Today in motorcycle history, April 11, 1980

  

  

  The Uniondale Ghost strikes again.

  

  In my painstaking efforts to keep you informed on what happened today in motorcycle history I came across this newspaper article from the "Daily Breeze" (seriously, that's the papers name) in Torrance, California, dated Friday, April 11, 1980. 

  The motorcycle ghost of the Karoo Desert has struck again. The ghost, said to be a woman who died in a motorcycle accident more than 10 years ago near Uniondale, badly frightened Andre Coetzee, 20, who was breezing along the highway on Good Friday.

 

  "I was riding near the Baramdas turnoff (the site of the fatal accident a decade ago) when I felt my hair stand on end inside my crash helmet and someone or something put its arms around my waist from behind. There was something sitting on my bike," the Skaen Coetzee said.

 

  The frightened motorcyclist said he accelerated to 80 mph to get away, but the ghost hit him three times in the helmet to get him to slow down. "The blows were vicious,' he said. When he reached 100 mph, Coetzee said, 'the apparition disappeared."  Coetzee drove to a local cafe for help.

 

  "He could hardly speak when we asked him what had happened. But gradually it dawned on us that the woman ghost had appeared once more," said Jeanetta Meyer, the cafe owner.

 

  There have been several reports in recent years of motorcyclists picking up a blonde woman hitchhiker near Uniondale, only to find that she had vanished from the back seat after a few miles.

  In case you're curious (and who isn't?), Uniondale is a small town in the Little Karoo semi-desert region of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. 

  According to the local media, in stormy weather on Easter weekend of 1968 a young engaged couple had a car accident on the Barandas-Willowmore road (N9) around 10 miles outside of town. The woman, Marie Charlotte Roux, was sleeping in the back seat of their Volkswagen Beetle when her fiancé lost control of the car. The car overturned and she was killed.

  The first reported sighting of a female hitchiking ghost occurred during the Easter weekend of 1973 and since then, on the anniversary of the accident, a butt-load of sightings have been reported. Oddly, they all involve a female hitchhiker who is given a lift and then... 

  If you're looking to buy some new music there is a song available out there called "Bloometjie Gedenk aan My (Oh, My Flower, Remember Me)" by Anton Goosen. 

 

  Hey, Rick, is it any good?  All I can say is it did make the list, "1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Die".  You listen, you decide.

Today in motorcycle history, April 9, 1989

  

     

  Homeboy Wayne Gardner wins the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.


 
  The 1989 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix was the second leg of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season and was the first ever World Championship Motorcycle Grand Prix to take place in Australia.

  With the crowd behind him Wayne Gardner (Honda) outraced American Wayne Rainey and the Frenchman, Christian Sarron, both aboard Yamaha's.

   After the race a whiney Rainey said, “Gardner ran into the back of me twice, and didn’t even notice. He was one of the sloppiest guys I ever raced – he reminded me of a bulldog on a bike. When he was on a good day, he could ride that thing right out of the saddle. He was a bit like Kevin, but more out of control. Not a thinking racer: he rode by the excitement of the crowd. If nobody was there I think he wouldn’t do much.”



    Nobody likes a crybaby.

Today in motorcycle history, April 8, 1951

     

  

  



  With a white-knuckle grip on his throttle, Great Britain's Tommy Wood wins the 1951 Spanish Grand Prix 350cc class for the second year in a row.  He earned both of those checkered flags while riding the 'Birmingham Beauty', a 1949 Velocette KTT MK8.

 

  The Spanish GP was the first round of the 1951 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.  It took place at the Montjuïc circuit located on the Montjuïc mountain in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

  Tommy Wood would shift over to Moto Guzzi to win the 1951 Isle of Man Lightweight TT.  The Isle of Man would be the last race he would ever win.

Today in motorcycle history, April 7, 1972

  


    

  

  The Yankee Motor Company holds an open house for Dick and Judy Workingmann to come and see the new Yankee Z.

  The Yankee was conceived near the Hudson River, in the gritty General Electric town of Schenectady, New York.  In the late 1960's, John Taylor’s Yankee Motor Company was importing Ossa 230cc motocross and enduro bikes.  The Daytona 200 legend Dick Mann was competing, and winning, with these in quarter-mile flat-track races.  His success on board Yankee’s imported Ossa's led to the development of a 250cc Ossa-powered “Dick Mann Replica,” or DMR, which featured a frame completely manufactured in Yankee’s Schenectady facility.  The DMR would provide the test bed for the Yankee Z.

  

  The concept for the engine had been designed by Eduardo Giró of the Ossa factory in Barcelona, Spain. The Z’s heart was the most notable of its myriad of fascinating features. The engine was essentially two Spanish Ossa 230cc two-stroke singles melded together.  By using the internals and mating them with a splined crankshaft the engine could be made to fire with both pistons together, as a large single cylinder engine would and, with a relatively easy method, be made to fire with each piston taking its turn at the top of the stroke, (as most twin-cylinder engines of the time did), turning the bike into one torquey twin with a common crank and cases. 

  Originally, it began with the 230cc. engine cylinders, pistons, and crankshafts, but by the time the motorcycles were actually produced, the Ossa became a 250cc, and therefore, the Yankee became a full-fledged 500cc twin.

  

   The Yankee was the first production motorcycle to have a rear disk brake system.  The Yankee had a 6-speed tranny with the option to lock out low gear so it would comply with the AMA racing rules of the time.  It had stainless steel handlebars and a strong, light frame which was made from chrome-moly tubing with the oval swingarm being totally new to motorcycling.  The forged aluminum fork crowns were produced by the gun-making Smith and Wesson Company of Springfield, Massachusetts.  A quick-release seat and large air filter system was a big plus for the serious dirt ridin' freaks.

  Delays in production were eventually the Yankee's downfall, as lighter, more reliable motorcycles made their way into the American market.  Sadly, by the time the first Yankees rolled off the assembly line in 1971, the weight differences were large enough to make the serious enduro rider shy from owning the Yankee.

Today in motorcycle history, April 2, 1955

  


  

  Chief Dan Mathews and his Highway Patrol are called to the Town and Country Diner to quell a gang of unruly bikers.  Gang?  Unruly?  Hmm.....

  Cafe owner Bernie Sills loathes all motorcyclists because of injuries to his wife and damages to his diner during a renegade biker attack months earlier.  When he threatens non-violent cyclists Joe Keeley and Nick West with a shotgun, he gets a well deserved punch in the face.  A frightened Mrs. Sills calls the Highway Patrol.  The responding motorcycle cop, Officer Jack Anders, is killed in an accident involving a truck while pursuing Keeley and West.  When Dan Mathews and his side-kick Officer Dorsey investigate, Sills tries to blame the bikers for Officer Anders' death.  He exaggerates their behavior in his statements, but he is careful not to mention that he had provoked them by brandishing the shotgun. 

  When Keeley and West are located, Mathews and Dorsey hear a very different story concerning the incident.  Hmm...bullshit, thinks pro-biker Chief Mathews and then he learns of the shotgun threat for the first time.  He decides to test Sills' veracity by watching from a distance while an unshaven undercover motorcycle cop wearing a black leather jacket visits the café.  Sills' sneaks outside, kicks his bike over and attempts to knock it unconscious with his shotgun, the big man that he is.  The Chief and Officer Dorsey move in for the arrest.  Sills' actions leave no doubt as to who was telling the truth, he is dragged away and sent to Alcatraz for the death of Officer Jack Anders.



  Episode is worth watching just to see a 25 year-old Clint Eastwood on a panhead bobber.

Today in motorcycle history, April 1, 1970

  

  


 

  Aviation meets bikerdom, Lawrence Shapiro begins unpacking his luggage at Santa Monica Airport.  Suitcase Cycles is finally a reality.






  Born out of the need for ground transportation after flying his lightweight aircraft to remote areas of Mexico.  Lawrence Shapiro worked day and night designing parts and assembling, breaking down and then reassembling his Honda CT90 until it fit into the luggage compartment of a small plane.

  You fly to an uncharted island and need transportation?  You forgot a toolbox and there's no Professor to assist you?  Not a problem.  No tools were required, one push on a spring-loaded button and a guide pin removal and the entire handlebar assembly is removed.  The same quick-release design was put into the rear fender, utility rack, front and rear wheels and, on the CT90, the entire front suspension, thanks to an ingenious indexed coupler put in the frame's front down tube.

  Suitcase Cycles were available as Honda CT90 and Suzuki TS-90R models.  Though customs as big as a 360cc were made.  They came complete in a wheeled loading tray that easily fit into the luggage bins on small aircraft.






  Excuse me, do need to check this or will it fit in the overhead?

Today in motorcycle history, March 31, 1973

  


  

  

  "The Queen of the Motorcycle Jumpers", Debbie Lawler, jumps her Suzuki 76 feet over a line of parked cars at the Beeline Dragway in Phoenix, Arizona.  

  Debbie Lawler, a.k.a. "The Flying Angel", was one of the most prolific female motorcycle jumpers of all-time. With her blue-and-white helmet, lucky orange bra, and pink hearts sewn all over her baby-blue leathers, she was the third most-popular motorcycle jumper of her era, following Evel Knievel and Super Joe Einhorn.  Mind you, a very small percentage of motorcycle jumpers are women, but that by no means takes anything away from Debbie's accomplishments.




  On February 3, 1974, ABC's Wide World of Sports was at the Houston Astrodome to tape the National Championship Indoor Motorcycle Race, and to also cover Debbie's jump. The 21-year-old earned her biggest exposure to date as she bettered Evel Knievel's indoor record for jump distance.  Her 101-foot leap over 16 Chevy pickups earns her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

  That was it, Debbie was a sensation.  She appeared on the TV game show "What's My Line?" and in print ads for Eagle Tires.  In response to Ideal's successful Evel Knievel toys, Kenner released the "Debbie Lawler Daredevil Jump Set," reasoning that girls would demand a line of stunt toys that they could identify with.  The Debbie doll had a big pink heart on her white helmet, with her golden plastic mane flowing out over her white jumpsuit.  Her bike was green, with shiny plastic faux-chrome machinery and another big pink heart emblazoned on the side. 

  The toy's packaging depicted a small girl at the helm of the wind-up crankcase that made little Debbie's motorcycle go.  The back of the toy's box illustrated "Wild Rider Action!", eight positions that Debbie could be mounted on the cycle.




  What more could a girl want.