Today in motorcycle history, November 11, 2015

  

  Today is Veteran's Day in the US, so I thought what better time to talk/write about military motorcycles.  Then I thought the World Wars, Harley-Davidson, Indian, Norton and BSA were too obvious.  These three bikes are in use in current 'hostile environments'.  

  Zero MMX

  Designed and built by Zero Motorcycles in Scotts Valley, California.  The blacked-out Zero MMX was developed for US Special Operations Forces, this super high-tech bike gives the rider stealth movement across rugged terrain in near silence and with minimal heat recognition.  Built to military specs, including a specialized dash with toggle switches for all controls, keyless ignition, removable power packs, a total blackout mode and the bike can operate submerged in up to 3 feet of water.

  Besides being silent, the electric motor delivers almost 100% of its torque on demand – 68 ft/lbs and 54 hp – and uses regenerative braking and rolloff to recover power. While developing the MMX, Zero made a number of innovative designs that are being used in their new civilian models, like the off-road MX and its street-legal version, the FX. Available at a store near you!


  Hayes M1030

  Okay, riding anything with a motor in the middle of East Bumfuck means at some point you gonna need to refuel. The friendly and resourceful folk at Hayes knew that at times the availability of gas would be limited, so armed with a siphon hose and breath mints they set to work on an engine that could run on almost anything. Anything. The M1030 runs on diesel, biodiesel, JP8 aviation fuel, and three more fuel types used by the military that I'm not allowed to tell you about.

  Oh yeah, did I mention that on diesel, its primary fuel, it gets an amazing 96 mpg while cruising at 55 mph, giving it a range of over 400 miles.




  Christini AWD 450

  Ridden by Navy SEALs and Army SF in Afghanistan, the AWD uses an innovative all-wheel drive system propelled by a 450 four-stroke motor. This gives the Christini some awesome off-road capabilities, able to pull fully armored troops loaded with gear over crappy terrain that would leave a normal dirt bike cryin' for momma. The bike also uses an automatic clutch, heavy-duty suspension, foam filled run-flat tires and GPS navigation.

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

Today in motorcycle history, November 10, 1973

  


  

  The motorcycle racing legend, "Smokin’ Joe" Petrali dies from a heart attack in Casa Grande, Arizona.

 

  From the mid-1920's to the mid-'30's, you'd be hard-pressed to beat Joe Petrali whether competing in board track racing, dirt track, speed records, endurance races or hillclimbs.

  "Smokin' Joe" began the hillclimb portion of his career in 1929, when he won both the 45-inch and 61-inch  AMA National Championships aboard an Excelsior at Muskegon, Michigan. The 61-cubic-inch (1,000cc) Excelsior that Petrali had custom-built was affectionately dubbed "Big Bertha." Riding Big Bertha, he would win the first 6 races he entered on the 1930 hillclimbing circuit.

  Sadly, like so many other businesses, the Great Depression took its toll on Excelsior and the company ceased production early in 1931. Petrali found himself without a ride but word was out and before long he received a phone call from Milwaukee and was signed by Harley-Davidson who were well aware of his hillclimbing exploits.

  The 1931 season proved Petrali and Harley-Davidson were a hard to beat team as Joe would win 8 of the 16 dirt track and hillclimb AMA Nationals that year. The following season, Petrali earned the distinction of being the only rider in AMA history to win both the dirt track and hillclimb National Championship in the same year. He repeated that feat three more times in 1933, 1935 and 1936!

 "Smokin' Joe" Petrali was at the peak of his form in the early '30's. He won with such regularity that the races where said to be somewhat boring with the outcome rarely being in question. In one particularly impressive stretch from May to August of 1935, Petrali won every Class A National race – 10 in a row!

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

Today in motorcycle history, November 9, 1958

     

  

  3-time Women's National Motocross Champion Sue 'Flying' Fish is born in Santa Barbara, California.

  When Sue Fish was introduced to motocross at the age of 4 by her father, something instantly clicked. By 14, she started racing, and winning. At age 19, Fish advanced to the AMA Pro Racing national circuit. In addition to dominating the female ranks, having won the 1976 and 1977 Women’s National Motocross Championships, she was one of the first women motocross racers to hold a professional racing license from the AMA and compete regularly against men.

     *********************************************


  While practicing for the 1978 Women's National Championship at Indian Dunes Motorcycle Park, Fish came screaming over a hill only to find a jeep parked on the track.

  With little chance to react, she hit the jeep, suffering a broken femur, a split sternum and numerous head injuries.

  At the time, Fish was the reigning women's National Motocross Champion and seemed poised to climb the standings on the men's circuit. Though the injuries were devastating, (it took her 3 years of surgeries and rehab) when all was said and done she returned to racing. Unfortunately, after one full season her injuries forced her to retire.

  Fish then put her talents to work, working as a Hollywood stuntwoman. She was Linda Hamilton's stunt-double in “Terminator” and she also traveled as part of Evel Knievel’s stunt show in Australia.

   Sue Fish has undergone 23 surgeries, including 10 on her knees and one shoulder replaced. “If you don’t fall,” she said, “you’re not going fast enough.”

  Sue "Flying" Fish was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2012.

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

Today in motorcycle history, November 6, 1999

  




  

  The British motorcycle magazine, 'Motor Cycling' (November 6, 1947) cover exclaims, "AJS Quality Motorcycles - The Choice of the Experts in Trials & Scrambles". The magazine's headline is accompanied by a pic of AJS works rider, Hugh Viney, tearing it up in the Scottish countryside.

  Hugh Viney and the AJS works team dominated the Scottish Six Day Trials in the Post-War years (there was no SSDT from 1940-'46) winning the 1947 Trial on an AJS 16MC in his first attempt - then repeated the victory the following year and made it three in a row in 1949.


  Viney was one of Britain's best-ever trials riders, aboard an AJS he captained their Trophy team to victory in the 1953 International Six Days Trial (ISDT) in Czechoslovakia.



  Bonham's auctioned the very same, Hugh Viney, ISDT Trophy-winning, 1953 AJS 498cc Model 20 on June 20, 2015. The AJS sold for $24,372 (£16,100).










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

Today in motorcycle history, November 5, 1954

  

   

  At the home of Chapin "Smitty" Smith, the Satyrs Motorcycle Club holds its first official club meeting. 

  The Satyrs Motorcycle Club is the oldest continuously operated gay motorcycle club in the United States, maybe in the World.

  According to their website, "The Satyrs MC helped spawn many motorcycle clubs across the nation in the early years. Many groups "borrowed and copied" the club's Bylaws in the early years as many clubs were unsure how to establish themselves after McCarthism of the 1950's."

  Sixty-plus years later the Satyrs Motorcycle Club continues to sponsor activities including the World-Famous 'Badger Flats Run'. More than just a run, it's billed as, '24-hour bar, food, camping and entertainment in the High Sierra's!' The club also does charity fundraising, has a longstanding history of community involvement and motorcycle relevant events.

  Websters describes a Satyr as "one of a class of lustful, drunken woodland gods. In Greek art they were represented as a man with a horse's ears and tail, but in Roman representations as a man with a goat's ears, tail, legs, and horns."

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

Today in motorcycle history, November 4, 1905

  

  

  

  William Chadeayne rides into *Cheyenne, Wyoming, en route to San Francisco on his record-breaking transcontinental ride aboard his Thomas 'Auto-Bi'.

  William C. Chadeayne, Captain of the Buffalo Motorcycle Club, sets the record for the transcontinental crossing of the United States by a motor vehicle on a 1904 model 44 Thomas 'Auto-Bi', travelling from New York City to San Francisco via Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne, Ogden (Utah) and Reno (Nevada). 3,800 hard-riding, ass-breaking miles on what now is known as I-80. The record time you ask, 44 days, 23 hours and 50 minutes. A cold beer never tasted so good.

   E.R. Thomas began manufacturing a tricycle powered by a De Dion-Bouton motor beginning on March 12, 1898. An early model of their 'Auto-Bi' (a motorized bicycle) was created in 1900, and public sales of the bike began in 1901. On September 17, 1901, a Thomas 'Auto-Bi' was mentioned in a Japanese newspaper article and went on sale eleven days later, advertised in the same newspaper.

   By 1903, the company was the largest manufacturer of single-cylinder, air-cooled engines.The 1904 'Auto-Bi' had a 2.5-hp, four-stroke 442cc, single-cylinder motor with a belt-driven transmission, capable of reaching speeds of 35 mph. The 'Auto-Bi' was later joined by the 'Auto-Tri', a three-wheeled motorcycle, and then they got fancy and offered the 'Auto-Two Tri', a motorcycle that could hold three riders.

   In 1905, E.R. Thomas motorcycle business was known as 'The Thomas Auto-Bi Company of Buffalo'. By 1912, the demand for Thomas' 'Auto-Bi' had dropped significantly, and the company discontinued all production of two-wheeled machines but continued building cars until 1919.

  A four-cylinder, 60 hp 1907 Thomas Model 35, known as the 'Thomas Flyer', won the 1908 New York to Paris Race, the first and only Around-the-World Automobile Race ever held. The race began in Times Square, New York, on February 12 and covered some 22,000 miles, finishing in Paris on July 30, 1908. Six teams started the race, one American, one Italian, one German, three French (De Dion-Bouton, Motobloc, and Sizaire-Naudin). Only three of the cars finished, the 'Thomas Flyer' which won, the German 'Protos', and the Italian 'Züst'. The original intent was to drive the full distance using the frozen Bering Strait to drive across the Pacific Ocean. In the course of the race, the Flyer was the first car to cross the United States taking 41 days 8 hours and 15 minutes, and in doing so, George Schuster became the first automobile driver to make the transcontinental crossing of the US in the winter. Schuster finished the Around-the-World Race in 169 days, an incredible feat considering the lack of roads and services in 1908.



  *According to 1900 census records, Cheyenne, Wyoming, had a population of 14,087, by 1910 the population had dropped 19.6% to 11,320 brave souls.





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

Today in motorcycle history, November 3, 1926

  

    

  Known across California as "Mr. Vincent", the Vincent  riding, record-breaking, instructor and mechanic, Marty Dickerson is born in Inglewood, California.

  Marty Dickerson is best known for setting speed records on his own Vincent HRD Rapide during the 1950's. He set a Class 'C' record of 129 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in 1951. When the record was broken a year later, Marty came back with a 'new and improved' version of his Vincent in 1953 and turned in a run of 147 mph. That record held for 20 years.

  While hanging out at a local bike shop stories began circulating about a big British V-Twin that was the fastest thing on the road. Dickerson had a Triumph T100 that he had pushed to 94 mph and the thought of something faster piqued his interest, to say it lightly. He found out that the Vincent distributor and dealer for the bike was in nearby Burbank. One Saturday he rode his Triumph to Burbank to check out the vaunted machine. It was at Mickey Martin’s Burbank shop where he first laid his eyes upon a Vincent, and as odd as this may sound, it wasn’t love at first sight.

  "I thought the bike was ugly," Dickerson said, referring to the rough sand-cast engine cases. Still, he would go back to Martin’s shop almost every weekend, hoping to work out a trade for his Triumph. Martin eventually figured out a way to take the Triumph in on trade for a new Vincent. And in October of 1948, Dickerson finally had his rare and speedy British V-Twin.

  "It was a little scary to ride," he said of his first experience on the Vincent. "Starting the bike was a real chore and it took racer Tex Luse quite awhile to teach me the technique. On top of that, it had a light switch for a clutch – it was either on or off, real touchy. That was not a good thing to have with a bike that had so much power. I rode the bike home that day, and this was before all the interstates in L.A., so it was on city streets. By the time I made it home, I mastered how to start the thing and how to leave a stoplight without laying a black rubber patch all the way across the intersection."



  Marty Dickerson would take his Vincent to Bonneville in 1951 and set a Class 'C' record of 129 mph. His archrival at the time was Sam Parriott, who rode an Ariel Square Four. In 1952, Parriott and his Ariel broke Dickerson’s record on the Flats.

  Vincent founder, Philip Vincent heard of the Californian’s efforts and sent him some special cams and exhaust pipes from England. Marty studied the rulebook and found some loopholes that would allow him to do away with the standard seat and replace it with just a small pad low on the rear wheel well. He also turned his handlebars upside-down to give him a more streamlined riding position.

  Dickerson then went back to Bonneville in 1953 and shattered the Class 'C' record, turning in a two-way run that averaged 147 mph. During that run, he cracked the elusive 150 mph barrier in one direction. The 147 mph record held for a remarkable 20 years until a Yoshimura Kawasaki Z1 finally broke it in 1973, with a speed of 155 mph.




  Marty Dickerson was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2002.

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