Today in motorcycle history, October 31, 1972

Frank Stankovich of Evanston, Illinois, is granted his patent for his "Motorcycle Front-End Assembly", US 3701544 A.


Chopper pilots worldwide celebrate.

  The basic jist:


  A front end suspension assembly for a motorcycle having a pair of fork tubes telescopically received in a pair of front wheel axle connected support tubes terminating at their open ends in spring collars, and a compression spring entrapped between the support tube collar and an adjustable locking collar received on the fork tubes.





  The Patent:

  "The support consists of a pair of elongated fork tubes of any desired length which extend downwardly from the motorcycle front end fork assembly, and which are telescopically received in support tubes through an open end thereof. The other end of the support tubes is attached to the axle of the front wheel. A collar is provided around the open ends of the support tubes, which collar may include a seal. A coil spring is received around the fork tube having one end bottomed against the collar of the support tube. An adjustable collar having releasable securing means such as set screws therein is also received around the fork tube and abuts the top of the compression spring. The set screws allow positioning of the adjustable collar at any point along the length of the fork tubes. Thus, the compression spring is entrapped between the adjustable collar and the support tube collar and controls telescoping of the fork tubes into the support tubes.

  It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an improved motorcycle front end support.


  It is a specific object of this invention to provide a front end motorcycle support wherein fork tubes are telescopically received in support tubes with coil springs received around the fork tubes having one end thereof abutting the support tubes and the other end thereof abutting abutment collars received around the said fork tubes, the abutment collars being positionable at any determined point along the length of the fork tubes."





 

   

  

   Any readers of Easyriders or Chopper or Custom Bike or any other non-factory motorcycle magazine is familiar with the ad for "Forking By Frank's". A custom fork building specialist since 1966.









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Today in motorcycle history, October 29, 2009

  The Cheshire (UK) based auction house, H&H Classics Limited, continues it's unrivaled ability to bring in the big bucks as a 1949 998cc Vincent Rapide sells for $39,554.00.





  Somehow H&H attracts the Whales of the motorcycle auction world.  Previously the gavel fell on a 1922 Brough Superior SS80 'old Bill' with a jaw-dropping realized price of $455, 271.00, a 1929 Brough Superior SS100 fetched $447, 142.00.

  In an April, 2013 auction a 1932 Brough Superior BS4 brought $385, 230.00 and at the same auction a 1948 Vincent Black Lightning sold for the same. 



  I once sold a pair of 1968 Amal carbs at an auction for $115.00 and I thought  that was good.



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Today in motorcycle history, October 28, 1973

  



  

  Aboard a Suzuki, Barry Sheene wins the final round of the newly formed Formula 750 European Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.  The highly touted John Cowie finishes tenth on a Gus Kuhn Norton.


  John Cowie regularly rode for Gus Kuhn from 1973 to 1977 on the green Nortons, BMWs and the Suzuki at short circuit and endurance races as well as the TT.  Realizing the Norton's were just too slow, he jumped to Peckett & McNabb (P&M) Kawasaki's.


  Later he recalled the time at Silverstone when he was racing against his hero, Mike Hailwood, on a Ducati, and Tom Herron riding a Mocheck Honda. “The top speed of Tom's and my bike proved too much for Mike's Ducati and I managed to pip Tom on the line for victory by 200th of a second. I shall never forget being on the podium with Tom Herron, who I had great respect for, and Mike Hailwood who was the best rider I have ever seen”.

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Today in motorcycle history, October 23-28, 2014

Vacation calls, see you next week.  Thanks for reading.

Today in motorcycle history, October 22, 1972

  



  

  A special one-off race at Rungis, the fruit and vegetable market district near Orly airport in Paris, is supposed to feature the cream of the crop of the 1972 Grand Prix circus.

  In 1972, Rungis was frequented by a large amount of non-shopping young men on motorcycles, scooters and anything else that moved on two wheels.  They would set up impromptu races on the weekends, often leading to fatalities, so the authorities decided to organize an official event.  However, despite the effort by the organizers, the big-bucks Grand Prix of Paris was a bust. But it was outside influences that caused its downfall.  Saturday practice was scheduled for four o'clock to six o'clock in the afternoon. The truck drivers who use the market had promised to be finished in time but at four they had only just started to leave and so practice had to be cancelled.


  It turned out to be a really crappy site. Within the market area there were drainage ditches across the circuit, let alone the slime left by all the rotten produce.


  An estimated crowd of 40,000 showed up, but more than three times that had been expected.  It rained most of the day and only five of the twenty-five qualifiers for the Formula Libre race finished, which was won by Sweden's Kent Andersson on a 350 Yamaha.


  That evening ex-125cc World Champion Dave Simmonds was killed by an explosion in fellow-racer Jack Findlay's trailer in the GP paddock.  Jack and his wife were away when his mother smelled smoke and raised the alarm.  Simmonds and Billie Nelson had doused the flames when the explosion occurred.






  The Rungis experiment was never repeated.

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Today in motorcycle history, October 21, 1958

 

  



 

  Dr. Felix Wankel secures the first licensing agreement for his Wankel Engine.

  Dr. Felix Wankel gained his first patent for this remarkable engine in 1929. His work on the motor was slow in the following two decades as he developed rotary-valve applications for piston engines. By 1957, working in conjunction with NSU, he had a fully functional rotary engine prototype, and immediately began licensing the engine. First to take up this new design was aircraft engine builder Curtiss-Wright.  Curtiss-Wright has a long and rich history with motorcycles, via founder Glenn Curtiss, ( In 1907, "Hellrider" Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136.36 miles per hour, on a 40 horsepower 269 cu in (4,410 cc) V8-powered motorcycle he designed and built). Their Wankel engines were mostly used in aircraft. 


  The first Wankel-powered bike came from IFA/MZ in 1960.  MZ took out a license from NSU in 1960, to develop Wankel engines as possible replacements for their two-stroke engines in both motorcycles and their 3-cylinder two-stroke car, the "Trabant". Within three months, a single-rotor, water-cooled 175cc engine, was installed in an IFA chassis (the 1959 'BK 351') which formerly cradled a flat-twin two-stroke engine.



  In Britain, Norton developed a Wankel rotary engine bike, based on the Sachs air-cooled rotor Wankel that powered the DKW/Hercules W-2000,  for their Commander, F1, Interpol 2 and Norton Classic.  Suzuki also made a production motorcycle powered by a Wankel engine, the RE-5, from 1974-1977.



  Felix Wankel never had a driver's license, he was extremely near-sighted, blind-as-a-bat. He was, however, the owner of an NSU Ro 80 with a Wankel engine, which was chauffeured for him.




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Today in motorcycle history, October 20, 1977

  

  

  On Thursday, October 20 at 6:42 pm, the Convair 240 carrying the band  Lynyrd Skynryrd crashes in Mississippi.

  Following another rollicking performance, this time at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina, the band boarded a chartered Convair 240 to Baton Rouge, Louisiana where they were scheduled to appear at LSU on Friday night. 

  At 6:42 PM, the pilot of Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair 240 radioed that the craft was dangerously low on fuel. They were diverted to the McComb-Pike County Airport but, less than ten minutes later, after running out of fuel the plane crashed in a densely wooded thicket in the middle of a swamp five miles northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi.  Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were killed on impact; the other band members, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, and Leslie Hawkins, tour manager Ron Eckerman, and members of their road crew suffered serious injuries.

  The often hard drinking, occasional brawling band were a favorite with biker crowds from Oakland, California to Nashua, New Hampshire, not to mention in their beloved Southland were they were everyman's brother. 

  

  Skynyrd's past and present members have owned motorcycles themselves such as Harley-Davidson's (ironhead Sportster, Shovelheads, Evo's), Honda's and a Kawasaki.

  There are two officially registered motorcycle clubs - Freebird MC and Freebyrd MC.

  I have been in bike-friendly bars in Rhode Island called "Gimme Three Steps" and another dubbed "The Breeze" whose sign has a Dave Man-esque biker on a knucklehead with the Skynyrd Confederate flag logo on the side of it's tank.  In 1992, I walked into a biker pub, "Barnstormers", in Dublin, Ireland at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday and "Gimme Back My Bullets" was cranking.  4,000 miles from Jacksonville.

  When was the last time you went to a swap meet or a bike show and didn't see a bike named "Free Bird" or hear a Skynyrd song?

   23 motorcycles in the US have license plates that read, "FREBRD".

   The new version (Johnny Van Zandt and Ricky Medlocke) played at Sturgis.  



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Today in motorcycle history, October 17, 1969

  

  

  Australian Champion and member of the Sheffield Tigers, Jim Airey graces the cover of "Speedway Star & News Magazine".

  Jim Airey would earn the nickname "King of the Royale" as he was near unbeatable on Sydney's 557 yard "Royale" Showground track.  At one point in his racing career Airey won an unimaginable 33 consecutive scratch races at the Showground.

  Jim would win the Australian Championship in 1968, '69 and '70, all held at the Sydney Showground. He would win a fourth title in 1972 at Rowley Park in Adelaide. 

  Airey rode quite successfully in Britain, riding for the Sunderland Saints for eight meetings in 1964 before moving to the Wolverhampton Wolves for the remainder of  '64 and then again '65.  After competing in Australia during the 1966 season, he returned to Wolves for '67 and '68.  He then signed with the Sheffield Tigers for 1969 and remained with the team until 1971 before retiring from the British Leagues and returning full-time to Australia.

  Jim Airey's greatest success came as a member of the Great Britain speedway team at Wrocław in Poland.  The British team featured he lone homeboy Ray Wilson,  Airey and New Zealand's Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs and Ronnie Moore easily won the 1971 Speedway World Team Cup scoring 37 points to defeat the Soviet Union on 22 and host nation Poland who finished on 19 points.


  Oh yeah, the back cover of the magazine is a picture of the Belle Vue Colts, 1969  Division II Double Winners Squad/Team.

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Today in motorcycle history, October 15, 1972

   

  

  The 1972 "6-Hour Production Motorcycle Race" promised to be the creme de la creme of them all due to all of the superbikes released in the previous 12 months; it turned it was, but not for that reason.

  Yamaha had released its super-trick TX750 and had signed a string of stars to ride the beast.  Kawasaki had upgraded the 500cc Mach Ill to 750cc and called it the Mach IV.  It was, hands down,   the fastest production bike ever released at that time. In fact for those not used to speed a diaper might have been a recommended option. Two brand new uber sexy Ducati 750's, an Interstate Norton with it's massive tank, a Triumph Trident and an MV Agusta 750 also lined up against the proven Honda 750's and 650cc Yamaha's.

  But the claimed winner came from the 500 class; Joe Eastmure on a Suzuki 315.

  Due to a lap-scoring error the circuit announcers and television commentators convinced themselves, the 12,000 spectators and one million TV viewers that Eastmure was on the same lap as Kawasaki Mach IV piloted by the team of Dave Burgess and Mike Steel.

  For the last half hour Eastmure and Steel fought out the lead and when Steel crashed with three minutes to go, Eastmure took the victory.  Half an hour later the lap sheets were checked and it was found that Steel had in fact won with 334 laps, Eastmure was third on 333 and the Ducati 750 team of Gates/Lawrence was second.

  When the post-race scrutinizing started, more interesting facts were discovered.  Eastmure’s barrels were non-standard and the horn was missing from his machine.  Much to Suzuki's chagrin, he was disqualified. The inspector's had an even greater shock when they lifted the head from the second-placed Ducati.  Larger pistons had been fitted with the capacity increased to a massive 890cc.  Arrivederci!

  Earlier in the race, the Yamaha TX75Os had made an embarrassing debut.  By twelve o’clock their three teams had all retired with mechanical woes. The TX never recovered from the publicity and faded from the showroom floor within 12 months.

  On a side note: The Kawasaki Mach IV's front disc brake decided to weld itself to the caliper costing it a certain high finish.  Before retiring it set a new lap record of 60.4 seconds.

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Today in motorcycle history, October 14, 1962

   

  



  

  One of the top privateer racers in the history of the Grand Prix circuit, Arthur Wheeler wins the 250cc class Argentine Grand Prix aboard his ever-trusty Moto Guzzi.

  Born in Epsom, Surrey, Arthur Wheeler left school at the age of fifteen to be an apprentice electrician and engineer. With his first paycheck he bought a set of leathers and an old black "pudding basin" helmet from his uncle, the Brooklands race veteran Frank Taylor.  He was initiated into Grass Track racing riding a Mark IV Velocette at pre-war venues all over the south-east of England. Then, in 1936, against his parents' strong opposition, he rode at Brooklands in a "Clubman's Day".  Although he finished third in two races, reaching speeds of 81.5 mph, his father forced him to sleep for three nights in the garden shed with his Triumph Tiger 100 as a "penance", intended to cure Arthur of his racing bug, it failed to work. 

  Arthur used his bike skills to open a small, one-man bike shop in 1937, using all the profits to enable his motorcycle racing career. With the outbreak of World War II, Wheeler's engineering skills led him to being chosen to work alongside the legendary scientist (and fellow bike nut) Sir Barnes Wallis in developing the "bouncing bomb".


  After the war, he travelled to the circuits around the British Isles and Europe the hard way, transporting himself and his bikes in a 1945 Morris van that had a top-speed of only 45 mph!

  Wheeler won the 1954 250cc class Nations Grand Prix at Monza after the dominant NSU factory racing team withdrew from the race.  He was a five-time winner of the North West 200 race in Northern Ireland and won the Leinster 200 at least twice and had a fourth place finish in the Isle of Man Lightweight TT.

  Only five months before his death at 84, Arthur Wheeler was racing Classic class motorcycles in Australia on his prized 250cc Moto Guzzi.

  Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD).  www.nabd.org.uk

Today in motorcycle history, October 13, 1968

   
  

  

  

  On what turns out to be his last jump using a T120 Triumph Bonneville, Evel Kneivel crashes in Carson City, Nevada.

  Attempting to jump ten cars at Carson-Tahoe Speedway in Carson City, Nevada, Evel catches the roof of the last car causing him to crash on to the landing ramp. The "landing" breaks both his shoulder and his hip.  


  The Carson City jump will end his long relationship with the Bonneville.  He switches to a Laverda 750cc American Eagle in  April of 1969.  Evel Kneivel will leave the Laverda (in pieces) for a Harley-Davidson XR-750 in December, 1969. 


  It's the XR-750 that he becomes associated with on everything from lunchboxes, die-cast and plastic models, bed sheets, T-shirts, jackets, yo-yo's, dolls, pinball machines, posters, sunglasses, board games, etc.



 Viva Evel Knievel!






   Today in motorcycle history proudly supports the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk