Today in motorcycle history, May 11, 1972

  

  

  A horse is a horse, of course, unless of course that horse is ........a Yamaha?

  Came across this bit of motorcycle history while reading The Superior Express newspaper "serving Superior, Nuckolls County, Nebraska", dated Thursday, May 11, 1972.



  "Motorcycles have replaced the faithful old horses on the Schuster farm south of Superior. Clare Schuster and his son Kenneth report that motorcycles are much more effective for rounding up cattle than horses and cycles come in handy for several other duties on the farm, as well.


  The most recent use is as portable weed sprayers.


  Clare has adopted a 20 pound Freon gas bottle and now uses it as a power sprayer. To further outfit the cycle a spade carrier has been added. The spade is used to remove nodding thistle and other noxious weeds in the pasture. They have worked cattle with 90cc Yamaha motorcycles for some years now and they are very enthusiastic about the efficiency and the bikes are never hard to catch and they never tire.


  According to Clare they have one disadvantage, they're hard to push when they run out of gas."







  The cattle were rounded up by two Yamaha 90cc bikes.




  Superior bills itself as the "Victorian Capital of Nebraska", and holds an annual Victorian Festival. The downtown area is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.








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Today in motorcycle history, May 9, 1982

  

  Jean-François Baldé wins the 350cc Class French Grand Prix.

  In his final year racing for Kawasaki, Jean-François Baldé wins the 350cc Class French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Armagnac (named after the famous motorcycle ace of the fifties and sixties) near Nogaro in southwestern France.




  Jean-François Baldé would be the last winner of the 350cc Class French Grand Prix. The 350 Class would not be included in the French GP in 1983, '84 and '85, it would be completely eliminated from Grand Prix racing in 1986.




  Nogaro is the site of a distillery of Armagnac brandy.

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

Today in motorcycle history, May 8, 1973

  

  

  

  Rafael Long applies for his motorcycle towbar patent - "Bike rack for camper and the like".  Patent US 3731830 A.

  Mr. Long's application summary reads, "A rack for receiving and supporting a motorbike and the like on the body of a road vehicle in a manner for shift-ability and angular swing relative thereto for enabling ingress and/or egress to and from the body of the vehicle without complete removal of the motor bike from the rack entailing a carrier longitudinally movable and balanceable relative to a hinged roller support, spaced from bridging means on the vehicle and including suitable locking means convertible to a ramp for use during unloading and loading of the motor bike relative to the rack."


  "Such prior known carriers usually include a channel member for supporting a two-wheeled cycle in a relatively fixed condition on the back end of a conventional automotive main vehicle. Each case entails the problem of loading and unloading the motor bike relative to the carrier and the securing of the motorbike onto such carriers. Such carriers are usually mounted on the rear bumper of the main vehicle which may be a passenger vehicle, a station wagon, a trailer, a pick-up truck having a tailgate or an open body for a detachable camper and the like. In all cases if it is desired to gain access to the main vehicle either through the rear trunk; the tailgate or the rear 'door of a trailer or camper body, the motorbike usually has to be removed from such prior known carriers. The present invention seeks to overcome such tedious problems by providing a carrier constructed to facilitate access to or ingress and/or egress from the after end of the main vehicle without removing the motorbike from its carrier."


  Of course, once Rafael is granted his patent every Joe Inventor thinks they know a better way.

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

Today in motorcycle history, May 6, 1972

  

  

 

  Evel Knievel's SkyCycle X-1 is shown to the press and the public for the first time.

  Evel Knievel meets Doug Malewicki, the designer and engineer of Evel's Steam Rocket powered SkyCycle X-1 canyon-jumping motorcycle, Robert "Bob" Truax, the inventor and patent holder of the Steam Rocket engine and Facundo Campoy, one of Bob's partners for the machine's unveiling at the Twin Falls, Idaho, Snake River Canyon jump site. The press go insane.


  Doug Malewicki built a working X-1 Skycycle model rocket and a shallow angled launch ramp to be flown for all to see at Arizona's Bee-Line Dragway, the same night Evel was there jumping 12 cars and 3 vans. The model took off, coasted in a ballistic arc and successfully deployed its parachute.

  He got the job to design the real canyon jumper.

  

  Bee Line Dragway met it’s untimely fate in the early 1980’s due to a dispute between the landowners and the track management.











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

Today in motorcycle history, May 5, 2014

  

  A customized Triumph Bonneville T100 built by Renard Speed Shop in Estonia is featured in High Snobiety online magazine.

  This Bonneville T100 was the latest ride from Renard Speed Shop, the custom bike shop in Tallinn, Estonia. The custom shop specializes in cafe racers of all creed and color, Triumph to Suzuki, Harley to Honda. 

   They gave the Bonnie a contemporary cafe twist by slimming down the chassis, adding off-road tires, a custom tank, new lighting, and a matte black paint job to give it some scrambler credentials. An 865cc, fuel-injected scrambler!









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

Today in motorcycle history, May 4, 1997

 

    

  

  'The A-Z of British Motorcycles From The 1930s, 1940s, 1950s' by Roy Bacon is published by The Promotional Reprint Co Ltd.

  "When the 1930's began, the biggest motorcycle exporter in the world was Britain. Yet this was a decade when the industry had to struggle to survive the century's worst economic catastrophe, the Depression, and then answer the call to arms that was issued in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War.

  During the straitened times of the postwar era, high demand at home went unmet as the cry of the day was "Export or die!". And then came the dawn of new age as the 1950's began. New designs, previously only destined for foreign shores, became available at home. Constant improvement led to machines that were reliable and for which spares could easily be found. But by the end of the 1950's, even though it looked as if the sun would never set on the British motorcycle industry, the Japanese were readying a devastating blow.

  The A-Z OF British Motorcycles From the 1930's 1940's 1950's By Roy Bacon is an invaluable guide to a period that saw an industry at the peak of it's power, yet during which the seeds of its downfall were sown. It's comprehensive coverage takes in familiar names such as Brough Superior, BSA, Matchless, Norton, Triumph, and Vincent. Also includes Ascot Pullin, Grindley-Peerless, Pouncy and SOS. Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs, it is a book no motorcycle enthusiast should be without." - Trevor Downing

  Roy Bacon is the author, co-author or editor of over 50 books about the two-wheeled machines that we all know and love.

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

Today in motorcycle history, May 1, 1935

  

  

  In the end of 1934, PMZ began preparations for the production of the PMZ A-750, with the first three assembled motorcycles put on parade on May 1, 1935 in Podolsk, Russia. Nine more PMZ motorcycles would be presented in Moscow on July 25.

  It seems few people outside of Russia have heard of, and even fewer know anything about, the PMZ ­A-750 motorcycle. The bikes were mainly built at the Podolsk Mechanical Installation located in Moscow Oblast, by a branch of the “Singer” company, which by the 1930’s had already had vast experience in mass ­production of sewing machines coupled with precision machining. The factory adopted the making of thin-­walled cast iron moldings, so when the People's Committee for Heavy Industry decided to set up mass production of motorcycles they chose the town of Podolsk, together with steel town of Izhevsk.

  At the Izh Steel Plant (Izhevsk), a team of motorcycle freaks run by Pyotr Vladimirovich Mozharov took on designing five models of motorcycles in 1928. These machines were built and passed Russia's rigorous vehicle tests, but were never put in mass production.

 

  The German designer and inventor Ernst Neander began to produce motorcycles with a press-formed frame made from sheet steel in 1927. Having studied this design carefully, Mozharov saw its great advantage for mass-production. He visited Germany in 1928 to learn production organization from Neander. He returned home with piles of engine design plans, books, motorcycle brochures and crates of parts. Mrs. Mozharov was not pleased.

  Mozharov chose a press-­formed frame for his A-750. The motor needed to meet the criteria formulated by the Main Department of Machine Building Industry for the Supreme Council of the  National Economy of the USSR: 4-­stroke, two-cylinder 750cc motor, able to adapt to the rough road conditions and capable of attaching a sidecar. After Pyotr and his team visited the Harley­-Davidson factory in Milwaukee, they were in agreement that a 45-degree V­-twin side-valve engine should be used. Though the concept took after the Harley, the resulting engine differed with a number of key design features - a two stage oil pump, the oil tank was made a part of engine casing casting, instead of a magneto Mozharov chose to use a battery ignition with a generator, the headlight was designed to have high/low beam. Among other innovative features the A-750 had an unusual front fork design being a short lever swing-arm type aided by a carriage spring and a vertical U­-bar that provided torsional stiffness and reliability, slightly resembling a BMW.

  After all that it proved to be heavy and unreliable. The A-750 was shit-canned in 1939. 

  Thanks to my friend Ritvars in Latvia for much of  the info.

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