Today in motorcycle history, June 24, 1922

    

     



  The first of two (June 24 and August 19) motorcycle races starting in the Grunewald section of Berlin.

  Known as 'The Great Race', it was 150 laps on an unsympathetic dirt track.  The June race had nearly 500 entrants, including Freida Schiller, the lone female rider.  Two childhood friends, Wilhelm Ebstein (the eventual winner) and Willy Thiele finish the race despite Thiele having been thrown from his bike midway thru the second lap by a stray dog. 

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

Today in motorcycle history, June 23, 1970

        

 

  

  MGM releases "Kelly's Heroes" in the US.

  

  While on location in London in July of 1969, Clint Eastwood buys a Norton Commando 750, two days later he fails to turn up for shooting.  Director Brian Hutton is infuriated.

  Eastwood ( starring as 'Private Kelly', the platoon's de facto leader) along with friend and cohort Harry Dean Stanton ('Private Willard') go AWOL for four days.  The duo repeat their bike adventure while filming in the Istrian village of Vižinada in Yugoslavia, this time for 6 days.  Hutton goes crazy as Clint shrugs it off.

  In an interview with Edyth James for 'Film Now!', he claims the Director "had a bug up his ass" and he didn't understand.  Flashing that impish grin he told James, "C'mon it was a new bike!" 





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