Today in motorcycle history, April 30, 2004

 

 

  The American Motorcycle Museum opens with a collection of over 140 motorcycles.

 

  Most of the bikes are Harley-Davidson and Indians, but the collection also includes motorcycles from Ace, Excelsior, Henderson, Reading Standard, Thor, Super X and a rarely seen, little known Rikuo (1930's Japanese Harley-Davidson).

 

  Shortly after museum proprietor Max Middelbosch and his wife Ans bought their first Harley-Davidson, a 1980 Electra Glide, Max became an antiques dealer resulting in extensive travelling. Which in turn resulted in a fast growing motorcycle collection. Soon Max and Ans had visitors from all over the world showing up to take a look at their the home-basement motorcycle collection. 

 

   Realizing that they were in need of a little more space (not to mention a little more privacy), in 1988 they decided to restore their 1434 farmhouse (and yes, 1434 is a year not an address!) next to their company ‘De Drakentoren’, to house the collection. This interesting thing about this American Motorcycle Museum is it is in the town of Raalte, the Netherlands.

 

  Raalte is approximately 58 miles east of Amsterdam, almost in a straightline.  Everyone here recommends that the next time you're heading to Amsterdam take a little time out and go see this museum.  Don't worry, Bulldog will still be open when you get back.

                                        

Today in motorcycle history, April 29, 1922

                                               
                 

 

 

   Helmut "Mr. Rudge" Krackowizer is born in Frankenmarkt, Upper Austria, Austria.  A former motorcycle racer and motor journalist with a world-renowned reputation for vintage motorcycles.

 

   In autumn 1946, Helmut entered his first race, (the first post war race in Salzburg-Nonntal, Austria), in a constant downpour riding his Rudge 250cc he finished third.  Soaking wet and covered in mud, he was hooked.

   His next race was on July 6, 1947 in front of nearly 20,000 spectators, in the first motorcycle race on the motorway near Salzburg, Helmut Krackowizer won the junior 250cc class on a Rudge beating the New Imperial ridden by fellow Salzburgian Fritz Walcher.  Krackowizer was also in the Senior Race, but three laps into the lead he had transmission troubles and had to retire the Rudge. This was the beginning of his motorcycle racing career that would last until 1955.

 

   His journalism profession started in 1952, after he had graduated from the University of Economics at Vienna with a “Doctor of The Economics”.  At the factory Eternit at Vöcklabruck, Upper Austria, in the town where he lived, he worked in advertising and at this time he began writing motorcycle articles.  In 1955 he moved to Salzburg, to work for Porsche (who wouldn't?), where he started as PR and advertising manager.

  In the 1960's Helmut worked in similar fields for Mercedes Benz and British Leyland.  His last job until his retirement in 1987 had been with Chrysler (Europe).

   During all of this time he continued to write articles on motorcycle races for numerous magazines and also returned to making detailed pencil drawings of famous racing motorcycles.  His drawings were first published in 1965 and greeted with great success, so much so that they were included in two of his published books on motorcycles, "MOTOR CYCLE SPORT" and "THE HISTORY OF FAMOUS MAKES OF MOTORCYCLES".  Even during the last months of his life he continued to draw and write for magazines about the history of races and motorcycles, in both German and English.

 

   He became an expert on nearly every type of motorcycle, knowing every history of them, every race track, every racer of former and modern times.  His friends were the Who's Who of the motorcycle racing world,  Sammy Miller, John Surtees, Walter Zeller, Luigi Taveri, Hans Haldemann, Schorsch Meier and many others.

  One of his dreams was realized when he rode in the “Oldtimer Grand Prix” on the Salzburgring.

  He was a member of the Rudge Club in England, a land he loved, matter-of-fact, Helmut's registration number on his car was “S-Rudge 1”.

  Prof. Dr. Dkfm. Helmut "Mr. Rudge" Krackowizer died on October 22, 2001.

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 27, 1967

 

 

  While the rest of the country is huddling around their TV's to watch Bonanza, the lucky folks at Ascot Speedway in Gardena, California, get the leg-wetting experince of a lifetime.  Evel Knievel breaks up the week's boredom by successfully jumping 15 cars on a Thursday evening.   

  Meanwhile, Ben joins up with an Army unit to rescue Hoss and Little Joe from hostile natives.

      

Today in motorcycle history, April 24, 1988

                                    

   Australian Kevin Magee wins the 1988 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix, the last Grand Prix motorcycle race to be held at Circuito del Jarama.

 

   The Jarama circuit was built by Alessandro Rocci in 1967 just north of Madrid and after 21 years the event would move back to Circuito de Jerez, where during 1986 season the circuit hosted the first international motorcycle event in Spain.  It has found a home there ever since.

 

  Since it was the final race I need to give credit where credit's due...

 

  500cc class winner was Australian Kevin Magee on his Yamaha, the 250cc class winner was Spain's very own Sito Pons on a Honda, 125cc class winner was Homeboy Jorge Martinez straddling his Derbi and, finally, in the rarely mentioned  80cc class Switzerland's Stefan Dorflinger aboard a Krauser.

 

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 23, 1972

 

 

  Paul Smart wins the Imola 200, at age 29, with Ducati's new 750.

 

  The 200 Mile was first run in Italy in 1972, at Imola.  Ducati prepared eight 750 cc bikes for the event.  Paul Smart, Bruno Spaggiari, Ermanno Giuliano, and Alan Dunscombe were secured as riders.  By now racing in Italy was at a fever pitch, from the local bakery to the bicycle shop and the factory never wanted to win more.  The bikes had newly designed Fabio Taglioni frames and 750cc V-twin engines.  Taglioni also made sure that the bikes were trimmed of all their un-needed weight wherever possible.  He had new 40 mm Dell'Orto carburetors added which helped these engines deliver 80 hp at 8,500 rpm.

 

  In that Imola 200 held in April, Smart and Spaggiari came in first and second.  Joy spread across the land.

 

  1973, Ducati commemorated its 1972 win at the Imola 200 with the production model green frame Ducati 750 SuperSport.  Bee-u-tee-full.

 

  Coincidently, it was also Paul Smart's birthday (born April 23, 1943).

                         

Today in motorcycle history, April 22, 1963

 

   On a sunny, April morning in Los Angeles, California, "Teen Beat" Sandy Nelson rides his motorcycle nearly head-on into a school bus full of kids...

 

   On his way to meet Lew Chudd the owner of Imperial Records, Sandy Nelson, one of the most important drummers in rock 'n' roll history meets the bus instead.  The accident results in amputation of his right foot and part of his leg.

 

   Sandy Nelson was the biggest -- and one of the few -- star drummers of the late '50s and early '60s era.  He had Top Ten hits, the biggest being "Teen Beat" which Sandy was awarded a Gold Record for after selling a million copies, and "Let There Be Drums".  Both of which surrounded his Gene Krupa-inspired solos with cool, mean guitar licks (from co-writer Richard Podolor) that were forerunners of the surf sound.  Nelson had only one other Top 40 hit, "Drums Are My Beat".  He ground out a quick series of instrumental albums in the early '60s -- eight within 18 months, as a matter of fact -- with several other top Hollywood rock and pop session musicians.   His principal importance is that he found a place for drum rock solos in hit instrumental singles, and the more reckless elements of his style no doubt influenced other musicians, such as surf drummers and, later, Keith Moon.

 

 

  In September of 2008, Nelson and a few friends, recording as Sandy Nelson and the Sin City Termites, released a new record of original compositions, Nelsonized, on the independent Spinout label.  Other band members included Los Straightjackets guitarist  Eddie Angel, Remi Gits, and bass-player custom bike-builder Billy Favata of Torturing Elvis.

 

 

  ...oh yeah, and one of those kids on the school bus was a 13 year-old Bonnie Raitt.

                 

Today in motorcycle history, April 19, 1948

 

  From its inception in 1937 until the early ’60s, the prestigious Daytona 200 motorcycle race wasn’t merely run at Daytona Beach.  The 200 was run on Daytona Beach.

  In 1948, LIFE magazine decided to cover the races, both amateur and pro, at Daytona.  They then reported, in its April 19 issue, that “for four days last month the resort city of Daytona Beach could hardly have been noisier — or in more danger — if it had been under bombardment.”

  On a weekend that thrilled racing fans and, as if proof was needed that "the young sport was still in the hands of rebels and scofflaws", saw two people killed and 30 more injured in the midst of all the "high-octane fun."

  The 1948 event, which attracted “375 helmeted daredevils and plenty of non-racing hell-raisers,” was marred not only by deaths and injuries but, as LIFE duly noted, by classic knuckleheadism. “Because the antics of an unruly minority reflect on the dignity of motorcycling,” the magazine observed, “the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) may have to hire special police at future races.  One duty will be to restrain sophomoric cyclists who amused themselves this year by tossing firecrackers into the crowd.”

  Ultimately, as LIFE tersely reported, “155 motorcycles started, only 45 finished."

 

  Floyd Emde rode his Scout to a wire to wire, or flag to flag if you prefer, victory in the 1948 Daytona 200. He averaged 84.61 mph, and pocketed a $2,000 prize.  Sadly, 1948 was the last time an Indian Motorcycle would win the 200.

  Floyd Emde's son, Don, would win the 200 in 1972.  Floyd was inducted in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.

 


 

Today in motorcycle history, April 18, 2003

Honda announces the introduction of it's new sport bike,  the XR250 Motard.  The  XR250 Motard is based on the XR250 off-road sport bike that underwent a model change in February this year.    The Motard comes with an air-cooled single-cylinder 250cc 4-stroke engine that, according to it's press release,  "...delivers exceptional on-road driving performance."    This new on-road sport model has front and rear 17-inch aluminum wheels and road tires, giving the bike a "Super Motard" image.  As opposed to just an everyday-Motard image.    The XR Motard becomes a huge hit in Thailand.

Today in motorcycle history, April 17, 1982

                  

  The New York Times reported that singer/songwriter Billy Joel was injured in a motorcycle accident on Long Island Thursday, and he is reported to be in ''quite good'' condition yesterday after major surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

   Dr. David L. Andrews, who performed surgery on Mr. Joel's right wrist and left thumb for two hours, said the singer should regain ''full activity in regard to his occupation'' in three to four months.

''He'll be fine,'' said Elizabeth Joel, the 32-year-old performer's wife. ''We're all highly relieved. He's in excellent spirits, he feels great, but his hands hurt.''  His hands will get well enough to divorce her and marry Christie Brinkley in 2 years time.

   According to Sgt. Ted Avinila, of the Suffolk County police, Mr. Joel was riding his 1978 Harley Davidson through the intersection of New York Avenue and West Ninth Street in Huntington, L.I., at about 5:40 P.M. Thursday.

   He said the bike struck a car driven by Cornelia Bynum of Huntington when she made a turn onto New York Avenue.  The Pianoman was taken to a nearby hospital, then by helicopter to Presbyterian Hospital.  He was said to be in a New York State of Mind.

  As usual, the driver of the car was not hurt.

 

 

                                                                        

Today in motorcycle history, April 16, 1969

                             

 

  American International Pictures (AIP) releases the biker film "Hell's Belles".  Directed by Maury Dexter and starring Jeremy Slate, Adam Roarke, Jocelyn Lane and Angelique Pettyjohn.  Music by Les Baxter.

 

  The most interesting part of this "biker" film are the characters involved in the making of.  Shall we...

 

  Maury Dexter had previously entertained worldwide audiences with The Day Mars Invaded Earth,  Surf Party  and The Mini-Skirt Mob.

  Jeremy Slate (born Robert Perham) who's acting career included major roles in four "outlaw biker" films in the late 1960s: The Born Losers, The Miniskirt Mob, Hell's Belles, and Hell's Angels '69.  As the leader of the Born Losers Motorcycle Club, Slate is a ruthless yet likable character who takes on Billy Jack.  In Hell's Angels '69 (which he wrote the screen story) Slate played a man who uses the Hells Angels as unwitting dupes in a plan to rob a casino in Las Vegas; several real-life members of the Hell's Angels — including Angels president Ralph "Sonny" Barger, Terry the Tramp and Magoo — had significant speaking roles in the film.  Slate broke his leg during filming and never rode a motorcycle again.

  Adam Roarke (Richard Jordan Gerler) rode into the theatre's with roles in Hell's Angels On Wheels, The Savage Seven and Nam's Angels.  Adam worked consistently in film and television, though mostly in small roles.  His "breakout role" came in 1980 when he portrayed Raymond Bailey, a self-important leading man whose stunt double was played by Steve Railsback in The Stunt Man.  Peter O'Toole befriended Roarke during filming, and the two became drinking buddies.  Unfortunately, Roarke was unable to keep up with O’Toole, and was hospitalized with 'delirium tremens' before shooting was concluded.  Word spread around Hollywood quickly, and Roarke had difficulty finding work as a result.

  Jocelyn Lane was born Jocelyn Bolton in Vienna, Austria. At the age of 14, she moved to Britain where  her older sister, Mara Lane, was a well-known British model in the 1950s.  Jocelyn became a working model in the United Kingdom by the time she was 18, using the pseudonym Jackie Lane.  She began appearing in several British films beginning in 1955 with the travelogue April in Portugal.   Lane moved to Hollywood in 1964, she began to be credited with her full first name.  Her resemblance to Brigitte Bardot worked to her advantage so much that she was featured in the September 1966 issue of Playboy magazine.

In 1965, she co-starred with Elvis in Tickle Me and later appeared in several roles in Hollywood films (such as the "biker chick" Cathy in Hell's Belles).  She retired in 1971, having married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg in Marbella, Spain, in February 1971.  In 1984, her marriage to Prince Alfonso ended in a divorce in which she received a million dollar settlement.  She claimed that the sum was "not really fitting for a princess".  You bet.

  Angelique Pettyjohn.  Oh, Angelique...born Dorothy Lee Perrins.  During the 1970s, she worked as a burlesque star in Las Vegas.   She was photographed by Robert Scott Hooper for the February 1979 Playboy pictorial "The Girls of Las Vegas".  Angelique became quite popular at the Star Trek conventions and in 1979 Hooper photographed her in her "Shahna " costume from the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".  They produced two posters, one in her complete costume and one nude without all the costume, that she sold at the conventions.  During the early 1980s, she would make use of her buxom figure in such hardcore adult films as Titillation, Stalag 69, and Body Talk under the pseudonyms Angelique, Heaven St. John or Angel St. John.  She later appeared in such cult classic features as The Lost Empire, Repo Man, Biohazard  and Mike Jittlov's film The Wizard of Speed and Time.

  Les Baxter.  Many tales swirl about this man's musical history.  Much too much to go into details here.  Baxter worked for the film industry in the 1960s and 1970s.  He worked on movie soundtracks for American International Pictures where he composed and conducted scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror stories and teenage musicals, including The Pit and the Pendulum, The Comedy of Terrors, Muscle Beach Party, The Dunwich Horror, and Frogs.  Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk in a total of three hours for $5,000. 

  Les Baxter has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6314 Hollywood Blvd.

 

  It seems to me that there should be a movie made based on the people that made this movie. 

                            

Today in motorcycle history, April 15, 1923

  

  The scourge of beach blankets and volleyball nets, the bumbling, black-leather jacket-wearin' leader of one of Southern California's most infamous biker gangs (The Ratz and Mice) is born, Harvey Lembeck, aka Eric Von Zipper.  

 

  Appearing in six of the seven Beach movies (Muscle Beach Party being the one they were absent from) Eric Von Zipper and his gang of surfboard opponents did their best to ruin clubs, party's and romance of all those involved.  Why, if it weren't for Professor Robert O. Sutwell and the Himalayan Suspension Technique they might have succeeded.  The what?!

  In the first Beach Party movie during an argument at Big Daddys nightclub, the Professor is being threatened by Von Zipper so he quickly applies his right index finger to a "key spot" on Zipper's left temple.  This mysterious form of Far-Eastern self-defense -- which involves applying pressure to some particular nerve in the victim -- results in putting them into immediate state of temporary frozen unconsciousness.  So, when Von Zipper is "frozen," it inevitably forces his gang to retreat, while carrying Lembeck off a member of the Ratz tells the crowd, "Eric Von Zipper will return."

 

  Harvey Lembeck appeared on Broadway, the Silver Screen and television (Night Gallery, The Monkees and Man From U.N.C.L.E. to name a few) in a career that spanned over 30 years.

 

  "Eric Von Zipper adores you.  And when Eric Von Zipper adores somebody they stay adored." 

   EricEnequin (as a Rat named J.D. pompously pronounces "Eric Von.Zipper will return.")


 

Today in motorcycle history, April 14, 1996

 

  For the second time since a controversial American flag exhibit opened last month, protesters Saturday dismantled two of the displays showing American flags draped over a toilet and placed on the floor.

  About 50 members of the “Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club” arrived on motorcycles, walked into the Phoenix Art Museum and removed the flags, said spokeswoman Amy Carr.

  After removing the flags Saturday, the veterans carefully folded them, handed them to museum officials, then stood in line to write in a comment book placed in one of the displays.  Before the flag was removed, visitors had to stand on the flag to write in the book.

  “It’s insulting to the flag, insulting to America and insulting to us,” said John McFarland, a Vietnam veteran from Phoenix.

  After an hour of what some might describe as heated debates with museum officials and other patrons, the protesters trickled out and the exhibits were reinstated.

  Museum director Jim Ballinger defended the exhibit and said its controversial pieces will remain on display as scheduled,until June 16. "What this exhibit celebrates is freedom in America," he said. "We have a story to tell and we're not going to take away a crucial part of the story."

  The always-entertaining House Speaker Newt Gingrich earlier this month jumped aboard the flag's bandwagon when he said he had declined an invitation to the exhibit, saying: “I don’t have to look at a U.S. flag in the toilet to know that it is wrong.”

 

  Good 'ole Newt.

 

Today in motorcycle history, April 12, 1952

 

 

  Dave Barr is born in Los Angeles, California, and left abandoned in the back seat of a car.  After nine months in foster care, he was adopted by WWII Navy veteran Guy Barr and his wife, Lucille. 

 

  Dave Barr joined the US Marine Corps when he was 17 and served in Vietnam on a helicopter gunship.  He earned 57 air medals, including a single-mission decoration for valor.  After his discharge from the Marine Corp in 1972 he bought his first motorcycle, a ‘61 Harley-Davidson Panhead.   He rode the Panhead coast-to-coast and then bought a new HD FX 1200cc shovelhead.

   Still having the itch for something more, he served two years with the Israeli Parachute Regiment and one year in the Rhodesian Light Infantry.  In 1981 while with the South African Defence Force riding in a military vehicle in southern Angola, his vehicle drove over an anti-tank mine and the resulting explosion cost him both of his legs, above the knee on the right and below the knee on the left.  He spent nine months in a Pretoria military hospital, undergoing 20 operations, including four to remove his legs in stages, skin grafts, and agonizing physical therapy to learn to walk again.  When he was released from the hospital, Barr volunteered to go back (?!) to the combat zone where he’d nearly been killed to finish his enlistment on prosthetic legs.

 

   Barr mustered out in December 1982 and returned to his family home in West Covina, California.  He took the Super Glide out of storage and refit it to accommodate his new life.  He added an electric start and an overload spring to the brake pedal so he could ride with his artificial right foot resting on it.  On his first ride, a casual thought occurred to him, and it put his life on a new course that would take him around the world and to some of its most extreme and challenging environments.

   It was on the shovel that Barr would become the first double amputee to circumnavigate the globe.  Seven years later he piloted the Super Glide out of Johannesburg, South Africa, on a 9,000-mile transcontinental ride to raise funds for the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, an international charity that assists disabled people.  In September 1990, nine months after completing the African ride, Barr again left Johannesburg on the 18-year-old shovelhead, he turned north and kept going.  Riding six of the world’s continents—he couldn’t find a way to get the bike to Antarctica—Barr logged 83,000 miles (including a 13,000 mile Atlantic to Pacific segment across Northern Europe and Siberia) through the world’s most dangerous and unforgiving regions during what turns out to be a 3½-year trip.

  And then as a million others are whining about their sore knee, he decides, "fuck this", and sets a second world record for riding the so-called Southern Cross.  In just 45 days during 1996, he completed the first motorcycle journey ever between the four extreme geographical corners of the Australian continent.

  Dave Barr was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000 not only for his world record setting exploits, but also for the charity work he has done for the disabled along the way.