Today in motorcycle history, March 20, 1887

   

  Indian Hillclimb champion/motorcycle legend Orie Steele is born in Ridgewood, New Jersey.  His father, John Steele, had an Indian dealership in Paterson, New Jersey, where Orie's passion for two-wheels first took hold.

 

  Orie Steele was the leading AMA Hillclimb Champion of the 1920s and early ‘30s, at a time when the sport was at its height of its popularity.  Steele was a factory Indian rider for much of his career and was one of the best known riders of his era. 

  The storied career of Orie's racing began in 1913 where he won the prestigious Crotona (New York) Motorcycle Club Endurance Race.  Steele earned victories in several major endurance runs in and around New York and New Jersey in the 1910's, including winning the 500 mile 1914 Yonkers Endurance Run.

 

  With the onset of World War I he stopped racing and enlisted in the Army, outfitting motorcycles so they would be able to handle the rough terrain they would face and training soldiers on how to ride them.  After the war's end he returned to competition and began winning hillclimb races all over the country.

  In 1922, Steele won his first M&ATA (the predecessor to the AMA) National Hillclimb Championship at the national meet held in Egypt, New York.  The hillclimb was the biggest of its day and featured racers from across the country, including well known stars such as Colorado’s Floyd Clymer, Harley-Davidson’s Oscar Lenz from Michigan, Pennsylvania's Chas. "Peggy" Temple (a one-legged rider who raced an 80" Harley-Davidson), Reggie Pink on a Reading-Standard and Excelsior’s ace, Paul Anderson, from Chicago.  That victory thrust Steele into the national spotlight so much that Indian began heavily advertising Steele’s accomplishments and he became the face of Indian's hillclimb team.  Indian even produced an “Orie Steele Special” hillclimb machine in the late 1920's.

  Steele followed up his 1922 national championship success with a national title in 1923 in the 37-inch class.  In 1926, he swept all three national championship classes.  He also won the Eastern National Hillclimb Championship in 1927.


  Orie Steele was simply, one of the best damn hillclimbers ever.  Ever.  

  Notable was the fact that Steele won all his national titles while he was in his 30s and 40s.

  Steele retired from competition in the mid-1930s. 

 

  Orie Steele was inducted into the AMA Hall of Fame in 2007.