Today in motorcycle history, March 7, 1970

 
  

  Hollywood actor or motorcycle rider?   This weekend the answer is...motorcycle rider.  Steve McQueen competes in the Lake Elsinore Grand Prix.

  Steve McQueen competes in the 3rd Lake Elsinore Grand Prix.  In a field of nearly 500 bikes, McQueen rides his Husqvarna 405cc over the 10 mile course. 

  William F Nolan quotes Steve's account of the race in his book 'McQueen':

  "When you're runnin' with the top ten, as I was, you're really honkin' on pretty good an' what happpens is that with so many bikes choppin' up the dirt the holes in the course get worse...deeper with each lap.  I was comin' out of a wash under a bridge with this road dip ahead and I just kinda took one of those big jumps where you're sure you're gonna make it but you don't.  And I didn't.  My bike nosed into the dip, which was, like, deep - and I went ass-over the bars into the crowd.  Didn't hurt anybody but me.  My left foot was busted in six places."


  This wasn't enough to stop him however, as he got back on his Husky and finished the race, finishing in the top ten.

   The King of Cool.

Today in motorcycle history, March 6, 1900

   

  

  Builder of the first chopper, internal-combustion engine pioneer, Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler dies at 65.

  When Gottlieb Daimler joined Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz as technical director in 1872 he met up with Nikolaus Otto, inventer of the four-stroke-cycle, also known as the Otto Cycle, a system characterized by four piston strokes (intake, compression, power, and exhaust).  It was during this time he became convinced steam engines were an outmoded form of power for the future.  Wilhelm Maybach, a man who also understood the drawbacks of steam, soon joined the quest to produce and perfect the gasoline engine.

  In 1881 Daimler and Maybach set up a factory for developing light weight, high-speed internal combustion engines.  At first, the development of a reliable self-firing ignition system seemed impossible, but after many a long night an air-cooled single-cylinder engine operating at 900 rpm was developed.  This new design was 770 rpm faster than Otto’s engine.  Daimler and Maybach patented this design in 1885. 

  Daimler then built what is considered by many the first gasoline powered motorcycle.  This engine with workable controls was installed in a two-wheeled wooden frame with two outrigger wheels.  Soon they then added a king-queen seat, sissy bar and apes.  On the tank they painted the name 'Reitwagen'.


  On November 10, 1885, Daimler’s son Paul, 17, completed the first run on the motorcycle from Cannstatt to Unterturkheim and back (about eight miles).  Given the conditions of roads at the time, it could hardly have been a comfortable ride.  The only problem was that the heat of the engine set fire to the saddle.  Next stop - Sturgis.

Today in motorcycle history, March 5, 1976

  

   

  

  Steve McLaughlin wins the very first AMA Superbike Championship Series race held at Daytona International Speedway.

  

  Steve McLaughlin's #83 BMW earns a place in the motorcycle history books by winning the inaugural AMA Superbike National Championship race at Daytona.  McLaughlin won this seminal event riding a Butler & Smith BMW R90S in a photo finish over BMW teammate and eventual series champ Reg Pridmore.  The photo shows Steve won by mere inches.  Inches.

  

  As impressive as McLaughlin’s racing career was, he is even better known for being one of the true visionaries in the history of the sport.  He was a driving force behind getting the AMA to grant national championship status to Superbike racing.  McLaughlin also later became known as the father of the World Superbike Championship, which launched in 1988.

  

  Interesting motorcycle fact: Steve's father, John, also an AMA Hall of Fame member, was a leading desert racer in Southern California who came to national acclaim by winning the prestigious Catalina Grand Prix.

  Steve McLaughlin was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2004.

Today in motorcycle history, March 4, 1970

  


  

  The first Spaniard to win the 500cc World Championship Alex Criville is born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. 

  Itching to race motorcycles since the day he came out of the womb, Alex Criville falsified his age in order to start racing  in 1985, at the age of 14.  Proving to everyone he was ready, he won the Criterium Solo Moto, a national series for 75cc Honda streetbikes.

  A seeming "natural", Criville started his international career in the now-defunct 80cc World Championship on team Derbi, taking a 2nd place in his very first race in 1987.  Alex also won the 125cc World Championship in his first attempt.  

  He joined the"Sito" Pons 500cc team in 1992 and became a full factory Honda rider in 1994, as Mick Doohan's team-mate on the Repsol-backed Hondas which would become a dominate force in 500cc and MotoGP racing.

  Mick Doohan's career-ending crash in 1999 opened the door for Alex, and he took six wins, including his 100th 500cc start at beautiful Donington Park (England), clinching the World Championship. However, he finished 9th in 2000 and 8th in 2001 and was canned by Repsol Honda.  Criville planned to spend the 2002 MotoGP season with the d'Antin Yamaha team, but was forced to retire due to undetermined health problems, the main symptom being fainting spells that started during the 2000 pre-season, and had continued over the following 2 years.  Fainting spells + motorcycles = put the kickstand down .

Today in motorcycle history, March 3, 1943

  


   




  

  The Bournbrook War effort continues to step up.   From the 22nd of January to the 3rd of March production at Ariel hits 2,250.











  With the outbreak of WWII, Ariel developed the W/NG 350 (348cc) OHV single specifically for military use.   Based on the Val Page designed Red Hunter model that won the Scottish Six-Day-Trials, the W/NG went into production in 1940.




  The French military immediately placed orders for the W/NG, but the British War Office only rated it as "fair – for use only in emergency purposes".  Then following the loss of vehicles caused by the evacuation of Dunkirk in May 1940 the "emergency purposes" became necessary, and Ariel turned over as many motorcycles as possible to the war effort, including converting civilian machines – many of which still carried Ariel tank badges painted over with green or sand paint.






  Ariel models VH & VG (500cc OHV single), NH & NG (350cc OHV single), and VB (598cc single) models were put into military service, although most were used for training and Civil Defense.  The British Army, RAF, Ministry of Agriculture and Women's Land Army all used Ariel W/NG 350's






  Ariel supplied W/NG 350cc motorcycles from 1940 to 1945 which featured dual triangular tool boxes, pannier frames for bags, rear carrying racks and headlight masks.  At the time due to the shortage of rubber the handgrips were made from canvas and footrests from steel.   As the war progressed, aluminium also became scarce and pressed steel was used for the primary and timing covers.

Today in motorcycle history, February 28, 2010

  

  

  

  The 2010 Superbike World Championship season kicks off at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia.

 

  Phillip Island hosted its first Superbike World Championship (a.k.a. SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) in 1990, taking over from Sydney's Oran Park Raceway as the Australian round of the series.

  Oran Park was established by the Singer Car Club in 1962 and closed in January of 2010 when it was sold to the Government of New South Wales with the land to be used, sadly, as a housing development.  The circuit was known for where London-born, 45-time Grand Prix race winner, six-time World Champion, James "Jim" Albert Redman MBE reigned supreme.

  The season will end at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, ex-home of the Bol d'Or 24-hour motorcycle endurance race.  Magny-Cours is located in beautiful central France, about 160 miles from Paris.

Today in motorcycle history, February 26, 1970

  

  

  

  The tension between Evel Knievel and NFL pretty-boy Lance Rentzel nearly comes to a boiling point on TV's Merv Griffin Show.

  Motorcycle daredevil  Evel Knievel and Dallas Cowboy Lance Rentzel nearly go to blows over the football player's uber-hot wife, Joey Heatherton.

  Accused of  "inappropriate" gestures aimed at the football star's wife, Evel winds-up but, calm is restored when the country singer and future sausage king, Jimmy Dean ("Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette") steps between them. 

  Also appearing with Evel, Lance, Jimmy and Joey this Wednesday afternoon are the comedian Woody Allen, singer Abbe Lane and The Sunny Girls of Sweden.