Today in motorcycle history, April 11, 1955

                                    

 

  William Raymond Amm is killed during the 1955 Nations Grand Prix in Italy.

 

 

 

  Originally from Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, Ray Amm started grass-track racing near Salisbury when he was 17 years old after purchasing an 500cc AJS motorcycle.  Being a novice to both motorcycles and racing, he finished last in his first race.  So, blaming the bike, a we all do, the AJS was quickly replaced with a Triumph.  Soon he found himself finishing in the middle of the pack, then fifth, fourth, third...

 

  The purchase of a brand new Norton motorcycle allowed Amm to enter the prestigious 1949 Port Elizabeth 200 Motor-Cycle Race in South Africa and despite breaking the lap-record he finished in 17th place when the clutch started to slip.   Refusing to call it quits he entered the 1950 Port Elizabeth 200.   Ray finished in 1st place for the 500cc race and set a new lap record of 95.86 mph.  Another win followed in the 500cc class for the 1951 Port Elizabeth 2000 Race despite suffering carburation problems.  After these successes the Salisbury Motor-Cycle Club helped with his passage to compete in Europe.

 

 

  Amm finally moved from the works Norton motorcycles to the factory MV Agusta racing team.  His debut race for MV Agusta was to be the 1955 Easter Monday race meeting at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.  Riding a 350cc four-cylinder MV Agusta in the Coppa d'Oro Shell Race, Amm lost control at the Rivazza Corner as he pursued Australian Ken Kavanagh and crashed in the slippery conditions. 

 

  William Raymond Amm died of his injuries on the way to hospital.  He was 27.

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 10, 1964

                                              

 

  "Little Honda" is recorded at the legendary Western Studios in Hollywood, California.

 

  Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the The Beach Boys and  released on their 1964 album All Summer Long, and also featured on their EP, Four by The Beach Boys.  It was covered by The Hondells, whose recording peaked at #9 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and later by Jan & Dean, Yo La Tengo, the Queers and the Demonics.  The song pays tribute to the small Honda and its ease of operation, specifically the Honda Super Cub.

  The Honda Super Cub, with it's four-stroke single-cylinder engine ranging in displacement from 49 to 109 cc has been in continuous manufacture since 1958. With production of the little bugger surpassing 60 million, the Super Cub is the most produced motor vehicle in history. 

  "Little Honda" peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the Beach Boys but became an international favorite, rising to #1 in Sweden and #8 in Norway in early 1965 and concurrently #44 in Germany.

  In the US charts the Beach Boys' recording was particularly popular in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Minneapolis where it climbed to #2 in each city. 

 

  The Super Cub's 1960's US advertising campaign, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda", had a lasting impact on Honda's image and on American attitudes about motorcycling, and is considered a classic case study in marketing.

 

  I remember that ad always made me want to puke.

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 9, 1928

  The first Speedway meeting in the UK to feature bikes with no brakes and broadsiding round corners on loose dirt was the third meeting held at High Beech on 9 April 1928.  

 

  Proto speedway was staged in Glasgow at the Olympic Stadium and the action-starved public was able to witness Colin Watson, Alf Medcalf and "Digger" Pugh demonstrate the art of "non-stop" Speedway racing for the first time in the UK. 

 

  The first fully professional meeting took place at Celtic Park on April 28, 1928.  On Boxing Day 1928 the first meeting in Wales was staged at Cardiff White City.

  Pints were served throughout the day in joyous celebration.

 
  

Today in motorcycle history, April 8, 1974

                            

 

                               HANGTOWN MOTOCROSS CLASSIC
                                           Rancho Cordova, Calif.

  The first Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship race was held at Hangtown on April 8, 1974, with Bill Grossi winning the 450cc class on a Honda and Marty Smith capturing the 250cc class crown also for Honda.

 

 Bill Grossi was a tire-spinnin', mud-chewin' factory rider for Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Husqvarna.

 

 "The Kid" Marty Smith also won the first ever 125cc Motocross Championship race at Hangtown.  The year that Marty achieved his first major victory in the Hangtown Motocross Classic he was still in high school.  He made history by being the youngest rider to earn an AMA Motocross Championship title.

 

 

  Hangtown enters its 45th year as a motocross national.  It is the oldest race on the schedule. 

  Seven different countries have been represented on the starting gate across both the 250 and 450 Classes.

 

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 4, 1969

The ATLANTIC MOTORCYCLE COORDINATING COUNCIL is founded in Washington, DC.

 

  The Spartan MC of Washington called together the SMCLA (Lost Angels) of Washington, Cycle MC of New York City, Vikings MC of Boston, and Second City MC of Chicago to discuss the formation of an interclub council.  These clubs met in the apartment of the president of the Lost Angels and agreed to form the council.  Letters were sent to known gay motorcycle clubs and three responded to the invitation to meet in July to write articles of agreement.  The three clubs which responded were Empire City MC of New York City, the SNC-69 Club of London, UK (formed in 1965, the oldest gay motorcycle club in Europe), and the Rocky Mountaineers MC of Denver.  The name chosen for the council was the Atlantic Mid-West Coordinating Council.

  At the August, 1969, meeting hosted by Second City MC, the Articles of Agreement were adopted, the first club to join by being voted in by the current members was Wheels MC of New York City, and a membership patch was approved.  The Articles of Agreement created four Council officers, set up the election method, set the method by which new clubs would be admitted to the Council, and created a system of event sanctions.

  By 1974 as new clubs rapidly joined, it was recognized that the Council was becoming geographically unmanageable.  Clubs from Europe to Canada to Florida to Colorado had joined.  It was decided to divide into three parts: the European Council of Motorcycle Clubs, the Mid-America Conference, and the Atlantic Motorcycle Coordinating Council.  The AMCC’s territory from which it could admit new clubs became eastern Canada and the Atlantic seaboard states from Maine to Florida.

  In 1976 all the AMCC member clubs agreed to stage a single event in honor of the Bi-centennial of the USA.  While the event was a success, the strain on interclub relationships made several clubs resign from membership in the Council.  Bitches.  However, by 1978, those clubs had rejoined as well as numerous new clubs.  

The AMCC continues to be a growing and strong group of clubs exemplifying a shared commonality of interest and geography, motorcycling, and the leather-levi lifestyle.

 

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 3, 2002

  And you thought some of the crap that comes out of the television "chopper" shows are bad...this is like what would happen if the Teutul's were left alone with a "Bedazzler"...

 

 

   From the joint press-release (so don't blame me):

 

Kawasaki NINJA® ZX-12R Motorcycle Gets Star Treatment
With SWAROVSKI Crystals

 

   Kawasaki, USA teamed up with Leeora Catalan, lead designer for the esteemed accessories and fashion house Noir by Catalan, to create a one-of-a-kind Kawasaki NINJA® ZX-12R motorcycle almost entirely encrusted with SWAROVSKI Crystals, some as small as 1/8" in diameter.

   The unique collaboration between the New York designer and Kawasaki motorcycles evolved when Noir and three other prestigious designers -- Narciso Rodriguez, Tarina Tarantino, and As FOUR -- were invited by SWAROVSKI to create their own unique trend interpretations for the new SWAROVSKI 2002 Crystal Novelties collection. Noir was assigned the theme "Extra".

   "To showcase Noir's design, we wanted the hottest, most futuristic sportbike out there," said Ms. Catalan. "We envisioned the crystal-sheathed Kawasaki NINJA ZX-12R as the ultimate interpretation of the new SWAROVSKI 2002 collection, as well as our own eclectic red-carpet design philosophy."

   The resulting NINJA ZX-12R motorcycle - hand-studded with over 50,000 transparent and colored SWAROVSKI crystals - will be the glittering focal point at a media launch event for SWAROVSKI's Spring/Summer 2002 Crystal Novelties Collection. The April 18 event, hosted by Nadia SWAROVSKI of SWAROVSKI Crystal at the Skybar in West Hollywood, includes a VIP guestlist of celebrities, fashion and general media, industry influentials, and other highly respected designers in the markets that support SWAROVSKI Crystals.
   The SWAROVSKI-covered NINJA ZX-12R sportbike was also showcased at an East Coast media event on April 3rd at the Hudson Hotel in Manhattan.'

 

   What's next?  A chinchilla Ducati?  A gold Harley with a sterling silver sidecar lined with velvet?

 

 

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 2, 1969

BSA's famous 1969 "Girly Advertising."

  To kick off the 1969 BSA advertising campaign,  USA BSA vice-president Don Brown got an agreement from AMA President Bill Berry to officiate record attempts with the Rocket 3 at Daytona International Speedway.  BSA leased the Speedway April 2-5 and hired Dick Mann, Yvone Duhamel, and Ray Hempstead to be the riders for the long-distance speed record attempts.  These attempts were being made because the BSA service manager, Herb Nease, said he thought the Rocket 3 bike could go as fast as 130 mph if it was set up carefully to exact factory specs.  That got Don's attention because he had a huge respect for Herb's opinion when it came to speed.  And, lo and behold, he was right, with a certified kick-ass lap speed of 131.790 mph for the 2.5 mile oval, set by Yvon.   Numerous other distance and speed records were also set, like 124.141 for 200 miles.  In those days nobody else was even close to those speeds until Kawasaki’s Z1 surpassed them at Daytona in 1972, but then only by a relatively small margin.  However, the Kawasaki records were approved by the FIM, which certified them as world records.  The BSA records were certified at the 1969 AMA Competition Congress as being set by standard production motorcycles.

1969 April 2-5 Daytona records; Motorcyclist June, 1969

The four bikes used to set the records were certified by the AMA as being absolutely to factory specifications, except they used K81 Dunlop tires front and rear.  The front ribbed tire that came standard would not have endured the heat of high speeds on that track in April.  Also, Brown had the standard handlebars replaced with shorter ones, and the front fender was removed because it didn’t allow enough clearance for the K81 tire.  That was it, and the project was a big success, according to the July 1969 Cycle Magazine.  It might not have saved the Rocket 3 from dying in the market, but it did cause the market to believe that the BSA version was faster than the Triumph version and, at that time, that was all that mattered.

 

 

 

Ogle Design toaster    On a side note - The square tanks?  BSA had its own designers at Umberslade but, for some unknown reason they retained Ogle Design, a design house located in Letchworth, to style the new triples.  Ogle had racked up design awards for toasters (which are now big collectors’ items in England) but what were their credentials for designing motorcycles?  Why did they get design awards for motorcycles that were generally disliked?  These are big mysteries still.