Today in motorcycle history, June 4, 2002

    
         

  

  Aprilia USA announces the introduction of two limited edition motorcycles, the RSV 1000 R Tuono Limited and the RSV 1000 Mille R – Haga Replica. The bikes were available in extremely limited numbers in the United States, only 50 Tuono's and 60 Haga Replica's.

   The Haga Replica has the same livery as the bike used by Noriyuki Haga at the Superbike World Championship and came with it's own circuit kit, which included a full Akrapovic titanium exhaust system and an Eprom injection unit. And as an added bonus it came with a blue anodized Ergal top triple tree with “Noriyuki Haga” inscribed signature, PLUS a production identification serial number, PLUS the inscription “SBK REPLICA RSV 1000 R”.  Relax, take a deep breath. 



   If you were interested in snagging one of these special edition bad boys, you needed to find a local Aprilia dealer to place an order. The RSV 1000 Mille R – Haga Replica had a U.S. MSRP of $18,999 with a delivery date, if you were lucky, of maybe July, 2002; the RSV 1000 R Tuono Limited had a U.S. MSRP tag of $17,299 and it's pace-the-floor wait time was November, 2002.  Just think, World Superbike technology and imagery, irreplaceable performance packages parked in your garage.  





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Today in motorcycle history, June 3, 1978

  

  

  

  

  Aboard a specially prepared Ducati 900SS, Mike “The Bike” Hailwood stuns the motorcycling world when he emerges from 11 years of self-imposed retirement to win the Formula One TT at the Isle of Man.

  A race he had first ridden as an 18 year-old in 1958, he was told he was out of touch with the sport and its developments, an "out of shape, pot-bellied" 38 year-old, they said he was wasting his time, he no longer belonged there.  They said wrong.  His victorious return to 'The Island' has been described as one of the most emotional moments in motorcycling history.

   Mike Hailwood won nine motorcycle World Championships between 1961 and 1967, then turned to Formula 1 car racing, following in the tracks of John Surtees, with whose cars he became European Formula 2 Champion and began his Formula 1 career.  In time he might well have added a Formula 1 World Championship to his list of achievements, but his motor racing career ended abruptly in 1974 when he crashed his McLaren on Germany's daunting Nurburgring.

  Disabled by his leg injuries, he retired to New Zealand, where he eventually grew bored of the quiet, slow-paced life, and in 1978, he was back at the Isle of Man, the scene of so many of his earlier triumphs.

  Mike Hailwood won nine World Championships, including four 500cc titles in succession.  In six years he won a fairly unprecedented seventy-four Grand Prix's.  He won in each of the 250cc/350cc/500cc classes, including winning GP's in all three classes in the same season, a record five times.  Five times he won all three classes in one day!  He won the Isle of Man fourteen times.  He set the one hour top speed world record in 1964 at Daytona.  He came out of retirement at the age of 38 and won the Isle of Man two years in succession.  Called by many, "The greatest motorcycle racer ever."








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Today in motorcycle history, June 2, 1974

  


  

  


  

  California motorcycle racing legend Kenny Roberts wins his first national road race at Road Atlanta (home of the famous "esses") on June 2, 1974. 

  In 13 years of professional racing, Kenny Roberts won two Grand National Championships and three 500cc World Championships including 32 Grand Nationals and 24 Grand Prix road races. He also won the Daytona 200 three times and took the checkered at the Laguna Seca 200 an amazing six times. He was the second AMA rider after  Dick Mann to accomplish what is known as the "Grand Slam" of bike racing, winning all five events of the Grand National Championship with wins at a mile, half-mile, short-track, TT Steeplechase and road race.




  Kenneth Leroy Roberts was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1990, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992, AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998 and in 2000 the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) named him a Grand Prix "Legend".

Today in motorcycle history, May 23, 1933

   

  

  

  The Speedway legend known as Ove Fundin is born in Tranas, Sweden. 

  Nicknamed "The Fox" because of his flaming red hair and his hot temperament. A ruthless and fearless rider once he climbed aboard his bike, hell-bent to win every race. Nothing and no one got in his way.

“I hated losing...”

 Ove Fundin stood on the World Final rostrum for ten consecutive years following his first title win in 1956. No other rider in the history of the sport has yet been able to match that.

  Prodded by Australian Speedway Champion Aub Lawson he went to Britain and joined the Norwich Stars, riding for them from 1955 until 1964 when the Firs stadium closed. Then he rode for Long Eaton Archers in 1966, Belle Vue Ace's in '67 and the Wembley Lions in 1970, but he will always be remembered for the glory days riding for the Norwich Stars where he was worshiped by the home fans. 

  Norwich reporter, Derek James, on Fundin, "Thousands of men, women and children would raise the rooftops as Ove raced around The Firs stadium where he ruled the roost – on his day nobody could catch him. He was our very own world champion. Simply the best."


  He made a total of 15 World Final appearances coming runner-up three times and third three times as well as his five wins. He also helped Sweden win the World Team Cup in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1970 as well as the Speedway World Pairs Championship in 1968. He is considered by many to be the greatest rider of all time.

  One of the greatest sporting idols ever to represent Norwich, he was honored as a Freeman of the City of Norwich in 2006, only the second non-English person to be awarded this honor. The ceremony was held at Norwich City Hall Council chamber by the Lord Mayor of Norwich on October 30, 2006.



  Fundin's combination of tenacity, temperament and talent carried him to the very top of the sport he loved. The Speedway World Cup trophy was renamed the Ove Fundin Trophy. The trophy itself was designed by Asprey and Garrard, House of the Crown Jeweller since 1843, who also created and supplied trophies for the US Masters, Volvo, PGA Golf Championship, Cisco World Matchplay Championships, the Rugby World Cup and the Heineken Cup. The trophy itself stands two feet high and is made from sterling silver and gilt. The design incorporates the traditional with modern elements, the main feature is a gilt globe surrounded by a silver sprocket in authentic speedway style.

   A bronze statue of Ove Fundin by Richard Brixel was unveiled in his hometown of Tranas in the summer of  2012.

  Look at this list...

  World Champion: 1956, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1967

  World Championship Runner-up: 1957, 1958, 1959

  World Championship Third: 1962, 1964, 1965

  World Best Pairs Champion: 1968 (with Torbjorn Harryson),

  International Champion: 1961, 1962, 1963

  Member of Swedish World Team Championship Winning Team:  1960, 1962, 1963, 1964,1967, 1970

  Swedish Champion: Ten times

  European Champion: Five times


  No brakes, no gears, no fears.

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

Today in motorcycle history, May 22, 1966

  

  



 

  Driver Fritz Scheidegger and passenger John Robinson defend their 1965 World 500cc Sidecar Championship title with a victory at the West German Grand Prix.

  Swiss sidecar racer, Max Friedrich "Fritz" Scheidegger with Englishman John Robinson as crewman, win the West German Sidecar GP aboard their 500cc BMW RS54.  They would go on to dominate the 1966 Sidecar Grand Prix.

  Starting the season off by winning at Hockenheimring (West German GP), they then wheeled themselves to victory at the French Grand Prix, the Dutch GP, Belgian GP and, finally, capping the 1966 Sidecar GP season off by winning the 500cc World Championship at the Isle of Man TT.

  Sadly, tragedy would strike the team the following season, while leading a sidecar race on March 26, 1967 at Mallory Park, Leicestershire, UK, they crashed heavily at the Hairpin, killing Fritz Scheidegger.  John Robinson would break his leg and suffer severe head trauma, forcing him retire from racing.



  There is an old saying,"once you're in the sidecar family - you can stop racing but you can never, ever leave."

 

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

Today in motorcycle history, May 21, 1961

       

    

  Canadian Michael Duff crosses the finish at the 1961 French motorcycle Grand Prix 11th on a 500cc Matchless G50. 

  Michael Duff began his motorcycle racing career in 1955 at Edenvale, Ontario.  As a private rider, or privateer, he was lucky enough to board the likes of a Matchless G50, AJS 7R 350, AJS Porcupine 500, Norton 500, Triumph 500, Royal Enfield 250 and a Bultaco 125.  Then, in 1964, as a Yamaha works rider he rode the now classic RD56 250 and the RA97 125.  He skillfully made a career of riding them to finishes on some of the greatest circuits and in some of the greatest races, including Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Northwest 200, Isle of Man, Imola, Daytona 200, Le Mans, Nurburgring and Thruxton.  And let's not forget his Top-Ten Grand Prix finishes - Ulster GP, Finnish GP, Belgian GP, Swedish GP, Austrian GP, Spanish GP, Daytona USGP, Dutch GP, Czechoslovakian GP and the Italian GP.




   Mike Duff moved to California in 1968 to take up a position with Cycle World magazine as an Associate Editor.  Duff would continue to race in both Canada and the United States with mixed success, finishing third at the Daytona 200 in 1968.  He won the Eastern Canadian Championship in 1969 before calling it quits to open his own Yamaha dealership.


  In 1978, predicting a great slump in the motorcycle industry in Canada, he gave up the dealership and began a machine-shop business doing specialized machine-work on motorcycle engines, many for the dealers in the Greater Toronto area.



  In early 1984, following many years of emotional pain and frustration, he closed the machine-shop business and made the decision to "...set up house-keeping as a woman...", changing her name to Michelle Ann Duff.


  In 1996 she published, "Make Haste, Slowly", the Mike Duff Story by Michelle Duff.  A 330 page race by race saga set on the Continental circuits of European racing from 1960 to 1967.  An insiders view of a glorious era of racing, legendary riders and legendary bikes.  

  A must read for all motorcycle racing fans.

  Today in motorcycle history is a proud supporter of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD).

www.nabd.org.uk

Today in motorcycle history, May 20, 1999

  


    

  

  "Kaptain" Robbie Knievel clears a sliver of the Grand Canyon traveling 228 feet to break his own world record by 5 feet.  Fireworks erupt and the crowd of several hundred cheer wildly as he soars over the 200-foot-wide gorge at 90 mph.

  OK, so he really didn't jump over the Grand Canyon.



  Some people on the Hualapai Indian Reservation said it was considered more like a really big hole between two ramps, not even important enough to be given a name on local topographical maps.



  "This is barely a wash in this country," chuckled Hualapai tribal member Allan Smith.


  And Robbie Knievel wouldn't have plunged 2,500 feet to his death, splattered on the canyon floor as Fox network broadcasters dramatically told a live nationwide audience as Knievel revved his bike's motor for the big moment. Maybe 75 feet and change.


  None-the-less, Knievel showed he did have his old man's balls of steel as he broke 80 mph down the takeoff ramp, soared 40 feet in the air, flew well over 200 feet and came down hard, losing control of the bike and sliding into cacti and bales of hay before coming to a stop.

  After the dust cleared (literally) emergency personnel, with the help of Dan Haggerty, helped Knievel up. As he attempted to limp back to the ramp, he gave a weak thumbs-up to cheering supporters.

  "I'm a little dingy in the head," he told reporters as Fox television cameras rolled. 

  

  

  Today in motorcycle history is a proud supporter of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD).  www.nabd.org.uk