Today in motorcycle history, March 25, 1909

        

  

  Walter Goerke sets a new World Record at Daytona riding his Indian 69 miles in the "One-Hour Motorcycle Race".

  Walter Goerke, of Brooklyn, NY, sets a new World Record riding his 7hp Indian 69 miles in one hour breaking the Brooklands track record of 68 miles 1,380 yards. The record was accomplished in a time of 58 minutes, 25 4/5 seconds.


  The same day Goerke sets a World Record in the '1 Kilometer Race" with a time of 27 4/5 seconds.




  1909 saw Indian introduce of a number of models and innovations including; the loop frame, the twin-cylinder 630cc (38.61ci), first 2-speed transmission, the 4hp 2nd Series 500cc (30.50ci) twin, the hand brake, 7hp 2nd Series Big Twin 1000cc (61ci), 2¾hp 315cc (19.30ci) and 440 cc (26.96 ci), 3½hp loop frame singles.






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Today in motorcycle history, March 24, 1969

  

  


  

  Michael Parks stars as Jim Bronson in the TV movie pilot, "Then Came Bronson".

  


  Martin Sheen stars as Nick, Jim Bronson's best friend in the pilot. Nick commits suicide shortly after asking Jim to buy back his motorcycle from his soon-to-be widow, played by Sheree North. Bronson had originally owned and customized the bike, a 900cc 1969 XLH Sportster, then sold it to Nick when he gets a job as a reporter. Nick's suicide makes Bronson think about his life, the path he's on, the whole "rat race" crowding him. After a blow-up with his asshole editor Jim decides to say fuck it. He then bids adieu to the city and takes to the road on his Sporty to discover what life has waiting for him.




  The opening scene would serve as a metaphor for the premise of the show: getting away from the "big city" and searching for the "simple life". The show begins with Bronson riding up to a red light in San Francisco and he nods to the man in the car beside him, briefly chatting with the guy.
  Driver: "Taking a trip?" Bronson: "Yeah." Driver: "Where to?" Bronson: "Wherever I end up, I guess." Driver: "Man, I wish I was you." Bronson: "Really?" Driver: "Yeah." Bronson: "Well, hang in there."

  He pulls in the clutch, kicks the bike into gear and heads out to California's State Route 1......

  The pilot was also released in Europe as a feature film.

 



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

Today in motorcycle history, March 23, 2005

  


  

  

  

  Marusho Motorcycles founder Masashi Ito dies at 92. 

   After apprenticing with Soichiro Honda, Masashi Ito started chasing his dream of building motorcycles when he founded Marusho Shokai Co., Ltd. in Hamamatsu, Japan, in 1948. 

  Within two years a successful prototype, the 150cc single-cylinder ML, was completed. Mass production of the ML, patterned after a pre-war Zundapp and utilizing Marusho's trademark shaft drive, began in 1951 as the Model LB and later the LC. The name of the company was changed to the Marusho Motorcycle Industrial Co., Ltd. 

  The LB and LC were followed by a succession of  90cc - 250cc upright singles including the very popular JF Baby Lilac "step-through" and two 350cc opposed twins. 

  But, it was a racing version of the 250cc single, the SYZ,  that put Marusho on the map when in 1955 it won the first "All Japan Motorcycle Endurance Road Race", also referred to as the "All Japan Volcano Scramble Race".



  DYK: From 1951-'61 Marusho produced 31 models under the Lilac moniker, all but two of which were shaft-driven. Incidentally, the name 'Lilac' was chosen because it was Ito's wife's favorite flower.



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

Today in motorcycle history, March 20, 1970

  

  

  Fabio Taglioni makes the first sketches for the layout of what will be the new Ducati V-twin. 

   In less than a month's time his drawings were completed. By July there was a running motor and in August a complete prototype motorcycle was built. Taglioni then got Leopoldo Tartarini, the founder of Italjet, to refine the styling aspects of the new Ducati.

  The decision was made by Ducati to re-enter motorcycle competition in October. Director Arnaldo Milvio and General Manager Fredmano Spairani, bith race-nuts themselves, had encouraged Fabio to develop the 750 V-twin. In 1971 five 500cc V-twins were built to compete in Italian championship and Grand Prix events. Ducati felt that this would demonstrate the bike before a large audience and gain publicity. If they won, that was a bonus.

  Despite Taglioni's strong opposition to the idea, Spairani wanted the frame to be built by well-known British frame builder Colin Seeley. They sent some prototype crankcases for Seeley to work from and Ducati's new Seeley frame was ready in February of 1971.

   In less than six months, Fabio Taglioni and his team had designed and built their own complete bike, the industry norm at the time for concept to production was three years.









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Today in motorcycle history, March 19, 1935

  

   

  

  Monopoly the board game turns 80.

  There now 37 versions of Monopoly. These versions include, XXXopoly, Pirate-opoly, Zombie-opoly, Ocean-opoly, Chocolate-opoly, Grateful Dead-opoly and Harley-Davidson-opoly.

  The origins of Monopoly go back to the early 1900's and a game called "Landlord's Game" invented by a Quaker named Lizzie Magie. Allegedly, the game was to teach children about the evils of property speculation.

  Since then several different people have designed various versions of the game. Charles Darrow designed the version with Atlantic City street names around 1930. He distributed it under the name Monopoly and on March 19, 1935 he sold the rights to Parker Brothers. The motorcycle connection began with John Waddington's British version when they introduced a (plastic) motorcycle token in the 1950's.

  Now there are four Harley-Davidson editions. The newest Harley version incorporates buying, selling and trading motorcycles in a quest to own the most legendary bikes in Harley-Davidson history. Collectible pewter tokens include: a leather jacket, H-D logo, boot, helmet, gas tank, and Twin Cam engine.


  Then there's the dysfunctional father-son team from "American Chopper". This set also includes six collectible pewter tokens, but they differ wildly from the H-D edition. The tokens are; Paul Teutul Sr., Paul Teutul Jr., Mikey Teutel, the Black Widow chopper, Took Bike custom wheel and a welding mask.


  Now Harley-Davidson and the Teutel's have company.  The Monopoly Empire edition features a Ducati! This game comes with tokens that represent six of the brands featured in the game: the Ducati motorcycle, a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, an iconic Coca-Cola glass bottle, an Xbox controller, a Paramount Pictures movie clapboard and McDonald’s “World Famous” french fries.

  Watch for the Sons of Anarchy edition this summer.

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

Today in motorcycle history, March 18, 2014

  
  

  From the Daytona Beach News-Journal dated March 18, 2014, I give you...

  ...The name of a Florida man’s “Cowasaki” motorcycle is not a misspelling.

  For nearly 10 years, Orange City resident Reese Moore has been using animal bones to make his sculptures.


  “I just love working with bones,” the 65 year-old Moore told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.


  Moore started making his "bone-art" back in 1995. He decided to try to “do something cool for Halloween” for his sons and made them an 8-foot T-Rex out of animal bones. The bike project started out more like a wager, when a local bar owner said that a bone motorcycle was impossible to make. Little did he know that the artist was too ambitious to give up. 

  Moore said. “I took that as a challenge and I told him I'll build you one for Bike Week." He added, " Making a "bone-bike" I figured I would need three to four cow skulls, two to three alligator skulls, some goat, wolf, raccoon, turtle, and pig bones. And two cow’s backs for the wheels. About four days later I called him up and told him he could pick up his motorcycle.”


  Reese Moore's latest creation is for sale at Dunn's Attic & Auction House in Ormond Beach for $55,000.

  In addition to Dunn's showroom, Moore’s choppers can be found at spots like a museum in Georgia and Ripley’s Believe It or Not. 

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

Today in motorcycle history, March 16, 1949

  

  

  

   Future CHiPS star, Erik Estrada, is born Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada in New York City.

  Starting September 15, 1977, Erik Estrada co-starred as Frank "Ponch" Poncharello in the NBC TV series CHiPs. Over the next three years the highway seemed to be paved with gold for Estrada.



  Following a salary dispute with NBC in the fall of 1981, Erik was briefly replaced for six episodes by Olympic Gold Medalist, Kim and Khloe's step-dad, actor and future step-mom, Bruce Jenner as Officer Steve McLeish.

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

  Erik Estrada relishes telling the story of how he gave Ed Harris a personal training lesson on a motorcycle in 1979 when the struggling actor made a guest appearance on the show, playing a one-off bad guy on the then supremely popular California cop show.

  Estrada, of course, was nearing the height of his Hollywood ego-trip playing highway patrol man Ponch on the series.

  "I remember he didn't know how to ride a bike at the time," says Estrada. "Ed asked me, 'How do I ride this?' I told him it was easy, that I had never ridden a bike before until I came onto CHiPs."  (Estrada underwent an intensive eight-week course, learning how to ride.) His advice to Harris: "Don't look down and stay in first gear or second gear. Just go slow," Estrada recalls. "He did really well. He rode that bike. And he's gone onto a great career." Estrada's other rules of the road: "Sit up straight, don't slouch and smile."

  "There's only two kinds of motorcycle riders," Estrada says. "Those who have been down and those who are going down."


  On August 6, 1979, Estrada became one of the "...those who are going down." when he was seriously injured while filming a scene on the set of CHiPs, fracturing several ribs and breaking both wrists after he was thrown from his KZ1000C Police bike.

  CHiPs was eventually canceled on July 17, 1983. 

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

  In the early 90's, Estrada played the role of Johnny, a Tijuana trucker, in the Televisa telenovela, "Dos mujeres, un camino" ("Two women, one road"). Originally slated for 100 episodes, the show went to 400-plus episodes and became the biggest telenovela in Latin American history. In 1995, he made a special guest appearance as his alter ego Ponch in Bad Religion's music video "Infected" and then in the Butthole Surfers's video for "Pepper".

  Erik Estrada now is a full-time deputy sheriff in Bedford County, Virginia and rides a Harley-Davidson Road King with the Blue Knights International Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club. But he does have an original Kawasaki KZ900 from the show, a gift from the Teamsters as a parting show of thanks. Seriously.

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