Today in motorcycle history, April 28, 2013

 



 

 CNN reports that journalist Mary Thom, a prominent feminist who was an editor of Ms. Magazine in its early years, was killed when she crashed her motorcycle in Yonkers, NY,  just north of New York City.

  Thom had just picked up her 1996 Honda Magna 750 from winter storage when she veered into traffic and was struck by a vehicle upon entering the highway.

  She helped found Ms.Magazine, the influential feminist magazine, and served as an editor there for 20 years.

  After leaving in 1992, she worked as editor in chief of the features section of the non-profit Women's Media Center, which works to raise women's visibility in the media.

  Mary Thom was 68.

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

Today in motorcycle history, April 27, 1953

 
  

  Grand Prix racer and AMA Hall of Famer Pat Hennen is born in Phoenix, Arizona.

  Pat Hennen was the first American to win a 500cc World Grand Prix road race. His victory at the 1976 Finland Grand Prix paved the way for a flood of riders from the US who would come to seriously compete in the sport. He proved that an American could win at the highest echelon of motorcycle racing in an era when few thought it could be done.  

 Hennen was battling with Kenny Roberts for the World Championship when his rapidly rising career was prematurely ended by a crash at the Isle of Man TT in 1978.

  He had just recorded the first sub-twenty minute lap in TT history when he struck a curb at 150 m.p.h. The subsequent crash caused severe head injuries from which Hennen was able to recover over time, but the lasting effects of the crash forced his retirement from racing.

  Pat Hennen was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2007.

 

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

Today in motorcycle history, April 25, 1999

 

  Aboard his RGV500 Suzuki for only the second time, Kenny Roberts Jr. wins the Japanese Grand Prix at Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan.

  In 1999, Suzuki signed Junior to their Grand Prix team. His debut with Suzuki was at the Malaysian Grand Prix where he pulled off a huge upset, defeating the reigning Champion, Honda's Michael Doohan. He went on to win the second GP race at Motegi, where he again defeated Doohan.

  Twin Ring Motegi's name comes from the facility having two circuits: a 1.5 mile oval and a 3 mile road course.




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

Today in motorcycle history, April 24, 2010

 










  The motorcycle season in Latvia officially opens with a parade that leaves unfamiliar onlookers wide-eyed and open-mouthed. An estimated 3,500 motorcycles, stretching nearly two miles, makes a circuit around and through Riga city. 

  Founding members of the Motorcycle Club Association (MCA) of Latvia: Free Hawks Latvia, Brothers of the Wind, and Hermejs Latvia lead the group. Riders on all things two-wheel, from Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki to Ural, Jawa and Riga mopeds take part in the season-opening tradition. 

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

Today in motorcycle history, April 23, 1906

 


  

   Triumph Engineering Co. Ltd. registered on April 23, 1906 with a capital of 100 pounds.

 

  The new all-British built Triumph motorcycle hits the market with it's new rocking front spring fork, redesigned frame and a new engine design which features the newly-invented Bosch-Simms high-tension magneto. Five hundred bikes are produced in 1906. Motorcycle journalist 'Ixion' tests a prototype 1907 machine but it proves flawed and the frame breaks. He later used an upgraded 1907 model to ride 1,279 miles in six days.

  53 years later Triumph will introduce one of the greatest motorcycles in the history of mankind, the T120 Bonneville.

  In a sick twist of fate, on August 23, 1983 Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Ltd. declares bankruptcy, unable to out ride their financial woes.

  Enter John Bloor...

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

Today in motorcycle history, April 22, 1957

  

  Mike Hailwood competes in his first motorcycle race at Oulton Park in Cheshire, England. He finishes 11th.

  Within a year he figures out this whole racing thing. At Snetterton on June 15, 1958 he would win all four races he entered, the 125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc, raising the lap record during every race, and was the first rider to lap this track at 90 mph. He repeated this remarkable performance at Silverstone on July 5th, winning all four classes and setting a new lap record each time.

  Did you know that Oulton Park can trace its history back to the eleventh century and is mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Aleton'.

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

Today in motorcycle history, April 21, 1932

 
    

   

       







  A pint on the Fulham Road changes Speedway racing forever.

  When JAP began it's motorcycle production for the civilian market in 1919, Herbert "Bert" Le Vack was brought in as Development Engineer/Factory Racer (DEFR) and Val Page rejoined the company as Chief Designer (CD). This led to the radical design of a double overhead camshaft (DOHC) racing engine. On October 27, 1922, Bert LeVack made history by lapping Brooklands at 100.29 mph on a 980cc JAP-powered Zenith becoming the first rider of a British machine to reach 100 mph.

  By 1924 JAP held 95 World and British Records, set up by only eleven riders which included Bert Le Vack and Teddy Prestwich, one of John’s five sons.


  Stan Greening, a longtime member of the JAP experimental department, had begged John Prestwich to take a trip down to the Fulham Road to Stamford Bridge Speedway track. Prestwich was not impressed in the least telling Greening he believed that speedway was little more than a passing fad. But Stan had faith in the sport’s long-term prospects; the factory’s involvement with speedway racing became the subject for further discussion during the 1929 Motor Cycle Show at Olympia when Bill Bragg, Captain of the Stamford Bridge Pensioners Speedway Team, stopped at the JAP booth while John Vivian Prestwich was on duty. Vivian realized that perhaps Speedway had more to offer than his father had suspected. After long arguments that sometimes lasted until morning, and with some further persuasion (ale) John Prestwich changed his mind and gave the project his blessing. Greening soon started working along the lines that Bill had indicated and in about three months an experimental engine was delivered to Bragg. By 1932 the legendary JAP Speedway engine had become a reality, at the time  it was the world’s most powerful un-supercharged engine of its size and one that would dominate Speedway tracks for the next 25 years. That year Fergus "The Flyin' Scot" Anderson picked up an engine which was guaranteed to produce 37.8 bhp at 5,750 rpm, which he installed in a Grindlay-Peerless machine. In his first lap at Brooklands on April 21, 1932 Fergus brought the virgin engine across the finish line at 98 mph and his second was 109.22 mph. Fergus would take home the One Hour Trophy when he averaged 100.52 mph.

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