Today in motorcycle history, June 14, 1954

  The re-introduction of the Sidecar TT Race for the 1954 Isle of Man TT is met with much controversy, it was opposed by the motor-cycle manufacturers who, "declare themselves as appalled" by the inclusion of a sidecar race.  It was also opposed by the factories for the inclusion of the first female competitor, Germany's Inge Stol.  The matter of female competitors was raised in the Isle of Man Parliament but, much to their chagrin, "Tynwald refused to ban the Fräulein."

  However, tragedy would strike at the 1958 Czechoslovakian Grand Prix when the Norton sidecar that Inge was racing, with Jacques Drion driving, while holding 2nd place the bike left the road on a right-hand corner on the penultimate lap.  The sidecar outfit hit a fence and turned over.  Inge Stol was killed instantly and Jacques Drion died from his injuries after being admitted to the hospital.

                                                     

Today in motorcycle history, June 12, 1973

                                     

                                                                                   

                                        

  Norman Keith "Sailor Jerry" Collins dies. 

 

  He may not have even owned a bike, but there is no denying the mark he left (no pun intended) on hundred's, if not thousand's, of bikers world-wide. 

  Norman Collins was born on January 14, 1911 in Reno, Nevada, but his family moved shortly afterwards to Northern California.  Legend has it that as a child he hopped freight trains across the country and learned the old "needle in hand" tattooing from a man named "Big Mike" from Palmer, Alaska.  In 1928 he met Tatts Thomas from Chicago who taught him how to use an electric tattoo machine which he then practiced on drunks brought in from skid row.  

  In 1930 Norman enlisted in the United States Navy.  During his subsequent travels at sea he was exposed to the art and imagery of Southeast Asia.  He fell in love with the art, the sea and Hawaii.   Collins remained a sailor for his entire life thereafter.  Even during his career as a tattoo artist he worked as a licensed skipper of a large three-masted schooner, on which he conducted tours of the Hawaiian islands.

  Sailor Jerry's last studio was in Honolulu's Chinatown, then the only place on the island where tattoo studios were located.  His work was so widely copied, he took to printing "The Original Sailor Jerry" on his business cards.

                

     

Today in motorcycle history, June 11, 1996

                                            

 

 

  Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles, and the Rapture of the Road by Anne Ferrar is released.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

   "Hear Me Roar" traces the history of women on motorcycles, shedding light on women riders from the early 1900s to the modern era.  Society's perceptions of female riders are explored in the context of mass media, fashion, entertainment and motor sports, where female bikers have always been viewed either as progressive icons, or through the lens of tired stereotypes.

  More than 100 female riders are shown and/or interviewed, including such    exemplary women in the first half of the 20th century as Bessie Stringfield, the African American “Motorcycle Queen of Miami” in the pre-Civil Rights era ; the Van Buren sisters, among the first women to cross the continent on the eve of America's entry into World War I and Dot Robinson, sidecar endurance champion and Motor Maids co-founder.  Riding further into the present day are Catharine Rambeau, who rode a dirt bike solo from Florida to Patagonia, South America; and Sue Slate and Gin Shear, Arctic adventure riders and founders of the first national motorcycle relay ride to benefit breast cancer research.  Plus many other ladies who refused to "sit down and be quiet".

  To research and write Hear Me Roar, Anne logged 30,000 miles on her own motorcycle, observing, and participating, in charity rides, poker runs, swap meets and biker bars across the United States.

 
 

Today in motorcycle history, June 10, 1959

                                      
                                               

  The 1959 Isle of Man TT witnessed the first entry from a Japanese team in the World GP series, the four 125cc Hondas being managed by Kiyoshi Kawashima, who had the complete trust and support of Soichiro Honda.  This first challenge resulted in Honda claiming 6th, 7th, 8th and 11th in the 125cc light weight class, as well as the Manufacturers’ Team Award.

  With the excitement of Honda doing well at Isle of Man a small expeditionary force headed by another Kawashima, Kihachiro Kawashima, left Japan on June 10, 1959.  He was going to establish Honda's first overseas base, American Honda Motor Co. in Los Angeles, California.

  To save expenses, the Honda lads shared a one-bedroom apartment and stacked motorcycle crates by hand in the company's Pico Boulevard warehouse.  Frustration soon set in when the first Honda Dream motorcycles seemed to be too fragile for the sustained speeds and long distances it would need to cover to be successful in America.  The 50cc Honda Super Cub cycle used by the team for a run to the liquor store, groceries and other errands roused unexpected interest.  Since Piper Aircraft was already using the Super Cub trademark, Honda's pioneering product simply became known as the Honda 50.

  Neither a moped nor a scooter nor a conventional motorcycle, the 50 combined a female-friendly step-through chassis with a clean, quiet engine unlike the "loud and dirty" American and British bikes.

  Humming like a well-oiled sewing machine, the Honda 50 was the anti-Harley.  Sales brochures called it "the thrifty, nifty Honda 50."  Instead of selling them through traditional motorcycle dealers, Honda recruited agents in Popular Mechanics and offered sales franchises to hardware stores, lawn-mower repair shops, and even college bookstores.  By the end of 1961, Honda's network of 500 dealers reached the East Coast.

            

Today in motorcycle history, June 7, 1985

                                          

 

  Mark Gruber wins the inaugral Dairyland Classic on June 7, 1985 at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds’ new 1/3-mile clay oval.   The race was sanctioned through the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) as a Pro-Am event, featuring several amateur and professional racing classes combined in a single event. 

  Gruber won the Classic on a Rotax 500cc.  Matter of fact, from 1985-2012 a Rotax powered bike won 16 of the Dairyland Classics. "Won it on a...what?!" A Rotax, son, a Rotax...

 

  The innovative engine company was founded as ROTAX-WERK AG in 1920 in Dresden, Germany.  In 1930 it was taken over by Fichtel & Sachs and its operations were moved to Schweinfurt, Germany.  Not thrilled with the night-life in Schweinfurt, operations were eventually moved to Gunskirchen, Austria.  In 1959, the majority of Rotax shares were taken over by the Vienna-based Lohner-Werke, a manufacturer of car and railway wagon bodies.  In 1970 Lohner-Rotax was bought by Bombardier, Inc.. The former Bombardier branch, Bombardier Recreational Products, now an independent company, uses Rotax engines in its motorcycles, personal water craft, and snowmobiles.

  The company only built two-stroke engines until 1982, when it started building four-strokes and aircraft engines.

  In 2008, Rotax started manufacturing the 1,125cc Helicon liquid-cooled, four-stroke, fuel-injected 72° V-twin for Buell. 

  Speaking of Buell, if you're interested in an H-D/Buell-Rotax Speedway/Flat-tracker conversion and are lucky enough to live somewhere near Bedfordshire, UK call or stop by Maulden Motorcycle Repair in Maulden, Bedfordshire MK45 2AY.  If anybody can help you with this the good folk there can .

   

 



 

Today in motorcycle history, June 6, 1962

 
 

  Australia's Tom Phillis is killed on the Snaefell Mountain Course at the 1962 Isle of Man TT.

 

 

   In a career that began in 1953, mostly with Norton and AJS, Tom Phillis started racing with the goal of being a World Champion Grand Prix rider and about 437 million miles away Soichiro Honda had his eyes set on his motorcycle's being successful on the world's Road Racing stage. 

  Phillis wrote a personal letter to Mr. Honda late in 1959, a letter by a relatively unknown Australian racer to the founder a Japanese motorcycle company.

  Tom Phillis, who at the time was a private entrant on the Continental Circus with only two years’ experience, but in 1959 he’d recorded three International race victories.   Soichiro Honda, who’d taken his Honda Motor Company from a $3000 venture in 1948 to an annual production of 750,000 machines – 20 per cent of the world’s total production, read the letter and was impressed enough to offer Tom a factory-backed ride.  Phillis’ reward for ignoring the skeptics and playing a hunch that Honda machines would improve rapidly.  

  Honda's reward for giving a 25 year-old Australian the nod would be Honda's first win in a World Championship Grand Prix at Montjuich Park in Spain, and later that year, their first 125cc F.I.M. World Championship at Argentina in 1961.

 Thomas Edward Phillis died aboard a Honda on Snaefell Mountain Course at the 1962 Isle of Man TT 350cc Class. 

 The defending 500 cc world champion, Gary Hocking, was so affected by the death of his friend that he immediately retired from competitive motorcycling.

  He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at the TT race course startline. 

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Today in motorcycle history, June 5, 1968

                                

  Angels from Hell is released by American International Pictures (AIP) on June 5, 1968.

 

  Directed by Bruce Kessler with a screenplay written by Jerome Wish.  It was the first film produced by Joe Solomon's Fanfare Films, a firm Solomon had created with the profits from three previous biker films.  The film was shot in beautiful Bakersfield, California with music by the legendary Peanut Butter Conspiracy*.

 

  A former motorcycle club president, Mike (Tom Stern), returns home from Vietnam to resume his life and form a new motorcycle club.  Using all his gathered experience as a war hero he tries to unite all the existing neighborhood clubs and put together a brand new, super-duper outlaw bike club.  

 

  Mike soon faces trouble when one of his club brothers murders a young woman at a "drug party" and is shot by the police.  The trouble intensifies when an all-out cop against biker war breaks out.

 

  The cast included Tom Stern (married/divorced to/from Samantha Eggar) as Mike, Ted Markland (Angels from Hell, Another 48 Hours) as Smiley,  Jack Starrett (Blazing Saddles, Born Losers, Hells Angels on Wheels) as Bingham and Arlene Martel (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hogan's Heroes, The Monkees) as Ginger, the biker sex-kitten.  Choppers, chicks, cops and drugs.

 

*Peanut Butter Conspiracy also recorded songs for movies including: Run Angel Run, Jud, Cherry Harry and Raquel, Hell Ride, 2000 Years Later and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.