Today in motorcycle history, July 23, 1972

  

  


  

  Aboard the new five speed XRTT-750 Cal Rayborn II gives Harley-Davidson its final AMA Grand National road race victory at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. This would be the last ever road race won by the XR-750.

  Earlier in the spring of 1972, Cal Rayborn turned in perhaps his most famous performance. Going against the wishes of the factory, Rayborn accepted an invitation to the Transatlantic Match Races in England. With the factory refusing to back him, Cal then, out his own pocket, hired Walt Faulk, the service manager from Daytona Harley-Davidson, crated Walt's old 1970 cast iron road racer and a back up engine and off they both went to England. The entire operation was so slipshod that Cal, Walt and a fellow airline passenger had to hand carry the 200 lb back up motor aboard the plane. He had to switch engines between races and rebuild the day’s previous engine in the back of a van and do it for six races at three different tracks. While in a pub teammate and friend Don Emde drew maps of the tracks where they would racing on a cocktail napkin!

  On the outdated bike and with no experience on the tracks, Cal won three of the six races (and finished second in the other three) while British rider Ray Pickrell on a Triumph triple won the other three races (and finished second in the other three races), a dead heat! That race marked the beginning of a long friendship with the English for Rayborn and also some long sought after recognition by the rest of the motorcycling world that American riders, long thought only able to master oval dirt tracks, could be top-tier road racers.



   Tragedy struck in December of 1973, when he was killed at a club event in New Zealand when the bike he was riding seized up and threw him into a guardrail at well over 100 mph. 


  Whether over beers or in the back of a garage, whenever there’s a discussion about who's America’s best road racer of all time, Cal Rayborn’s name inevitably comes up. Rayborn won 11 AMA nationals during his relatively short seven-year professional racing career. Ten of those victories came on road racing courses, including  two Daytona 200 wins, making him easily the top American road racer of his era.

  Cal Rayborn II was inducted in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.





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Today in motorcycle history, July 22, 1999

 


    

    

 

  The motorcycle world can't help but drool as Benelli reveals the Tornado Tre 900 at the Milan Motorcycle Show. 

  After a failed attempt to revive Benelli under Giancarlo Selci in 1989, in 1995 Andrea Merloni bought the rights to the Benelli brand from Alejandro de Tomaso. Needing a relaunch model, Merloni noted the success of John Bloor in reviving Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, and so he instructed Benelli's design team to build a stylist and exclusive motorcycle around a distinctive triple-cylinder 1,000cc capacity motor.  The result was the Tornado Tre.

  Tornado Tre basic specs - 898.4cc, 140hp, four-stroke, in line three-cylinder, inclined forward 15°, incorporating an anti-vibration counterbalance shaft, fuel injection with one or two injectors for each cylinder, 11.8:1 compression, water cooled (rear mounted radiator), six speed tranny. Dry weight - 407 lbs. Max speed: self-limited. 

  Benelli Tornado Tre.  Extra napkins required.

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

Today in motorcycle history, July 21, 1947

                                            


  

  

  Life Magazine publishes the photo that starts the biker myth.

  Many more motorcyclists than expected flood the small town of Hollister, California, on the Fourth of July weekend of 1947 to watch the annual AMA Gypsy Tour rally as well as to socialize and drink. A few of the bikers got out of control and caused a ruckus in town, although when all was said and done the only real damage was reportedly to 7 motorcycles and 3 of the bikers (2 broken legs and a fractured skull).  Nearly four-thousand people attended the Rally and 47 people were arrested, most with misdemeanors such as public intoxication, reckless driving, and disturbing the peace. If my math is correct that is 1.175 percent. Riot?

  The small incident, known afterwards as the 'Hollister riot', was sensationalized by the press when two articles were published in the San Francisco Chronicle titled "Havoc in Hollister" and "Hollister's Bad Time" They reported bikers "taking over the town" and "pandemonium" in Hollister. The strongest dramatization of the event was a staged photo of a drunken man sitting on a motorcycle surrounded by beer bottles. It was published in the July 21, 1947 issue of Life magazine and it brought national attention and negative opinion to the event and bikers in general. The media and their depiction of the "riot" in Hollister helped to give rise to the outlaw biker image.

   Life Magazine was known for relying heavily on graphic images and sparse explanatory text, kind of like FOX news. The article included a nearly full-page photo but, just a 115-word insert of text at the bottom of the page and the headline, "Cyclist's Holiday: He and Friends Terrorize Town." Gus Deserpa is the man that can be seen in the background of the photograph (see top pic), he was interviewed after the Hollister riot, "I saw two guys scraping all these bottles together that had been lying in the street. Then they positioned a motorcycle in the middle of the pile. After a while this drunk guy comes staggering out of the bar, and they got him to sit on the motorcycle, and started to take his picture." The lucky man was later identified as Eddie Davenport, a member of the Tulare Riders Motorcycle Club.


  The AMA released a statement saying that they had no involvement with the Hollister riot, and, "the trouble was caused by the one percent deviant that tarnishes the public image of both motorcycles and motorcyclists" and that the other ninety-nine percent of motorcyclists are good, decent, law-abiding citizens. The AMA's statement led to the term 'One-Percenter' being proudly used to describe "outlaw" motorcycle clubs.

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

Today in motorcycle history, July 18, 1950

   

    

  One of the most recognizable faces of the Disco era, "Biker" Glenn Martin Hughes is born.  The YMCA will be changed forever. 

  Bored with his job as a toll collector at the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, Glen Hughes responds to an ad by composer Jacques Morali looking for "macho" singers and dancers. His audition is a success and being a motorcycle owner/rider he's chosen to be the "Biker" of the group, dubbed "The Village People". Glen and the other members are given a crash course in the synchronized dance choreography and then sent out on the unsuspecting public.



  Glenn's powerful bass voice, handlebar moustache and his trademark leather outfit (that he wore seemingly 24 hours a day) were regarded as keys to the Disco goldmine, as YMCA, Macho Man and In The Navy became engrained in John Q. Public's brain. Love it or hate it, you couldn't get away from it.



  Hughes became one of the icons of the disco era, his face/image appearing everywhere including a special television broadcast at the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner and in People Magazine's 1979 list of most beautiful people.



  He retired in 1996 and launched his own successful cabaret act and to keep his "Biker" image in the public's mind he was known for cruising the streets of NYC on his Custom Harley-Davidson.




  Glen Hughes died in March 4, 2001, at his Manhattan apartment from lung cancer. He was subsequently interred (wearing his Leatherman outfit) at Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.

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

Today in motorcycle history, July 17, 1983

 

  After following the lives of "Ponch" and "Jon"of the California Highway Patrol for 139 action-packed episodes CHiPs comes to an end.

  CHiPs was an ultra-lightweight action crime drama, full of over-the-top freeway pileups, lost little children, the occasional "bad guy" and enough ladies to keep the macho, rambunctious Officer Francis "Ponch" Poncherello busy week after week.

  In real-life CHP cops rarely ride in pairs, in early episodes this was explained by placing the trouble-prone Ponch on probationary status, with Jon assigned as his field training officer. Making sure Poncherello kept out of trouble and kept him and his bike "inspection-ready". 

  Public perception links the later P-Series Kawasaki Police Special with the TV show, fact is they rode the earlier C-Series Kawasaki, which had an oval windshield similar in shape to the windshields on the older Harley-Davidson Electra Glides, then the popular cop bike of choice. 

  Both C and P-Series were equipped with windshields, saddlebags, pursuit lights, folding floorboards rather than footpegs and all designed to carry radio communications equipment and were wired for electronic sirens.

  All the Kawasaki Police Special bikes had inline, four-cylinder, four-stroke, double overhead-cam engines and chain drives, and larger generating systems than similar civilian models. Police Specials were also equipped with Dunlop tires designed to stay on the rim in case of deflation. These "run-flat" tires were able to increase safety significantly by enabling the rider to safely slow to a stop if the tires are damaged in a high-speed pursuit. However, problem was the very thick sidewalls on "run-flat" tires transmitted a much greater level of road shock to the handlebars which increased rider fatigue and also generated excess friction/heat which resulted in above average tire wear, prompting police departments to switch back to standard high-performance tires. As a result, Dunlop discontinued production of the "run-flat" models.


  The C-series borrowed features from the American police bikes, including a spring-cushioned saddle and a speedometer equipped with a solenoid to trap the indicator needle against the glass when the pursuit lights were activated, to mark the speed at which an alleged speeder was traveling at the time. Both of these features were eliminated in the KZP.

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

Today in motorcycle history, July 16, 1924

  

  

  

   H-D’s first export representative to Africa, Alfred Rich Child arrives in Tokyo, Japan.

  The Koto Trading Company was a division of Sankyo, a pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Tokyo. Unbeknownst to their management, Koto had been the recipient of “bootleg” shipments of Harley-Davidsons that were supposed to be sold in Mongolia, but instead were diverted to Koto in Japan behind Harley's back. However, Koto had made a butt-load of money selling all the inventory originally intended for Mongolia. Alfred Child had an idea and immediately returned to Milwaukee with this news.

  Child returned to Japan on August 11, 1924, with an agreement between Harley-Davidson and the Koto Trading Company to establish the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Sales Company of Japan, with Alfred acting as managing director. The company set up shop with a supply of 350 motorcycles and $25,000 in spare parts. Within the next two years, Harley-Davidson sales in Japan eclipsed those of Indian. 

  Through Alfred's efforts, Rikuo (meaning "Land King"), a licensed copy of the Harley-Davidson, started production in 1929. In 1931 Dabittoson Harley Motorcycle Co., Ltd. was established in Japan. Dabittoson started domestic production of the Harley-Davidson Road King, a four-cycle, 1200 cc, side-valve flathead V-twin engine motorcycle.

  Things began to sour in 1936 when Harley was getting ready to produce their new EL (61") OHV Knucklehead design. They insisted that the Japanese factory buy the license to produce the EL as well. However Sankyo, Rikuo's parent company, was reluctant to produce the new vehicles and refused to make this commitment.

  Japan’s government would eventually strongly suggest that Harley-Davidson employees, including Child, leave the country.

  Child returned to the United States and in 1945 obtained the national distributorship rights for BSA and Sunbeam motorcycles by the Rich Child Cycle Co., Inc., which was sold to BSA Motorcycles Ltd. England in 1954.

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

Today in motorcycle history, July 15, 2010

 
  

  British Airways announces it will sponsor a 1972 Triumph X75 Hurricane for the AccessKenya Africa Concours d’Elegance.

  British Airways announce they will sponsor a "superb 1972 Triumph X75 Hurricane motorcycle" to compete in the AccessKenya Africa Concours d’Elegance to be held at the Nairobi Racecourse on September 26, 2010.

  The bike is flown in specially from London for Tony Page who will be competing in the Concours for the first time. British Airways country manager George Mawadri said, “We are delighted to be carrying this valuable motorcycle from London to enable Tony Page to make Concours history on September 26th. This will be the first opportunity for Kenyan motoring enthusiasts to see a Triumph Hurricane.”  Page was chosen to represent the Vintage Motorcycle Club of Britain and "had high hopes" of standing on the podium at the 2010 Concours.  

  His hopes were soon dashed. The judges fought over three truly works of art with the top honor finally going to an eye-watering 1915 Indian Model B owned by Philip Gordon, Place and Show went to a 1937 Moto Guzzi GTC and a 1925 DKW owned by local club Sati’s Classics. An unusual entry was a custom built 1800cc V-twin chopper "with a long and low chassis which pleased the crowd immensely". Builder/owner Andy de Mare was greeted with loud applause when it was announced that it took the top prize for 'Most Elegant Motorcycle'.


  The AccessKenya Africa Concours d’Elegance, is held annually at the Nairobi Racecourse in Kenya. This year’s event celebrated the 10th anniversary of the AccessKenya Group, the Internet Service Provider which sponsors the event, the 40th anniversary of the Alpha Romeo Owners Club (Kenya), the organizer, and the 100th birthday of legendary Italian auto manufacturer Alpha Romeo.
 

  In 2000 British Airways sponsored a 1955 BSA for Edward Pengilly, a London based enthusiast who emerged the overall winner. 



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