Today in motorcycle history, January 3, 1938

  

    

  Kelvin "Kel" Carruthers is born in Sydney, Australia. 

  Kel Carruthers was the 250cc Grand Prix Road Race World Champion in 1969.  As a rider, he is well known for winning not only the World Champion title, but also for his victories in the 250cc class at Nurburgring and the Isle of Man (twice '69 and '70).  He went on to have a brief, but highly successful racing career in America before becoming one of the most successful team managers and racing engineers in the history of the sport – heading both US National and World Championship teams during the 1970's and ‘80's.  Kel ran the teams on which a brash kid named Kenny Roberts would win three consecutive 500cc World Championships and then three more with Eddie Lawson on works Yamahas.

  In 1970, he went within an ace of being the first rider to win a world Grand Prix Championship on "private machinery".  He won more GP's on his self-tuned Yamaha than had the previous year on a works bike and set the fastest lap in five races, but broken contact breakers on the TD2’s standard ignition caused several DNF's.

  Carruthers finished third in the 1968 350cc Championship on an Aermacchi single and was runner-up in the 1970 350cc Championship, riding most of the season on a second-hand Yamaha TR2.

  Known as a very keen, precision rider, so much that in five European seasons he never broke a bone, went to a hospital or missed a race due to injury.

  Kel Carruthers was inducted in the AMA Hall of Fame in 1999.

Today in motorcycle history, January 2, 1969

  


  

  Under the watchful eye of Dr. Stefan Bauer, the Norton Commando is given the Isolastic frame.


  The revolutionary part of the Commando, compared to earlier Norton models, was the award-winning frame developed by former Rolls Royce engineer Dr. Stefan Bauer.  He believed the classic Norton Featherbed design went against all engineering principles, so Bauer designed his frame around a single 2.25 inch top tube. Bauer tried to free the Commando from classic twin vibration problems, which had severely increased as the engine design expanded from the original 500cc.

  Dr. Bauer, along with Norton-Villiers Chief Engineer Bernard Hooper and assistant Bob Trigg, decided that essentially, the entire engine-transmission package would be suspended on rubber mounts, attach the swing arm pivot to the back of the engine to keep the chain travel constant and to give the vibration a path to the ground (out the back wheel).  It was baptized the "Isolastic Suspension System" and it made the new 1969 Norton Commando 750 an overnight sensation.

  The Norton Commando became the seminal Norton and the sole model that carried it to its demise in 1975.  In 1973, the ancient vertical twin that started out life as a 500cc for the 1949 Norton Model 7, had been punched out to 600cc for the 1956 Norton Model 77 and Model 99, then again to 650cc for the 1962 Norton Dominator 650SS, and yet one more time to 750cc for the 1962 Norton Atlas, was yet again enlarged, this time to 850cc for Commando duty.  In 1975, it grew an electric starter, then died shortly thereafter (kind of ironic, ain't it).  Norton was in receivership by 1975, control of the factory jostled back and forth, but a few more Commandos trickled out in 1976 and 1977, with the last few finally being sold as 1978's.

Today in motorcycle history, December 31, 1947

  



  

  Britains forgotten four.  The 1948 Wooler prototype, a four-cylinder shaft drive, begins to take shape as the frame is finally ready to accept the latest John Wooler wonder.  

  John Wooler designed his first motorcycle in 1909 – a two-stroke horizontal single-cylinder machine with a double-ended piston. The first production model was a 230 cc two-stroke with front and rear plunger spring suspension and a patent "anti-vibratory" frame. The motorcycle was manufactured by Wilkinson from1912-1914 with a 344cc engine and marketed as the Wilkinson-Wooler. Production was halted with the outbreak of WWI.

  Wooler began it's own production in 1919 with a new and advanced machine which was entered in the 1921 Junior TT where it was nicknamed the "Flying Banana" by the legendary racer Graham Walker.

  Very little was ever heard from John Wooler again. Until the 1948 London Show. One of the sensations of that event was a prototype 500cc Wooler shaft-drive tourer with an extraordinary four-cylinder engine. Horizontally-opposed pistons were connected to its crankshaft via a single main connecting rod and a complex rocking-beam mechanism.

  Although John Wooler was reluctant to admit it, his innovative engine was completely impractical. To salvage the project, his son Ronald designed a more orthodox horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine. The redesigned four has a compact all-alloy power unit with one carb for each pair of cylinders and overhead valves operated by pushrods from camshafts in the lower engine. Drive to the rear wheel from the single-plate clutch and four-speed transmission was by a shaft and bevel gears. Maintaining Wooler’s ‘Flying Banana’ tradition, the fuel tank unit extends forward ahead of the neck and forms the headlamp nacelle. A toolbox is built into the top of the transmission and an oil pressure gauge is located just ahead of it.

  Predating Honda’s Gold Wing flat-four shaft drive tourer by 20 years, the Wooler set out to offer the highest levels of comfort, silence and ease of use. But Wooler lacked the finance needed to develop and make a competitive product. As few as five machines are thought to have been assembled before John Wooler died and his company folded.

Today in motorcycle history, December 30, 2001

  
  

  Legendary British motorcycle designer/engineer, Eric Cheney, dies at 76.

   After ten successful years on the European motocross circuit Eric Cheney was forced to retire from racing himself due to an infection contracted while racing in Algeria.  Not one to sit around and do cross-stitch, he began to design motorcycle chassis' and suspensions.

 Having had no formal training as a motorcycle designer he was able to create original and high performance chassis designs working with an approach that had been described as "like a medieval engineer" because he worked entirely by intuition.  Eric relied on his long personal experience of international off-road competition riding and would prepare his initial designs for a new motorcycle frame in chalk on the wall of his workshop.  Experimenting with different lines until he was satisfied, Eric would then form the steel tubing using his chalk drawings as a guide.  Only when he had built a working prototype motorcycle would he start work on a final jig for mass production.  He quoted as saying "I know when it's right and it screams at me when it's wrong."

  In 1968, the British motorcycle industry was unable to support a national team to compete in the International Six Day Trial so, Cheney hand built a limited number of ISDT Cheney-Triumphs using his own design of twin down-tube frame with a specially tuned Triumph 5TA engine.  Fitted with tapered conical hubs, special motocross forks and large alloy fuel tanks. In 1970 and 1971 three 504cc Cheney Triumphs were used by the British team in the ISDT (Cheney would win the manufacturer's prize).  Replicas were built, but production was short-lived due to a shortage of engines.

  Cheney's most noted successes were in the Grand Prix championships, with Phil Read using his chassis in tandem with a Yamaha engine to win the 1971 250cc World Championship.  His designs were the last British ones to win a Grand Prix.  He never worked for any of the major manufacturers but maintained a productive relationship with BSA in its heyday.  After the demise of BSA in 1972, Cheney joined with former BSA factory rider John Banks to develop and campaign a highly successful BSA powered motocross bike.

  Some of Cheney's motorcycle designs are now famous in their own right, such as the competition BSA Gold Stars of Jerry Scott, Keith Hickman and Steve McQueen.

Today in motorcycle history, December 27, 1998

  

  



  

  One of Spain's greatest champions, Grand Prix motorcycle racer, Ricardo Tormo Blaya, dies from luekemia.

  As a member of the Bultaco factory team in 1978, Ricardo Tormo wins his first FIM 50cc World Championship. After a falling out in 1980, Tormo would leave the factory team and would prove to them it was their loss, not his, when, in 1981, he once again is crowned  50cc World Champion but, this time saddling a privately backed Bultaco.  He was also a three-time 50cc Spanish National Champion and a four-time 125cc Spanish National Champion.

  After a divorce from Bultaco, in 1983, together with Jorge "Aspar" Martinez, Tormo signed with the Derbi factory to compete for the 1984 World Championship in the new 80cc category.  At the first race of the year at Misano, Tormo's Derbi suddenly throws a rod putting an end to his Derbi debut.  The motorcycle press raise their collective eyebrow, should he have signed with Derbi?  The second race of the season was to be held at Spain’s Jarama Circuit.  At that time, there were only two official circuits in Spain, one in Jarama and the other in the beautiful Calafat.  The team planned test rides before the race, but both circuits were already booked, forcing them to practice in Martorelles.  This region of Barcelona was an industrial park just outside of the Derbi factory.  The team occasionally had test runs in this area, blocking off the roads to ensure that no cars would interfere with the racers.  During a practice prior to the Spanish Grand Prix, a vehicle gained access to the area from one of the team’s assistants who was supposed to have blocked off all of the roads.  Tragically, Tormo, who was testing a new racing suit, hit the car and shattered his right leg, ending the career of one of Spain's greatest Grand Prix racers.

  In 1994, Tormo received Valencia’s highest honor when he was given the Valencian Community’s High Distinction award.  In collaboration with the journalist Paco Desamparados, an autobiography was published, entitled "Yo Ricardo. Una vida por y para la moto" (I am Ricardo. A life by and for motorcycles).

  After a long battle with leukemia, on December 27, 1998, Ricardo Tormo dies.  In his honor, Valencia’s racetrack was renamed the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo.

Today in motorcycle history, December 26, 1972

  


  

  The first woman of color in the world to win a professional motorsports event, Peggy Llewellyn, is born in San Antonio, Texas. 

  Of American, Jamaican and Mexican descent,  Peggy Llewellyn wins the 2007 NHRA POWERade Prostock Motorcycle title in Dallas, Texas, becoming the first woman of color to win a professional motorsports event.  

  Riding motorcycles since she was seven, Llewellyn was seemingly born with the need-for-speed.  In 2001 Peggy was able to get six NHRA starts but, unable to secure a sponsor, she found herself studying for a real estate license as a means to eat and keep bill-collectors off her ass.  It didn't take long to realize selling turf wasn't to be the career for her, so back to the track she went.  With natural talent and a gritty determination she finally locked up a sponsor and was able to race full-time.
  Then, in 2007, as well as qualifying for the inaugural NHRA 'Countdown to 4' and 'Countdown to 1', allowing her to finish in the POWERade Top 5, she also did a career-best time with a 6.928 seconds at a leg-wetting 193.24 mph.

  Peggy Llewellyn made history again in 2010 when she became the first woman of color to own, operate and race for an NHRA drag racing team, 2 Wheel Woman Racing.

Today in motorcycle history, December 23, 1947

  

  

  The Lambretta 'A' scooter goes on sale. Pregnant women across the UK moan simultaneously as Mod's kick at the wall of their mother's wombs, trying desperately to see their future.

  Ferdinando Innocenti hires General Corradino D'Ascanio, rumored to have a deep hatred for motorcycles, to the job of designing a simple and affordable two-wheeled vehicle. Ego, more than design, leads to the General having a falling out with Innocenti. With a big, "Screw you!", D'Ascanio disassociated himself from Innocenti and took his design to Enrico Piaggio, who produced what would become Lambretta's arch-rival Vespa. The final design of the Lambretta would be given to aeronautical engineer Pier Luigi Torre. 

  Much to Innocenti's chagrin, the Piaggio Vespa would become the standard for scooter. Finished in 1946, using aircraft design and materials, D’Ascanio's 98cc scooter had various radical design concepts, including a sleek, stress-bearing structure. The gear-shift lever was moved from the feet to the handlebars for easier riding. The engine was placed near the rear wheel. The internal mesh transmission eliminated the chain, a never-ending source of oil and dirt. The typical fork support was replaced by an arm similar to an aircraft carriage for easier tire-changing ability. The elegantly styled body protected the driver from wind and road dirt, and bore little resemblance to uncomfortable and noisy motorcycles. The smaller wheels and shorter wheelbase provided improved maneuverability through narrow streets and congested traffic. Combining the best elements of automotive, aeronautical and motorcycle design, the Vespa quickly became an icon of design and economy.

 Months later, at the Paris Motor Show in 1947, Innocenti introduced the Lambretta, beginning a long-standing rivalry with Vespa. The scooter was designed by Innocenti, his General Director Giuseppe Lauro and Torre. The Lambretta 'A' went on sale on December 23, 1947. At a time when gas was severely rationed, the scooter was a more efficient way to travel. And much more stylish. It had a top speed of 45 mph from a 123cc, fan-cooled engine. 9,000 of them were sold the first year.

  Lambretta's popularity (and sales) increased dramatically when Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels) rode a Lambretta Li 150 Series 3 in the 1979 film "Quadrophenia". Across the UK, hoards of Mod's, some screaming, some crying, ran to their local scooter dealers.

Did you know...the scooter was named after Lambrate, the Milanese neighborhood where the factory had stood prior to the war.