Today in motorcycle history, March 4, 1953

  

  Former Grand Prix racer Reinhold Roth is born in Essen, Germany.

  Reinhold Roth won the French Grand Prix in 1987, finishing the season in second place behind fellow countryman, Anton Mang, and in 1989 Roth won the Dutch and Czechoslovakian GP's and finished second to Spain's Sito Pons for the 250cc World Championship.

  During the 1990 250cc Yugoslavian Grand Prix, a hard rain forced the race to be stopped 2 laps before the end, but the riders continued to race full throttle due to bad coordination between the marshals, with red flags that didn't appear to the leaders. Australia's Darren Milner apparently saw the red flag, but he was one lap behind the leaders. Milner began slowing his Yamaha but, Roth, still going at full speed, smashed into him resulting in a chaotic scene involving racers, emergency personnel and spectator's.

  Reinhold Roth was air-lifted to the hospital with severe head injuries. He would recover, but the injuries forced him to retire from competition.

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

Today in motorcycle history, March 3, 1972

      

  

  The "Performers Curse" at the Cow Palace begins as America's favorite daredevil, Evel Knievel, breaks his back after what appears to be clean jump of fifteen cars.

  At the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, after making a successful jump, Evel Knievel is forced into coming to a quick stop due to the short landing area. Knievel suffers a broken back and a Grade Two concussion after getting thrown off of and then run over by his Harley-Davidson XR-750 motorcycle.




  During a show by The Who on November 20, 1973, Keith Moon is rushed to the hospital after an alleged overdose of horse tranquilizers, (Moon was replaced on drums by audience member Scott Halpin).


  On New Years Eve, 1978-early morning New Years Day, 1979, after a vicious fight The Runaways performed their last concert ever before their break up in April.



  In February 1979, Neil Diamond fell on the Cow Palace stage and couldn't get himself up. Less than two days later, he underwent 14 hours of touch-and-go surgery to remove a nonmalignant tumor located dangerously close to his spine.




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

Today in motorcycle history, March 2, 1972

  

  





  On Occtober 17, 2010 Bonhams auctions a 1972 Colin Seeley-Trident 750cc race bike.  The bike sells for $18,204 ( approx £11,845). 

  Colin Seeley's lightweight, rigid chassis proved an effective means of prolonging the competitiveness of British four-stroke singles into the late 1960's, leading to requests for frames to accommodate other engines such as the twin-cylinder Norton Commando and BSA/Triumph triple.  One of the first customers for a 'multi-cylinder' chassis was Stan Shenton, head of Boyer of Bromley, one of Britain's biggest and best Triumph dealers.  Shenton requested a Seeley frame to suit a Triumph triple, which was designed and drawn by Bob Cakebread and built by Jack Wren.  Colin Seeley Racing Developments would eventually build fourteen frames for Boyer.




  Bonhams had the frame authenticated by Colin Seeley himself, it was supplied to Boyer on  March 2, 1972.  The bike's racing history was not known, other than the fact that it was loaned in to Mick Grant in 1973, who rode it at Brands Hatch and Mallory Park. 











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

Today in motorcycle history, February 27, 1929

  

  

  

  The legend that is Les Archer Jr is born in his grandfather's garage in Farnham, Surrey.

  Les Archer Jr starts his life story off, "I was born with a "Silver Spoon in my mouth". How else do you describe a kid born into a family so dedicated to our sport. My grandfather competed in motorcycle events on the actual ground where the first motocross took place in 1924. Follow this with a father who won his first race on a 250cc New Imperial at Brooklands in 1926. Little wonder that my first memories are of the roar of racing engines coupled with the smell of Castrol 'R'..."




  Les was known for competing in long distance speed trials, road racing and scrambles (motocross), riding/racing/winning in Algiers, France, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and, of course, England.



  Archer rode in the 1947 Isle of Man TT, the 1950 International Six Days Trial (ISDT) as a member of the British Army team. He competed alongside his travelling companion Eric Cheney (Aerial), who went on to become one of the top British motorcycle designers. Archer was also a member of the victorious British team at the 1953 Motocross des Nations. Winner of the 1956 F.I.M. 500cc European Motocross Championship on a highly modified Manx Norton. He would help further the development of the Manx Norton with the famed motorman, Ray Petty.

  Les Archer Jr has some of his winning motorcycles featured at The National Motorcycle Museum (Solihull, West Midlands), Sammy Millers Motorcycle Museum (New Milton, Hampshire) and the AMA Motorcycle Museum (Pickerington, Ohio USA). Plan a trip.

















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

proabd.org.uk

Today in motorcycle history, February 25, 1939

  


  

  

  Bathurst (NSW Australia) Speedway racing legend, Bluey Wilkinson poses for his first motorcycle advertisement, the German built 'Victoria'. The bike is their new lightweight, two-stroke V 99 Fix.

  Riding/racing in England for the West Ham Hammers (1929-1938), Wilkinson would win the 1937 National League Championship with them. However the pinnacle of his career was becoming Solo World Champion in 1938 at Wembley Stadium.

  Bluey's 1938 championship win was considered a real ballsy effort considering he had actually broken his left collarbone in a match for West Ham the night before the World Final. Determined not to miss the final, Bluey had the Tottenham Hotspur club doctor put his arm and shoulder in plaster. He ignored the pain he was in to win his first four rides before finishing a safe second in his fifth and last to clinch the World Championship before a crowd of 95,000.

  Shortly after winning the 1938 World Championship Wilkinson would become the first Speedway rider to appear in Madame Tussaud's London wax museum. 

  During his career, Wilkinson also rode for Australia in test matches against England and the United States. He scored a maximum 18 points in each of the five Tests against England staged in Australia in the 1937/38 season, a feat he failed to duplicate the following season by only a single point.

   He retired from riding in 1939 to become the promoter at the Sheffield Speedway. Tragically, less than a year later on July 27, 1940, Bluey Wilkinson would be killed in a road accident in the Sydney suburb of Bondi.

  Arthur George "Bluey" Wilkinson was inducted into the Australian Speedway Hall of Fame in 2008.

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

Today in motorcycle history, February 24, 1998

  


  

  Robbie Knievel jumps more than two-thirds the length of an NFL football field, breaking his own record of 230 feet by a single foot.

  Nevada Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, a neurosurgeon, headed the medical team on hand at the Tropicana Hotel for the Fox network's big two-hour television special "Daredevils Live: Shattering the Records". More than 70 stunts, most previously taped across the country, were included in the show.




  The wind was a major concern for Knievel. Butch Laswell, a friend and fellow stuntman, was killed in March 1996 when crosswinds pushed his motorcycle off course as he tried a 65-foot leap over a suspended walkway at the Oasis resort in Mesquite, Nev., 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.


  Wind had remained the stuntman's greatest fear by nightfall Monday as wicked winds whipped through the valley shortly before the sky opened and rain poured down. But by Tuesday afternoon, the wind had calmed to a breeze and the rain was gone. By sundown, the show was set to go on.


  It was Evel Knievel who fired up the crowd, traveling by wheelchair the length of the limos to a limited edition Harley-Davidson that he rode up the landing ramp to address the masses.


  "Every child watching this event should know," the crippled older daredevil began. "Neither Rob nor I believe in the words 'no fear' ... If you have no fear, you're thinking the wrong way. Have fear, and have a great life."



   "Robbie's one of the finest ever on two wheels," said stuntman Bubba Blackwell*, who showed up to support Knievel. At the time Blackwell was gearing up to jump 20 cars in Boston on a Harley-Davidson XR75, the same type bike Evel Knievel jumped 19 cars with and almost twice as heavy as what Robbie Knievel rides.

  "Awesome!" New Yorker Vincent Notarstefano ecstatically exclaimed as Knievel hit a perfect landing, easily clearing the 30 limos. "Even if there were more cars, he could have done it, no problem."



  Few left the Tropicana  as ecstatic as Tim Connick.


  The longtime resident of Las Vegas and a fellow motorcycle rider, Connick has followed the Knievels from as far back as he can remember. Tim was the first spectator to reach Robbie Knievel after the jump waving his well-worn paperback edition of "The Cycle Jumpers" detailing the careers of Evel Knievel and Gary Wells. Robbie autographed it right next to his father's signature.


  "I hung out with Matthew McConaughey tonight, he offered to buy me a beer. I've met Bon Jovi," Connick said. "None of it means as much to me as meeting Evel and Robbie."

  Bon Jovi?

  *Bubba Blackwell broke Knievel's last remaining jump record on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 by jumping 52 stacked cars on October 4, 2008. The jump took place at the Deep South Speedway located between Pensacola, Florida and Mobile, Alabama.



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

Today in motorcycle history, February 22, 1904

  


  

  One of the greatest American motorcycle racers of all time, Joseph "Smokin' Joe" Petrali is born in San Francisco.

  Joe Petrali was known as one of the last great Class A racing stars who competed in board track racing, dirt track, speed records and hillclimbs. From the mid-1920's to the mid-30's Joe Petrali won an amazing 49 AMA National Championship races, a record that stood for 55 years.





  On March 13, 1937 at Daytona Beach,  Joe rode a specially built streamlined 61" Harley-Davidson knucklehead to a new one-mile motorcycle speed record of 136.183 mph. That record would stand for 11 years until Rollie Free finally broke the mark on a Vincent at the Bonneville Salt Flats. 

  Joseph A. Petrali was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 1998.





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