Today in motorcycle history II, March 5, 1990

  Jimmy Carter's sister, Gloria Carter Spann, dies from pancreatic cancer.  Gloria and her second husband, Walter, spent much of their time out of the spotlight and in the saddle on coss-country trips aboard their Harley-Davidson.

  During their years as motorcyclists, Gloria and her husband became "den mother" and father to the younger riders.  The Spanns planted a large garden for the bikers each year and canned the vegetables to serve as they often had unexpected guests.  Their farmhouse was arranged for multiple cots or sleeping bags.  Walter constructed a four-hole outhouse to accommodate bikers who were cruising through the South or headed down to the races at Daytona.

  When she died she was buried in the Lebanon Church Cemetery near Plains, Georgia where her parents and brother, Billy Carter, are also buried.   Gloria Carter Spann's tombstone reads, "She rides in Harley Heaven."

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Today in motorcycle history, January 21, 1905

  Another past tale to tell...

  Small ads are placed in the "Automobile and Cycle Trade Journal". These advertisements offer Harley-Davidson engines to the do-it-yourself trade. By April of 1905, complete motorcycles were in production on a very limited basis. That year, the first Harley-Davidson dealer, Carl H. Lang of Chicago, sold three bikes from the dozen or so built in the Davidson backyard shed.
   Some years later the original shed was taken to the Juneau Avenue factory where it would stand for many decades as a tribute to the Motor Company's humble origins.
   Unfortunately, the first shed was accidentally destroyed by contractors in the early 1970s during a clean-up of the factory yard.
   Oops.

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Today in motorcycle history, November 2, 1934

   I'm on vacation so here's a blast from the past...

   Englishwomen Theresa Wallach and Florence "Blenk" Blenkiron, set out on a Phelon & Moore 600cc single-cylinder Panther motorcycle equipped with a sidecar and a trailer and rode from London to Cape Town, South Africa. No modern roads, no plan B, just a giant set of balls that any man would envy. Both women were already accomplished competitive racers, who were savvy enough to raise corporate sponsorship– which just goes to show how seriously they were taken as motorcyclists. The duo rode straight across the Sahara through equatorial Africa, and South to the Cape, on the long and brutal trek without so much as a compass. Undeterred by nomads, sand drifts, heat, rain, breakdowns and politics. A feat that no man had dared to even attempt. Keep in mind this was 1934.
   Theresa Wallach was elected to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2003. Other than being a motorcycle adventurer, she is an author who founded Easy Motorcycle Riding Schools, Inc. and published a training manual of same name and was the first Vice President of Women's International Motorcycle Association (WIMA).
Her life-long love affair with motorcycling is summed up in a quote from a 1977 interview with Road Rider Magazine.
   "When I first saw a motorcycle, I got a message from it," she said. "It was a feeling – the kind of thing that makes a person burst into tears hearing a piece of music or standing awestruck in front of a fine work of art. Motorcycling is a tool with which you can accomplish something meaningful in your life. It is an art."
   Theresa Wallach remained an active member in WIMA up until her death in 1998 at age 90.

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