Today in motorcycle history, March 20, 1970

  

  

  On March 20, 1970, Fabio Taglioni made the first sketches for the layout of a new Ducati V-twin.  By April his drawings were completed, and by July, there was a running motor.  By August 1970, there was a complete prototype motorcycle.  Fabio Taglioni and his team had designed and built their own complete bike in only six months!  Crazy-fast in corporate time.  

  Fabio Taglioni was chief designer and technical director of Ducati from 1954 until 1989.  He began by designing Ducati's OHC four-stroke singles, and in 1963 designed the prototype V4 Ducati Apollo. This led to the 1972 Ducati 750 Imola Desmo, and the 1970's and 1980's production Ducati L-twin motorcycles. His desmodromic 90° V-twin engine design is still used by Ducati. 

  Taglioni began his career designing engines for Ceccato motorcycles. Who shot who and what now?!  You read that correctly, Ceccato motorcycles.

 

  Ceccato was founded in 1947 by a former pharmacist, Pietro Ceccato, who was passionate about medications, engines and innovative management ideas.  Ideas such as making changes using input invited from employees (hey, Boss, you reading this?).  The first of Fabio Taglioni's engines to be realized, was a Ceccato 75cc OHC single (designed with the help of Fabio's Technical Institute students). 

  The company got out of the motorcycle manufacturing business in 1962 but, it successfully started producing compressors and today Ceccato air compressors are famous around the world. 

Today in motorcycle history, March 19, 1971

  


   

  

  Shovelhead's rule!  Joe Smith turns the first motorcycle 8-second 1/4 mile. 

  From the March 19, 1971 issue of "National Dragster"...

  Bakersfield, California - The thirteenth running of annual "March Meet" went into drag racing's annals as still another highly-successful event at the famed Famosa Drag Strip.  Under the auspices of the Kern County Racing Association, and sanctioned by the NHRA, a capacity crowd witnessed some of the most exciting races in many a day...

  ...History was also made in the motorcycle world.  Joe Smith walked away with the Fuel Bike honors, but not before he became the first man in history to eclipse the heretofore untouchable 8-second barrier.  Joe Smith on his King Rat Harley-Davidson shovelhead turns an 8.97 second quarter-mile!  It stands as the quickest-ever clocking for a bike, a tremendous accomplishment for the West Covina, California resident.  Runner-up to Smith was NHRA National Record holder Boris Murray on his "Double Triumph", who ripped off a 9.02 during eliminations, with top end charges in the 167 mph range!

  Fastforward to 2008: Larry "Spiderman" McBride (Poquoson, Virginia) aboard a supercharged Nitro-Suzuki does a 5.746 second quarter-mile at Valdosta, Georgia.

  For more info and super-cool pics of Joe Smith's legendary King Rat and King Rat II and other vintage drag bikes go to Grand Daddy Joe Smith's website.  Check it out!

Today in motorcycle history, March 18, 2011

 


  


  

 The hammer drops on Wyatt and Billy's panheads.

 On display at BONHAMS in NYC are the 1993 re-creations of the 1963 Harley-Davidson "Captain America" and the 1962 Harley-Davidson "Billy Bike" for auction.  Both of the "Easyrider" panheads were built for Otis Chandler and exhibited at "The Art of the Motorcycle Exhibition" at the Guggenheim Museum in 1998. 

  The Chandler Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife, more commonly referred to as The Vintage Museum or The Chandler Museum, was the primary showcase for the collections of Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler since its foundation in 1987.  The museum was located in Oxnard, California and was designed by architect Vincent Dyer and home to Otis Chandler's extensive collection of motorcycles that covered two floors of the museum.  There were over 50 motorcycle manufacturers represented including Ace, Crocker, Iver Johnston, Indian, Harley-Davidson, Vincent and Brough Superior.  Oh, there was also fine art, vintage and rare cars and wildlife game.

  After Chandler died, the collection was auctioned off in late 2006.

  Did you know:  One of the actors from the commune scene in "Easyrider" was Dan Haggerty, aka "Grizzly Adams". 

Today in motorcycle history, March 14, 1908

   

      

  

  Philip Conrad Vincent is born in Wilbraham Gardens in the southwest London district of Fulham.

  

  Phillip Vincent bought his first motorcycle, a used 350cc BSA from Gamages (a  department store in Central London that sold everything from motor parts to pets to shotguns) at Christmas of 1924.  By the age of 18 he had a workshop and was designing and building his own machines.  In 1928 he had registered a patent for his design of cantilever rear suspension.

  Vincent formed his first company with Frank Walker, a family friend.  Howard R. Davies, founder of the HRD marque and winner of the 1924 Senior Isle of Man TT was in serious financial disarray and in 1928 Phil was able to acquire the trademark and remaining HRD motors, jigs, patterns and all spare parts for £450.  The company was soon named Vincent-HRD Co., Ltd., and the logo appeared with Vincent in very small letters over the top of the bold HRD.  Vincent designed a brand new motorcycle with his own spring frame and marketed it as Vincent-HRD, with a choice of either a JAP or a Rudge engine.



  In 1928, the first Vincent-HRD motorcycle used a JAP single-cylinder engine in a Vincent-designed cantilever frame.  After a disastrous 1934 Isle of Man TT, with engine problems and all three entries failing to even finish, Phil Vincent, along with Phil Irving, decided to build their own engines.  In 1935 the first all Vincent powered motorcycle, The 499cc Comet model was launched.  It was quickly followed by the 998cc Series A Rapide in 1936. 

  Vincent and Irving designed the Series B twin engine which powered the 1946 Series B Rapide.  In 1948 the liver-quivering Vincent Black Shadow and Black Lightning models, powered by the Series C Rapide were introduced.  They had a 998cc, 50 degree, OHV V-twin engine running a 7.3:1 compression ratio and was capable of 125 mph.

  At a Vincent Owners' Club dinner in the summer of 1955, Phil Vincent announced that the company could no longer continue in the face of heavy losses and that production of motorcycles would cease almost immediately.  

  In 1955, one week before Christmas, the last Vincent came off the production line and was promptly labeled "The Last".  Grown men were heard sobbing uncontrollably.






  Journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote that, "If you rode the Black Shadow at top speed for any length of time, you would almost certainly die."

Today in motorcycle history, March 13, 1992

   

   

    

  The Ate de Jong directed, comedy-horror film "Highway to Hell" is released.

  Charlie Sykes and Rachel Clark are a young all-American couple that decide to run away and elope in fabulous, Las Vegas, Nevada.

  A funny thing happens on the road to Vegas, they completely ignore the warning of a local gas station attendant, Sam, when they're told to avoid backroads.  As expected, they take an abandoned backroad where Rachel is kidnapped by a zombie Hell Cop who takes her to Hell.  Charlie goes back to the gas station to ask Sam what the hell a Hell Cop is and how to save her.  Sam then gives him a shotgun with special ammo, and a car that has a very custom option.  On the highway, Charlie meets other dead people that live in Hell and even a zombie motorcycle gang.  On the road, he meets a mechanic named Beezle, with his young apprentice.  Beezle gives him tips on how to save his girlfriend.  After Charlie rescues Rachel, Beezle reveals himself to be Satan (Beezle-bub, get it?! [sarcasm]) and proposes a deal to let them, and his apprentice, go free if they can defeat a Hell cop in a race to the portal that connects Earth and the backroads of Hell.

  Confused?  Trust me, it's not hard to follow.

  It has Oscar-worthy performances by Lita Ford as The Hitchhiker girl, Gilbert Gottfried as Hitler, Ben Stiller as Pluto's Cook/Attila the Hun and Ben's mom, Anne Meara as Medea, waitress in Pluto's and dad, Jerry Stiller as The Desk Cop.

  "She Devils On Wheels" is available on DVD.

Today in motorcycle history, March 12, 1976

      

            

  

  On the evening of March 12, 1976, Daniel "Coyote" Wolf found himself in the parking lot of the Kingsway Motor Inn in south Edmonton, Alberta....

.....He was nursing a swollen, black-and-blue right hand, injured the previous evening during karate practice, and was wondering how it was going to hold up in the imminent battle.  He stood shoulder to shoulder with 22 members of the Rebels, the reigning outlaw motorcycle club of the Edmonton area, awaiting the onslaught of 40 members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment.  The Airborne, Canada's elite paratroop fighting force, was there to expand its social territory to the Kingsway Motor Inn, for many years the Rebels' club bar.  To lose the bar to the Airborne would be a blow to the prestige of the Rebels MC that could send a message of vulnerability to rival clubs.

  There was much at stake for Wolf in that parking lot: his physical well being, the territorial primacy of the Rebels, and, most important, his PhD dissertation.


  Today Daniel R. Wolf is psychological anthropologist who has worked at the University of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, among other gigs; he is the only anthropologist ever to choose an outlaw motorcycle club as the topic of his doctoral study. In fact, Coyote--the name given to him by his Rebel brothers because he wore a coyote pelt over his helmet--was the first outsider of any sort to infiltrate an outlaw bike club


  Wolf traded in the Norton for a 1955 Harley-Davidson panhead and then a '72 Electraglide--a Harley is de rigueur among outlaw bikers--and set off to join Caveman, Blues, Tiny, Wee Albert, Slim, Whimpy, Voodoo, Indian, Armand, Crash, Big Mike, Smooth Ed, Snake, Dale the Butcher, Saint, Terrible Tom, and the other members of the Edmonton Rebels. His resulting dissertation was the first of its kind. The biker subculture had been ethnographically unexplored, and Wolf eventually turned it into a popular book, The Rebels (University of Toronto Press), that reads like a cross between Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels and Lionel Tiger's Men in Groups.

  Despite being outnumbered 40 to 23, the Rebels prevailed over the Airborne.  The paratroopers came with nunchaku (karate sticks), a steel bar attached to a chain, a blackjack, a baseball bat, and more.  A few Rebels had chains and tire irons, but most were unarmed.  One wielded an old motorcycle battery.  But the Rebels attacked together, "with the viciousness of cornered animals," in Wolf/Coyote's words.  The Airborne, soldiers trained in unarmed combat, weaponry, and riot control, dispersed when they saw a number of their fellows being beaten.  Said Wolf: "They had not yet endured and shared enough to cement those ties of comradeship that result in members presuming, and acting upon, a principle of self-sacrifice.  The Airborne may have been the finest in discipline, but they had not yet learned to look out for each other under fire"--thus proving brotherhood is powerful. 




  The Edmonton chapter of the Rebels MC folded in 1997.

Today in motorcycle history, March 11, 1958

  


  

  



  Four-time Grand Prix World Champion, "Steady Eddie" Lawson is born in Upland, California.  

  Eddie Lawson's grandfather taught him how to powerslide a motorcycle on the dry lake beds in the California high desert. So, it was only natural that he began his motorcycle racing career in the Southern California dirt track circuit.  When it became increasingly frustrating to get a win on dirt, he switched to road racing.  It was on that rubber-scarred pavement that Eddie found his calling.  In 1979, Lawson finished the season second behind "Fast Freddie" Spencer in the AMA 250cc road racing National Championship.  Afterwards, he was offered a ride with the Kawasaki Superbike team and won the AMA Superbike Series in 1981 and 1982.  He also won the AMA 250cc National Championship in 1980 and 1981 for Kawasaki.



  Eddie took an offer from Yamaha to ride in the 500cc World Championship as Kenny Roberts' team-mate for the 1983 season.  He would spend the entire '83 season learning the ropes of the Grand Prix circuit.  Patience is a virtue.  The next season Lawson began winning regularly and won the 1984 World Championship.  After winning two more titles for Yamaha in 1986 and 1988, Eddie totally blindsided the racing world by announcing he would be leaving Yamaha to sign with their arch-rivals Rothmans Honda as team-mate to his own arch-rival, Australia's 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner.  By switching teams, he also fulfilled his desire to work with the legendary wrench Erv Kanemoto (Gary Nixon's 1973 Kawasaki H2R).  After Gardner crashed and broke his leg during the third round at Laguna Seca, Lawson went on to win the 1989 title for Honda, becoming the first rider to win back-to-back championships on machines from different manufacturers.

  In 1990, Lawson and Japanese rider Tadahiko Taira, won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race on a Yamaha FZR750R.

  Eddie Lawson was inducted in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.