Today in motorcycle history, February 12, 1945

  MV Agusta, originally Meccanica Verghera Agusta, is founded on February 12, 1945 in Cascina Costa, Italy.  Simultaneously, tears of joy swelled in the eyes of every Italian 2-wheeled racing fan.

  The company began as an off-shoot of the Agusta aviation company formed by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923.  The Count died in 1927, leaving the company in the able hands of his wife and sons, Domenico, Vincenzo, Mario and Corrado.  Count Vincenzo Agusta together with his brother Domenico formed MV Agusta (named for the hamlet, Meccanica Verghera) at the end of WW II as a means to save the jobs of employees of the Agusta firm and also to fill the post-war need for cheap, efficient transportation. 

1954 MV Agusta CSTL 175 Turismo Lusso

 

 

  Count Vincenzo and Domenico Agusta also had a burning passion for mechanical workings and for motorcycle racing.  They, too, were determined to have the best Grand Prix motorcycle racing team in the world and decided to spare no expense on their passion.

  The company began by manufacturing small-displacement, Café racer style motorcycles (mostly 125 to 175 cc) through the 1950s and 1960s.  Then in the 1960s small motorcycle sales declined, and MV started producing larger displacement cycles in more limited quantities.  A 250 cc, and later a 350 cc twin were produced, and then a 600 cc four-cylinder which eventually evolved into a 750 cc.

  MV Augusta started a domination in all every GP class in 1956.  They won the 125 cc, 250 cc and 500 cc class simultaneously in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960.  The manufacturer won 270 Grand Prix races, with legendary riders such as Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Carlo Ubbiali, Gary Hocking and John Surtees.

  Yes, I said 270 Grand Prix races. Two-hundred and seventy.

  "Racing experience at the service of mass production."

Today in motorcycle history, February 11, 1934

  John Surtees is born in Tatsfield, Surrey.

  The son of a south London motorcycle dealer.  He had his first professional outing in the sidecar of his father's Vincent, which they won. However, when race officials discovered Surtees's age, they were disqualified.  Surtees entered his first solo race at 15 in a grasstrack competition.  In 1950, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Vincent factory as an apprentice.  At 16 I washed dishes at a Ramada Inn.

  Norton race chief Joe Craig gave John Surtees his first factory sponsored ride for Norton in 1955.  He responded by finishing the year beating reigning world champion Geoff Duke at Silverstone and then at Brands Hatch.  However, with Norton in financial trouble and uncertain about their racing future, Surtees accepted an offer to race for the MV Agusta factory racing team, where he soon earned the nickname Figlio del Vento (son of the wind).

  In 1956 Surtees won the 500cc world championship, MV Agusta's first in the senior class.  In this Surtees was assisted by the FIM's (bastards) decision to ban the defending champion, Geoff Duke, for six months because of his support for a riders' strike for more starting money.  In the 1957 season, the MV Agustas were no match for the Gileras and Surtees battled to a third place finish aboard an MV Agusta 500 Quattro.

  When Gilera and Moto Guzzi pulled out of Grand Prix racing at the end of 1957, Surtees and MV Agusta went on to dominate the competition in the two larger displacement classes.  In 1958, 1959 and 1960, he won 32 out of 39 races and became the first man to win the Senior TT at the Isle of Man TT three years in succession.

   In 1996, Surtees was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.  The FIM honored him as a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2003.

  Already a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2008.

Today in motorcycle history, February 8, 1997

  Motorcycle stuntman Corey Scott dies in Miami, Florida.

 

  Scott's interest in motorcycle stunt riding began at the age of 15.  So upon high school graduation in Dacatur, Indiana, in 1987, Corey moved to Florida.

  Performing for years with the Joie Chitwood Chevy Thunder Show.  Corey specialized in wheelies, the motorcycle-car precision driving exhibition and the motorcycle-pick up jump, where he jumped a moving truck with a ramp attached to the back.  Scott performed in over 2,000 shows with the Chitwood organization.  While with Joie Chitwood, he performed stunts such as the Human Battering Ram (??), the Slide For Life, the Leap for Life, the Aerial Wing-Walk, the Roman Rider, the Motorcycle Firewall Crash and Crash Rollovers.  Corey eventually left the Chitwood organization and formed Scott's Super Stunts.

  In 1995, he took a break from stunt-riding to recuperate from a head injury, but in 1996, he went back to performing.  On February 8, 1997 at the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami, Florida, he was supposed to drive his motorcycle off a ramp and land into a net that was hoisted high into the air, a stunt he had performed successfully a number of times previously, Scott was suppose to grab the net upon hitting it, but he missed and fell 60 feet to the ground.  He was killed when he landed on his head, breaking his neck.  Corey Scott was 28 years old.

 

  I want you to think about this the next time you go off high-flying into a net somewhere.

Today in motorcycle history, February 6, 1977

 

 

  French stunt man Alain Prieur leaped over 16 buses in Monthery, France on February 6, 1977 riding a 1976 Yamaha YZ400 motocross bike.  It was declared a new distance record at 195 feet.

  At that time Bob Gill of St. Petersburg, Florida held the old record of 171 feet.  Gill established the record in 1973 in Seattle, Washington.  Gill's attempt at the 200 foot distance ended in tragedy in August of 1974 when he crashed attempting to jump the Appalachia Lake near Bruceton Mill, West Virginia.

 

  Before you get your panties in a bunch cryin', "What about Evel?!  I bet he did three times that, man!"  Evel Knievel's career best was 141 feet at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas in 1967.

Today in motorcycle history, February 5, 1965

 Svend Oluf Heiberg dies in Syracuse, New York.  Svend Heiberg was a silviculturalist, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 22, 1900.  He came to the United States in 1926, becoming a naturalized US citizen in 1934.  Heiberg received masters degrees in forestry from both the Danish Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College in Copenhagen and Yale University.

 

 On September 9, 1924, Heiberg and his friend, Aksel Svane, who would later become Governor of Greenland, ventured on an historic world-tour on Svend's 1922 Harley-Davidson JD motorcycle.  Interested in studying "the forest reserves... of the world", their route took them from Copenhagen, through Europe to Turkey, from there to Iraq, "by steamer to India", then to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China, across the United States, and back to Europe.

 

 After their arrival at the Harley-Davidson factory in Milwaukee on March 27, 1925, the two Danish grad-students tell reporters from the Milwaukee Sentinel, "Crossing the Arabian desert was a difficult job, but was accomplished with only the loss of our tent and rifle, which were stolen by brigands while we slept." said Heiberg.  "Keeping ourselves in gas was another problem, but we solved that with a supply of leather bags attached to the rear of the motorcycle." 

 Svend Oluf Heiberg was awarded the Order of Dannebrog for his contribution to the sciences.

Today in motorcycle history, February 4, 2010

Dubai Bike Week kicks off.  With 30,000 expected to show up for bikes, music, food and fun.  That's right, I said Dubai Bike Week. The following is from a flyer for the annual event...

 

The Gulf Bike Expo 2010 & Dubai Bike Week at Dubai Festival City brings us Dubai Bike Festival!    Calling all Boys, Babes and Bikes. 3 Days of pure Motorcycle culture. Bringing together all your favourite Stock Bikes, Customs, Off-Road and Biker Clubs.  Plus, clothes and accessories from all the leading manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki and Ed Hardy and many, many more.  Concert Series by LiveNation brings 6 Bands to the Piazza Stage with Nickelback & Status Quo rocking the Mainstage.     Ed Hardy?!  Status Quo?!

Today in motorcycle history, February 1, 1983

  President Ronald Reagan grants Harley-Davidson their wish.  In 1981, after years of shoulder-shrugging management and piss-poor quality control, a group of 13 investors headed by Vaughn Beals and Willie G. Davidson by the company back from AMF (we used to say it stood for A Manufacturing Forgery) for $80 million.  They petition the government for import tax relief to help them get their legs up.  In a rare act of bi-partisanship the government agrees to help. 

 

  Subject: Motorcycle Import Relief Determination

 

  "Pursuant to Section 202(b)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974 (P.L. 93 - 618, 88 Stat. 1978), I have determined the action I will take with respect to the report of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), transmitted to me on February 1, 1983, concerning the results of its investigation of a petition for import relief filed by the Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Inc., and Harley-Davidson York, Inc., producers of heavyweight motorcycles, provided for in item 692.50 of the Tariff Schedules of the United States (TSUS).

  After considering all relevant aspects of the case, including those set forth in Section 202(c) of the Trade Act of 1974, I have determined that granting import relief is consistent with our national economic interest..."

 

The Evolution models are released in 1984 (Ending production of the shovelhead. Heavy sigh.) and US bikedom is changed forever.