the better part of a year drinking medicinal alcohol and working very little."... [Marusho] "signed an import contract with the owner of a Los Angeles sushi restaurant..." Monarch Motorcycles had dealers buying product "with a rucksack stuffed full of y100 notes...however, the promisory note appeared on the scene - and these notes were a problem." [!]
Tokyo police forces with Kawasaki (Meguro) W1 twins,Shiro-bai(white bikes), 1969; licensed copies of the BSA A10 650cc 'Golden Flash'
Some fun facts;
- in the 1920's, Japan was Harley-Davidson's #2 export customer, after Australia. Soichiro Honda copied their system of dealer support for the motorcycles they sold.
- postwar, the Americans established motorcycle racing (with legal betting) in Japan, to encourage industry, and raise money for local gov't, the Japanese Red Cross, and m/c manufacturers. In 1950, six companies - Meguro, Rikuo, Cabton, Abe, Asahi, and Showa - split 4.6million yen in subsidies. A single US-sponsored race in 1950 netted over 1million yen, and each race was attended by 30,000 to 95,000 people.
You can buy Japan's Motorcycle Wars: An Industry History here!
What could be more Japanese than Sumo wrestlers enjoying a Honda Super Cub on the beach? 'You meet the largest people on a Honda'
Jorge Ubico, president of Guatemala from 1931-44, the 'Little Napoleon of the Tropics', tearing through the countryside on his 1942 Harley-Davidson EL 'Knucklehead'
A recent publication from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC explored the history of one of their motorcycles (yes, they have many, includingSylvester Roper's 'first ever motorcycle' of 1867, and theCurtiss V-8 record-breaker of 1906, which clocked 136.3mph at Ormonde Beach, FL). Their intern Christine Miranda did a little investigating, and came up with this story - it seemed perfect for The Vintagent (and thanks to David Blasco for the nudge!).
"In museums, it's common for a single artifact to tell many diverse stories, far beyond the scope of any one exhibition. Christine Miranda, who interned with our Program in Latino History and Culture, explores this idea when she encounters a motorcycle used in Guatemala and digs further.
On the left, the museum's 1942 Harley-Davidson motorcycle as it appears in "America on the Move", designed to fit mid-century Portland, Oregon. On the right, the motorcycle parked in a driveway with a license plate that reads "Guatemala 1979-1983."
Our America on the Move exhibition on the history of U.S. transportation is designed to transport you around the United States. As visitors explore all 26,000 square feet of our Hall of Transportation, they "travel across America," entering a variety of carefully curated historical moments. One of the exhibition's later segments, "Suburban Strip," immerses museumgoers into the life of the "car-owning middle class" in Portland, Oregon, 1949. The display, complete with a replica road, features an array of vehicles typical of the time and place: a pickup truck, a Greyhound bus, a motor scooter, and even a genuine Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Despite the bike's 1949 Oregon license plate, it was never actually ridden in the Pacific Northwest.
Where was it really used? The roadways and landscapes of Guatemala. What's more, the customized motorcycle was owned for several years by the Central American country's president, Jorge Ubico.
Jorge Ubico in his days as a lawyer and politician in Guatemala, before assuming total control of the country
I discovered the object's mysterious past while searching the item catalogues for traces of hidden Latino history at the museum. I guess you could say I hit the jackpot. Though a Guatemalan ruler's motorcycle may seem like an odd choice for the collections at the National Museum of American History, its inclusion in fact sheds light on the global impact of U.S. transportation industries and broadens our understanding of who, what, and where "America" includes.
Jorge Ubico, a well-educated lawyer and politician from his nation's capital city, ascended to the Guatemalan presidency in 1931. He would then stay in that post for 13 years and become the self-proclaimed "little Napoleon of the tropics." Besides his flair for the ostentatious and suppression of political dissent, Ubico is best remembered for his aggressive pursuit of foreign investment and close economic alliance with the United States. Notably, Ubico strongly supported the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company (UFCO), the corporate giant nicknamed el pulpo ("the octopus") for its wide-reaching influence throughout 20th century Central America.
The locomotive Jupiter, a freight and passenger train used from 1876 through the 1960s, reveals that Ubico's motorcycle is not the only object in "America on the Move" with hidden Guatemalan history. In fact, Jupiter underscores the connection between domestic and foreign industrial development during the 20th century.
During his regime, UFCO became the largest landowner in Guatemala and enjoyed exemption from taxes and import duties. Via the International Railways of Central America (IRCA), UFCO also owned and operated the nation's rail network, which facilitated its own international trade. Interestingly, when visitors first enter our America on the Move exhibition, they encounter the giant steam locomotive Jupiter, ostensibly at home in Santa Cruz, California. Though the train did originate there in 1876, Jupiter actually spent the better part of its career transporting bananas along the IRCA in Guatemala!
Like Jupiter, Ubico spent many years traversing Guatemala with the help of American transportation technology. His flashy motorcycle, a 1942 Harley-Davidson Model 74 OHV (Overhead Valve) Twin, was infamous. As described by American journalist Chapin Hall in his Los Angeles Times column:
"When President Ubico, of Guatemala, starts on a tour of inspection, which he does several times a year, he doesn't order out the guard and a special train, but hops on a motorcycle, shouts 'c'mon boys,' and leads a squadron of two-wheelers, each one manned by a government department head."
Despite the almost comical image conjured by Hall's description of Ubico aboard his blue and chrome motorcycle, his "inspections" were the mark of his harsh, militaristic rule. Ubico's Harley-Davidson enabled him to travel to rural communities, where he personally settled local disputes and "imposed his own brand of justice," according to the same Los Angeles Times column.
As president of Guatemala, Jorge Ubico repressed democratic practice and political dissent. His pro-U.S. economic policy worsened the plight of the middle and lower classes, while his labor laws (designed to facilitate the development of public works, like roads) utilized indigenous labor. The image of Ubico atop his motorcycle, shown here, reveals the reality of justice under his rule: "the president might appear suddenly, almost out of nowhere, on his fancy, powerful machine to render judgment". (Quoteis from "I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898-1944" by David Carey.) Image courtesy of Alvaro Aparicio.
This 1942 Harley-Davidson brochure, saved in the curatorial file for Ubico's motorcycle, emphasizes the company's role in military and law enforcement.
To my surprise, Ubico was far from the first to use a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for military purposes. Already used domestically by American police departments as early as 1908, Harley-Davidsons were ridden by General John J. Pershing's men in their unsuccessful nine-month pursuit of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Harley-Davidson would go on to supply 20,000 military motorcycles during World War I and 80,000 during World War II. In fact, according to Paul F. Johnston, a curator here in the Division of Work and Industry, Harley-Davidson motorcycles were manufactured almost exclusively for the U.S. war effort in the 1940s, with Ubico's bike being a rare exception.
After the war, Harley-Davidson and other American corporations enjoyed a surge in the motorcycle's recreational popularity, with returning veterans bringing their experience and interest in riding back home with them. This is where Ubico's bike enters the story in America on the Move. Stylized with an Oregon license plate, the motorcycle helps recreate Sandy Boulevard, a burgeoning commercial area in the suburbs of Portland during the 1940s and 50s. By bringing to life this history of midcentury suburbanization, Ubico's motorcycle functions as a 1942 Harley-Davidson, not a symbolic set of wheels.
[Guatemala's political scene didn't improve much after Ubico; here's a Diego Rivera mural, 'Glorious Victory', which features CIA director Allen Dulles (who sat on the board of the United Fruit Co.) just after the US-orchestrated coup of 1954. - pd'o]In tandem, the motorcycle's two histories can help expand upon the themes of America on the Move and create important, interdisciplinary connections. Transportation history is industrial history is political history, and Ubico's acquisition and use of an American motor vehicle has everything to do with the economic relationship between the United States and Central America during the age of UFCO's prominence. When the tide turned for Ubico in 1944 and nationwide disapproval forced him to resign, Ubico sought refuge in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he lived in exile for two years before his death. Maybe it is ironic that his iconic Harley-Davidson followed him and found a final resting place in the Smithsonian.
Since its donation in 1981, the bike has been on almost continuous display, first in the Road Transportation Hall and now, of course, in America on the Move. Chameleonic, it continues to serve various purposes. Millions of museum visitors enjoy it as a classic American artifact, oftentimes recalling their own stories and experiences with motorcycle history and culture. I look at Ubico's bike and see that. I also see the overlapping social, military, and industrial functions of U.S. transportation, at home and abroad; the story of the man behind the motorcycle; and the multiple layers of history encapsulated by the most unexpected of museum objects. Perhaps, now you can too.
Jorge Ubico's chrome-tank 1942 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead at the Smithsonian
Cyril Pullin was a rare bird among the many fascinating motorcycle inventors of the early 20th Century; while there were many rider-designer-manufacturers during the era, he was in very rare company of men who not only designed, built, and raced motorcycles, but also won an Isle of Man TT race, a distinction he shares only with Howard R Davies (HRD) and Charlie and Harry Collier (Matchless).
Cyril Pullin in the 1913 TT aboard an early 2-speed Veloce, a very early example of what would become the Velocette marque. [The Vintagent Archive]Pullin began his racing career at Brooklands and at the Isle of Man in 1913, racing a Veloce, the first iteration of what would become Velocette (and finishing dead last), but the next year he moved to a Rudge, which he modified to suit his jockey-like stature. He lowered the top frame rail of his Rudge 'Multi', which not only gave a lower seating position and consequently lower center of gravity, but also updated the appearance of a typical 'Teens '5-bar gate' frame design, with parallel top frame tubes and tall saddle position.
Pullin aboard the Rudge TT Multi in 1914 at the Isle of Man. The 'Muli' was Rudge's patent variable-speed belt drive, which gave a variety of drive ratios, before gearboxes were common. [The Vintagent Archive]After Indian's 1911 1-2-3 sweep of the Isle of Man TT using two-speed chain drive machines, it was clear to all that multiple speeds equalled race success. Rudge and Zenith both built successful belt-drive racers using variable pulley diameters, and mechanical contraptions to take up the slack of the consequent belt looseness. While Scott used a 2-speed chain drive to win the 1913 TT, the Rudge Multi system had notches in its shift gate for 20 speeds, which did the trick in 1914, as Pullin beat Howard R Davies (Sunbeam) and Oliver Godfrey (Indian) to the line by 6.4 seconds, averaging a remarkable 49.5mph on the rutted, unpaved cart track which was the island circuit at that date. Rudge hoped to cash in on his success, and released a 'TT Replica' within the year.
Cyril Pullin aboard the first British motorcycle to achieve 100mph on British soil, a Douglas OHV flat-twin. [The Vintagent Archive]Pullin had an extremely inventive mind, and in 1916 submitted the first of 171 patents (at least, so far as I've found!) filed during his lifetime, concerning all manner of carburation, oil pumps, frame and fork design, brakes, etc. By 1920 he teamed up with Stanley Lawrence Groom on the design of a radically advanced two-stroke motorcycle with a pressed sheetmetal frame. This machine was the subject of 12 joint patents in Pullin/Groom's names, and drawings of the machine show clearly the forward thinking of this pair of designers. While the two-stroke design failed to materialize, many of the ideas for its chassis reappear later in the 1920s with the Ascot-Pullin, as does the team of Pullin and Groom.
The Pullin & Groom two-stroke of 1920, with pressed-steel monocoque chassis, perhaps the first in the motorcycle industry. Note what appears to be the facility for rear suspension? Note the strut below the saddle. [The Vintagent Archive]By 1922 Pullin was employed by Douglas in Bristol, and his sister had married that marque's chief designer and General Manager, Steven Leslie Bailey, and was soon racing Douglas machines in their heyday, while patenting many of the ideas he developed there. In 1922, he became the first man to record 100mph on a motorcycle on British soil, using a very special OHV Douglas flat-twin. He also continued to race at Brooklands and the Isle of Man, including at the 1923 TT, in which Douglas won both the Senior TT (Tom Sheard) and newly introduced Sidecar TT (Freddie Dixon, using a banking sidecar of his own design). Douglas, in its run of success, hired professional racer Rex Judd for a run of Brooklands records, and Pullin, ever the modernist, rigged a radio communications system with his rider, Judd having earphones within his helmet, from which he could communicate with Pullin back at the works garage - surely a first!
The patent drawings for the Ascot-Pullin monocoque chassis. [The Vintagent Archive]Even during these heady, successful days with Douglas, Pullin had a restless mind, and it seems the pull of his Great Idea - the pressed-steel motorcycle chassis - was too much to ignore. By 1928, he teamed up with Stanley Groom once again, and secured the old Phoenix factory in Letchworth, Herts, to establish the Ascot Motor and Manufacture Co Ltd. Their intention was to produce both a car and motorcycle of steel pressings, the car being based on the Hungarian 'Fejes', whose inventor, Jeno Fejes, held similar views to Pullin's own, although the car was far more radical than Pullin's designs, having even the engine built of welded-up pressings! The Fejes car (and what an unfortunate name...) was never actually built at the Ascot works, but Groom and Pullin drew up 22 patents relating to their two-wheeled venture, many of which found their way into the Ascot-Pullin motorcycle.
A press report from 1928 , with 100mph claim for the Ascot-Pullin. [The Vintagent Archive]The bright dream of a motorcycle inventor/racer could be forgiven if it looked like a camel, but Cyril Pullin had already proved with Rudge and Douglas that he had a designer's eye, and his sketches for the 1920 pressed-steel two stroke show a deep appreciation for aesthetic engineering. The Ascot-Pullin proved to be far more than a 'slide-rule special', having a perfection of line and proportion revealing its designers to be men inclined towards elegance; the complete machine is a gem of the English Art Deco design movement, being the happy integration of modern machinery and contemporary style. It's pressed-steel bodywork is at once more restrained than its extravagant contemporary rivals, like the French 'Majestic', yet more cheerful than the sober BMW R16.
The Ascot-Pullin as produced, a very handsome machine [Bonhams]We were lucky enough to become thoroughly acquainted with a 1929 Ascot-Pullin, its indulgent owner allowing a free hand to explore the machine's character, regardless that it's one of perhaps 7 survivors. The first impression of the machine is one of unity - an easy summary given the monococque chassis - and luxury. The machine is beautifully appointed with every gauge one could hope for on a late '20s car of the era, an appropriate comparison given the 'two wheeled car' ideal Pullin was aiming at. This notion of an 'ideal' motorcycle with fully-enclosed mechanicals, silent running, full instrumentation, and weather protection (not to mention an adjustable windscreen and wiper - an option on the Ascot-Pullin!) was an idea constantly referenced in the motorcycling press of the day, and which proved to be absolutely correct...50 years later. Witness the Honda Gold Wing, and every modern tourer today.
The forks of the Ascot-Pullin are pressed-steel, as is the chassis. The hand-shift is visible, as is the easy access to the cylinder head for valve adjustment. Not the quality of the finishes. [Paul d’Orléans]Pullin's baby bristles with both innovation and attractive design touches, like the numerous chromed star washers and a rocket-ship exhaust system. The engine is an advanced flat-single cylinder design, much like the contemporary Moto Guzzi but OHV, and with a geared primary drive to its en-bloc transmission. As noted, the chassis and forks are pressed steel, with strengthening indents accented with two-tone paint, while the wheels are interchangeable on Pullin's own quick-release patented hubs, complemented by his own-patent hydraulic brakes, the first on a motorcycle. The symmetrical instrument binnacle holds a speedo, clock, oil pressure gauge, multi-position light switch, ammeter, and unique mirror-image levers for the magneto and air controls. The bike sits on Pullin's patented telescoping center stand, which has 2 positions - parking and 'wheel removal'. There's plenty of room for tools in the tanktop toolbox, and access for mechanical adjustments is easy, via removable panels.
Access to the gearbox and magneto is easy, via a removable panel. The kickstart and clutch cable entry are clear. [Paul d’Orléans]With such elaborate specification, the Ascot-Pullin still only weighs in at a bit over 320lbs, and the saddle height is low at just over 26". The engine isn't a racer, as evidenced by a fairly low compression ratio, and consequent easy kickover. The beast starts with a woffle from its twinned exhausts, and the slow-scroll internal throttle reminds the rider that one needn't be in a hurry on such a fine piece of machinery. Pullin's own press releases claimed a 100mph top speed for the Ascot-Pullin, but that's not the impression we got - probably in the 80s is more accurate. At every speed, the extra-low center of gravity from the flat-single mass gives stable and secure handling, inspiring complete confidence approaching the S bends of our testing grounds. Still, Pullin didn't build this machine as a scratcher, and hard cornering will leave souvenirs of expensive chrome on an unappreciative pavement. Scrubbing off speed with those novel hydro-brakes was as about as good as any 1920s bike we've ridden, which is to say, plan your stops and leave room for surprises. Enjoy the feeling of extreme quality this machine exudes; luxury motorcycles went extinct by WW2, and the Ascot-Pullin is as good as any on the road in its day.
The road beckons! Sadly, this is probably the only road-going Ascot-Pullin on the planet, such is their rarity. Note the twin fishtail mufflers. [Paul d’Orléans]Cyril Pullin's two-wheeled brainchild was an idea too far ahead of its time, but he was absolutely correct in his ideas. Today we see motorcycles ticking the boxes of his spec sheet on every highway, with stereos blaring from weather-protecting fairings, and engines invisible under shapely steel (or more likely plastic) car-like coverings. In the heady year of 1929, the Crash greeting the Ascot-Pullin meant its doom, and the factory closed its doors a year later, after an estimated 500 machines had been produced. Pullin went to work for Douglas once again, before setting off into the skies with his new interest; helicopters. His son Raymond became the first pilot of a British built helicopter, designed by his father, in 1938, and Pullin carried on in the aero industry the rest of his working life. A few examples of his motorcycle masterpiece remain, and it was sheer pleasure to sample the unfettered ideas of one of motorcycling's greatest figures.
Cyril Pullin from a publication featuring cartoons of motorcycle industry bigwigs from the 1930s. [The Vintagent Archive]The lavish dashboard complements the overall finish, and was the apex of cool in 1929. [Paul d’Orléans]
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
Malle London is an accessories company with the right attitude; they set up events where their gear can be used, and for the sheer fun of it. 'The Mile' is their grass-track dragstrip on a private estate held the past few years, and now they've hosted ‘The Great Mile’, a 1000 mile, 72-hour motorcycle rally, that ran from the Northern Tip of Scotland to the Southern Tip of Cornwall. It was an event open to 'custom, classic and cafe racers', limited to 100 entrants, which they claim to be 'the greatest motorcycle rally in the country.' That might just be true, as British motorcycle rallies tend to be short-mileage events!
Photographer Fabio Affuso was along for the ride, and send us these shots from the route, which was a mix of wet and dry weather, held on small roads, and planned carefully by the Malle crew for maximum sightliness and fun riding. Taking the back roads through Scotland and Wales is a motorcyclist's dream, and having someone else organize the route, the food, and the bed makes for a great experience - ask any Cannonballer! It's also, at best, a great builder of comraderie between the participants. We at The Vintagent love a good moto-rally, and give the Malle team high marks for putting on fun events.
Sturgis: to a Café Racer, a sporting rider, or even a plain ‘ol vintage rider, it’s a name with zero resonance. We all know the deal: it's swamped with a quarter of a million bagger Harleys, peppered with unridable (except at Sturgis or Daytona) customs, salted with unasked-for exposed flesh (that cannot be un-seen), and washed out with drunken, boorish behavior. We’ve been there as your emissary, and must report that all of your assumptions are correct. What’s also true is the Black Hills of South Dakota is a magic landscape, sacred to its original inhabitants, and a place of gentle beauty. The landscape is an infinity of soft green grass and rolling hills, with exceptional motorcycle roads cupped between its swelling rises.
Photographer Michael Lichter, a legend in the Harley-centric world of Sturgis and V-twin ‘custom lifestyle’ books and magazines, has a warehouse-size exhibit hall dedicated to his ‘Motorcycles as Art’ exhibit, held annually at Sturgis since 2000. The exhibit was off our radar until we met Michael on the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Rally; he's the official photographer for the event, and has ridden backwards across the USA several times now! In early 2013 Michael asked if we could help source vintage Café Racers for his 2013 Sturgis show, to be called ‘Ton Up! Speed, Style, and Café Racer Culture’.
Michael Licther with Mars Webster's Godet-Egli-Vincent
We were immediately on board, and suggested a formal collaboration as co-curators, as Café Racers were our first vintage love. Paul d'Orléans' clip-on and rearset credentials go back to the 1980s, when he co-founded the ‘Roadholders’ Café Racer club in San Francisco, and he's owned a very long list of classic Café Racers, and covets his 1966 Velocette Thruxton as his 'you'll take it from my cold dead hands' bike.
Mark Mederski (National M/C Museum) also supplied his low-mileage 1970 Velocette Thruxton
What was Michael's reasoning for bringing a bunch of non-American canyon carvers to the mighty Bagger Bacchanal? "I've been watching the explosion of interest in Café Racers over the past few years on the internet and TV, and I see parallels with the Harley custom world - the personal expression, the quality of the work - and it seemed a good, if controversial, subject for this year." The absolute explosion of interest in the Café Racer and ‘CB’ Custom world since 2010 has overlapped with the best of the Harley custom world, and plenty of builders known for Choppers and Bobbers are now making performance-oriented motorcycles which can be ridden around corners.
The legendary Willie G. Davidson in front of his 'Serial #1' H-D XLCR, his epic attempt to manufacture a real cafe racer in America.
In fact, when word leaked of the Café Racer theme for Michael’s 2013 exhibit, we found ourselves turning away well-known shops who were eager, sometimes even desperate to be included in ‘Ton Up!’ It was overwhelming actually, how many shops proposed building machines just for Sturgis: I had underestimated the importance of Michael Lichter’s show to the builders themselves. In the end 7 bikes were built expressly for ‘Ton Up!’; they ranged from Sportster to Triumph to Victory to an RD Yamaha, with stock or home-built chassis, from visually fairly ‘standard’ to completely radical and unique, from the factory-slickness of Zach Ness to the hand-hammered and sticker-covered scratcher from ‘Brewdude’.
Roland Sands/BMW (RSD) 2013 BMW prototype 'Concept 90' with a BSA Gold Star and Dunstall Norton
We collared our Vintage pals for prime examples of 1960s-70s Café Racers, from Herb Harris’ immaculate ’62 BSA DBD34 Gold Star Clubman and Mark Mederski’s original-paint ’70 Velocette Thruxton, to a totally killer all-black Godet-Egli-Vincent Black Shadow, loaned by Mars Webster. The 13 ‘period’ Café Racers laid the exhibit’s groundwork, as the starting point for a show covering 50 years’ continuous history for the genre. The style of motorcycle characterized as Café Racer did not begin or end during the ‘Ace Café’ era, but is an impulse as old as motorcycling – the desire for a Racer on the Road. As a touchstone machine, we included Mark Mederski’s original-paint 1962 Norton 30M Manx, the last year of Bracebridge Street production of this seminal racer.
Mark Mederski's low-mile, original-paint '62 Norton Manx, included as the benchmark against which all Café Racers were measured
The Manx was hugely successful on the track, but was equally remembered for the perfection of its style, which is emulated on newly built Café Racers today, whether the bike underneath is British or Japanese. The continued evolution of the clip-on brigade included a pair of divergent Ducati round-case 750s; the Fuller Hot Rods Duc being a pared-down and slick traditionalist, and Shinya Kimura’s ‘Flash’ representing the far end of the artistic expression spectrum.
Willie G Davidson (retired head of H-D design); 1977 HD XLCR Serial #1
Another pair of machines, separated by 4 decades, showed the enduring strength of Café Racer style. Willie G Davidson pulled from his personal garage the ‘Serial #1’ HD XLCR, a landmark machine and a masterpiece from the legendary former Head of Styling at HD. In some kind of ‘first’, Willie G’s replacement at Harley, Ray Drea, on hearing his former boss would include the #1 XLCR, immediately started building his own all-Harley Café Racer, based on an XR1000 engine. The resulting ‘XR Café’ is a drop-dead gorgeous Milwaukee marvel, with completely uprated suspension, brakes, carbon fiber wheels, and hand-made aluminum bodywork which closely echoes the XLCR lines; a total performance-oriented street racer, which inherited the tough-guy good looks of its spiritual father, but kicks butt all over Dad’s spec sheet. It’s so good, I asked to buy it - but Willie G. beat me to it!
Ray Drea (then H-D head of design) built this incredible 1984 HD XR1000 'XR Café'
The response to ‘Ton Up!’ by Sturgis regulars, both industry pros and tipsy campers, was universally ‘WOW’. Even though we were beat from hand-placing 35 bikes on their plinths, and hanging over 200 pieces of art on the walls from 12 photographers and painters, our reaction was the same. Remarkably, I can’t recall a museum-quality exhibit of Café Racers, anywhere on the planet, until seeing ‘Ton Up!’ set up, lit, and filled with nearly 1300 people on opening day.
1280 visitors for the exhibition opening, August 5th, 2013
Not a negative peep was heard about the show’s content and non-Harley focus, and dudes covered with wrinkled, sun-faded tattoos and Rip Van Winkle beards were as fascinated by the Docs Chops’ Yamaha Virago(!) as by the super-tough Brawny Built H-D Sportster. Many times I heard ‘this show could travel anywhere’, and while moving the whole show is prohibitively expensive, luckily Michael Lichter and Paul d'Orléans collaborated on a book based on the exhibit. Motorbooks International changed the name to 'Cafe Racers: Speed, Style, and Ton Up Culture', and the book is in print in several languages (English, French, and German so far), and the text by Paul explores the real history of the 'racer on the road' impulse, and the nails the date of the first factory Café Racer to 1914! You can buy it here.
'The 69' - Dustin Kott's (Kott Motorcycles); 1969 Honda CB450David Zemla's 2003 HD 883 'DZ Sportster'Cover Girl! Yoshi Kosaka (the Garage Co) brought his gorgeous 1967 Triumph-Rickman MetisseBuilt for the exhibit! Jay Hart's 1972 HD XL 'XLMPH'The Pitch! This is how Willie G. Davidson presented the concept for the XL-Cafe Racer to the Board of H-D in 1975!The Zach Ness Victory with Shinya Kimura's 'Falsh'David Edwards (Bike Craft editor, former Cycle World editor); 1975 Triumph T140VThe only machine that didn't make it into the 'Cafe Racers' book, due to a logistical error. Ridiculous! Jonnie Green's (Ton Up Classics) 1965/7 TritonInstalling the show was like playing Tetris, sorting various-height plinths and where each machine fit in the schemePaul d'Orléans' '65 Triumph Bonneville was a useful work table during installation, and a perfect way to blow off steam after the intense work of installing the exhibition!Steve 'Carpy' Carpenter built this terrific 1969 Honda CB750KO 'Tenacious Ton'Brad Richards (Ford Motor Co) built this substantial 1999 HD 'Sporty TT'. Brad is now Chief of Styling at Harley-Davidson
Skeeter Todd's (OCC) 1979 HD XR1000 'American Café' - he said he 'wore two holes in front of his milling machine' to make the XR top end fit an XL bottom end...The '21 Helmets' display, which grew to 27 helmets!Thor Drake's (SeeSee Motorcycles); 1985 Yamaha RZ350 'BH347'[Michael Lichter]Richard Varner's (Champions Moto) 2004 Triumph Bonneville 'Brighton'Ray Drea and Willie G have a private chatThe display as completed; 15,000 visitors saw the exhibit over one week.Roland Sands and Ola Stenegard (BMW's chief motorcycle designer)Zach Ness; 2013 Victory Judge 'NessCafé Victory'How customizers thought of Cafe Racers in 1987; the "Ness Cafe" custom bike built by Arlen Ness [Michael Lichter]Michael Lichter set up his photo studio inside the Micheal Lichter Pavilion at the Buffalo Chip. These photos were used in the 'Cafe Racers' bookEpic! Gordon McCall's (McCall Motorworks); 1965 Dunstall Norton AtlasSeveral of the bikes stretched the definition of Cafe Racer - they certainly weren't light or racy! But the Brian Klock (Klock Werks); 2013 Triumph T'Bird 'Café Storm' had enough other cues to qualitySpeed, style and finesse; Kim Boyle (Boyle Custom Moto); 1971 Norton Commando 'Ed Norton'Kevin Dunworth of Loaded Gun Customs with his 'Bucephalus' with unique alloy-plate chassisLovely Michael Lichter shot of filmmaker Karen Porter in front of the Ace Café, part of his display of photography, which I hung next to David Uhl's fantasy painting of a Triumph-riding woman in the very same spot.Always fascinating; Jay LaRossa's (Lossa Engineering) 1967 Honda CB77 'Lossa CB77'Bryan Fuller's Honda CB550 with amazing Ukiyo-E engraved bodywork and chassis, the subject of Paul d'Orléans' profile in Cycle World.Jason Paul Michaels (Dime City Cycles) presented this pristine 1968 Honda CB450 'Brass Cafe'Woolie's way; the Deus ex Machina 1978 BMW R100SThe art of Conrad Leach was featured.Technically fascinating; Kevin Dunworth's (Loaded Gun Customs) 1967 Triumph 'Bucephalus'Steve 'Brewdude' Garn's (Brew Racing Frames) 1974 Yamaha RD350 'Streak'The Brandon Holstein (Brawny Built) 2003 H-D 'Brawny Sportster' on set up day for Born Free 5 at the Oak Canyon Ranch. [Michael Lichter]The $20 'bikini bike wash' seemed like a pretty good deal - the girls were thorough!Shinya Kimura's 1974 Ducati 'Flash' in epic company, waiting to be installed in the Ton Up! exhibitUnique! The Chris Fletchner (Speed Shop Design) 1965 BSA 'Beezerker', which we've ridden!Two women riders, in very different gear! Such is Sturgis...
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
The rare art of Plumasserie is the labor-intensive process of cutting, dyeing, and applying feathers by hand, typically on very expensive clothing and accessories. The tradition dates back to French Haute Couture houses from the 1800’s, and has very few practitioners today - it's almost and extinct skill, although some luxury houses feather their products. Those that do keep Maxime Leroy going; he's the master plumassier behind a revival of the craft with a contemporary twist.
We caught up with Maxime Leroy at the Grand Palais in Paris, during the Révélations show, the International Biennial of Fine Craft and Contemporary Creation. We were invited to see Leroys' collaboration with Blitz Motorcycles of Paris on the 'Black Angel', an incredible helmet/bike combination of cut black feathering, hand-applied to leather, covering the helmet entirely (including laid-down quills for the Blitz 'lightning bolt' logo), and the top of the fuel tank. The mix of feathers on the fuel tank is almost vulgar, with hydraulic tubes, air vents, and fuel lines contrasting with the organic delicacy of the hand-cut and hand-dyed goose feathers.
The fuel tank of the Blitz 'Black Angel' - almost vulgar in its contrast between the organic and mechanical.
LeRoy founded his own luxury brand M.Marceau, as well as Sacco Baret, a collaboration of Jayma Sacco, Maxime Leroy and Paul Baret. All are exploring new venues for the old craft, and brands like Chanel, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier and Louis Vuitton have featured their incredible featherwork. Leroy was recently recognized internationally as "one of the most inspirational and influential artisans" in Olivier Dupon’s book “Encore! The New Artisans”. He was also selected to create the centerpiece for an art installations at Paris' Palais de Tokyo, for the exhibition 'Double Je'.
'Celine' by Maxime Leroy for the 'Double Je' exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo
For 'Double Je', Leroy totally covered the bodywork of a Suzuki GSXR, that he named 'Celine'. I was the heart of the exhibit, which was itself a large-scale installation of many artists' work, themed around the crime-thriller novels of Franck Thilliez. 'Celine' is perhaps the most haute-couture motorcycle ever built, and perhaps the most evil-looking! We can honestly say we've never seen a helmet like this, nor motorcycles like these! Follow the work of Maxime Leroy at his M.Marceau brand, and at Sacco Baret.
The helmet for the Blitz 'Black Angel'The helmet deserves scrutiny, as the detail is simply amazing.The tank top of 'Celine' - all made of feathers and quills!Maxime LeRoy from the website of his couture brand M.Marceau
As noted in Part 1, it typically took two years for a team of English enthusiasts to build up a Speed Record machine in their off-hours, while keeping a small factory busy building road machines. The face-slap of the BMW record at the very onset of the Depression made for interesting bed-fellows among former rivals. Freddie Barnes had spent perhaps too much time in his race shop building Gold Star winners, and not enough making a profit, and the kidney-kick of the '29 Crash had sent Zenith into bankruptcy. Their ace rider Joe Wright acquired the big Zenith-JAP speed machine, which by now had a supercharger, but was contracted in a hurry by Claude Temple to attack the record again in 1930, to snatch the laurels from upstart BMW.
Joe Wright, many time World Speed Record holder, beside the supercharged OEC-JAP at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1930. Note his less-than-enthusiastic smile... (Aldo Carrer collection)
The FIM Speed Record book claims that on 6th November, 1930, Joseph S. Wright took his Temple-OEC, with supercharged JAP 994cc engine, to 150.7mph (242.59kph) down the rod-straight concrete pavé at From Cork, Ireland. The 1930 record was a significant advance on the Ernst Henne/BMW record of 137.58mph, achieved only weeks prior at Ingolstadt, Germany, on a supercharged 750cc ohv machine. But in this case, the history books are all wrong.
Joe Wright aboard the Temple-OEC-JAP record-breaker, which failed to take a record that day. Just behind it is Wright's personal supercharged Zenith-JAP, which took the actual record run.
But a pair of machines was present at Cork that day; the OEC which had been prepared by veteran speed tuner Claude Temple, and a 'reserve' machine in case it all went pear-shaped. The second-string machine was a supercharged Zenith-JAP, of similar engine configuration to the OEC, but in a mid-1920s Zenith '8/45' racing chassis. Zenith at that date was technically out of business, so no valuable publicity could be gained for the factory from a record run, nor bonuses paid, nor salaries for any helpful staff who built/maintained the machine. While Zenith would be rescued from the trashbin of the Depression in a few months, and carry on making motorcycles until 1948 in fact, the reorganized company, with its star-making General Manager Freddie Barnes, never sponsored another racer at Brooklands or built more of their illustrious special 'one off' singles and v-twins, which did so well at speed events around the world - from England to Argentina!
A beautiful shot of Joe Wright aboard the Zenith at Brooklands, before the supercharger was added
Joe Wright had already taken the Motorcycle Land Speed Record with the OEC, back on August 31st at Arpajon, France, at 137.32mph, but Henne and his BMW had the cheek to snatch the Record by a mere .3mph, on Septermber 20th. That November day in Cork was unlucky for Wright and Temple, as the Woodruff key which fixed the crankshaft sprocket sheared off, and the OEC was unable to complete the required two-direction timed runs. With the OEC out of action, and FIM timekeepers being paid by the day, as well as arrangements with the city of Cork to close their road (and police the area), a World Speed Record was an expensive proposition, and the luxury of a 'second machine' was very practical...although the 1930 Cork attempt by Wright/Temple may be the only instance where a second machine was of a completely different make. Imagine Ernst Henne bringing a supercharged DKW as a backup for his BMW; simply unthinkable!
Wright was successful, and set a new Motorcycle Land Speed Record with his trusty Zenith at 150.7mph (242.59kph), although the press photographs and film crews of the time were solely focused on the magnificent but ill-fated OEC, as Zenith was out of business, and OEC paying the bills. Scandalously, everyone present played along with the misdirection that the OEC had been the machine burning up the timing strips, and the Zenith was quickly hidden away from history, a situation which still exists in the FIM record books.
Joe Wright's supercharged Zenith-JAP at the 1930 Cork World Record attempt
Photographs from the actual event show the Zenith lurking in the background while Joe Wright poses on the OEC, preparing himself for a blast of 150mph wind by taping his leather gloves to his heavy knit woolen sweater, and wrapping more tape around his turtleneck and ankles to stop the wind from dragging down his top speed. His custom-made teardrop aluminum helmet is well-documented, but the protective abilities of his wool trousers and sweater at such a speed are dubious at best...but there were no safety requirements in those days, you risked your neck and that was that. Nowadays, when any 'squid' can hit 150mph exactly 8 seconds after parting with cash for a new motorcycle, Wright's efforts might seem quaint, but he was exploring the outer boundaries of motorcycling at the time, and was a brave man indeed.
A screen capture from the British Pathe film of the 150mph record shows clearly the bike is Wright's Zenith!
The record-breaking Joe Wright Zenith was a rumor for decades, becoming a documented story only in the 1980s via the classic motorcycling magazines and the VMCC journal. The whereabouts of the Actual machine was known only to very few. I've had the great pleasure of making the Zenith's acquaintance, it does still exist, and is currently undergoing restoration; ironically, it now lives in Germany, having been in safe hands with arch-enthusiasts for decades.
== All BMW, All the Time ==
Ernst Henne with his supercharged BMW WR750 in 1936
For the next 7 years, as England struggled with economic calamity, the World Speed Record became a BMW benefit, as speed-man Ernst Henne piloted increasingly sophisticated, and increasingly streamlined, supercharged flat-twins to higher speeds. The Ingolstadt road proved troublesome, so the hunt was continued for a very long, flat, and straight road, somewhere in Europe. The plains near Tat, in Hungary, were the next speedway, with the Hungarian officials happy to sponsor such a publicity coup. In 1932 Henne upped the Zenith record by a hair, reaching 244.40kph on a slightly better-shaped WR750. BMW of course shouted the achievement through posters and catalogs, and spent the next 5 years raising their own record. A few more tweaks to their bodywork in 1934, and a move to Gyon, Hungary, raised their own record slightly to 246.07kph.
Ernst Henne and his streamlined 'Egg'
By 1934, Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels were eager to use all aspects of international sporting activity in service of their fascist state, which included car and motorcycle racing. BMW and DKW benefitted from wheelbarrows of cash supplied by the Nazi government, and both factories used the money boost to make radical technical changes to their cars and motorcycles. DKW was part of Auto Union by 1932, a huge conglomerate of car and motorcycle manufacture, with DKW by then the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. The story of their Auto Union racing cars, the most powerful and exotic GP cars ever, and their competition with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo, is a direct parallel to our motorcycle story. BMW at the same time developed their 328 sports-racer, an incredibly competent and beautifully designed car, considered an all-time classic.
A very rare photograph of Adolf Hitler inspecting the DKW factory. (Aldo Carrer collection)
In accepting Hitler's cash, the racing and record-breaking teams of both factories came under the scrutiny and supervision of the Ministry of Sport (DRL), and suddenly, their drivers and riders wore swastika armbands over their racing coveralls and leathers, and raised their arms in the fascist salute while 'Deutschland Uber Alles' played for the crowd. This has unfortunately given the impression that all German competitors were Nazis, which is certainly not the truth; they were racers in Germany in the mid-30s, and some were fascist supporters no doubt, but many private stories from the pre-war period depict legendary motorcycle racers like Georg Meier pooh-poohing their Nazi handlers. Not all Germans were fascists, and plenty of Englishmen, Americans, and Frenchmen supported fascism...but that's another story.
Looking like a letter to the future, the DKW record-breaker without its canopy, which badly affected handling
There seems to have been a gentleman's agreement between DKW and BMW to stay off each other's racing turf, as DKW focussed on 250cc and 350cc GP racing and record-breaking, while BMW concentrated on 500cc racing and the absolute World Speed Record. While BMW is perhaps better known for their speed record bikes, DKW as equally at the forefront of the new science of streamlining and engine development, having pioneered the Schnurle-loop scavenge system on their two-stroke engines, and the use of superchargers with twin-piston combustion chambers, so the blowers didn't simply push the fuel mix straight out the exhaust pipe!
The DKW record-breaker with its full bodywork; a science-fiction wet dream…but very loud!
The photographs with this article show 250cc and 350cc racers of stunning speed and sophistication, with fabulously compelling bodywork, developed in wind tunnels (something they could afford with Nazi cash) alongside their Auto Union GP cars. BMW's experiments with supercharged 500cc GP bikes bore fruit with an entirely new design, which was never intended to have a 'street' version.
The new BMW OHC flat-twin engine, with integral supercharger, Type RS255
Their new OHC flat twin had a supercharger designed with the engine, integral with the crankcase casting, and fast as hell. While their GP racers used a version of the roadster R5 chassis with a tube frame and rigid rear end, the record-breaker chassi retained a version of the old WR750 tube frame, but was now placed in a better streamlined body. The new OHC engine was far more powerful than the old pushrod 750cc, even with a 1/3 capacity reduction.
The BMW three-wheel record breaker with its full streamlining, which was more stable than the DKW bodywork
It was no longer necessary to search Europe for a suitable speed venue, as Hitler had ordered new autobahns built across the country, and the A3 was set aside by an eager government to prove the new BMW's speed. With an engine now half the size of their English competition's JAP V-twins, Ernst Henne might have been expected to incrementally increase the Speed Record, but in 1936 he blistered the new concrete of the Frankfurt-Munich autobahn at 272.01kph, in his fully-streamlined silver projectile with only his helmet visible, giving rise to the nickname 'Henne and his Egg'.
Eric Fernihough aboard the semi-streamlined Brough Superior-JAP record breaker in 1936, at Brooklands, after his successful 163.82mph run
George Brough was many things; a showoff and blowhard, but also a truly gifted motorcycle stylist, and a keen competitor. Brough Superior remained a tiny factory, producing during its entire 20-year lifepan (around 3200 machines) less than one month's output of rival DKW. While his roadsters had become chunky Grand Tourers by the mid-30s, the fire of competition and national pride still burned in his heart, and he had been quietly working with veteran racer Eric Fernihough to build a new, supercharged and streamlined, Brough Superior-JAP record-breaker. Without the benefit of government support or a wind tunnel, their work cladding the Brough in aluminum sheet was instantly old-fashioned compared to developments in GP car racing and aircraft aerodynamics, and the machine relied more on sheer brute horsepower from the big blown V-twin engine. They must have felt like David with a slingshot against the Goliath of the huge German factories, but their effort worked in 1937, as Eric Fernihough piloted his oil-leaking beast to squeak past the BMW record by 1mph, at 273.24kph.
The spectacular Gilera Rondine, with its laid-down across-the-frame DOHC watercooled, supercharged 4-cylinder engine; the most advanced motorcycle engine in the world, which set the pattern for motorcycle engines through the present day.
Of course, while Alfa Romeo battled Auto Union's GP projectiles, Gilera had also seen the future, and purchased the plans, rights, and tooling for the remarkable water-cooled 4-cylinder DOHC supercharged CNA 'Rondine' (Swallow) in 1935, arguably the most technically advanced motorcycle engine in the world. The Rondine had its roots back in a 1923 across-the-frame 4-cylinder OHV engine from the OPRA research firm, which was slowly developed by engineer Peiro Remor into an OHC and finally DOHC engine. OPRA went bankrupt in 1929, but Remor then created the CNA research group, and the engine became DOHC. Remor moved to Gilera as part of a 'deal' with CNA in Gilera's purchase of this incredible machine and all rights to produce it. Gilera had the racing history to develop the chassis, and the resources to develop the engine of the Rondine, and by 1937, it was the fastest motorcycle in the world. Proof was provided on the Brescia-Bergamo A4 autostrada in 1937, as GP racing driver Piero Taruffi (who began his career like most Italian racing legends, on motorcycles) raised the record to 274.18kph, on a poorly-streamlined egg with handling issues. Outside of a fully-enclosed fairing, the Gilera trounced the BMW in top speed stakes, which pleased Mussolini (see photo), although the watercooled engine was still too heavy for the razor-sharp handling required of GP racing.
Mussolini inspects the Gilera Rondine DOHC 4-cylinder, watercooled racer, the fastest motorcycle in the world for a few months in 1937
While post-war Allied archivists documented Hitler's cash 'donations' to German motorcycle and car factories, I've never seen evidence of a corresponding gift from the Italian government; the Rondine was a home-grown product developed over 15 years to a remarkable state of tune, and lived on postwar as the normally carbureted Gilera 4-cylinder racers which dominated the GP World Championships of the 1950s, while BMW's problems with race handling prevented anyone but the German ex-cop, the super-tough superman Georg Meier, from winning a World Championship or an Isle of Man TT.
Benito Mussolini inspecting the Bianchi factory, from a Bianchi promotional poster (Aldo Carrer collection)
BMW answered the Italian challenge on the morning of 28 November 1937, when Ernst Henne averaged 279.5kmh with his BMW 'Egg'. Henne then retired from record breaking, and his egg-record remained unbroken until 1951.
Ernst Henne and his stunning mid-30s BMW record-breaker, after his retirement
1938 was a big year for global motorcycle racing, as Ewald Kluge won the Lightweight Isle of Man TT on his supercharged DKW two-stroke, the first time a German rider won the TT on a German machine, and resoundingly so, finishing 11 minutes ahead of his next competitor. The invasion of sophisticated Italian and German racing bikes on British soil was but a precursor to the coming years of war and misery, although most civilians still crossed their fingers that a war would not come. George Brough was the lone English factory up to the challenge presented by Gilera and BMW, and returned to Hungary in 1938 with a slightly improved Brough Superior-JAP racer, with Eric Fernihough in the saddle again. Sadly, the streamlining on the Brough presented a barn door sized target for cross-winds, and Fernihough was killed when his machine ran off the narrow road at over 250kph. The death of his friend took the wind from George Brough, and he returned to England, gradually transforming the Brough Superior works from motorcycle production to specialized machine work for the military; it was a scene echoed across the small factories which once defined the British motorcycle industry.
Eric Fernihough aboard the streamlined Brough Superior he rode in Gyon, Hungary, where he was blown off the road and killed
1939 was an even more dramatic year in racing, when Georg Meier won the 500cc Isle of Man TT on his kompressor BMW, raising the red-and-swastika flag over the very heart of British racing. The defeat of Norton and Velocette in this race was a stunning blow, and a huge propaganda coup for Germany, finally victorious in the world's toughest road race. Germany hoped such victories were a portent of greater success on the world's battlefields, and so it proved to merely a year later. Of course, certain complications like the Royal Air Force and a stubborn Russian populace halted Hitler's seemingly unstoppable expansion across the globe. The brave lives lost racing for two-wheeled glory were suddenly overshadowed by millions of deaths for national survival, as the symbolic battlefields of speed records and GP success were traded for real battlefields, and the rival countries battled it out directly, thankfully to a very different outcome.
The immortal Georg Meier aviating the BMW RS255 at the Isle of Man TT in 1939
If you happen to be in London, I recommend a visit to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, which houses one of the best painting collections in Europe. The original building was designed by William Wilkins in the 1830s, has since had many extensions added, becoming the neo-classical heap you'd expect of a big national institution of the 19th Century.
While every sign and security guard says 'No Foto', we couldn't help but document the surprising discovery of a motorcycle on the floor of the National Gallery. We are firmly in the camp of the Photo Liberation Front, a group of artist-tourists sick of being reprimanded for taking photos in museums!
We were delighted to discover on a recent visit the delightful mosaic of 'The Pleasures of Life', discovering a cartouche labelled 'Speed', which of course features a motorcycle! The entire entry and mezzanine level floors are covered in mosaic murals, but the upper right mezzanine is where you'll find the bike. The image is stylistically rooted in the late 1920s/early 1930s, and depicts a readheaded woman astride a 'flapper bracket', with a fishtail exhaust beneath her high heels. The exhaust is distinctive; a sedate production item, and not a full-house racing 'Brooklands Can', and very much in the style of a four-valve Ariel single-cylinder ca.1930, or perhaps a Rudge.
A broader shot of Boris Anrep's mosaic tile murals in the National Gallery lobby
As the mosaic covers the entire floor around the grand 1889 staircase (by Sir John Taylor), it's not easy to find an information plaque explaining them, but a quick search revealed the artist as Boris Anrep, a member of the Bloomsbury group, which included the writer Virginia Woolf, economist John Maynard Keynes, and painter Vanessa Bell. Anrep was a Russian lawyer who abandoned his practice in 1908 (age 25), to study art in Paris and Edinburgh, eventually settling on the mosaic as his chosen medium by 1917. He spent WW1 as a Russian officer in Galicia (an ethnically diverse kingdom in the Austria-Hungarian empire, now straddling Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic). In 1917 he was sent as a military attaché to London, and never returned to his homeland, probably because of the Revolution in Russia, as well as his burgeoning art career, and the commissions for mosaics which kept him busy the rest of his life.
Anrep on Oct 28 1929, working on the 'Speed' mosaic; what laborious work, and no assistants in sight! The scale of the image is clear, as is the pile of tesserae used to make the mosaic. [Getty Images]Anrep's work at the National Gallery began in 1928, the 'Labours of Life' and 'Pleasures of Life', of which the Flapper on a motorcycle is part; the mosaics took 5 years to complete. In 1952 he returned to lay the 'Modern Virtues' at the foot of the staircase, which incorporates portraits of Winston Churchill, Dame Margot Fonteyne, and Bertrand Russell...whereas the earlier mosaics included Virginia Woolf and Greta Garbo, but no attribution is given for the woman on the Ariel.
Greta Garbo as Melpomene, the Greek muse of Tragedy...
[From Iron&Air magazine. Words: Iron&Air staff. Photos: Gregory George Moore & Scott Toepfer]
Wheels & Waves California [co-produced by The Vintagent and the Southsiders MC] is a tight-knit, invite-only moto event that is a much smaller, complimentary version of the well-known annual European motorcycle show. This past August, the star-spangled version of Wheels & Waves took place over three days in the small surf town of Cayucos, California, 200 miles north of L.A. if you follow the famous Pacific Coast Highway.
Iron & Air teamed up with our friends at Converse to roll in and cover this "who's who" of two-wheeled culture. Hosted by Wheels & Waves organizer Vincent Prat and the Vintagent himself, Paul d'Orleans, the invite-only event was capped at 300 people. You know when you walk around a party, hoping to stumble into at least one person who has even a modicum of something interesting to say? Wheels & Waves California isn’t that kind of party; every person we met was interesting, accomplished, and unique.
Take, for example, Alan Stulberg, founder of Austin’s Revival Cycles. Or good ol’ Roland Sands, who needs no introduction. Or Go and Masumi Takamine, the delightful couple behind Brat Style. Adorable moto duo Shinya Kimura and Ayu Kawakita of Chabott Engineering were in attendance, too, as well as fellow Japanese builder Toshiyuki “Cheetah” Osawa. We hung out with Fred Jourden from France’s Blitz, David Borras from Spain’s notorious El Solitario, and Max Hazan, the dashingly handsome creator of rolling sculptures. We watched OG skateboarders Steve Caballero and Max Schaaf shred a mini-ramp in downtown Cayucos, sitting alongside Scotty Stopnik and his old man, Big Scott, who run SoCal’s Cycle Zombies chopper shop. We spent time on the road and hit the beach with surfer and shaper Troy Elmore, then discussed the golden era ofmotorcycle racing with Miguel Galuuzzi, design director at Piaggio’s Advanced Design Center. And when we ran out of words, we shut up, collapsed on a couch, and listened as musician Rocco DeLuca worked a slide along the strings of his steel Dobro while the documentary Sugar & Spade played through a projector.
This wasn’t some bullshit parade of old bikes puttering up California canyon roads—people rode hard. One day Roland Sands and racer-turned-entertainer, Jamie Robinson of MotoGeo, were ripping full-tilt through the hills, and the next day they were neck and neck during down-and-back sprint races at the Santa Margarita Ranch airport. People gathered at the start-finish line on the runway—some carried bougie paper parasols to help cut the oppressive 105-degree summer heat—and everyone cheered as racers warmed their tires with indulgent burnouts. Individuals who stalled at the line were lovingly harangued, and the crowd went absolutely mad the few times races ended in a photo finish. Far-flung individuals from around the world, all sweaty and smiling, bonding over an extremely eclectic mix of motorcycles.
Thanks for the memories from friends new and old. We hope our invite is in the mail for next year. Until then... Iron&Air
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
What are the most expensive motorcycles ever sold? Take a look; here are the Top 10 highest prices paid for a motorcycle, to the best of our knowledge. A few of these are private sales, and the figures are approximations based on reports from individuals close to the sale. It's wise to recall that only auction sales are verifiable, a matter of public record, and auditable! There are rumors of other private sales over $1M, of Honda RC166 racers et al, but I have no information on these: if you do, feel free to send a note! Check out our full list of the World's Most Expensive Motorcycles - the Top 100 sold at auction.
1. The 'Captain America' Chopper: ~$1.3Million (private sale, 2014)
[Profiles in History] Without a doubt, the 'Captain America' chopper from 'Easy Rider' is the most famous and recognizable motorcycle in history. Unfortunately, three of the choppers used in the film were stolen before the film was finished, including the two 'hero' bikes, and a 'Billy' stunt double. The machine pictured was the subject of intense media scrutiny in 2014, when it appeared at a Profiles in History auction, complete with an affidavit from 'Grizzly Adams' (Dan Hagerty) that it was built from the remains of the last original movie bike, from wreckage he possessed after the stunt bike was blown up in the film's climactic scene. The original stunt bike was built by Larry Marcus under the direction of Cliff 'Soney' Vaughs, with (Marcus claimed) a silver spray-painted chassis, and none of the fine details required of the 'hero' bike ridden by Peter Fonda. Dan Hagerty kept the remains of that chopper for decades, until finally building a replica of the 'hero' chopper from the parts. But there was a problem; Hagerty had previously sold another 'Captain America' chopper, and given the very same affidavit of authenticity! That machine was displayed in the Guggenheim Museum's 'Art of the Motorcycle' exhibit during its Chicago iteration. The owner of the Guggenheim machine called foul, Peter Fonda refused to certify the Profiles in History bike, a story was done in NPR about the whole mess, and although the bike was reported in the LA Times as 'sold' at auction for $1.65M, the bidder backed out, unsatisfied this was the real 'Captain America'. But, in a secret deal months later, the chopper was sold to a Billionaire memorabilia collector and philanthropist in the Seattle area, for an awful lot of money. The bike has recently been exhibited - catch it if you can!
Ivan Mauger is the widely considered the greatest Speedway racer in history, having won the Speedway Individual World Championship 6 times (and 2nd place 4 times), taken the Long Track World Champion 4 times (and twice runner-up), and the Pairs Championship once (with 5 runner-ups). On the verge of winning his 3rd World Championship title in in a row in 1970 - nicknamed the 'Triple Crown' - two American arch-fans (George Wenn and Ray Bokelman) promised that if Ivan won his third World Final at Wrocław (Poland), they would have his winning bike gold-plated. Mauger won the race, and the bike was taken to the USA to be gold-plated, and was dubbed 'Triple Crown Special'. Mauger recently sold all his motorcycles and memorabilia, and in a private sale, the Canterbury Museum in New Zealand purchased the gold-plated Speedway racer (plus assorted memorabilia) on Aug. 4, 2017 for NZ$1.8M - about $1,26o,700 on the day, making it the second most expensive motorcycle sale known to date.
3. The 1947 'Bathing Suit' Vincent: ~$1.1Million (private sale, 2011)
[Photo by Kevin Hulsey]Old racing bikes are usually like 'Caesar's Axe'; authentic certainly, but they've had their heads replaced twice, and their handles four times. The ex-John Edgar Vincent, developed by Rollie Free in 1947 in cooperation with the Vincent factory, is probably the second most famous motorcycle in the world, as the image of Free at the Bonneville salt flats, 'flat out' in his bathing suit at 150mph, is one of the most popular postcards ever reproduced! The actual machine was retained in a slightly de-tuned, road-going form by Edgar, until he had a minor crash and stopped riding it. The bike kept most of its original parts in the following 60 years, and was restored by Herb Harris back to its Bonneville configuration. It was eventually sold to a Hong Kong-based banker, who reportedly keeps the machine at his manse in Carmel Valley, CA. To his great credit, he has allowed the bike to be filmed for History Channel shows with Alan deCadanet aboard at Bonneville, and is shown at motorcycle events on occasion.
4. 1936 Crocker Big Twin Serial #1: ~$1Million
Al Crocker's V-twin was the fastest production motorcycle in the world in 1936, not that there was much production: it's estimated less than 75 were built between 1936-43. The Crocker predated the Harley-Davidson Knucklehead as the first OHV V-twin built for the street in the USA, and it was probably 20mph faster than a standard Knuck, especially if the customer ordered the full 100ci engine capacity available (they were usually 61ci - 1000cc). Al Crocker offered a money-back guarantee to any Crocker owner who was beaten by an Indian or Harley-Davidson, and there was never a need to make such a refund. Crockers have only grown in demand, with prices topping $600k in 2019. But Serial #1, the very first Crocker Big Twin, apparently sold to a California collector for a cool $1Million a few years back. I've heard the rumor from Those Who Know, and the purported owner could certainly afford that - he has quite a few Crockers in his warehouse! (Sorry - no photo available)
5. 1925 Brough Superior SS100 Serial #001: ~$950,000
[Bonhams Auctions]
The Brough Superior marque is as blue chip as motorcycles get; any example is guaranteed to be expensive, and keep its value...probably. The SS10o was George Brough's masterpiece, and one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever built. The first edition, using a JAP racing KTOR engine of 1000cc, is the most valuable of all, as it's the rarest, lightest, and most sporting of the lot; they gradually became more 'sports tourer' than outright speed demon. The final SS100s of 1935-40 were the most sedate of all, with a Matchless OHV v-twin motor not nearly as powerful as its JAP rivals, regardless it was smoother, quieter, and more reliable! The very first SS100, serial #1, was sold by private treaty for nearly a $Million, confirming its place in the pantheon.
[Bonhams Auctions]Jack Ehret's Vincent Black Lightning is the most famous of a very famous breed, the 33 Lightnings built by the Vincent factory for racing only. Many people think the 'Rollie Free' bike is a Lightning, but it was built before the factory came up with the model, so it's actually highly modified Black Shadow. This is the real deal, with solid gold competition history, including an Australian national speed record at over 141mph. A real Lightning hasn't sold at auction since 2010, so the eyes of the world were on this sale, and two determined bidders pushed the price up, and up, and up during the auction, becoming the worl'ds most expensive motorcycle ever sold at a public auction...and eventually this prize went right back to Australia!
[Mecum Auctions]The magic of Steve McQueen propelled this 1915 Cyclone engine, housed in an Indian racing chassis, to the previous top auction spot. Mecum Auctions held a special March 2015 sale at Las Vegas for the collection of legendary hoarder E.J. Cole, who had purchased the ex-McQueen Cyclone at the Imperial Palace sale of McQueen's motorcycles back in 1984. The sale of E.J.'s motorcycles was a big deal to enthusiasts of early American motorcycles, as his expansive collection had depth and breadth, and included some very special racing motorcycles, like this Cyclone. Plus, it was Steve McQueens, which adds an X factor every time.
8. 1906 H-D 'Strap-Tank' - $750,000 (Mecum Auctions, March 2015)
[Mecum Auctions]The Holy Grail of Harley-Davidsons. The 'Strap Tank' was H-D's very first model, built from 1905 to 1908, and this machine was the 37th built in 1906, and the 94th Harley-Davison ever built, including the first two prototypes of 1903. Remarkably, at over a Century old, it still retains its original factory paint and equipment, and is in remarkable condition, with all the lettering, paint, and pinstriping clearly visible. There is no more valuable Harley-Davidson to collectors, unless the Real 'first Harley', serial #001, appears from the ether. That machine was known for some time, and even offered to the factory in the 1960s, but has since disappeared, and its last known residence (in Florida) was demolished in the 199os. It's hoped the bike has survived, and is still being sought by earnest collectors. It's estimated that as few as 3 original-paint Strap Tanks exist.
9. 1939 Crocker 'Big Tank' - $704,000
[Mecum Auctions]The top-selling motorcycle at the 2019 Las Vegas vintage motorcycle auctions was a shocker - a '39 Crocker selling for twice the nearest auction price for any Crocker. Crocker prices had been hovering at the $350k range for ten years, and perhaps it was simply time for an update...but what an update! This was a spectacular machine, formerly the property of the MC Collection of Sweden, which sold in rapid bidding at the Mecum Las Vegas Sale in January 2019.
[Bonhams]AJS built some revolutionary racers in the 1930s thru '50s, before succumbing to economic downturns, and being sold by parent company AMC. In the 1930s their V-4 DOHC racer, in both air- and water-cooled forms, produced awesome power but were 100lbs heavier than their competition. The far simpler post-War E90 'Porcupine' racers were laid-down parallel twins with DOHC cylinder heads, and a modern chassis with a double-loop welded tube frame, and an all-magnesium engine. The E90 was good enough to win the inaugural 500cc World Championship in 1949, but was improved in 1952 with cylinders tilted upward at 45deg, a new/longer oil sump, a pressed-up crankshaft with one-piece connecting rods with bushings for a high-pressure oiling system. Rod Coleman was their star rider, and found the bike far faster than the Nortons, and the equal of the new World Champion Gilera 4-cylinder machines. The E95s were further improved in 1954, and made 2nd place in 2 GPs, but AJS pulled the plug on racing that year, after 4 E95 Porcupines were built. This machine hailed from Team Obsolete, and failed to sell at auction, but was later reportedly sold via private treaty to an unknown buyer.
11. The White Falcon: ~$675,000 (gallery sale, 2013)
[Falcon Motorcycles]Falcon Motorcycles is world renowned for building the most exquisite, technically brilliant custom motorcycles in the world. Their 'White' was built by Ian Barry and his team in 2012/13, from the remains of a 1-of-10 factory racing 1967 Velocette Thruxton. In truth, they only used most of the engine and gearbox of the Velocette, building a remarkable chassis for their creation from solid chunks of aluminum and stainless steel, hand-carved into gorgeous shapes, fitted together with ingenious technical details. The 'White' was exhibited with a $750k price tag at the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, and the machine is rumored to have sold to a wealthy industrialist in the Pacific Northwest, for an undisclosed sum. Our estimate includes a typical 10% discount galleries offer to 'good customers.' Flabbergasted at this price for a custom motorcycle? See our #1!
[MidAmerica Auctions] The Cyclone was one of very few motorcycles built before WW2 using an overhead-camshaft V-twin motor. It set the racing world ablaze before WW1, being the first motorcycle to lap a track at 100mph during a race, and typically taking the fastest lap honors wherever it appeared. The design was penned by Andrew Strand, and produced by the Joerns Manufacturing Co; at its 1912 debut, it was surely the most advanced motorcycle design ever produced for sale, and the racing version was capable of 115mph, a phenomenal speed for the day. The lubrication and metallurgy before WW1 was simply not sufficient to keep the motor cool, lubricated, and intact on a long race, and Cyclones were plagued by technical problems on the popular 100- and 200-mile races at America's board tracks. The company went bust in 1917, and Cyclones were never built again, but remained fixed in the imagination of collectors as the 'ultimate' American motorcycle.
13 (tied): 1913 Cyclone Roadster: ~$500,000 (private sale - 2019)
Dug out of a Fresno home, and according to the story, in storage since the 1970s, our tied-for-13th place Cyclones were purchased as a pair in dilapidated condition, although some restoration work had been done on both. The engines were both quite worn, showing significant evidence of use (and not new repro). This rare Cyclone road model came with its original leaf-spring suspension at both the front and rear ends, which is significantly different than the totally rigid-chassis racers. With a short leading link up front, the forks are similar in principle to an Indian fork of the era, but are unique to Cyclone. The rear suspension predates Indian's introduction of a leaf-sprung rear end, although with no 'guide' at the top of the triangulated swingarm, the handling must have been interesting. When found, items like the clutch were missing from this machine, which was otherwise very complete. Both machines are in running condition now.
13 (tied): 1914 Cyclone Racer: ~$500,000 (private sale - 2019)
This 1913 7H.P. Twin Cylinder Stripped Stock model Cyclone is set up much like Jim Lattin's legendary original-paint 1915 Cyclone racer - the only one known in original paint - this machine also uses an Indian racing fork. At some point a 'patina' paint scheme was added although decades after its application it has become double-patinated with time and shop wear.
14. 1929 Brough Superior SS100: $495,000 (Bonhams auction, 2014)
[Bonhams]The 'Rolls Royce of Motorcycles' had their heyday between 1925 and 1938, when Broughs (rhymes with rough) were the fastest, most expensive, and most beautiful motorcycles in the world. Designed by George Brough, each SS100 model of from 1925-34 used a highly tuned racing JAP (Joseph A Prestwich, London) engine of 1000cc capacity, and was guaranteed to have lapped the Brooklands race bowl at 100mph. There was nothing like it on two or four wheels, except perhaps a Bentley or Bugatti. Brough Superior SS100s cost the equivalent of a decent house in Britain at the time, at £120, and still costs the equivalent of a house today! The SS100s of the 1920s are the most highly coveted by collectors, and remain generally the most expensive road-going motorcycles today, barring the odd original-paint Harley-Davidson Strap Tank!
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
Tall, independent, strong, and beautiful, Anke-Eve Goldmann has become a 21st Century icon, a leather-clad goddess on two wheels. The commotion began in 2008, when a selection of photos mysteriously appeared on the photo-sharing website Flikr, showing AEG in a skintight leather racing suit, aboard a BMW R69 in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. The photos naturally went viral - the original Internet 'who is she' meme - and were quickly reposted in other photo collections about motorcycles, women in leather, and bondage. AEG was as compelling in the 1950s as she is now, although the controversy she stirred is long forgotten - except by her. The exploitation of her image for others' fantasies isn't new either; she corresponded with French author Andre Peyre de Mandiargues in the mid-1960s, and she was surely the model for 'Rebecca' in his 1968 novel 'The Motorcycle.' What other woman, after all, was wearing one-piece leather catsuits while riding motorbikes in the mid-1960s? 'The Motorcycle' was Mandiargues' best selling book, and was soon adapted for the Marianne Faithful movie 'Girl on a Motorcycle', or as the rest of the world knew it, 'Naked Under Leather'. AEG was not pleased; soon, she disappeared entirely.
A picture of innocence? Anke Eve Goldmann was a schoolteacher in 1955, pictured here with her second BMW, an R69 sports model.
By vanishing from view in the mid-1970s, after 20 years of being very much in the public eye as an internationally published journalist, Anke-Eve became a cypher, because a beguiling woman riding a motorcycle in the 1950s remains extraordinary. Her real life story was almost forgotten, as those who knew her best have mostly died, and AEG herself, born in 1929, is not long for this world (if indeed she's still alive). The chance to interview her directly has passed. But...The Vintagent corresponded with and eventually interviewed her ex-husband Hans in 2012, after Anke-Eve, through her daughter, made it clear she wanted no part of a biography. She was too upset that the Internet had exploited her image for 'pornography', as she put it. Then again, even Hans admitted,
"She was devastating on a motorcycle."
Anke Eve's ten years of writing for motorcycle magazines has survived. The Vintagent has already republished her article on the women's motorcycle racing series in the Soviet Union, originally published in Cycle World in 1962 ['Soviet Racing Women']. She wrote regularly for Moto Nytt in Sweden, Motorrad in Germany, Moto Revue in France, Motociclismo in Spain, Auto-Moto in Hungary, and even Japanese magazines. She corresponded with women riders everywhere, and was instrumental in founding WIMA (the Women's International Motorcyclist Association) in Europe, and was their press officer for many years. She wasn't anonymous, just the opposite; she was a famous figure in her day, although as a woman she faced considerable opposition - first at home, then in the German motorcycle community, then with racing organizations, and ultimately with patriarchy, which constrained her activities while exploiting her image.
In action at a Women's race in the UK aboard her R69, c.1960
To clarify a few questions usually asked about her: she wasn't Jewish, despite the Goldmann name. She was born in Berlin in 1929, and after the war took a job teaching German at a US Air Force school near Dortmund, where her family had moved when Berlin became uninhabitable. She spoke good English, with an American accent. She first started riding motorcycles in 1953, on a BMW R67/3, trading it in on what is believed to be the second production BMW R69 built, in 1955. This period saw her full commitment to motorcycling; racing in the UK, organizing WIMA Europe, gaining recognition from BMW as a brand ambassador, writing articles for magazines, and working with German riding gear manufacturer Harro to build riding suits to her design. Her distinctive racing suit used a diagonal zipper across the chest for easy entry, and was form-fitting for style and wind resistance. Harro presumably also built her heavy winter riding gear, kidney belts, and other accessories she's photographed with...also presumably these were one-offs, as no other women wore such gear in the 1950s, and very few people rode their motorcycles in the snow! She was an avid fan of the mid-winter Elephant Rally in Germany.
Trackside at the Nurburgring in the late 1950s, Anke Eve is clearly the object of admiration
It was the end of an era for AEG when BMW introduced the R75/5 in 1970. She bought an early example, but thought it ugly, calling it a 'Hyena'. She felt it was no competition for other sporting motorcycles on the market, like the Honda CB750 and Norton Commando, and so she looked elsewhere - to Italy, actually. In late 1970, at age 40, she purchased an MV Agusta 750 Sport, perhaps the only woman to buy such a machine new. She loved the handling, and the power, and the noise, and the looks. In 1973 she commissioned a fully race-tuned MV 750 Super Sports with an overbored engine, larger carbs, and open megaphones, that produced over 100hp. It was the first motorcycle in Germany road-registered with magnesium wheels and triple disc brakes; it was an awesome machine, utterly gorgeous, and one of the finest cafe racers ever built. Hans laments she never raced the hot MV, because
"a motivated Anke-Eve riding the MV Agusta on a race track would have been a tremendous experience"
After a dear friend was killed on his MV Agusta in the mid-1970s, AEG gave up motorcycling. She traveled considerably, in Asia especially, and usually solo. Over time, her story was forgotten, until an image-hungry Internet raised her profile again, and The Vintagent ferreted out her identity and her story, which will be told in full when the stars align. She was a pioneer of women in love with speed, and a feminist hero, working for the recognition of women in her chosen domain of motorcycling. In her youth she facing jeers for her riding and racing, was called horrible names by the public and kicked out of her home, but carried on regardless, ultimately changing how people think about women on wheels.
Anke Eve with her second MV Agusta, a specially tuned 750SS wiith over 100hp, making it one of the fastest motorcycles in the world in 1973. She was a devastatingly fast rider
Roberto Sigrand in 1929, with his Zenith 'Championship' Model with JAP KTOR 1000cc racing motor. Strictly a track machine, its construction supervised by Freddie Barnes. It's estimated only 6 were built.
Sometime after 1930, Roberto Sigrand's Zenith-J.A.P. KTOR became the subject of extensive modification, in a quest for a World Speed Record. The top photograph, taken either at a trade show or in Sigrand's factory (Aros Kim), shows the Zenith atop a display of the Kim factory products; cylinder liners, piston rings, etc - replacement parts for the motor trade.
Aros Kim, the piston ring manufactory of Roberto Sigrand, just outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. Super Kim sits proudly on display in 1931
The display states the machine is the holder of the South American speed record from 1930, that Roberto Sigrand was the 'pilot', and that the motorcycle was modified later mechanically 'entirely in their works', which included the addition of a compressor and twin magnetos. The text is obscured, but it seems to claim that in this new configuration, 'Super Kim' should be capable of 250kmh. This figure for 'Super Kim' is optimistic, but not outrageous, as in 1937, Eric Fernihough took another J.A.P.-engined motorcycle ( a Brough Superior) to 273.44km/h (169.68mph).
A closer view of Super Kim on display in the factory, showing the bike in exactly the configuration it was sold in 2000
On inspection of this machine in 2001, the bores, cylinder head and valves were entirely clean and appeared new. There was never a claim that Super Kim, in this guise, made a full speed run - I'll have to press the family for more details. It is possible that the machine was never used in anger in this guise. Certainly, it came to me identical in detail to the machine as in this photo, as if it had been stored for a long time (70 years).
1925 Zenith catalog for their 'Championship' model...the stuff dreams are made of. Approximately 6 were built; Super Kim took the South American speed record solo and sidecar in 1929, while another Zenith took the World Land Speed Record in From Cork, Ireland in 1930, with Joe Wright aboard.
Some details; two lightened 'baskets' on the crankcase and clutch are milled steel, and support outrigger bearings for extra-long shafts on the crank and gearbox, necessary for the dual runs of duplex chain on the primary side. One chain went to the gearbox, which sits high under the seat, the second chain runs parallel and drives the supercharger, which sits below the gearbox. The frame is unmolested - Sigrand found a method of installing the blower which didn't require major modifications. The inlet tract emerges at the bottom of the machine, and branches to each side of the rear wheel, where a pair of twin-float Amac TT carbs feed the blower. The inlet manifold is an aircraft-style finned tube and incorporates a blow-off valve for excess pressure. I didn't measure the capacity of this tube, but for proper supercharger balancing, it must be equal in capacity to the engine size (1.1 liter). The supercharger also must be the same capacity as the engine, and this 'Garrett' blower looks identical to those used on MG 'K' cars, which have 1100cc engines - a likely source for this item.
The incredible steel basketry on Super Kim's primary drive, with an extra-long mainshaft needed to drive two primary chains (for gearbox and supercharger), and outrigger bearings at the outside of the baskets.
Sparks were provided by TWO twin-spark Bosch magnetos, firing two different sets of plugs; a pair of 14mm plugs (Bosch ceramic, in black) on the timing side, and a pair of 18mm plugs (Bosch again, but with translucent Mica insulators - very pretty!) on the drive side. My thought was that these mags weren't run simultaneously; that one set of plugs were 'soft' and one 'hard', for warming up and open throttle work - one could switch from one magneto to the other with a kill switch. It would be extremely difficult to 'time' the two magnetos to fire at exactly the same moment, if they were indeed run together.
The heavily drilled, finned, extra-large diameter rear brake on Super Kim
The gearbox is a 'Super Heavyweight Special Brough' item from Sturmey-Archer, one of six made for ultra-high-speed work (and meant for GB; I'm curious where Sigrand sourced this one!). Gear changing was accomplished with the rider's knee; a Norton 'dolls' head' positive-stop shifter has been grafted on the drive side near the petrol tank - when crouched over the machine, the rider's knee fits between the tank and the lever. Thus, upshifting is accomplished by nudging the lever outwards. The rear brake looks to have been milled from solid, and is a 10" finned item with skeletal drum, heavily drilled for lightness, but clearly meant to work. The 'seat' is a simple steel sheetmetal plank, completely unsprung and unpadded. The footpegs are very near the rear axle, making for a loong rider's layout. My intention was to rehabilitate the motorcycle without 'restoring' it, and take it to Bonneville for a flat-out run. Perhaps someday it will be resuscitated...
Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood, perhaps the most famous motorcycle racer of all time, competed only once in Canada, in 1967. But was that his last appearance in the Great White North? Not according to Elizabeth McCarthy.
Canada has only ever hosted one World Championship motorcycle road race, in September 1967. The Mosport circuit was the first purpose-built race track in central Canada; a state-of-the-art layout when designed in the late 1950s; flowing and forested, 10-turns, 2½-miles in length, strategically located near the main highway connecting Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. In the early ’60s, the track held high-profile sports car races drawing big crowds, and 1967 was Canada’s Centennial year. A Centennial Commission was created to fund suitable events; the Canadian Motorcycle Association secured a grant, and petitioned the FIM to sanction a first-ever Canadian Grand Prix. With funding and a world-class track, the CMA got its Grand Prix; World Championship races in the 500, 250, and 125cc classes. The downside - it was scheduled between the last European round at Monza in early September, and the season-finale Japanese Grand Prix in mid-October.
The Mosport race program for the first Canadian motorcycle GP on September 30, 1967
Late September weather is iffy in Canada, and the ’67 GP lived down to expectations. Cold, drizzling rain threatened to turn into snow. The racers and spectators who came out for the poorly-advertised event still shiver at the memory. You may think that the 2017 MotoGP season was close-fought, but it was nothing compared to the ’67 title chase. The Japanese GP at Fuji did not include a 500cc race, so the premier-class championship was actually decided in Canada. According to the rules, racers counted their best six results from the 10-race season. Giacomo Agostini (MV Agusta 4-cylinder) came to Mosport with five wins and one second place. Mike Hailwood (Honda RC181 four-cylinder) had four wins and two seconds. Agostini merely had to follow Hailwood home, and they’d be tied at 46 points apiece. The first tie-breaker was number of wins, and they’d be equal there, too, with five apiece. The next tie-breaker was second-place finishes, and Ago had one more of those, so if it all went to plan, Ago had it in the bag.
Of course, there were potential spoilers in the field. Gary Nixon planned to race, but he was recovering from injuries incurred on the AMA circuit. So, he loaned his 500cc Triumph twin to TT star Ron Grant. And, there was Mike Duff, Canada’s greatest racer and a past GP winner, but he'd been hobbled by a smashed-and-replaced hip, plus a Matchless G50 racer that wasn't as fast as either Hailwood’s four or Ago’s triple. The 500 race took place in the rain. Grant crashed out early, while Hailwood tried to lure Agostini into really racing – he let Ago lead the first several laps past the grandstand, then passed him at will on back straight. With a few laps to go, it was clear the Italian was not taking the bait. Hailwood, frustrated, cleared off and won by a yawning 38 seconds. Duff was the only other rider on the lead lap.
Agostini leading Hailwood at Mosport in 1967, riding steady to finish second and win the World Championship [Ed Cunningham photo]
The Mosport GP made a sad coda to the last GP World Championship year for the remarkable Honda RC181, and the far more remarkable Mike Hailwood. Honda exited the premier GP class for several years, and actually paid Hailwood not to race GPs in 1968. He left Mosport by helicopter, straight to the Toronto airport, where a plane was being held for his flight back to England. Monday was a bank holiday, and he’d committed to a big-money non-championship race at Brands Hatch. Thus ends the Mike-Hailwood-visits-Canada story.
But it’s funny what will show up, unprompted, in a journalist’s inbox. Years ago, I made a passing reference to Hailwood and that ’67 Grand Prix, and a stranger named Elizabeth McCarthy queried if I had any photos from the event? We exchanged emails, had long phone calls, and she sent a 20-page typed memoir of her time with 'Mike the Bike'.
Elizabeth McCarthy met Mike Hailwood in 1967, at a hotel reception early in the week before that Mosport race. She didn't recognize him, but soon got to know him, and they were inseparable for those few days. She recalled how Mike’s hands got so cold between practice sessions that he could hardly work the controls, and how she'd pull up her sweater so he could warm them on her breasts. She told how Mike often traveled with a clarinet, and how he wished he’d brought it to Canada so he could play for her.
Elizabeth 'Liz' McCarthy in 1987, on her 40th birthday, in Toronto
As a young Toronto girl, Elizabeth Smith (her maiden name), was the first female in the Canadian student chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). She’d attended the marshaling school at Mosport, and through racing acquaintances found herself at a Toronto hotel reception for racers and sponsors. As she recalled, she and Hailwood spent hours talking, and she didn't realize who he was. When he finally identified himself, he told her he planned to marry her in the next breath. This was the Swinging Sixties, and ‘marry’ might have been a figure of speech; almost every paddock photo of Hailwood or Agostini from that era includes fetching young ladies. But Elizabeth's story goes a bit deeper; she explained that two years before meeting Mike, she’d had a near-death experience, and spirits had explained her purpose on earth was not automotive engineering, but helping the poor and disenfranchised.
With a typically cynical journalist like me, stories of guiding angels don't lend credibility, but it's well known that Hailwood had been told by a psychic he wouldn't die racing, but would be killed by a lorry. Some of Elizabeth's stories were hard to swallow, like this one; "[H]e took [the RC181] out for a couple of record-smashing laps and then quickly jumped off. I jumped on, putting his goggles around my neck and his helmet on my head and his gloves on my hands. I bent forward and pointed to the front wheel pretending to convey something of importance to the two mechanics who were surreptitiously helping me hold up the bike. I wonder what Ago thought when he walked by. Mike was in the back of the Honda pits, nearly doubled over with laughter."
Rock Stars! In 1967 Mike Hailwood, Bill Ivy, and Phil Read were global sex symbols on the GP circuit
Elizabeth says she spent a week with Mike’s father, Stan Hailwood, in the Bahamas, and Stan introduced her as his son’s girlfriend / future daughter-in-law. But it was not fated to be; Elizabeth’s mother had cancer and needed her help, so she stayed in Canada. Both Elizabeth Smith and Mike Hailwood got married in 1975, but not to each other. Then Mike died in 1981...yes, in an accident with a lorry, as foretold by a psychic in South Africa. Elizabeth wrote that she learned of Mike’s death from the pastor at a spiritualist church. "At the end of the service the minister, who was a Scottish woman, began giving messages to people in the congregation. Then she came to me and said, “There is a man standing behind you who wants to be recognized. Do you know anyone who has recently passed to spirit?” “No,” I answered. She said “He is disappointed that you do not remember him. He is nice looking and I think he is probably English – does that help you?” “No” I replied. “He is holding a little girl in his arms who looks just like you – now do you know who he is?” “No, I am sorry I don't.” I answered Then she said, “He says he has three things he wants to tell you: The first is, "It was so fast he didn't feel a thing". The second is, “It was one of those damn lorries.” (Hearing that, tears flooded my eyes.) The third thing is “He loves you and will never leave you.” “Now do you know who he is?” “Yes, now I know.” I was fighting back tears." Elizabeth told me that many years after Mike’s death, a real estate agent called to ask if the house she'd just moved out of was haunted. Had she ever seen a ghost there, carrying a clarinet?
Mike Hailwood captured by Cycle World's Kevin Cameron at Mosport; Elizabeth McCarthy has just stepped out of the frame!
I've never seen a ghost, but as a motorcycle journalist and historian of our sport, I can honestly say that Elizabeth McCarthy’s story haunted me. She first sent her story years ago, and I didn’t know what to do with it. It's my job to explore long-past events, and plenty of the stories I hear are self-aggrandizing, or at least exaggerated. Even sincere recollections, after half a century, describe a mix of what actually happened and what the person believes happened. So, as a journalist I have to verify stories - "Is there anyone who can corroborate your account?" I asked Elizabeth if she had any letters or postcards from Mike, or any photos of them together. She does not. That said, I’m still ready to believe parts of her story – that she spent the better part of a week fifty years ago inseparable from Mike. And I’m certain that she has never fallen out of love with that memory, which included undoing her bra to let Mike warm up his hands that cold race day.
Michelle Duff on the same Arter-Matchless G50 she rode (as Mike Duff) in 1967, now owned by Team Obsolete [Photo by Bill Murphy/VRRA]
I’ve wanted to write about Elizabeth McCarthy for some time, but couldn’t find a point of entry. Then the VRRA announced it was going to assemble as many racers as possible from that 1967 Mosport GP. Elizabeth told me she wouldn't attend. In the end, the most famous rider to return was Phil Read, who finished second to Mike in the 250cc class both in Canada, and in the Championship that year (another class in which 1st and 2nd were tied on points!). Agostini was a no-show; he wanted too big an appearance fee. Mike Duff is now Michelle Duff, and came to ride the very same Matchless G50 – built by Tom Arter, now owned by Rob Iannucci – she rode in 1967. Michelle told me, “My biggest concern was actually getting on the bike with feet on the footrest and hands on the handlebars. But I managed for a couple of laps. Damn the bike was quick from what I remembered 50 years ago!” Of course, the real hero of that one-off GP was Mike Hailwood. And after September 30, 1967, he never made another appearance in Canada. Unless you believe in ghosts.
The extravagance in which my surplus emotion expressed itself lay on the road. So long as roads were tarred blue and straight; not hedged; and empty and dry, so long I was rich.
TE Lawrence on 'Boanerges' ca.1926, during his time in the Tank Corps as 'aircraftsman Shaw'
Nightly I’d run up from the hangar, upon the last stroke of work, spurring my tired feet to be nimble. The very movement refreshed them, after the day-long restraint of service. In five minutes my bed would be down, ready for the night: in four more I was in breeches and puttees, pulling on my gauntlets as I walked over to my bike, which lived in a garage-hut, opposite. Its tyres never wanted air, its engine had a habit of starting at second kick: a good habit, for only by frantic plunges upon the starting pedal could my puny weight force the engine over the seven atmospheres of its compression.
Boanerges’ first glad roar at being alive again nightly jarred the huts of Cadet College into life. ‘There he goes, the noisy bugger,’ someone would say enviously in every flight. It is part of an airman’s profession to be knowing with engines: and a thoroughbred engine is our undying satisfaction. The camp wore the virtue of my Brough like a flower in its cap. Tonight Tug and Dusty came to the step of our hut to see me off. ‘Running down to Smoke, perhaps?’ jeered Dusty; hitting at my regular game of London and back for tea on fine Wednesday afternoons.
Boa is a top-gear machine, as sweet in that as most single-cylinders in middle. I chug lordlily past the guard-room and through the speed limit at no more than sixteen. Round the bend, past the farm, and the way straightens. Now for it. The engine’s final development is fifty-two horse-power. A miracle that all this docile strength waits behind one tiny lever for the pleasure of my hand.
George Brough chats with Lawrence on a c.1930 Brough Superior SS100. Brough is on crutches following a accident on his motorcycle. Perhaps the only greater showman than Brough was TEL!
Another bend: and I have the honour of one of England’ straightest and fastest roads. The burble of my exhaust unwound like a long cord behind me. Soon my speed snapped it, and I heard only the cry of the wind which my battering head split and fended aside. The cry rose with my speed to a shriek: while the air’s coldness streamed like two jets of iced water into my dissolving eyes. I screwed them to slits, and focused my sight two hundred yards ahead of me on the empty mosaic of the tar’s gravelled undulations.
Like arrows the tiny flies pricked my cheeks: and sometimes a heavier body, some house-fly or beetle, would crash into face or lips like a spent bullet. A glance at the speedometer: seventy-eight. Boanerges is warming up. I pull the throttle right open, on the top of the slope, and we swoop flying across the dip, and up-down up-down the switchback beyond: the weighty machine launching itself like a projectile with a whirr of wheels into the air at the take-off of each rise, to land lurchingly with such a snatch of the driving chain as jerks my spine like a rictus.
Once we so fled across the evening light, with the yellow sun on my left, when a huge shadow roared just overhead. A Bristol Fighter, from Whitewash Villas, our neighbour aerodrome, was banking sharply round. I checked speed an instant to wave: and the slip-stream of my impetus snapped my arm and elbow astern, like a raised flail. The pilot pointed down the road towards Lincoln. I sat hard in the saddle, folded back my ears and went away after him, like a dog after a hare. Quickly we drew abreast, as the impulse of his dive to my level exhausted itself.
The Bristol fighter biplane, as mentioned in the text.
The next mile of road was rough. I braced my feet into the rests, thrust with my arms, and clenched my knees on the tank till its rubber grips goggled under my thighs. Over the first pot-hole Boanerges screamed in surprise, its mud-guard bottoming with a yawp upon the tyre. Through the plunges of the next ten seconds I clung on, wedging my gloved hand in the throttle lever so that no bump should close it and spoil our speed. Then the bicycle wrenched sideways into three long ruts: it swayed dizzily, wagging its tail for thirty awful yards. Out came the clutch, the engine raced freely: Boa checked and straightened his head with a shake, as a Brough should.
The bad ground was passed and on the new road our flight became birdlike. My head was blown out with air so that my ears had failed and we seemed to whirl soundlessly between the sun-gilt stubble fields. I dared, on a rise, to slow imperceptibly and glance sideways into the sky. There the Bif was, two hundred yards and more back. Play with the fellow? Why not? I slowed to ninety: signalled with my hand for him to overtake. Slowed ten more: sat up. Over he rattled. His passenger, a helmeted and goggled grin, hung out of the cock-pit to pass me the ‘Up yer’ Raf randy greeting.
They were hoping I was a flash in the pan, giving them best. Open went my throttle again. Boa crept level, fifty feet below: held them: sailed ahead into the clean and lonely country. An approaching car pulled nearly into its ditch at the sight of our race. The Bif was zooming among the trees and telegraph poles, with my scurrying spot only eighty yards ahead. I gained though, gained steadily: was perhaps five miles an hour the faster. Down went my left hand to give the engine two extra dollops of oil, for fear that something was running hot: but an overhead JAP twin, super-tuned like this one, would carry on to the moon and back, unfaltering.
TE Lawrence was a very famous man during and after WW1, and his friendship with George Brough is evidenced in many letters between them, and TEL's allowance of his image in Brough Superior catalogs
We drew near the settlement. A long mile before the first houses I closed down and coasted to the cross-roads by the hospital. Bif caught up, banked, climbed and turned for home, waving to me as long as he was in sight. Fourteen miles from camp, we are, here: and fifteen minutes since I left Tug and Dusty at the hut door.
I let in the clutch again, and eased Boanerges down the hill along the tram-lines through the dirty streets and up-hill to the aloof cathedral, where it stood in frigid perfection above the cowering close. No message of mercy in Lincoln. Our God is a jealous God: and man’s very best offering will fall disdainfully short of worthiness, in the sight of Saint Hugh and his angels.
Remigius, earthy old Remigius, looks with more charity on and Boanerges. I stabled the steel magnificence of strength and speed at his west door and went in: to find the organist practising something slow and rhythmical, like a multiplication table in notes on the organ. The fretted, unsatisfying and unsatisfied lace-work of choir screen and spandrels drank in the main sound. Its surplus spilled thoughtfully into my ears.
Lawrence in this years with the Tank Corps, which he joined for anonymity as an enlisted man, even though he held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Here he's wearing a tanksuit, and notably an early Omega wristwatch! Clearly not your average soldier...
By then my belly had forgotten its lunch, my eyes smarted and streamed. Out again, to sluice my head under the White Hart’s yard-pump. A cup of real chocolate and a muffin at the teashop: and Boa and I took the Newark road for the last hour of daylight. He ambles at forty-five and when roaring his utmost, surpasses the hundred. A skittish motor-bike with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals on earth, because of its logical extension of our faculties, and the hint, the provocation, to excess conferred by its honeyed untiring smoothness. Because Boa loves me, he gives me five more miles of speed than a stranger would get from him.
At Nottingham I added sausages from my wholesaler to the bacon which I’d bought at Lincoln: bacon so nicely sliced that each rasher meant a penny. The solid pannier-bags behind the saddle took all this and at my next stop a (farm) took also a felt-hammocked box of fifteen eggs. Home by Sleaford, our squalid, purse-proud, local village. Its butcher had six penn’orth of dripping ready for me. For months have I been making my evening round a marketing, twice a week, riding a hundred miles for the joy of it and picking up the best food cheapest, over half the country side."
Lawrence cut quite a dashing figure in his white Arab dress, awarded him by the Arab tribesman for his valor and success in battle.
Notes on 'The Road'
T.E. Lawrence's essay on riding his Brough Superior is among the best things written about motorcycling. Lawrence writes about 'Boanarges', his 1928 SS100, the fastest production motorcycle in the world, and a considerable extravagance for a military man, as one could buy a nice cottage with the £120 purchase price. 'The Road' is Chapter 16 in Part III of Lawrence's book 'The Mint', and was written in 1929 but only published posthumously (in 1955) as per TEL's instructions.
'The Mint' is a collection of essays penned while serving in the Royal Air Force (1923-35), and edited by his brother, Professor A.W. Lawrence, who inherited T.E.L.'s estate (and who had to sell the American rights to 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' to pay inheritance taxes in England on Lawrence's death in 1935, aged 46 (in a crash on his SS100, which has spawned several books!). Lawrence gained his 'of Arabia' during the First World War, where his adoption of Arab dress, language, and custom gained him the respect of King Faisal, and convinced British brass to give T.E.L. a free hand to conduct commando raids on Turkish positions, using Arab tribesmen as his soldiers. After his rampant successes during the War (and promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel), he returned to England and sought the anonymity of enlisted military service to escape his fame, which partly resulted from cooperation with journalist Lowell Thomas during the Arab Campaign (Thomas sent frequent, romantic/heroic stories about Lawrence to the English press, and made him a hero). 'The Mint' chronicles those years spent in the RAF.
Lawrence published two original books during his lifetime; 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' (1926) and 'Revolt in the Desert' (1927), which was an abridged version of 'Seven Pillars'. Interestingly, Lawrence refused payment for his writing, feeling that he had already been paid by the government for his service in the military, on which the books were based. 'Revolt' was a best-seller, and profits went to a fund for children of RAF officers killed in action. If you're interested in reading his work, we'd suggest 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom'; Lawrence had a natural gift for writing, and his dear friend George Bernard Shaw helped him edit the the book. It's a classic.
TE Lawrence during a portrait session c.1917. He was fully aware of the romantic impact of an English officer wearing Arab garb.
100 years ago, San Francisco was a new city. As with most cities, it was built atop older cities, and the terrific shaking and subsequent fire of 1906 was, while dramatic, merely the latest in a string of disastrous fires destroying the city, ever since the the formerSpanish Mission outpostbecame a burgeoning port servicing theGold Rush of 1849(which is when my own family arrived). The city was built not only over the ashes of its former self, but also the very ships which delivered thousands to the maw of Gold Fever. Entire crews jumped ship to try their luck at mining, and the harbor grew a forest of masts from abandoned ships, an ironic contrast to the recently deforested hills and islands around the Bay. Today, every new hi-rise downtown schedules a few months for archeologists to clear out the Clipper ship carcasses used as landfill for what was to become our downtown.
A 1915 program for the Panama Pacific International Exposition, showing the Tower of Jewels, set with 102,000 'novagems' of Czech crystal, lit by 50 arc lamps. Behind is the Rainbow Scintillator, the first use of searchlights for entertainment, as a cadre of Marines swung multi-colored lights in coordinated patterns at night. Spectacle!
The '06 Quakewas different from previous disasters, as the city had an opportunity to establish building codes for earthquake safety, and reinvent itself as it saw fit. My great-grandfather was a developer on the Van Ness corridor, the new artery from the Bay to City Hall, and built a few of the impressive reinforced-concrete auto dealerships which still stand, although few still sell cars. Our family legacy included the first Ford dealership on the west coast, a lovely 4-storey concrete building with floor-to-ceiling industrial glazing, which I longed to inhabit in my post-college days. But that's another tale.
The PPIE almost finished - note no Golden Gate Bridge - that didn't go up for another 20 years. The bottom left of the photo shows The Zone, and clearly shows the scale of the open-topped Race for Life motordrome - huge! The Tower of Jewels is at the top left...
2015 is the Centennial year for the1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), and lots of attention has been focused on the Expo in local museums and books. The enormous Exposition was built over the Harbor View neighborhood (now called the Marina), which was a squatter's tent camp on swampy marshland, just past the grazing pastures of Cow Hollow. City fathers - notably our incredibly corruptmayor 'Sunny Jim' Rolph- devised the genius plan to fortify the soil of Harbor View, and build an Expo on the site to celebrate the 1913 opening of the Panama Canal. Of course the Expo really celebrated San Francisco itself, and developers subsequently got rich on the land beneath the Expo, after it was torn down in 1916. Hence the Marina district today, which swells with a tech-yuppie influx and is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in town, regardless of its vulnerability to future earthquakes, due to its landfill foundation.
The start of it all - a postcard showing Joe Hall circulating on a 1913 Excelsior 7C-based board tracker, at the 90degree mark in the Race for Life at the 1915 PPIE
While researching an article for The Automobile magazine on two auto races at the PPIE ('Race Around the Rainbow Scintillator', which I'll publish on TheVintagent.com in December), I came across Laura Ackley's excellent book 'Jewel City', which contains a postcard of Joe Hill circulating a Wall of Death on an Excelsior racer - which was news to me! Here was photographic evidence of a a very early Wall right in my home town, in the middle of the PPIE. Time to hit the library...
The exterior of the Race for Life concession in the middle of The Zone at the PPIE - quite a thrill for $0.10. Note the plaster racers at the top of the facade, and the mural showing the cars at vertical. One of the racers stands outside. (Courtesy SF History Center, SF Public Library)
Outside the central fantasy village of the PPIE - the 'Jewel City' of travertine and sparkling lights - was a funfair called The Zone, with dozens of concessions, rides, and attractions. Within The Zone was the Race for Life, which according to fairground plans was a 40' diameter wooden 'two stage' bowl track, over which both cars and motorcycles sped. Photographs show the wooden walls banking in 4 stages, the two widest sections at 78degrees an a fully vertical 90degrees, just below the spectator railing. While the Excelsior postcard is colorized and shows little detail, a never-published photo shows an Indian racer near the top of the Wall...the photo had been mis-labeled as a 'bicycle going at 90 degrees', and hadn't yet been digitized in their archives. No wonder the image hadn't been discovered by the 'Net hounds; it pays to do a little footwork, and there are enormous photo archives at libraries and universities worldwide, waiting to be scanned.
A lovely c.1914 Indian board track racer with all chain drive, a 3-speed gearbox, and no starter pedals, here with its rider, and what looks like a 1913 Stutz 'white squadron' racer on a turntable outside the Race for Life concession.
San Francisco Public Library archives also revealed the facade of the Race for Life, and a rough scale drawing of the layout. Two postcards gave examples of the motorcycles used - an Excelsior ridden by Joe Hall, and an Indian, both ca.1914 machines, and both full-on board track racers. The cars used appear to be c.1913/14 Stutz racers, and advertisements painted around the entry claimed the vehicles hit '100mph! Time it!'...which was of course nearly impossible with a stopwatch. There's no doubt the vehicles used in the Race for Life were capable of such speeds, being 'last year's racers', even though ~30mph is enough to keep a vehicle perpendicular. Still, the thrill a genuine racing car or motorcycle speeding just beneath your feet feels like 'the ton' even today! And counts for the enduring appeal of Walls worldwide.
From the grand plan of the PPIE, giving the scale of the Race for Life within The Zone at the PPIE. The track looks to be 40' diameter, with a canvas roof in case of rain. (Courtesy SF History Center, SF Public Library)
The Wall of Death phenomenon is an outgrowth of board tracks used by bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, although it was cyclists who started canting their tracks to increasingly steep angles in the 1890s, as tracks went indoors to smaller venues, and banking was required. Truly vertical bicycle tracks appeared by around 1900 - these were no longer for competition, and were strictly fairground attractions. Fairground motordromes with cars and motorcycles appeared around 1910, and their tracks grew increasingly steep, with vehicles circulating at 60-70degree banking as a kind of miniature board track race, with coordinated tricks and choreographed 'races'. 1915 is generally cited as the origin date for a truly vertical, motorized Wall of Death,as such an attraction opened on Coney Island that year.
Likely the very same Indian racer as seen above, in circulation. A lovely shot from 1915...[San Francisco Public Library]But not much happens on Coney Island in February, in fact the boardwalk and funfair are seasonal, opening in Spring, while over in California we enjoy mild weather and year-round attractions...like the Race for Life, which opened on February 20th. It seems likely the Race for Life predates the Coney Island attraction, and the documentation I've found from PPIE archives is more extensive than any other Wall of Death evidence from the era. The Race for Life could well predate the Wall of Death, and be the true origin of today's legacy of excellent, traveling Walls, which still thrill spectators at shows around the world.
Inside the Palace of Machinery; a display of Excelsior bicycles and motorcycles...which must have had something to do with the Excelsior later seen on the Race of Life!It wasn't just what was inside the fair, but who came. This is Effie Hotchkiss and her mother Avis, who rode their 3-speed Harley-Davidson Model 11-F across the USA to see the PPIE, the first women to cross the country on a motorcycle.Another of the motorcycles at the PPIE - a rare Dayton sidecar outfit.The PPIE from the other direction, showing the color-coordinated exteriors of the buildings, a pink faux travertine made of a new plaster/marble mix. Bernard Maybecks' Palace of Fine Arts is at right, and the only building still standing from the PPIE.
It might be the most famous motorcycle photograph ever; Rollie Free stretched out over his factory-tuned Vincent Black Shadow at on the Bonneville Salt Flats, clad only in a bathing suit and tennis shoes, squeezing an extra 1mph out of his machine to record 150mph. The situation pictured is outrageous, incredibly dangerous, and impossible to repeat today. It was a time when a man might struggle with the forces of Nature and Time utterly naked, and achieve eternal glory. It was also not long after WW2, when hundreds of thousands died horribly; the antics of a veteran speedman giving 110% to reach his goal probably seemed sensible, when the notion of personal sacrifice in the name of a cause still hung in the air. Today, it's the 'suits' who control the game; the lawyers, insurance adjusters, and bureaucrats, who seek to deny the darkness in our hearts, the crazy erotism of speed, and the invigorating vitality of a little chaos now and then.
The infamous 'bathing suit' photo of Rollie Free doing 150mph on a Vincent Black Shadow in 1948. He claimed stripping to his trunks gave him 2.3mph, enough to reach the magic 150. [Rollie Free collection]That's the poetry of the epic 'bathing suit' photo, but there was a man aboard that Vincent, who had a very long relationship with motorcycles, speed, and even that fully prone riding position. Jerry Hatfield delves into the heart of Rollie Free in his biography 'Flat Out! The Rollie Free Story', filling in the history and character of Free, and the buildup of life events that led to that black streak on the Bonneville salt. Rollie Free had several unique qualities; a fiercely competitive nature (considered 'borderline insane'), a burning desire for vengeance against Harley-Davidson (which reneged on a promise of factory support), and his dogged persistence, especially in the years he spent developing his engine tuning skills. Rollie Free engendered loyalty among his friends, and an incredulous admiration from his enemies. He was the perfect nut-job, just the sort of guy who would strip down to his swimming trunks to squeeze an extra mile per hour on his speed attempt, regardless of the highly abrasive salt bed just below his wheels.
Rollie Free working on the Vincent Black Shadow at Bonneville in 1948 [Rollie Free collection]'Flat Out!' is stuffed with fascinating photos from a well-documented life. That stretched-out riding pose was developed by Free in the 1920's, when he was racing Indians. When Indian no longer developed motorcycles capable of trouncing Harleys, he turned to Vincents as the next likely candidate. His goal was to beat Joe Petrali's record (on a streamlined Knucklehead - 137mph) by a sizable margin, so he began discussions with Philip Vincent on delivering a specially tuned Black Shadow which would do 150mph. Rollie Free had a benefactor, John Edgar, who was the actual owner of the motorcycle, but Free was given carte blanche to make a successful speed record. The infamous motorcycle was afterwards converted to a road machine, albeit in slightly de-tuned form, as Edgar wanted to ride 'the world's fastest standard motorcycle'. Who wouldn't?
John Edgar owned the Vincent Black Shadow which Rollie Free tuned with the help of the Vincent factory. It was essentially the prototype of the Black Lightning model, although Edgar had it de-tuned for road work after the record was taken. [William Edgar Photo, Edgar Motorsport Archive]That 1948 session on the Bonneville Salt Flats may have been Free's most famous escapade, but his decades as a racer, tuner, and dealer of Indians is every bit as compelling as a life story. The 'bathing suit' Vincent is the hook, but there's so much more in 'Flat Out!' worth reading. The Harley vs Indian story is a strong thread; Indian's successes are rarely discussed today, but Free had a lot to do with giving the Motor Co a spanking now and then. The book is packed with great photos you've never seen, and includes an interview with Rollie Free taken 2 months before he died. I first reviewed this book back in 2008, and the book is out of print now, selling for a whopping $500+ on Amazon, but let's hope a little extra attention might bring a second edition from the publisher, Herb Harris. Herb, are you listening?
Free lying prone in 1922 aboard an Indian Scout [Rollie Free collection]In 1930, Free talked his way into the Indy 500 race by loaning the motor from his family Chrysler! The Depression shrank the entry field, and race organizers refunded the $100 entry fee if the car qualified. After tuning the car motor through the night (milling the cylinder head and placing washers under the valve springs), Free qualified the car at 89.369mph, and placed 20th in a field of 38 cars, winning $370. He had zero experience racing on four wheels, but he raced at Indy again in 1947. [Rollie Free collection]A 15-year old William Edgar, son of the Vincent’s owner John Edgar, and now well-known motorsport journalist, aboard the HRD in Hollywood the day before it went to Bonneville. [John Edgar Photo, Edgar Motorsport Archive]Rollie Free as cigar-chomping engine tuner and racer at the Daytona Beach 200 mile race [Rollie Free collection]Stylish! Rollie and Margaret Free with their 1939 Indian 4-cylinder. [Rollie Free collection]<The 1947 Rosamond Dry Lake speed trials, and Fred Stammer's Royal Enfield -JAP special with Mustang tank and a special system for holding down the cylinders! [Rollie Free collection]
Rollie Free 'flat out' (although posed) in 1947, aboard a JAP 'two-of-everything' 8-50 engine slotted into a Royal Enfield Bullet rolling chassis. He rode this beast at 136.62mph at Rosamond Dry Lake, CA. The bike belonged to Fred Stammer; Free was often called upon to tune, then ride (or drive - he raced the Indy 500 three times!) a machine, as he could always extract an extra few mph. [Rollie Free collection]Rollie Free set 2 national Class C (production motorcycle) speed records at Daytona Beach on March 17, 1938, at 111.55mph on a Scout, and 109.65 mph on a Chief. [Rollie Free collection]Rollie Free in 1922 with an ACE four-cylinder machine, the fastest motorcycle in America at the time. "A prone Rollie could coax a good ACE up to 88mph." [Rollie Free collection]Free at top speed on the Vincent - stylishly irresponsible! [Rollie Free collection]Free still wearing his leathers in the 1947 record session at Bonneville...and a helmet. [Rollie Free collection]
The title page gives some idea of the epic scope of the Bonneville landscape. The salt is nearly gone today, and will likely be unrideable in the near future, so escapades like this will recede further into memory...
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
A day at the races! The inaugural Wheels&Waves California event on California's Central Coast included an open day at the Santa Maria Raceway, open to all comers under a general 'vintage' category, although there were Alta Redshift electric bikes and even a new Indian touring 'bagger' on the track at various times. It was all about fun, although it was a race, with prizes donated by event sponsor Baume&Mercier watches, to the winner of the Vintage class, and the Indian/Roland Sands 'Hooligans' race series run after the Vintage circuits.
Vincent Prat of the Southsiders MC with his 1958 Matchless G12CS, largely original barring the blue metalflake flame paint job(!) and P11 front hub. [MotoTintype.com]As Paul d'Orléans wasn't racing, he had a chance to jump in and out of his 'wet plate van'/darkroom, and shoot a few wet plate/collodion/tintype portraits during a lull in the racing. A full portfolio of MotoTintype portraits of the 'alternative' motorcycle scene can be found on MotoTintype.com.
Strange bedfellows? Not if you're Brat Style! Go and Masumi Takamine's H-D Panhead chopper and 'full patina' postwar Indian Chief. [MotoTintype.com]Bryan Thompson broad-slid his Speedway racer elegantly around the decomposed granite track. [MotoTintype.com]Jérome Allé of the Southsiders MC with the BSA A65 dirt-tracker he bought sight unseen, and worked on for hours when the shiny restoration proved to hide many cut corners! Beware the shiny ones! They haven't been sorted...[MotoTintype.com]
Cheetah from Cheetah Custom Cycles Japan with his exquisitely crafted H-D custom dirt track racer. It started with a WL motor, which was tuned and bronzy cylinder heads added, along with a totally custom chassis fabricated by Cheetah. The triple-stay rear frame was the tip that this was a very special machine, as was the Druid-style forks with hydraulic shocks! [MotoTintype.com]Brian Bent's amazing Ford kookbox carrier and all around groovy 'don't care' wagon. Brian is an event! [MotoTintype.com]
Paul d'Orléans is the founder of TheVintagent.com. He is an author, photographer, filmmaker, museum curator, event organizer, and public speaker. Check out his Author Page, Instagram, and Facebook.
A non-sale; 'Captain America' is withdrawn from my list of the World's Most Expensive Motorcycles
The auction world is abuzz over the recent 'sale' of the 'Captain America' chopper at the Profiles in History auction house last October, claimed at $1.62M, making it the most expensive motorcycle ever to sell at auction, and likely the most expensive motorcycle of all (regardless of rumors of the $1.1M sale of the ex-Rollie Free 'bathing suit' Vincent).
Another much-touted 'sale' which wasn't - Buddy Holly's Ariel Cyclone was NOT, contrary to their press releases, sold for $470k.
Weeks later, it turns out there was no sale; the anonymous 'buyer' backed out after Peter Fonda, who had previously endorsed the machine, sent Tweets the day of the auction casting doubts on the bike's authenticity. The seller, Michael Eisenberg, went to great lengths to bolster the authenticity of 'Captain America', hiring a forensic investigator and even subjecting Dan Haggerty, who restored the bike, to 3 polygraph tests (which he passed). Of course, what was certified by Haggerty as genuine would be the frame, used in the 'B' (or stunt) 'Captain America' built by Larry Marcus and Ben Hardy, as documented in my book 'The Chopper; the Real Story'. The rest of Haggerty's restoration was a reproduction of the 'A' (or hero) bike, long ago stolen and dispersed.
Another non-auction sale; this Winchester was claimed in the press to have sold at auction for $580k, but it wasn't.
Another significant false sale report was Buddy Holly's Ariel Cyclone, widely reported as sold for $470k, but since 're-designated' as a no-sale. Such behavior from auction houses flabberghasts me - what on earth do they think they're up to? The upshot of all this: 'Captain America' is NOT #1; it's off my list of the 'World's Most Expensive Motorcycles'. Activity like this Profiles in History sale, and earlier this year, the sham 'sale' of a 1910 Winchester at Worldwide Auctioneers, cast doubt on the reliability of auction houses and their press releases, or at least, releases from THESE auction houses. Caveat Emptor, baby.
