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'BEHIND THE TON UP BOYS', A 1964 FILM

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YouTube provides endless opportunities for your motorcycling entertainment!  This film, from the BBC's 'Look at Life' series, dates from 1964, and while it denigrates the 'Ton Up Boys', they certainly look like they're having fun!

GESTALTEN'S 'DO THE RIDE THING'

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Shot mostly in Biarritz during Wheels+Waves last June, this short film includes many of the machines featured in the the Gestalten/BikeExif book,'The Ride', which arrived at the publisher's offices in Berlin just yesterday.  The film has interviews with Roland Sands, Ola Stenegard (BMW chief designer), David Borras (El Solitario), Vincent Prat (Southsiders), and Chris Hunter (BikeExif).


Do the Ride Thing – The Bikes, the Builders, and the Book from Gestalten on Vimeo.

Myself, Chris Hunter (BikeExif), Gary Inman (Sideburn), and David Edwards (BikeCraft) wrote the text for the book, which is available here: artist Maxwell Paternoster (Corpses from Hell) made a sew-on patch for the limited-edition slipcase version of 'The Ride', which is pretty good in itself (Max is painting up an outrageous motorcycle jacket for me at the moment - I'll post it when it arrives!).  As I was riding a loaner BMW K1300S at Wheels+Waves, I wasn't cool enough to make the film!  Still, there's a shot of me behind Nico/Ornamental Conifer (with a slingshot) from last year's W+W...

Here's the link to Gestalten's web page to buy the slipcase edition of 'The Ride'. 

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'TON UP!' - CAFE RACERS IN STURGIS

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When photographer Michael Lichter invited me to co-curate a show of Café Racers for Sturgis Bike Week, I immediately said yes.  I'd met Michael while he was the official photographer of the Motorcycle Cannonball last September, and have been constantly impressed by his good nature, the his amazing photography, and his renown in the motorcycling world.
Riding around Sturgis; Bear Butte state park - South Dakota's Black Hills are amazing
I had no idea he'd been putting on exhibits at Sturgis for 12 years, as I'd never been to Bike Week, and didn't follow the press surrounding the event...it's safe to say I'm a fish out of water among 250,000 Harley touring rigs.  But Café Racers are very much the waters I swim, and I've long wanted to mount exhibits of motorcycles and related art...and almost as soon as he brought me on board as co-curator, he'd secured a deal with Motorbooks to produce a coffee-table book (called, naturally, 'Ton Up!') documenting the exhibit, with my writing on the genre and its 50 year development.  My dedication to the project was secured.
Willie G's 1975 blueprint (with talking points) of his 'XL- Café Racer'
Michael's reputation in the Industry meant word leaked quickly of our subject matter, and Custom builders clamored to have their machines included,  among whom were Willie G. Davidson himself, who brought his 'Serial #1' XLCR, and his successor at H-D, Ray Drea, who built an updated version of Willie's machine - his 2013 'XR Café' - just for 'Ton Up!' Also, BMW promised 'Ton Up!' would be the US début of their 'Concept 90', built in conjunction with Roland Sands.

I used my contact list for the historic bikes - the BSA Gold Star, Velocette Thruxton, Egli Vincent, Triton, and other seminal machines, to lay the foundation for our historic survey.  While the name Café Racer conjures repeated images of English riders from the 1950s/60s - the 'Ace Cafe/59 Club' era - the style didn't freeze in 1969. We love those Gold Stars and Tritons, but riders have carried on modifying all sorts of motorcycles with Café Racer cues for 50 years now.
The '21 Helmets' display, which grew to 27 helmets!
Sorting through the dozens of bikes offered to us, we had to set down 'The Rules' - what makes a Café Racer.  We boiled it down to the look of a 'racer on the road', with clip-on 'bars, rearset foot controls, a humped racing seat, and performance modifications.  Every Café Racer has most if not all those boxes ticked.
Mark Mederski's low-mile, original-paint '62 Norton Manx, included as the benchmark against which all Café Racers were measured...
The point of 'Ton Up!' was never 'how to make a proper Café bike' - we showed examples from 50 years of Café Racing, 1962 - 2013, to showcased the development, changes, and growth of the genre over several generations of rider/builders. A few of the machines were factory-built Cafés (BSA Gold Star, Velocette Thruxton, and Harley XLCR), but most were modified to achieve 'the look'. The 35 bikes we eventually displayed came from England, Germany, Italy, the US, and Japan, and ranged from 1950s Triumph motors in Tritons, to 2013 Triumph, Victory, and Harley-based customs.
Kevin Dunworth of Loaded Gun Customs with his 'Bucephalus' with unique alloy-plate chassis
As I installed the exhibit, with help from the Buffalo Chip's excellent crew, I heard nary a peep of criticism for bringing an 'it ain't a Harley' collection to Sturgis for Bike Week, and when the show was up, even the most inebriated accidental viewer was agog at the display of beautiful bikes.  While 35 motorcycles and a dozen artists sounds tiny in the context of the hundreds of thousands of bikes outside, the show was too much to take in a single visit.  Each of our motorcycles deserved close study; the ideas explored were sometimes radical, and generally quite beautiful.  The exhibit was an oasis of calm in the midst of Sturgis, a pleasant spot to hang out, and thousands did just that.
Mars Webster's Godet-Egli-Vincent
Here's a gallery of the bikes exhibited, followed by a bunch of random photos from my Sturgis expedition:
- Alain Bernard (Santiago Chopper)' 1996 Moto Guzzi 1100 'Patton Café'
- Arlen Ness; 1987 HD-XR 'Ness Café'
- Brad Richards (Ford Motor Co); 1999 HD 'Sporty TT'
- Brandon Holstein (Brawny Built); 2003 HD 'Brawny Sportster'
- Brian Klock (Klock Werks); 2013 Triumph T'Bird 'Café Storm'
- Bryan Fuller (Fuller Hot Rods); 1974 Ducati 750GT 'Full Sport'
- Chris Fletchner (Speed Shop Design); 1965 BSA 'Beezerker'
- David Edwards (Bike Craft editor, former Cycle World editor); 1975 Triumph T140V
                    'Trackmaster Café' (built by Danny Erickson)
- David Zemla; 2003 HD 883 'DZ Sportster'
- Deus ex Machina; 1978 BMW R100S 
- Dustin Kott (Kott Motorcycles); 1969 Honda CB450 'The 69'
- Gordon McCall (McCall Motorworks); 1965 Dunstall Norton Atlas
- Greg Hageman (Doc's Chops); 1982 Virago SV920
- Herb Harris (Harris Vincent Gallery); 1962 BSA DBD34 Gold Star
- Jason Paul Michaels (Dime City Cycles); 1968 Honda CB450 'Brass Cafe'
- Jay Hart; 1972 HD XL 'XLMPH'
- Jay LaRossa (Lossa Engineering); 1967 Honda CB77 'Lossa CB77'
- Jonnie Green (Ton Up Classics); 1965/7 Triton
- Kevin Dunworth (Loaded Gun Customs); 1967 Triumph 'Bucephalus'
- Kim Boyle (Boyle Custom Moto); 1971 Norton Commando 'Ed Norton'
- Mark Mederski (National M/C Museum); 1962 Norton Manx, 1970 Velocette Thruxton
- Mars Webster; 1950 NorVin Comet, 2002 Godet-Egli-Vincent
- Ray Drea (H-D head of design); 1984 HD XR1000 'XR Café'
- Richard Varner (Champions Moto); 2004 Triumph Bonneville 'Brighton'
- Roland Sands/BMW (RSD); 2013 BMW prototype 'Concept 90'
- Shinya Kimura (Chabott Engineering); 1974 Ducati 750GT 'Flash'
- Skeeter Todd (OCC); 1979 HD XR1000 'American Café'
- Steve 'Carpy' Carpenter; 1969 Honda CB750KO 'Tenacious Ton'
- Steve 'Brewdude' Garn (Brew Racing Frames); 1974 Yamaha RD350 'Streak'
- Thor Drake (SeeSee Motorcycles); 1985 Yamaha RZ350 'BH347'
- Willie G Davidson (retired head of H-D design); 1977 HD XLCR Serial #1
- Yoshi Kosaka (the Garage Co); 1967 Triumph-Rickman Metisse
 - Zach Ness; 2013 Victory Judge 'NessCafé Victory'


I'd like to thank the Buffalo Chip for opening their wallet big-time to ship over 30 bikes from around the US, and paying a crew to help me push 35 bikes and plinths around a 7000 square foot hall.  It was exhausting even with the help of four strong men!  I also need to thank Keyboard Motorcycle Shipping for their amazing flexibility in picking up all the non-Cali bikes from their owners, and bringing them all in perfect condition.

Zach Ness''Victory NessCafé', Shinya's 'Flash' Ducati, and the SeeSee '21 Helmet' display
Gordon McCall's '66 Norton Dunstall with the BMW/Roland Sands 'Concept 90'
Wild variations of feminine dress - and occasional undress - at Sturgis
Brad Andrews''SportyTT' faces off with Mark Mederski's Norton Manx
Closeup of SpeedShopDesign's 'Beezerker' - jewel-like precision
The full shot of the 'Beezerker' by Chris Fletchner, the only Anglo bike customizer currently working in Japan!
'Bikini Bike Wash' was among the most tame entertainments in town...$20 for a wash, which seemed a bargain to me - they were doing a great job!
My '65 Triumph Bonneville; not part of the show, just a helper for an easy commute thru Sturgis traffic
If you want to go around the incredible congestion at the heart of Sturgis, there are plenty of roads through the fields and parklands, all dirt.  The Triumph didn't mind, and the Black Hills are full of wildflowers
Portable art-hanging table, a job Edward Turner never envisioned. 'It's easy on a Triumph!'
Herb Harris' BSA DBD34 Gold Star and Dustin Kott's CB450 Honda
Loaded Gun Custom's'Bucephalus' being un-loaded, from Keyboard Motorcycle Shipping, who did a terrific job hauling 35 bikes from around the country
One of the most popular machines in the show, judging by the reactions I gauged: the 'Tenacious Ton' by Steve 'Carpy' Carpenter, a very early Honda CB750 'KO', but not a 'sandcast'
Silkscreens from Conrad Leach, courtesy Subvecta Motus Gallery
A few of the 1280 people Michael Lichter and I addressed at the show's opening; kinda cool discussing Cafe Racers with Willie G Davidson in the audience!
The temporary HQ of The Vintagent while installing 'Ton Up!', keeping all the shipping boxes straight with the art we unpacked, where the bikes needed to go, press releases, etc.  Not a bad office.
David Zemla's 'DZ Sportster' in Michael Lichter's photo studio
One of my Tintypes on exhibit, of Shinya Kimura's 'FireBall' HD-based special, which now lives in England, so couldn't make 'Ton Up!'
Jonnie Green's Triton, a lovely machine, and excellent example of the species
Like schools of fish they stood, waiting for their final placement, being herded from this side of the hall to the other as plinths were shifted to and fro, finalizing the layout for the show
Such variety!  Arlen Ness''NessCafé', Mars Webster's NorVin, Mark Mederski's Manx, Webster's Godet-Egli Shadow
More variety; David Edwards''Trackmaster Café', Champions Moto 'Brighton', Boyle Custom Moto 'Ed Norton', Skeeter Todd's 'American Café', Carpy's 'Tenacious Ton'
Bryan Fuller's Honda CB550 with amazing Ukiyo-E engraved bodywork and chassis
Herb Harris' Gold Star with Jay Hart's XLMPH and Brawny Built 'Brawny Sportster' in back, with a Triumph tank on a Sporty - a combo I've never seen before...
The fantastic Buffalo Chip crew who helped install the show; Everett, Kevin, Kevin, and Dave
Jason Paul Michaels (Dime City Cycles) chats with Steve 'Brewdude' Garn...it turned out 'Ton Up!' was a good place to introduce builders for the first time
Lovely Michael Lichter shot of filmmaker Karen Porter in front of the Ace Café, part of his display of photography, which I hung next to David Uhl's fantasy painting of a Triumph-riding woman in the very same spot. 
Michael Lichter with Mars Webster's Godet-Egli-Vincent in his temporary studio
Michael Lichter in action with Shinya Kimura's 'Flash' Ducati 750 round-case
Cyril Huze stopped in to say his and discuss the show; here with Michael and the 'Beezerker'
Michael, Willie G Davidson, Nancy Davidson, the Vintagent.
Mars Webster's NorVin Comet and Bryan Fuller's 'Full Sport' Ducati 750 round-case
Wetplate shot of Ola Stenegard, BMW chief of motorcycle design, taken in Strugis: I brought my mobile darkroom hoping to shoot a few images for my 'MotoLand' project for MotoTintype.com
Roland Sands and Ola Stenegard, in town to premier their 'Concept 90' BMW at 'Ton Up!'
Hilarious reminder of the 'redline' on Mark Mederski's Velocette Thruxton.
My Wet Plate shot of Ray Drea and his 'XR Café' outside the exhibit hall at the Buffalo Chip: thanks for being so patient Ray!
Ray Drea, the Vintagent, and Willie G: present and past Directors of Styling at Harley Davidson
Ray Drea and Willie G discuss 'Ton Up!' as they exit the opening party
Wet Plate shot of Roland Sands in Sturgis, part of the 'MotoLand' series for MotoTintype.com
Bright spot in a tough work week; Sarah Brunner of the Buffalo Chip on her 'Ton Up!' favorite, the Champions Moto 'Brighton'
The 'SeeSee' Portland sisters team checking out the 'Beezerker', which plenty of other people checked out too!  It was the most radical expression of a Cafe Racer we exhibited in 'Ton Up!'
Shinya Kimura's 'Flash' Ducati in Michael Lichter's studio
Brad Richards''Sporty TT' in the studio; a truly professional job, and no wonder, since he designs Ford trucks by day
The Buffalo Chip crew in action, giving a sense of how easy it is to completely fill up a 7000sq' exhibit hall...we were tucking bikes everywhere while sorting out the display order
1280 visitors for the exhibition opening, August 5th, 2013
Willie G Davidson with his 1975 concept for a Harley Café Racer: universally agreed as a design ahead of its time, and ahead of the capabilities of the machinery inside all that excellent styling.  His concept was right on, though: 3000 examples were sold in 1977/8, a sales 'failure' in HD terms, but any European factory in '78 would have been thrilled with such numbers...
My Wet Plate shot of Willie's 'Serial #1' HD XLCR, taken outside the exhibit hall, on the exit road to Sturgis, for the Mototintype.com'MotoLand' series
Click here for Michael Lichter's gallery of the ART displayed in 'Ton Up!'

Click here for Micheal Lichter's gallery of the MOTORCYCLES included in 'Ton Up!'

Click here for  Michael Lichter's gallery of the 'Ton Up!' Exhibit INSTALLATION



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'MAD' JACK'S CLUBMAN TT WINNER

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Lt.-Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, otherwise knows as 'Fighting Jack', or simply, 'Mad Jack'
Motorcycles have always attracted 'characters' - people with the courage to live as they choose - probably because while motorcycling, the rider is vulnerable to the weather, to accidental falls, and to metal-clad traffic.  It takes a little courage to ride a bike on a regular basis, so it's natural that courageous/eccentric people are attracted to motorcycling; think TE Lawrence, or for contrast, Grayson Perry.  One two-wheeled character you might not have heard about is John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, otherwise known as 'Mad Jack', for very good reasons.
Jack Churchill training what appear to be American troops, given their equipment. Curious indeed.
Jack was the sort of man who reveled in War; it was his natural habitat, the place he flourished, where he made his mark - usually with a sword, but sometimes an arrow.  In the British military, where he gained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he was also known as 'Fighting Jack'.  His lust for battle was an extension of his passion for living, and he never did anything, it seems, without giving his all.  That included learning the bagpipes, and archery, and swordcraft.
A Zenith-JAP overhead-valve single cylinder machine, of the type Churchill rode across India and Burma
Churchill was born in Surrey in 1906, but was educated on the Isle of Man, at King William's College, then the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst for University.  Shortly after (1926), he joined the Manchester Regiment of the King's army, and was stationed in Burma. He was a keen motorcyclist, and brought his 1923 Zenith (with an OHV engine) along with him, including when sent to Poona, India, for training in Signals.  Finished with his course, he decided to ride his Zenith to Calcutta, 1500 miles away over ox-cart and elephant trails, something never attempted on a motorcycle.  His trip was temporarily halted when a water buffalo leaped into his tracks, so he spent a while at Indore, Central India. But he repaired the bike and completed the journey.
A cartoon made from Jack Churchill's exploits in Burma, riding his Zenith motorcycle across railway sleepers over deep gorges
Back in Burma, he decided to ride 500 miles from Maymyo to Rangoon via Mandalay, to 'visit friends'.  As there were no roads, he rode his Zenith on the train tracks much of the way, bumping along the sleepers, although at times across high bridges, he thought it prudent to walk the bike, and commented on the thrill of stepping between the wooden beams, with oblivion between their gaps! 'It was the bridges over the numerous kyaungs (river beds) that were a problem; there was nothing between the sleepers so I had to steer the bike by hand along the rail, while I stepped from sleeper to sleeper.' While posted at Myamyo with the Cameron Highlanders regiment, he learned to play bagpipes, and was tutored later in England by Donald Fraser, who had been pipes major at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt, in 1882!  Churchill mastered the bagpipes, as he did with most things, and was the only Englishman among 70 entrants in the Officers' Class of the Piping championships at the Aldershot Tattoo of 1938 - he placed 2nd, which was a scandal...an Englishman beating the Scots!
Churchill in later life playing his bagpipes at a commemoration ceremony
He grew bored with the lack of action in army life at the end of the Burma Rebellion (he was awarded the Indian Service Medal), and had been posted back home, so quit in 1936.  As fate would have it, only he would be out of His Majesty's Service for only 3 years, re-joining during the 'phony war' in 1939, and digging anti-tank trenches in Belgium, which were of course never used.  Two days after War was declared (Sep 5 1939) Churchill ordered a Longbow from F.H. Ayres of London (more famous for their rocking horses): a 6' tall, 80lb-pull monster made from a Spanish Yew tree, with 3 dozen 'war arrows' of his own design. 'The bow cost 7 guineas and the arrows 10/6 each - a month's pay - but, after all, I could hardly go to war without decent weapons.'
'Mad Jack' with his War Bow; 6' tall, with an 80-lb pull!  The only documented archer to inflict casualties in WW2
The British and German outposts along the Maginot Line varied from 500 to 900yards apart, and each side sent reluctant patrols outside their trenches in that cold early winter of '39.  Jack carried his bow on patrol, and one day found his opportunity - a German patrol was spotted in the moonlight, close enough.  Jack stood up, and launched two arrows - 'The first I heard land with a distinct crack but there was no reaction; the second caused some commotion and a German called out, but it was most unlikely that I had hit a Hun.'  The 'War Bow' wasn't the only eccentric weapon Jack carried - he also carried a Claybeg sword!
Jack Churchill leading the charge with his Claybeg sword in hand (far right) at the landing at Maaloy in Finland...
During the retreat towards Dunkirk in 1940, Churchill commanded a ragtag regiment of mixed brigades, and while holding the village of l'Epinette against German attack, he found an opportunity to use his silent weapon.  In the book 'Bowmen of England' (Featherstone), Jack is described as 'climbing into a loft of a small granary, Captain Churchill saw, some thirty yards away, five Germans sheltering behind the wall, but in clear view of the granary.  Churchill lifted his bow, took careful aim, and loosed the shaft, to see his arrow strike the centre German in the left side of his chest and penetrate his body.' This was the only documented casualty by bow and arrow in WW2! The War Diary of the 4th Infantry HQ recorded on May 30th 1940, 'One of the most reassuring sights of the embarkation was...Captain Churchill passing down the (Dunkirk) beach with his bows and arrows.  His high example and his great work were a great help to the 4th Infantry Brigade.'
Churchill during WW2, with his Claybeg sword...but without his War Bow...
In Dec. '41,  Churchill led troops of #3 Commando Unit to take the Norwegian island of Maaloy (ironically this missions was called 'Operation Archery').  Smoke screens had been laid on the beach by British Hampden bombers, and Jack jumped ashore playing 'The March of the Cameron Men' on his pipes, sword in hand! The island, though heavily defended, was captured quickly, and when Churchill entered the German commander's hut, he found a case of champagne...and quickly opened it!  While drinking his celebratory bubbly, a bomb exploded nearby, shattering the bottle, and gashing Jack's forehead.  The successful raid, and Jack's bagpipe-and-sword antics, made him a popular man in the British press, but his forehead wound 'healed too quickly, in fact, and I had to touch-up my wound with Rosamund's (his wife) lipstick to keep my 'wounded hero' story going'.
A remarkable shot of Jack Churchill the day after his capture, on June 6 1944.  Jack is holding a coat from one of his four killed captains from the battle, with the blood of his 'second' ('Pops' Manners) on his arm.  Wilhelm Herz is the German officer facing the camera, and sent Jack this photo in 1969.  They met again in 1979 at a reunion rally of the 118 Jäger Division in Austria!
Churchill's further adventures in WW2 were legion, including a 1943 escapade, taking an Italian village near Salerno, defended by 42 German soldiers, with a single back-up man, using only his sword!  He was captured in June 1944, after a failed assault on the island of Brac on the Dalmatian coast, and sent straight to Berlin, as the Germans were convinced he was a relative of Winston Churchill!  In April 1945 he managed to walk in darkness out of a work detail in Niedersdorf, Austria, and walked across the Alps at Brenner Pass, and managed to convince a passing American tank convoy that the ragged, hungry, and filthy creature he had become was a British officer.
Where Jack Churchill preferred; at the barrel of a gun.  Here with a captured 75mm cannon, in Belgium at the start of WW2
The war in Europe was over before the could re-join it, but he was put in charge of a Commando brigade in India, when the US dropped nuclear bombs on Japan, and the war was over.  His comment; 'If it hadn't been for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!' 
Alex Phillips riding his HRD-Vincent Rapide to win the 1950 Isle of Man Clubman's TT
After the War, Jack, in common with many ex-soldiers, sought excitement once again in motorcycling, when he returned to Stirling, in Scotland.  His mount of choice?  The fastest road-legal motorcycle available, and once which had proved itself in battle; the ex-Alex Phillips, 1950 Isle of Man Clubman's TT winner, Vincent Rapide.  After winning the Clubman's TT, Phillips was riding the very same machine back home to Scotland, with his wife on the back!  Unfortunately, they were broadsided by a truck at Ormskirk, and both were badly injured.  Phillips spent 5 months in hospital, and the Vincent went back to the factory for repairs.  It was re-built to full Black Lightning spec, an it took nearly a year for Phillips to collect it, taking the train from Scotland so he could ride the Vincent home.  On the 500-mile journey, he found it performed 'like a rocketship', but he'd been out of work nearly a year, and put the machine up for sale shortly after.  The 'most enthusiastic' response (of course!) was from Lt-Col. Jack Churchill, who purchased the machine, and must have reveled in having what was very likely the fastest road bike in the world, period.
The ex-Alex Phillips, ex-Jack Churchill Isle of Man Clubman TT-Winning 1950 HRD-Vincent Rapide
Jack's motorcycle is coming up for sale at the Las Vegas auction weekend this January 8th, 2014, at the Bonhams sale at Bally's Hotel.  I'm not sure which history is more interesting - Jack Churchill's, or Alex Phillip's win at the Island!
The engine room of this historic Vincent.  What 'enthusiastic' rider will own it now?  Heroes like Phillips and Churchill are hard to come by...
Churchill was famous for plenty of other adventures...like surfing.  He was in fact the first man to surf the English Channel back in the 1950s. Jack's entire life reads like a 'Boy's Own' adventure story...and is worth investigating.  For more, check here.

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'STANLEY WOODS: The World's First Motorcycle Superstar'

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Stanley Woods aboard a Cotton-Blackburne in 1923.  Hew won the Junior TT that year by steady riding, but got excited when he learned his was in the lead, and ended up in someone's door, bending his forks, which can be seen clearly here.  Only the retirement of leader Bert LeVack on a New Imperial paved the way for his victory, in only his second season of racing.
When the greatest motorcycle racers of all time are discussed, among them must always be Stanley Woods, the Irish racer whose career peaked in the 1930s with a phenomenal record of ten Isle of Man TT wins, and a long list of 'fastest laps' on an amazing variety of machinery.  Woods began his racing career with a chutzpa move, sending letters to various manufacturers, claiming to the 350cc makers that he had secured a ride with 500cc makers, and vice versa, and directing their 'who in blazes is he?' queries to the Dublin+District M/C Club, and the Dublin dealer of Indian motocycles....with the replies dictated by Stanley himself! 
Stanley Woods pushing off on a Norton Model 25 racer in the 1926 Senior TT, his first TT win on a Norton.  The Model 25 was a tuned and strengthened version of the Model 18, with a proper recirculating oil pump.
The new book 'Stanley Woods: The World's First Motorcycle Superstar' by David Crawford (Lily books) is rich with period detail and photographs, as Stanley kept diaries and careful notes of his activities, as well as his own camera, and of course the press of the day loved to photograph a champion.  Stanley also had a keen memory, remaining sharp as a tack until his death at 90; author Crawford was a friend of the great man, and had plenty of time to familiarize himself with his long and complicated racing history, as well as Woods' opinions and recollections.
Stanley with his personal New Imperial-JAP outfit, which New Imp agreed to build specially for him from components Stanley sourced from other suppliers like JAP and Sturmey-Archer.  He raced it on the road and on sand, and eventually built an OHV version with a KTOR JAP engine!
'Stanley Woods' has some real gems in the text, including descriptions of the Isle of Man 'race track' in the early 1920s, which sounds much more like a trials or scrambles course. "The first section of the TT course from the start at Douglas to Ramsey was a bumpy and water-bound road.  On dry days...the clouds of dust made overtaking a hazardous business.  It was also full of pot-holes (the section between Sulby and Ramsey being the worst of all) giving riders a hard physical ride on their rigid-framed bikes.  The mountain road out of Ramsey was mostly soft sand and loose stone up as far as the Bungalow, with ruts from cart wheels and grass growing between the ruts." We picture the Isle of Man as a fast race course today, with speeds over 200mph in sections, but 100 years ago it was another test or rider and machine entirely.  
It's good to be the king!  HRH Prince George (later King) shakes hands with Stanley Woods at the start of the 1932 Senior TT, with a new Norton OHC factory racer at his side.  He won both the Junior and Senior TTs that year, the first man to do so.
Luckily, Stanley Woods was already an experience trials rider, and knew how to cope with rugged turf.  He was also quite pleased that the ruse employed to find a 1922 TT machine hit paydirt with Cotton, who agreed to supply him with a Blackburne-engined machine, in fact, one with the highest HP rating of all the 350cc engines supplied for racing that June. He was not so pleased when the Cotton was delivered, for all the Cotton TT racers had been ridden by Cotton employees from Gloucester to the ferry at Liverpool, and their transport duties had become an impromptu street race!  And who can blame them, having suddenly been let loose on pukka racers on the road...but the net result was Harold Brockbank, the Cotton factory foreman, informing Stanley on their introduction that his racer was in no way fit to race, and needed work before even practice could begin.  An exhaust rocker had seized, and the inertia of the Blackburne's external flywheel had sheared off its woodruff key on the crank, and welded itself to the shaft.  1922 was early days for an overhead-valve motor, and Stanley had never touched one before, but set to work, worrying all the while and in his sleep whether it would work. He was 18 years old.
In 1928, at the peak of a Dirt Track craze in the UK, Stanley Woods tried his hand at the best bike available, the Douglas DT500.  He quickly mastered the art of broadsliding, and won several events, setting course records all the while.  Woods was also an expert off-road competitor, winning hundreds of trials. 
The Cotton-Blackburne ran well, but Stanley crashed at Ramsey hairpin and lost his tools, then clipped a kerb so hard he split his exhaust.  When he stopped to refuel, he didn't shut off the engine - a sloppy fill-job spilled fuel onto his leaking exhaust, and Stanley was engulfed in flames.  The fire was put out, and Stanley carried on, more badly burned on his legs than he realized in his adrenalin frenzy.    It was suggested at each instance that he retire from the race, but he doggedly kept going, and finished 5th.  Everyone thought he should win the Nesbitt Shield for 'pluck', but he didn't, and the ensuing press controversy resulted in Cotton sales increasing six-fold!  There are more ways to sell than winning, apparently.
In 1934, Stanley Woods signed with Husqvarna to ride their very fast 500cc v-twin OHV racers.  He set several lap records in the Senior TT, and was leading by 3 minutes on the last lap, when he ran out of fuel.  He rated the Husqvarna as exceptionally good-handling and faster than the Nortons.
Stanley was soon signed with Norton, which catapulted him to the top of the racing tree, and developing an absolutely professional work ethic to racing, which meant winning for his employers, and maximizing his earnings.  While the Norton team reduced his earnings by 30% in the midst of the Depression (from £350/yr in 1929 to £250/yr in 1933), Woods still collected checks from suppliers of chains, oil, saddles, tires, handgrips, etc, which amounted to many times his 'salary'.  It wasn't the money which eventually pushed him away from the Norton team - it was the expectation that Woods should ride to 'team orders', and not win so much.  Norton team manager Joe Craig's logic was that if four top-class riders on Nortons took turns winning, it would reflect better on the machine; Stanley's star status and frequent wins made it appear the wins were due to the man, not the bike...which was of course fairly true!
The 1934 500cc OHC Moto Guzzi v-twin, in Woods' first year racing with the Italians.  The following year, with full rear springing and alloy wheel rims, Woods won the Senior TT in record time.  
So in 1933 Woods left Norton, and successfully raced several other marques, including Husqvarna, Velocette, DKW, and Moto Guzzi.  His keen riding sensibilities improved the Velocette chassis tremendously in 1935, when he test-rode the new big-fin OHC Velocette works racer.  He loved the engine, but hated the handling, and suggested the engine be moved forward a few inches - luckily Harold Willis at Veloce took Stanley at his word, and built a new frame, which became the Mark VII KTT, subsequently developed into the Mark VIII KTT with full rear suspension (the first with 'shocks'), then the Venom and Thruxton swingarm bikes, which all used identical steering geometry and weight distribution.  [Next time you're enjoying the fine handling of a 1960s Velocette, remember to thank Stanley Woods!] Woods rewarded Velocette with his last TT win, in the Junior class of 1939, and a 2nd in the Senior class.  He retired from racing, and lived a full life postwar.
Woods toying with a Binks 'Mousetrap' carb in a sleeper train to the Assen TT in 1933.
Stanley Woods and Veloce's Harold Willis discuss the 1937 factory Velocette racer which Woods helped develop.  This was the first rear suspension system with 'shocks', in this case, specially-made air/oil shocks by the Oleo aircraft landing gear manufacturer.
Woods with a DKW 250 supercharged two-stroke, which handled beautifully, was very fast, and incredibly loud! It was one of the many marques Stanley rode, but this one did not give him a TT victory.


HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE VINTAGENT!

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St.Nicholas, giver of winter gifts since ancient times, is too kind to punish bad children, so he leaves the task to his faithful companion Krampus, who is known by many names.  The question is, does Santa ride, or is this Krampus' sidecar?

ABSOLUTE SPEED, ABSOLUTE POWER [PART1 - 1896-1930]

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A Short History of the World Motorcycle Speed Records, Part 1 1896-1930
(Originally published in the excellent French magazine Café Racer'Speed' special issue)
Sylvester H. Roper, inventor of the motorcycle in 1867, here with his second steam-powered machine from 1896.  This is the only known photograph of Roper with his motorcycle.  Roper was the original biker, and original 'steampunk!'
When Sylvester H. Roper attached a small steam engine to an iron-frame ‘boneshaker’ bicycle near Boston in 1867, one question burned in his mind; How fast will it go? I have no doubt Guillame Perreaux asked himself the same question in Paris that same year, when he also attached a steamer to one of Pierre Michaux’s pedal-velocipedes.  But it was Roper who was motorcycling’s first speed demon, and its first martyr. Every Café Racer on planet earth should affix to their bike a lucky charm with Roper’s visage. Forget St.Christopher - he never rode a bike; Roper is the true patron saint of motorcycles, and he died for the same sin which stains 21st Century bikers - the lust for speed.
The press of the day recounted Roper's untimely demise at the dawn of motorcycling
On June 1st, 1896, at the tender age of 73, Roper was asked to demonstrate his ‘self propeller’, as he called it, on the Charles River Speedway, a banked asphalt bicycle racing track in Cambridge, Mass.  Roper’s steam cycle had a reputation around Boston as the fastest thing on wheels, being able to “climb any hill and outrun any horse”, as he stated. He was invited to pace a few bicyclists at the Speedway, which became a race, and Roper kicked their asses with the 65kph speed of the steamer. Track officials urged him to unleash the hissing beast, and the septugenarian inventor was excited to oblige. After a few scorching laps, Roper was seen to wobble and slow towards his ‘pit crew’ - his son Charles – into whose arms he collapsed, dead. Roper did not crash, but likely had a heart attack from the excitement. Roper became the first motorcycle fatality… not from a wreck, but from the thrill. He deserves a sprocket-edged halo.

BURNING DAYTONA SANDS
American engineering genius, motorcycle and aviation pioneer Glenn H. Curtiss, with his V8 dirigible engined Daytona sands racer, which was timed at over 136mph in 1906 
Glenn Curtiss inherited Roper’s lust for speed.  As one of the earliest motorcycle manufacturers in the US, he’d caught the racing bug first on bicycles, then attached an E.R. Thomas motor to his bicycle in 1899, which he called the ‘Happy Hooligan’ (yes, our great-grandpa was cool). Curtiss thought the Thomas engine, which copied Comte DeDion’s design, was crap, so he built his own motor.  Curtiss was a mathematical and engineering genius since his childhood, and his engines were reliable and performed better than anything else when introduced in 1905.  Curtiss engines were so good he caught the eye of the fledgeling aviation industry, and began supplying motors for dirigibles.  But Curtiss was more than an engineer; the question ‘how fast?’ burned bright in his soul, so in 1906 he constructed a spindly motorcycle frame around his V-8 dirigible motor, and travelled to Florida to test his monster on the only speed venue in the US; Daytona/Ormond beach.
The Curtiss V8 record-breaker in original condition, on display at the Smithsonian Museum.  The exposed drive shaft and rear bevel-gears can be seen clearly at the rear wheel...
Timed runs on the sand on that day were conducted with cars and motorcycles, and Curtiss waited until the end of the day’s 'normal' speed runs, with ordinary production bikes, before wheeling out his 40hp Behemoth.  He promptly scorched through a 1-mile trap at 136.3mph - the fastest speed of any powered human to date.  His 'return' run was ruined by the disintegration of the direct shaft drive to the rear wheel (no surprise, with a sand bath for the exposed universal joint) and the rear wheel locked at 130mph, while the drive shaft flailed away at the rider... but Curtiss' considerable racing experience won out, and he hauled the beast to a stop without crashing. A true American hero.
Gene Walker with the special Indian Chief he rode to 104.12mph in 1920, the first FIM ratified World Motorcycle Speed Record...the last time an American machine would hold the record for many decades
With time, the FIM was created to supervise Speed Records, and the first ‘official’ FIM ratified speed was taken again at Daytona beach, when Gene Walker pushed his Indian Chief to 104.12mph in 1920.   That was the last time an American flag flew over the World Motorcycle Speed Record for 70 years.  For their own reasons, American motorcycle manufacturers, who built the technical equal of any bike in the world through the 1920s, virtually disappeared from global motorcycle competition after 1923, when Freddie Dixon took 3rd at the Isle of Man TT on an Indian 500cc sidevalve single.  America turned inward, to its own style of dirt-track racing, and the World Speed Records of the 1920s belonged exclusively to the British.
Claude Temple aboard his remarkable DOHC Anzani-engined special at speed in 1923
In 1923 Claude Temple stuffed a mighty 996cc DOHC Anzani engine into a simple loop chassis, and bumped along at Brooklands, half airborne on the notoriously bumpy track.  Temple averaged 108.41mph on the magnificent Temple-Anzani, and the FIM didn’t have to cross the Atlantic again for motorcycles until the 1950s, when Bonneville became the location of choice for speed-mad riders.
Worthy of another shot - the Temple-Anzani DOHC special, showing the big Anzani engine, developed by Hubert Huygens, stuffed in a fairly crude chassis in 1923.  Apparently it 'handled like a camel' over Brooklands' bumps, but was certainly fast enough to take records.  This machine was destroyed in the controversial National Motorcycle Museum fire, and has yet to be replicated.  It was unique.

ALL ENGLAND, ALL THE TIME

The rest of the 1920s was a fistfight between three tiny English workshops, sometimes called manufacturers, who all used JAP overhead-valve V-twin engines, and progressively made them faster.  The hunt began for a new place to go really fast, as Brooklands was fine for racing, but horrible for speed records. A decent straightway was found near Paris, in the village of Arpajon, the future site of the Montlhéry speed bowl.  The Arpajon road is still there and still very straight; if you got lost on your way to the Café Racer festival at Montlhéry, you probably took the very same road… but sadly, the roaring racers have long since been replaced by honking commuters. 
Bert LeVack, development engineer at JAP motors, aboard a Brough Superior of the type used to take the 1923 World Land Speed Record, using a big OHV JAP KTOR engine.  This machine is used, in silhouette, as The Vintagent's masthead!
The immortal Bert LeVack became JAP’s racing engineer in the early 20s, and was hired by Brough Superior in 1923 for a new attempt on the World Speed Record at Arpajon, which succeeded at 118.98mph (or since it was in France, 191.59kph). Claude Temple wasn’t happy to have lost the record to George Brough, so Temple teamed up with the Osborne Engineering Company (OEC), who had unusual ideas about chassis design and steering systems (their nickname was ‘Odd Engineering Contraptions’).  The OEC speed-record racer used a complicated ‘duplex’ front end, which was heavy and didn’t like turning corners – perfect for a Speed Record.  Temple used a special 996cc JAP engine to re-take the record at Arpajon in 1926, averaging 195.33kph.
Joe Wright piloting the OEC-Temple-JAP at Arpajon, France, in 1926
Freddie Barnes, the owner of Zenith Motorcycles, sold the only proper road-racing V-twin motorcycles out of all the English factories competing for Speed Record honors in the 1920s. While Brough Superior was flashy and self-promoting, and OEC was preoccupied with bizarre ideas, Zeniths were busy taking more ‘Gold Stars’ for 100mph laps at Brooklands than any other marque, and the tall, lanky Freddie Barnes was their guru.  In 1928, he hired Oliver Baldwin, a Brooklands regular, to ride his 996cc KTOR JAP-engined Zenith to finally break the 200kph barrier, at 200.56kph. George Brough could not bear it - who the hell was Freddie Barnes anyway? – and hired LeVack to breathe a little harder on the 996cc KTOR JAP (conflict of interest? Good business for JAP!) and heated up the competition the next year, 1929, in Arpajon.  George Brough himself rode his factory special to 130mph, the ride of his life, but failed to make a return run due to a minor mechanical problem. LeVack had better luck, averaging 207.33kph (126.75mph).
George Brough aboard the 'Works' Scrapper', which he rode at 130mph at Arpajon, and Bert LeVack took the record at 126.75mph.  This machine can be seen at the Brooklands Museum.
That was the last time a normally carbureted motorcycle took the World Land Speed Record, as the big old V-twin engines had could not breathe any harder, and so were forced; the Age of Superchargers had begun. The English builders Zenith, Brough Superior, and OEC all used the same big V-twin JAP engine, and OEC decided to trump their fellow countrymen by attaching a huge blower to their engine, which increased power by 20%, although the science of supercharging was still young; every plumbing modification and carburetion change was an experiment.  Still, OEC hauled their new machine, along with fearless racer Joe Wright, to France; Wright piloted the OEC-Temple-JAP to 220.59kph (137.58mph) at Arpajon, a huge leap in speed, which meant everyone else needed a supercharger to play the Speed Record game.  Wright’s run was also the first time a rider had officially exceeded Glenn Curtiss’ 1907 speed record…
Joe Wright aboard his supercharged OEC-Temple-JAP at Brooklands, ca.1930

THE WAKE-UP CALL

While these three Kings of tiny, dirty, and unheated little English workshops – Brough, Barnes, and Temple – were having a splendid time in their private fight for ‘fastest’ bragging rights (on French soil), they didn’t hear the whine of a supercharged flat-twin blasting along at 221.54kph in Inholstadt, and knocking the British flag over.  The English had mistakenly believed their own press and advertising, thinking their dominance of road racing and speed records was almost a natural right, a benefit of their extensive Empire and upper-class privilege, but they weren’t the only ones interested in going fast, and certainly weren’t the only engineers capable of building a really fast motor. The Absolute World Motorcycle Speed Record, of course, was only one of dozens of speed records available, each based on combinations of time, distance, and engine capacity.
Ernst Henne aboard the semi-streamlined BMW WR750 OHV record-breaker, a supercharged machine with a pushrod 750cc engine
Two German factories especially – BMW and DKW – were busy developing supercharged road-racing motorcycles; BMW since 1927 with a blown OHV 750cc flat twin, DKW since 1925 with their 175cc and 250cc two-strokes, which used ‘extra’ pistons to pump a fuel charge into their crankcases. Like manufacturers everywhere, BMW and DKW wanted to showcase their engineering prowess through racing and record-breaking, a process which accelerated rapidly in the 1930s, as DKW became the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world with its simple but elegant two-stroke roadsters, and fiercely fast supercharged two-stroke racers. International road racing and record-breaking heated up dramatically in the 1930s, regardless of the economic depression which gripped the industrial world.
The semi-streamlined DKW 250cc supercharged two-stroke twin built for taking speed records in the smaller capacity
While English factories like Norton and Velocette developed straightforward and very effective single-cylinder overhead-camshaft racers (the International and KTT, respectively), engineers everywhere understood that an engine which moves air most efficiently, and spins at the fastest rpm, is the engine which produces the most power.  Translated into metal, this meant more cylinders, supercharging, and camshafts near the valves for effective management of cylinder airflow.  The science of the internal combustion engine had been laid down by English engineers like Sir Harry Ricardo and Harry Weslake, who published their principles for everyone to read, but it seemed the German and Italian translations were the best-thumbed.
The Brough Superior supercharged JAP 'JTOR' engine, revealing the glorious mess required to drive and lubricate the machinery.  Certainly not scientifically designed, but nonetheless a spectacular and successful machine.
Just because the facts are water-clear, doesn’t mean the horse will drink.  For whatever reasons, cultural or financial, the English motorcycle industry failed to embrace the challenge presented to them in 1930s international motorcycle sport, and carried on with designs penned in the mid-1920s, right through the death of British GP racing in the 1950s.  The biggest English factories – BSA and Triumph – had no factory race teams by 1930, while the biggest German and Italian factories probably spent too much money on racing.  The British factories who did race (Norton, Velocette, Rudge, New Imperial, etc) had the best engine tuners and chassis designers, with decades of hard experience, who could extract more power and better handling from their reliable single or two-cylinder racers.

THE SCIENTIFIC RACER
Ernst Henne's supercharged BMW at rest, ca.1933
The writing was on the wall, and engineers from overseas approached racing motorcycle design from an entirely different perspective, science-based machines designed from first principles, with calculated power outputs and target speeds far beyond what any single-cylinder or V-twin motorcycle could reach.  It was only a matter of time before their experiments were successful. The shock of a BMW taking the absolute World Speed Record was a matter of personal, and for the first time, national pride for the English competitors.  BMW had only existed as a motorcycle company for 7 years, and was already at the forefront of supercharging technology, having bolted blowers onto their flat twins since 1927.  While their supercharged road racers were fast, they didn't handle that well at the limits, and were no match on any race track with curves against the all-around riding excellence of a Sunbeam TT90 or Norton CS1 or Saroléa Monotube.
The Gilera 'Rondine' engine, which had its roots in a 1923 experimental across-the-frame 4-cylinder OHC motor by the OPRA research lab, which was then sold to CNA, who redesigned it as seen here with a DOHC cylinder head.  It gained watercooling and a supercharger, as seen here, by the time Gilera purchased the design...a fine example of a research-based motorcycle engine design, and the precursor to all modern 4-cylinder motorcycle engine
The WR750 Henne rode at Ingolstadt to 221.54kph was based on the R63 750cc OHV roadster, using the same tube-frame chassis, with some very special magnesium racing parts.  It was partially streamlined, but only to the extent of covering the steering head and some of the bodywork in form-fitting sheet metal.  While the overall effect was a bit lumpy, the WR750 was visually a more integrated motorcycle than its cobbled-up competition, because the entire machine was designed inside a single factory, with a set of engineers working to improve their product.
The 1931 iteration of the Brough Superior record-breaker, with supercharger plumbing marring the bike's usual clean lines...but making an oh-so-compelling machine
By contrast, their English competition formed an old-fashioned men's club of jolly sporting gents, who assembled the best components they could buy from industry friends, then worked with racing pals to combine these parts into the fastest possible package, in rented workshops beside the Brooklands track. The cross-Channel competition for World's Fastest became a battle pitting the Engineers against the Enthusiasts, the professionals against the privateers, the mind versus the heart. Of course, this metaphorical division is illusive; every effort required some mix of inspiration and experiment, but the flavor (or national character?) of our competing teams was distinct.  Teams of engineers in Germany working from plans, versus teams of English speed addicts working from intuition and hard-won racing experience.  The contrast between these factions became even more stark as the 1930s progressed, as the World Speed Record became a battleground between BMW and Brough Superior-JAP, and the political/propoganda implications of this proxy battle between rival nations grew far more serious.
Last of the old-school World Speed Record contenders: 'Super Kim', the 1925 Zenith-JAP modified in Argentina with a supercharger and 1700cc motor, seen here at the Vintage-Revival Montlhéry in 2011.  A machine I found in Argentina many years ago, and which now lives in Germany.



"THE FASTEST AND MOST POWERFUL AMERICAN BICYCLE", 1906

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A reader recently asked if there was any contemporary evidence to support the story that Glenn H. Curtiss rode at 136mph on Ormond Beach Florida in 1906.  A little research revealed this article, from Scientific American, Volume 96, Number 06, February 1906.  Included is a photograph I've never seen before, which is reproduced below:
Glenn H. Curtiss preparing to ride his V-8 aero-engine monster on the beach in Florida

"What is unquestionably the most powerful, as well as the fastest, motor bicycle ever built in this country made its appearance at the races at Ormond Beach recently; but, owing to the breaking of a universal joint and subsequent buckling of the frame, this machine made no official record.  It was built by Mr. G.H. Curtiss, a well known motor-bicycle maker, with the idea of breaking all records.  The machine was fitted with an 8-cylinder air-cooled V-motor of 36-40 horse-power.  The motor was placed with the crankshaft running lengthwise of the bicycle and connected to the driving shaft through a double universal joint.  A large bevel gar on this shaft meshed with a similar one on the rear wheel of the bicycle.  The total weight of the complete machine was but 275 pounds, or 6.8 pounds per horse-power.  In an unofficial mile test, timed by stop watches from the start by several persons who watched through field glasses a flag waved at the finish, Mr. Curtiss is said to have covered this distance in 26 2-5 seconds, which would be at the rate of 136.3 miles an hour – a faster speed than has ever been made before by a man on any type of vehicle.  Unfortunately, before this new mile record could be corroborated by an official test, the universal joint broke while the machine was going 90 miles an hour.  Fortunately, it was brought to a stop without injury to its daring rider from the rapidly-revolving driving shaft, which was thrashing about in a dangerous manner.  Later on, the frame buckled, throwing the gears out of line, and the official test had to be abandoned.  With his 2-cylinder machine Curtiss rode a mile in 46 2-5 seconds in a race with Wray on a 2-cylinder 14 horse-power Peugeot motor bicycle, only to be beaten 2 seconds by the latter in a subsequent race, wherein a speed of about 80 ½ miles an hour was obtained.  With one of his single-cylinder machines Curtiss made a mile in 1 minute 5 3-5 seconds on January 21."

ABSOLUTE SPEED, ABSOLUTE POWER [PART 2; 1930 - 1940]

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A Short History of the World Motorcycle Speed Records, Part 2 1930 - 1940
(Originally published in the excellent French magazine Café Racer 'Speed' special issue)

THE WORLD'S FASTEST WHITE LIE
Joe Wright, many time World Speed Record holder, beside the supercharged OEC-JAP at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1930.  Note his less-than-enthusiastic smile... (Aldo Carrer collection)
As noted in Part 1, it typically took two years for a team of English enthusiasts to build up a Speed Record machine in their off-hours, while keeping a small factory busy building road machines. The face-slap of the BMW record at the very onset of the Depression made for interesting bed-fellows among former rivals.  Freddie Barnes had spent perhaps too much time in his race shop building Gold Star winners, and not enough making a profit, and the kidney-kick of the '29 Crash had sent Zenith into bankruptcy.  Their ace rider Joe Wright acquired the big Zenith-JAP speed machine, which by now had a supercharger, but was contracted in a hurry by Claude Temple to attack the record again in 1930, to snatch the laurels from upstart BMW.
Joe Wright on the OEC-Temple-JAP in its successful Arpajon speed record guise.  Note the lack of streamlining on the frame and forks, and Joe's helmet!
The FIM Speed Record book notes that on 6th November, 1930, Joseph S. Wright was successful in his attempt, supposedly riding a Temple-OEC-JAP with supercharged 994cc engine to 150.7mph (242.59kph) down the rod-straight concrete pavé at Cork, Ireland. The 1930 record was a significant advance on the Ernst Henne-BMW record of 137.58mph (221.54kph), achieved only weeks before.
Joe Wright aboard the Temple-OEC-JAP record-breaker, which failed to take a record that day.  Just behind it is Wright's personal supercharged Zenith-JAP, which took the actual record run.
But a pair of machines was present at Cork that day; the OEC which had been prepared by Claude Temple, and a 'reserve' machine in case of problems.  The second-string machine was Joe Wright's personal Zenith-JAP.  At that date, Zenith was technically out of business, so no valuable publicity could be gained for the factory from a record run, nor bonuses paid.  While Zenith would be rescued from the trashbin of the Depression in a few months, and carry on making motorcycles until 1948, the reorganized company, with its star-making General Manager Freddie Barnes, never sponsored another racer at Brooklands or built more of their illustrious special 'one off' singles and V-twins which did so well at speed events around the world - from England to Argentina.
A beautiful shot of Joe Wright aboard the Zenith at Brooklands, before the supercharger was added
Joe Wright had already taken the Motorcycle Land Speed Record with the OEC, back on August 31st at Arpajon, France, at 137.32mph, but Henne and his BMW had the cheek to snatch the Record by a mere .3mph, on Septermber 20th. That November day in Cork was unlucky for Wright  and Temple, as the Woodruff key which fixed the crankshaft sprocket sheared off, and the OEC was unable to complete the required two-direction timed runs. With the OEC out of action, and FIM timekeepers being paid by the day, as well as arrangements with the city of Cork to close their road (and police the area), a World Speed Record was an expensive proposition, and the luxury of a 'second machine' was very practical...although the 1930 Cork attempt by Wright/Temple may be the only instance where a second machine was of a completely different make.  Imagine Ernst Henne bringing a supercharged DKW as a backup for his BMW; simply unthinkable!


Wright was successful, and set a new Motorcycle Land Speed Record with his trusty Zenith at 150.7mph (242.59kph), although the press photographs and film crews of the time were solely focused on the magnificent but ill-fated OEC, as Zenith was out of business, and OEC paying the bills.  Scandalously, everyone present played along with the misdirection that the OEC had been the machine burning up the timing strips, and the Zenith was quickly hidden away from history, a situation which still exists in the FIM record books.
Joe Wright's supercharged Zenith-JAP at the 1930 Cork World Record attempt
Photographs from the actual event show the Zenith lurking in the background while Joe Wright poses on the OEC, preparing himself for a blast of 150mph wind by taping his leather gloves to his heavy knit woolen sweater, and wrapping more tape around his turtleneck and ankles to stop the wind from dragging down his top speed.  His custom-made teardrop aluminum helmet is well-documented, but the protective abilities of his wool trousers and sweater at such a speed are dubious at best...but there were no safety requirements in those days, you risked your neck and that was that.  Nowadays, when any 'squid' can hit 150mph exactly 8 seconds after parting with cash for a new motorcycle, Wright's efforts might seem quaint, but he was exploring the outer boundaries of motorcycling at the time, and was a brave man indeed.
A screen capture from the British Pathe film of the 150mph record shows clearly the bike is Wright's Zenith!
The record-breaking Joe Wright Zenith was a rumor for decades, becoming a documented story only in the 1980s via the classic motorcycling magazines and the VMCC journal.  The whereabouts of the Actual machine was known only to very few.  I've had the great pleasure of making the Zenith's acquaintance, it does still exist, and is currently undergoing restoration; ironically, it now lives in Germany, having been in safe hands with arch-enthusiasts for decades.

ALL BMW, ALL THE TIME
Ernst Henne with his supercharged BMW WR750 in 1936
For the next 7 years, as England struggled with economic calamity, the World Speed Record became a BMW benefit, as speed-man Ernst Henne piloted increasingly sophisticated, and increasingly streamlined, supercharged flat-twins to higher speeds.  The Ingolstadt road proved troublesome, so the hunt was continued for a very long, flat, and straight road, somewhere in Europe.  The plains near Tat, in Hungary, were the next speedway, with the Hungarian officials happy to sponsor such a publicity coup.  In 1932 Henne upped the Zenith record by a hair, reaching 244.40kph on a slightly better-shaped WR750.  BMW of course shouted the achievement through posters and catalogs, and spent the next 5 years raising their own record.  A few more tweaks to their bodywork in 1934, and a move to Gyon, Hungary, raised their own record slightly to  246.07kph.
Ernst Henne and his 'Egg'
By 1934, Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels were eager to use all aspects of international sporting activity in service of their fascist state, which included car and motorcycle racing.  BMW and DKW benefitted from wheelbarrows of cash supplied by the Nazi government, and both factories used the money boost to make radical technical changes to their cars and motorcycles.  DKW was part of Auto Union by 1932, a huge conglomerate of car and motorcycle manufacture, with DKW by then the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.  The story of their Auto Union racing cars, the most powerful and exotic GP cars ever, and their competition with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo, is a direct parallel to our motorcycle story.  BMW at the same time developed their 328 sports-racer, an incredibly competent and beautifully designed car, considered an all-time classic.
A very rare photograph of Adolf Hitler inspecting the DKW factory. (Aldo Carrer collection)

In accepting Hitler's cash, the racing and record-breaking teams of both factories came under the scrutiny and supervision of the Ministry of Sport (DRL), and suddenly, their drivers and riders wore swastika armbands over their racing coveralls and leathers, and raised their arms in the fascist salute while 'Deutschland Uber Alles' played for the crowd.  This has unfortunately given the impression that all German competitors were Nazis, which is certainly not the truth; they were racers in Germany in the mid-30s, and some were fascist supporters no doubt, but many private stories from the pre-war period depict legendary motorcycle racers like Georg Meier pooh-poohing their Nazi handlers.  Not all Germans were fascists, and plenty of Englishmen, Americans, and Frenchmen supported fascism...but that's another story.
Looking like a letter to the future, the DKW record-breaker without its canopy, which badly affected handling
There seems to have been a gentleman's agreement between DKW and BMW to stay off each other's racing turf, as DKW focussed on 250cc and 350cc GP racing and record-breaking, while BMW concentrated on 500cc racing and the absolute World Speed Record.  While BMW is perhaps better known for their speed record bikes, DKW as equally at the forefront of the new science of streamlining and engine development, having pioneered the Schnurle-loop scavenge system on their two-stroke engines, and the use of superchargers with twin-piston combustion chambers, so the blowers didn't simply push the fuel mix straight out the exhaust pipe!
The DKW record-breaker with its full bodywork
The photographs with this article show 250cc and 350cc racers of stunning speed and sophistication, with fabulously compelling bodwork, developed in wind tunnels (something they could afford with Nazi cash) alonside their Auto Union GP cars. BMW's experiments with supercharged 500cc GP bikes bore fruit with an entirely new design, which was never intended to have a 'street' version.

The new BMW OHC flat-twin engine, with integral supercharger
Their new OHC flat twin had a supercharger designed with the engine, integral with the crankcase casting, and fast as hell.  While their GP racers used a version of the roadster R5 chassis with a tube frame and rigid rear end, the record-breaker chassi retained a version of the old WR750 tube frame, but was now placed in a better streamlined body.  The new OHC engine was far more powerful than the old pushrod 750cc, even with a 1/3 capacity reduction.
The BMW three-wheel record breaker with its full streamlining, which was more stable than the DKW bodywork
It was no longer necessary to search Europe for a suitable speed venue, as Hitler had ordered new autobahns built across the country, and the A3 was set aside by an eager government to prove the new BMW's speed.  With an engine now half the size of their English competition's JAP V-twins, Ernst Henne might have been expected to incrementally increase the Speed Record, but in 1936 he blistered the new concrete of the Frankfurt-Munich autobahn at 272.01kph, in his fully-streamlined silver projectile with only his helmet visible, giving rise to the nickname 'Henne and his Egg'.
Eric Fernihough aboard the semi-streamlined Brough Superior-JAP record breaker in 1936, at Brooklands, after his successful 163.82mph run
George Brough was many things; a showoff and blowhard, but also a truly gifted motorcycle stylist, and a keen competitor.  Brough Superior remained a tiny factory, producing during its entire 20-year lifepan (around 3200 machines) less than one month's output of rival DKW.  While his roadsters had become chunky Grand Tourers by the mid-30s, the fire of competition and national pride still burned in his heart, and he had been quietly working with veteran racer Eric Fernihough to build a new, supercharged and streamlined, Brough Superior-JAP record-breaker.  Without the benefit of government support or a wind tunnel, their work cladding the Brough in aluminum sheet was instantly old-fashioned compared to developments in GP car racing and aircraft aerodynamics, and the machine relied more on sheer brute horsepower from the big blown V-twin engine.  They must have felt like David with a slingshot against the Goliath of the huge German factories, but their effort worked in 1937, as Eric Fernihough piloted his oil-leaking beast to squeak past the BMW record by 1mph, at 273.24kph.
The spectacular Gilera Rondine, with its laid-down across-the-frame DOHC watercooled, supercharged 4-cylinder engine; the most advanced motorcycle engine in the world, which set the pattern for motorcycle engines through the present day.
Of course, while Alfa Romeo battled Auto Union's GP projectiles, Gilera had also seen the future, and purchased the plans, rights, and tooling for the remarkable water-cooled 4-cylinder DOHC supercharged CNA 'Rondine' (Swallow) in 1934, arguably the most technically advanced motorcycle engine in the world.  The Rondine had its roots back in a 1924 across-the-frame 4-cylinder OHV engine from the OPRA research firm, which was slowly developed by engineers like Peiro Remor into an OHC and finally DOHC engine. Remor was part of the 'deal' with CNA in Gilera's purchase of this incredible machine and all rights to produce it.  Gilera had the racing history to develop the chassis, and the resources to develop the engine of the Rondine, and by 1937, it was the fastest motorcycle in the world.  Proof was provided on the Brescia-Bergamo A4 autostrada in 1937, as GP racing driver Piero Taruffi (who began his career like most Italian racing legends, on motorcycles) raised the record to 274.18kph, on a poorly-streamlined egg with handling issues.  Outside of a fully-enclosed fairing, the Gilera trounced the BMW in top speed stakes, which pleased Mussolini (see photo), although the watercooled engine was still too heavy for the razor-sharp handling required of GP racing.
Mussolini inspects the Gilera Rondine DOHC 4-cylinder, watercooled racer, the fastest motorcycle in the world for a few months in 1937
While post-war Allied archivists documented Hitler's cash 'donations' to German motorcycle and car factories, I've never seen evidence of a corresponding gift from the Italian government; the Rondine was a home-grown product developed over 15 years to a remarkable state of tune, and lived on postwar as the normally carbureted Gilera 4-cylinder racers which dominated the GP World Championships of the 1950s, while BMW's problems with race handling prevented anyone but the German ex-cop, the super-tough superman Georg Meier, from winning a World Championship or an Isle of Man TT.
Benito Mussolini inspecting the Bianchi factory, from a Bianchi promotional poster (Aldo Carrer collection)
BMW answered the Italian challenge on the morning of 28 November 1937, when Ernst Henne averaged 279.5kmh with his BMW 'Egg'. Henne then retired from record breaking, and his egg-record remained unbroken until 1951.
Ernst Henne and his stunning mid-30s BMW record-breaker, after his retirement 
1938 was a big year for global motorcycle racing, as Ewald Kluge won the Lightweight Isle of Man TT on his supercharged DKW two-stroke, the first time a German rider won the TT on a German machine, and resoundingly so, finishing 11 minutes ahead of his next competitor.  The invasion of sophisticated Italian and German racing bikes on British soil was but a precursor to the coming years of war and misery, although most civilians still crossed their fingers that a war would not come.  George Brough was the lone English factory up to the challenge presented by Gilera and BMW, and returned to Hungary in 1938 with a slightly improved Brough Superior-JAP racer, with Eric Fernihough in the saddle again.  Sadly, the streamlining on the Brough presented a barn door sized target for cross-winds, and Fernihough was killed when his machine ran off the narrow road at over 250kph.  The death of his friend took the wind from George Brough, and he returned to England, gradually transforming the Brough Superior works from motorcycle production to specialized machine work for the military; it was a scene echoed across the small factories which once defined the British motorcycle industry.
Eric Fernihough aboard the streamlined Brough Superior at Gyon, Hungary, shortly before he was blown off he road and killed
1939 was an even more dramatic year in racing, when Georg Meier won the 500cc Isle of Man TT on his kompressor BMW, raising the red-and-swastika flag over the very heart of British racing.  The defeat of Norton and Velocette in this race was a stunning blow, and a huge propaganda coup for Germany, finally victorious in the world's toughest road race.  Germany hoped such victories were a portent of greater success on the world's battlefields, and so it proved to merely a year later. Of course, certain complications like the Royal Air Force and a stubborn Russian populace halted Hitler's seemingly unstoppable expansion across the globe.  The brave lives lost racing for two-wheeled glory were suddenly overshadowed by millions of deaths for national survival, as the symbolic battlefields of speed records and GP success were traded for real battlefields, and the rival countries battled it out directly, thankfully to a very different outcome.

The immortal Georg Meier aviating the BMW RS255 at the Isle of Man TT in 1939

LAS VEGAS 2014: THE RECAP

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The first shocker of the week; a factory mis-match, original-paint 1940 Harley EL Knucklehead fetched $159k at Bonhams
There are several de facto motorcycle conventions around the world, but none quite like the annual Las Vegas motorcycle auction week in early January.  There isn't a swap meet or evening entertainment, not a banquet or panel discussion or even art show, although elements of all these can be found at Vegas.  The focus is the auctions, even though hundreds of people arrive with no intention of bidding on anything, content to meet friends from distant places.  Some buy bikes they weren't expecting, some take home bikes they expected to sell...such is the unpredictable mystery of the auction process.
Hello handsome!  Tight quarters at Bonhams as the crowd filled up walkways and every seat was taken.
What can we glean from this year's auctions?  The #1 trend I spotted this year was a solidification of prices for up-and-coming bikes, some of which have now truly entered the big time...and I'm talking about Harley Knuckleheads.  A world record price was set for an H-D EL at Bonhams on Thursday, when an unusual original-paint 1940 Knuck, with a factory mismatch of paint scheme, engine, gearbox, forks, and other parts sold for $159k.
A few of the Silverman Museum Ducatis; green-frame 750SS, a pair of F1s, and a round-case 750Sport
Two days later, this record was broken at the Mecum/MidAmerica auction, when an essentially perfect 1936 Knucklehead - the coveted first-year model - from the George Pardos collection sold for $165k.  Both of these prices are double what the best Knucks typically fetch, and will certainly thrill those who already have them in their garages...and bring despair to those who'd love to own a 'Knuck'.  Fear not, there are too many EL's out there for them all to become financially unreachable ...just don't count on adding a '36 to your collection cheaply.  And anyway, they're still a heck of a lot cheaper than a Crocker.
King of the Knucks.  George Pardos' 1936 first-year, perfect EL Knucklehead fetched $165k
There were no 'Top 20' additions from Vegas, but a total of 15 motorcycles sold at or above the $100k mark, and their variety is instructive.  In descending order, the top prices: #1 was a fine and very rare example of Harley's first ever V-twin, a 1911 Model 7D Twin from the Pardos collection, which fetched $260k.  Next in line was an equally rare BMW R37, the factory's first OHV sports machine from 1925, which sold for $200k.  A zero-mile 1978 Ducati NCR racer from the Silverman Museum sold for $175k, and an immaculate first-year '36 Harley EL Knucklehead from the Pardos collection made $165k.  The factory mismatch 1940 original-paint EL made $159k,  while a restored '74 Ducati 750SS hit $137k. The magic names of Steve McQueen and Von Dutch shot an Indian Chief and sidecar to $126k, and a BMW RS54 Rennsport racer sold for $126k, while a Vincent Black Prince went for $125k.
It's about the people you meet.  Shinya Kimura and Ayu with a Von Dutch-painted Triumph TR5 
If you had $100,000 and needed to spend it all, you could have purchased a 1938 Brough Superior SS80, an ex-Works racing '72 BSA/Triumph triple in a Rob North frame, several antique Harleys from the Pardos collection (a JDH twin-cam, and a 1914 and '15 twin), a 1951 Vincent Series C Black Shadow, and a 1909 Harley single-cylinder.
Asking $100k, getting $95k, but after the fees, it's all the same.  A 1938 Brough Superior SS80 with Matchless MX sidevalve engine, nicely restored.
The Silverman Museum collection of Ducatis made an amazing impression at Bonhams, but included only the twin-cylinder Ducs from the museum; the singles will be auctioned off later, undoubtedly with a few of the unsold twins.  While the lineup was impressive, few Ducatis have reached into $100k+ territory, and fewer still above that (a pair of ex-factory racers inhabit my 'Top 20'); even fairly rare production and road racers are still relatively affordable.
On display, an ex-Evel Knievel Harley Sportster
2014 was the year of the Harley at Las Vegas; it seemed of all marques present that H-D generally had the strongest sales and the highest prices... a result skewed by the inclusion of the George Pardos collection of 'first-year' models, which came to Vegas in a bunch.  They represented one man's 20-year effort to create a collection with a very particular focus... an extremely rare situation!  Very few collectors bring such discipline and clarity of intention to their motorcycle habit.  The rest of us buy whatever seduces us...

Mark Upham, Conrad Leach, and Jared Zaugg confer
Six is better than four is better than three is better than...
The Ducati 750SS which sold for $137,000 at Bonhams
Breathing room of a 250cc Aermacchi two-stroke racer
An ex-Team Obsolete AJS 7R, complete with spares kit
A much-discussed BMW /2 chopper - $3500 takes it!
One of a pair of BMW RS54 Rennsports at Bonhams
Pushing the Brough amid the gaudy lights of Vegas
The all carbon-fiber Brough Superior racer
Filmmaker Bryan Carroll discusses his novel distribution strategy for his film 'Why We Ride'
The local high school football teams helped out with pushing duties at MidAmerica/Mecum, here with a BSA A65 sidecar racer which sold for $7000.  Must be present to win!
Chris Carter explains the kickstart mechanism of his lollipop-shiny 1911ish New Era
A rare 500cc Cotton-JAP roadster from the mid-30s
Jeff Decker's long-in-the-making sculpture of TE Lawrence aboard his SS100 Brough
Fantastic T-shirt spotting at Vegas
Wanna buy a Duc?
Yoshi Kosaka with Evel
Mike Fitzsimons, who recently sold Brough Superior SS100 Serial #1 for an undisclosed sum...


Sid Chantland enjoys his purchase of a rare movie poster
Gordon McCall gets the lowdown on a BSA Gold Star DBD34 from Barry Porter
A rare Grindlay Peerless with Rudge Python engine
George Hamilton as Evel Knievel, and Sue 'Lolita' Lyon...what a pair

In Jeff Deckerland....
Jeff Decker explains his process in casting up bronze and stainless steel for his TE Lawrence project
Jeff Decker's wax model of a single-cylinder Cyclone board track racer
Authentic Harley KR750 dirt track racer

A Laverda (or American Eagle) with fiberglass unibody - unique!
Malcolm Barber of Bonhams discusses the 1950 Isle of Man TT winning Vincent Rapide
The ex-Steve McQueen, restored by Von Dutch Indian 'big twin' Chief with Princess sidecar, which sold for $126k
Triumph Metisse with aging fiberglass...
Rare Nor-Vel; featherbed with KSS Velocette engine
Hungarian Pannonia two-stroke with Flash Gordon sidecar
I'm not a big fan of Japanese four-cylinder superbikes, but this Bimota SB2 was simply too outrageously 1970s to ignore
Testa Rossa!
Rob Ianucci of Team Obsolete, with an R7 AJS for sale from his collection
A packed sale room at Bonhams
Need a Salisbury scooter?  Need another?
More great T-shirts!
Just another Brough SS100 with JAP KTOR engine...
If you need Steve McQueen's jacket from 'Bullit', Bonhams has you covered.
TE Lawrence, as seen by Jeff Decker
Triumph Tiger Cub flat-tracker with a lot of very trick parts...
Serial #2 BSA/Triumph triple racer in a Rob North frame, sold for $95k
Nifty Harley WR750 flat tracker with serious patina
Team England support!




'CAFE RACERS': THE BOOK VERSION OF 'TON UP' STURGIS

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'Cafe Racers' cover by Michael Lichter, of Yoshi Kosaka's Rickman Triumph Bonneville...
The home page of Motorbooks now lists the book I've recently finished with photographer Michael Lichter, now called 'Café Racers: Speed, Style, and Ton Up Culture'.  The cover will apparently feature Yoshi Kosaka's original-paint Rickman Triumph Bonneville.  Looks like you'll be able to pre-order from Amazon and Motorbooks themselves...and when it's in print, I'll offer direct sales via TheVintagent for signed copies.  Stay tuned!


Here's the Motorbooks blurb:


"A photographic chronology of some of the fastest, most stylish, and most individualized bikes in motorcycling history.

Originally used as a slur against riders who used hopped-up motorcycles to travel from one transport café to another, “café racer” describes a bike genre that first became popular in 1960s British rocker subculture [sic; this is not what is explained in the book -pd'o]—although the motorcycles were also common in Italy, France, and other European countries. The rebellious rock-and-roll counterculture is what first inspired these fast, personalized, and distinctive bikes, with their owners often racing down public roads in excess of 100 miles per hour (“ton up,” in British slang), leading to their public branding as “ton-up boys.” Café Racers traces café racer motorcycles from their origins in the mid-twentieth century all the way into modern times, where the style has made a recent comeback in North America and Europe alike, through the museum-quality portraiture of top motorcycle photographer Michael Lichter and the text of motorcycle culture expert Paul d’Orléans. Chronologically illustrated with fascinating historical photography, the book travels through the numerous ever-morphing and unique eras of these nimble, lean, light, and head-turning machines. Café Racers visually celebrates a motorcycle riding culture as complex as the vast array of bikes within it."
And here's my Tintype of Yoshi from the Garage Company aboard his cover-girl Rickman

ANKE EVE GOLDMAN: SOVIET RACING WOMEN

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A portrait of Anke-Eve Goldmann taken in the mid-1950s by her then-husband, a journalist and television producer
Everyone's favorite vintage moto-heroine, Anke-Eve Goldmann, is best known today for early 1960s images astride a BMW in her self-designed leather catsuit.  Yes, she was stunning, and 2 meters tall (that's 6' 6"), and a very brave, independent woman, willing to bear the scorn of postwar German tongues, wagging at the scandal of merely being herself; enjoying motorcycles, wearing racing leather like the boys, and frequently beating them on the road and track.

I've conducted interviews with people who knew her well in the 1950s and 60s, and gained a fuller picture of how this remarkable creature - still alive at 81 years old in Germany - came to prominence in a country deeply in shock from its experiences in the War.  AEG, as she's affectionately known, prefers her privacy today, rebuffing all attempts at interviews or participation in a biography, but her story will inevitably be told...she's too bright a star to hide forever.
Anke-Eve Goldmann with one of the first R69 BMWs built; she never had a sponsorship per se with BMW, but the factory knew who she was, and seemed to supply her with the first of their new models.  She remained faithful to BMW until the early 1970s
The tides of her acceptance in German society began to change when Goldmann started writing for motorcycle magazines around the world: Cycle World, Moto Revue, and Motorradamong others, documenting of her experience riding the Nurburgring, plus European race reports, etc. Her most intriguing article documents an all-but forgotten chapter in Soviet sports history: the Women's motorcycle racing circuit of the 1950s/60s. For a West German woman to document Soviet motorsport in 1962, while the Berlin Wall was being built, was a shockingly defiant act. As a result, this article never appeared in any European magazine, and only Cycle World in the USA published the story, as the bleak tensions of the Cold War ramped up dramatically, with Berlin as the focal point of a possible nuclear war between superpowers.

But Goldmann had no such political agenda; she wasn't a closet Socialist with Soviet sympathies, but was, rather, a feminist before that label was created.  Her experience of being shut out of racing tracks because of her sex rankled as an injustice, as was the ridicule she experienced for daring to be a woman on a fast motorcycle, able to handle herself and her machine with 'masculine' aplomb. AEG, who helped found the Women's International Motorcyclists Association (WIMA) in Europe in the late 1950s, was the first and only Western journalist to document Soviet women's racing, with no need to comment on the irony of women being 'free' to race motorcycles in the Soviet Union, while she in the 'free' West was not.
Anke-Eve Goldmann photographed on the Nurburgring track on her BMW R69 in 1962, as published in her Cycle World article of June 1962, 'A Nurburgring Lap'
Goldmann had arranged in 1961 to visit the Soviet Union as a journalist to document women's motorcycle racing, but a visit from the American CIA (an attempt to recruit her as a spy) horrified her, and she cancelled the trip.  Instead, AEG built up a correspondence with the Soviet women she documented, and relied on them to supply photographs and race results, plus the names of the riders with a few details, like their hair color...the habits of a patriarchal viewpoint die hard, and while Goldmann never referred to Mike Hailwood as 'blonde' vs. a 'gorgeous' Giacomo Agostini, she includes such notes as a way of distinguishing the characters in her report, which must reflect on the extremely limited information available to her...although it does add charm to the story.

Sadly, her Soviet correspondence and all related photographs were collected in an album which disappeared from her family's Swiss summer chalet in the 1970s, and this article is what remains of this unique period in motorcycling history.

Here's the article in its entirety, reprinted from the October 1962 edition of Cycle World magazine.  [I include a few notes of my own, hoping readers in Estonia and Russia can fill in a few of the gaps for us - pd'o]:

SOVIET ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR WOMEN
By Anke-Eve Goldmann
Number 11, Irina Ozolina, overtakes a rival
     "How many motorcyclists in the Western world - male or female - are aware of the fact that in the Soviet Union women are enjoying their own road racing championships?  While England is already exceptional in dauntless girls on short circuits, there are hundreds of female road racers competing regularly in Soviet Russia.
     And the most enviable thing is that they have their own championship races.  The first of them was held in 1949 on the lovely, 6.746km (4.189mile) road circuit at Pirita-Koze-Kloostrimetsa, near Tallinn, in Esthonia.  For reasons unknown, that small country is the center of Soviet motorcycle racing.  Naturally, no highly specialized racing mounts were ridden in that first meeting.  The 125cc K-125, and the 350cc ISH-50 and IZH-54 two-strokes (very much DKW-looking), which developed about 7.5 and 14.5hp respectively, had solid frames and girder forks.
     V. Prytkova won the historical 125 races over 15 laps at a speed of 80.5kph (49.99mph), with veteran Lydia Jefremova second [was she a war or racing veteran? - pd'o]. Most girls lapped at below 70kph (43.47mph), and the best male rider at 86.76 (53.87mph).  Irina Ozolina, of Moscow, won the 350 class at 89.76kph (55.74mph), ahead of Lydia Tratsevskaya.
V. Petrova, one of the leading Soviet lady road racers in the 125cc and 350cc classes
     Next year's 125 winner, Nina Mikhejeva, was faster than the best male had been in 1949.  That strong, blue-eyed girl who took 7th place in 1949, won both race and championship at a speed of 86.6kph (53.77mph) and a record lap of 91.2 (56.63mph).  With Nina, the most prominent of Soviet girl racers had entered the scene.  Indefatigable, of great physical strength, and entirely fearless, this woman conceals high personal charm under very determined looks.  Second place went to Armenian Tumanjam at 84.84kph (52.68mph), who V.Morosova, T. Trossi and Esthonian N. Ratasepp filled the next places.  Irina Ozolina again won the 350 event, this time at 91.62kph (56.89mph) with a fastest lap of 93.3 (57.93mph).  Lydia Tratsevskaya finished second.
     In 1951 Nina Mikhejeva (whose name was now Susova)[recently married? - pd'o] shattered all records, riding her 125 faster than the male winner of the year before.  She averaged 90.46kph (56.17mph) and pushed the lap record to 93.41 (58mph) in the 125 division, out-racing V. Morosova and L. Sviridova.  A lovely girl came in fourth - Virve Gustel, of a famous Esthonian racing dynasty [Estonian readers - please clarify? - pd'o].  Tumanjan and Ratasepp did not finish.
      The 350 event was won, not by Irina Ozolina, but by T. Trossi who, taking things easy, rode to a safe win at 89.29kph (55.46mph).  That miss Trossi can ride is shown by her lap record of 93.77 (58.23mph) established when Irina was still in the race.  N.Nosenko beat Virve's sister, Ylme Gustel, for second place.
     In 1952, both Nina Susova and Irina Ozolina returned to Moscow with their third championships secured.  Nina, in top form, smashed all opposition.  Though unchallenged, she took the checkered flag after 1 hour, 5 minutes, 2.3 seconds for a 93.35kph (57.97mph) average.  A new lap record of 4.15minutes and 95.24kph (59.14mph) also went to her credit.  Second place was taken by V. Morosova, who had been lapped by the dashing Nina.  Mis Reichenbach finished third.  The 350 race was won by Irina Ozolina at 96.01kph (60.62mph) and the lap record now stood at 98.72kph (61.30mph).  Runner-up was Ylme Gustel; V. Petrova wound up third.
Irina Ozolina, Soviet road racing champion in the 125cc class, on her S-157 four-stroke racing machine
     1953 became the year of the sisters Gustel.  Nina Susova was out of the race on the first lap, and lovely Virve defended her first place successfully, averaging 89.02kph (52.28mph).  Fastest lap in that race, at 93.18khp (57.86mph), was ridden by V. Morosova who, after a long stop in the third lap, hurtled through the whole field and finally beat Esthonian N. Ratasepp by a narrow margin for second place.  Virve's sister Ylme was the winner of the 350cc class after Mrs. Ozolina had engine troubles.  Ylme pushed the 350 record up to 97.56kph (60.58mph) and rode to a splendid 350 lap record of 99.67kph (61.89mph).   Esthonian Tea Tahk grasped second place, in front o f N. Nosenko.  Helju Kuunemae, bearer of a famous name in Soviet racing [more please! - pd'o], went out of the race with engine bothers for the fourth consecutive year.
     For 1954, the 350 class was abandoned.  All girls now competed in the smaller class, and Irina Ozolina won the championship with a speed of 90.91kph (56.45mph) over Nina Susova and I. Tomin.  In these years other changes also took place.  Different road circuits had been prepared, and the best racers now made use of a new model, the S-157, a twin OHC single-cylinder affair, giving 14.5bhp and built on the lines of the Czech CZ racer.  Fairing made their appearance, and the Russian girls met female road racers from other Communist countries, notably Hungary.
    In 1955 Nina Susova struck back an won that year's championship, beating Irina Ozolina and Esthonian Evi Nugis, a beautiful fair-haired newcomer who was to become one of the most prominent racers of her country.  After the 1956 championship had again been swept by Nina Susova, Evi obtained top honors in 1957, establishing a scintillating new record of 97.16kph (60.33mph) and also a lap record of 99.02 (61.49mph).
Trainer of the famous Kalew Club, Tomson, at right, checks the machine of one of his Esthonian lady riders
     The championship was decided by two races for the first time in 1958 - at Leningrad an at Talllinn.  The first heat was won by the indestrcutible Mrs Ozolina on her S-157 over blonde Evi Nugis and veteran Tratsevskaya.  In the second race, Evi had trouble, so Irina was content to secure a second place behind Nina Susova which was all she needed to take the 1958 crown. Incidentally, no one knows for sure just how old Irina is, but she started motorcycling in 1939, and is now well over 40!
     Three races counted for the 1959 championship - Riga, Tartu, and Tallinn.  Nina had given up racing so it became a year for the 'old lady' again.  At Riga, Irina managed to beat V. Petrova and local star Vilma Oshinja; at Tartu she was chased in determined manner by an unknown 20-year-old girl from Esthonia, Evi Freiwald, who also gave her a breathtaking fight in the third race, at Tallinn.  Mrs. Ozolina won, but she had to try all she knew to keep Evi from winning - a girl who was born after Irina had already started to ride motorcycles!
     The 1960 championship consisted of two heats: Tartu and Tallinn.  The Tartu even was a terrific struggle.  The winner was - well, who? - Irina Ozolina, who propelled her S-157 around the circuit at an average of 101.27kph (62.88mph).  The lap record, however, was established by Visma Lapinja on an East German MZ at 109.57kph (68.04mph)! Visma took second place in the race at a speed of 100.15kph (62.19mph).  Tea Tahk, on another S-157, was third.  Evi Friewald had engine troubles.  The Tallinn heat was won by Irina, too, at 93.97kph (59.88mph), while Latvian Erika Kiope beat Vilma Oshinja for their berth.
Tea Tahk aboard the Russian S-157
     In 1961 several major changes were observed, the most notable being a ban on specialized racing mounts.  This decision was taken to level the chances, and meant that star riders no longer were assured the fastest machines.  1961 was also notable in that it brought the 'Ozolina monopoly' to an end.  Irina was defeated by Latvian racers.  At Tartu, Vilma Oshinja seemed a safe winner when, in the last lap, Erika Kiope made a determined effort and won by a few yards.  At Talinn, Irina tried to rescue her championship chances and gave Vilma a sparkling fight for victory, but Vilma won the race and the 1961 championship.
     I do not know how the Soviet girls would look in races in Western countries.  Without doubt their courage is comparable to the fearlessness displayed by Soviet International 6 Days Trial riders, but I think that their riding style and racing experience still lacks perfection.  If given International racing experience the Soviet girls certainly could become racing competitors to be reckoned with, and I would give all the tea in China to see them race against this year's 50cc Isle of Man competitor Beryl Swain, and that dashing Californian, Mary McGee."

[Some notes on the motorcycles mentioned in the above article:
Several IZH-50 racers on a Soviet race in the early 1950s
The IZH 50 was introduced in 1950 as the latest iteration of, as AEG notes, the DKW-based two-stroke single-cylinder roadster, tuned for racing.  The IZH 50 was built from 1950-56, and was a 346cc single with an aluminum cylinder and head, producing as she notes around 14.5bhp @4800rpm, with a 4spd gearbox and theoretical top speed of 115kmh (71.46mph).
The IZH-54 production road racer
The IZH-54 was introduced in 1955 as a production road racer, with a lightweight rigid (tube) frame and teleforks and a tuned IZH-50 engine giving 18bhp.  It was very light at 108kg (238lbs). There were few, if any, alternative road racers available in the 350cc class at that date

The S-157 racer was a DOHC single-cylinder based on the CZ.  Here's what Mick Walker had to say in his'European Racing Motorcycles'book:  "The next Soviet racer was the S-157A, an interesting lightweight for the 125cc class.  This was a dohc single with valves set at an angle of 50 degrees, measuring 28mm exhaust and 32mm inlet.  The stroke was rather long at 58.5mm which with a 46mm bore gave a cylinder capacity of 123.6cc.  When FIM President, Peit Nortier, visited the Central Automoclub headquarters in Moscow during 1959, the chief of the technical department told him that it was not intended to put the S-157-A up to the challenge the top Italian lightweights, rather to provide a production racer; and to this purpose a batch of 25 would be constructed toward the end of that year." Walker added he didn't think the S-157 was actually built, but he'd never read AEG's account from 1962!

THE RAILWAY ENGINEER

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Valen Zhou on the 'ER', his second custom build on a 1986 Kawasaki 125cc
Last year I had the pleasure of introducing the work of photographer and custom bike builder Valen Zhou of Chengdu, China to a global audience; his work on the 'Monstub' soon appeared in BikeExif and subsequently all over the Internet.  The Monstub was his first customized motorcycle, and indicated considerable talent in Valen's hands.  I'm happy to share his second custom motorcycle, which he calls the 'ER', which is an homage to his grandfather, a railway engineer, who helped raise Valen.  His absorption of the tools of his grandfather's trade into the very body of his latest motorcycle is a beautiful statement of Valen's sincerity as a moto-artisan.
Valen Zhou's ER on the freeways of Chengdu, China
Here's the story in his words (all photos courtesy Valen Zhou 2014):

"In October 2013, Valen Zhou from Chengdu, China, built his first custom motorcycle. The story of his motorcycle was published in The Vintagent shortly after; a lot of people wanted to know what he would do next. Valen has finally finished his second motorcycle, which is to honor his grandfather, which he calls “ER”—the engineer of the railway.

The fuel tank is handmade, and used a piston for a filler cap, with an external fuel level gauge, very much in the spirit of steam engines
Valen lost his grandfather (who was 86 years old) in 2012; he grew up with him, and was proud he had such a cool grandfather, who was a railway and mechanical fuel technology engineer, working in the early 1950s, forming a new nation of Chinese industry. In those hard times, he was the one of engineers who built the four important railways in China. When he retired in 1986, Valen liked to sit next to his grandfather and watched him make toys. Valen says: “I still remember that time.” Valen liked bicycles so much, his grandfather said: “If you want one, just build it yourself,” and perhaps that’s why Valen likes doing things all by himself.

The secondary chain connects to a kickstart lever.  The rear subframe has been refabricated, although it retains a swingarm for comfort
After Valen’s grandfather passed away, his grandmother gave him a box, and she told him it was his grandfather’s treasure. His grandfather treated that box just like his own life. Valen opened the box; there were so many tools in it, some of them he was familiar with, but some of them he had never seen before. All of those tools were used by his grandfather when he worked on railways. Valen used these tools on his new motorcycle to show his respect to his grandfather. He felt his grandfather would be there with him when he rode his new motorcycle.

On of Valen's grandfather's open-end wrenches serves as a brake lever
Valen totally rebuilt a 1987 Kawasaki 250 in a totally different manner from his previous machine, to be more efficient and practical and used his grandfather’s tools to make the motorcycle special. He used one of his grandfather’s screwdrivers instead of a gear lever, and he bent a wrench to use for the kickstand. He cut two fire extinguishers apart and put them together in another way to make an oil box. The handlebars were made at an angle so that he would feel more comfortable riding it. Valen was obsessed with these details, and spent whole nights sewing his seat and polishing his back drum. A motorcycle in the spirit of the railway.

From the side, the steep front forks and high handlebars look almost Speedway
Valen thought his second hand-made motorcycle would take three or four weeks to build, but there were many situations and inspirations he couldn’t figure out. He is so new to the world of motorcycles. Nevertheless, he finished it. After the Chinese New Year he will go to Italy, which is like a paradise to him. There are a lot of classic motorcycles from Italy, and he can find any type of motorcycle that he wants there. He will learn more skills about how to rebuild motorcycles so that he will make his work better."

'KESH ANGELS' - MOROCCAN WOMEN RIDERS

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A border of soup cans - shades of Warhol - mixed with Lolita's heart glasses and a polka-dot veil...this is not your mother's burqa!
London artist Hassan Hajjaj was born in Morocco, and returns regularly to photograph the vibrant street culture of his native city of Marrakech.  His exhibit of photographs of women motorcyclists can be seen through March 7 at the Taymour Grahne Gallery in NYC, titled 'Kesh Angels', ('Kesh being an abbreviation of Marrakesh), and has generated significant media attention.
Attitude, with a backdrop of brilliant north African color
News outlets breathlessly 'reviewed' the exhibit by inaccurately describing it as 'Moroccan motorcycle girl gangs!', but the truth according to Hajjaj is more prosaic: "Most of the bikes [in the photos] are their own bikes, Marrakech is really a bike city, everybody rides them - young kids, men, women.  It's a feast for the eyes, you'll see a woman riding with a sheep behind her and her husband behind that, or 2 guys with a big sheet of glass between them.  An inspiration for me was Kerima, a 3rd generation henna painter in the main square, who rides her bike back and forth to work every day.  She speaks 4 or 5 languages, works 8-10 hours a day, raises two kids, and built her own house."
Nike's swoosh meets Legos with Arabic letters
Hajjaj riffs on multiple layers of Moroccan culture, from traditional African portrait studios (such as Malick Sidibe and Jean Depara) to Pop art use of soda cans and extensive appropriation of designer logos on definitely non-designer clothing.  His mashup of bad-girl attitude with luxury-branding on their veils and djeballah (head-to-toe coverings) certainly messes with stereotypes of Islamic women, as well as the current, peculiarly American trend of women riders to self-promote via the internet, simply because they ride.  What does it take for a girl to be cool?  In Marrakech, just as in LA, it's all about a motorcycle.


BROUGH BEFORE SUPERIOR

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My favorite shot of William E Brough, father of George Brough, enjoying a beer in his retirement, in 1927
They're at the top of the money tree today, as evidenced by filling 6 of my 'Top 20' Auction Price spots.  It's a status George Brough would have loved, as his Brough Superiors were the most expensive motorcycle in the world when they were new.  In today's Gilded Age, the super-rich are happy to write checks for half a Million dollars for an SS100...because it takes 20 or 30 times that to buy a car of similar status.  Whether George's bikes were truly 'superior' to his rival's machines is open to argument, but the truth is, a 1920s Zenith big twin with a JAP KTOR racing engine would likely sell for more than a Brough Superior today, simply because they're far more rare, and have a better record as track-racing machines. Nonetheless, the renown of the Brough Superior is a reflection of several qualities George possessed in abundance; he was a superb rider, one of the best motorcycle stylists in the history of the industry, and equally important, he was simply a genius at PR.
Young George Brough just after winning the London-Edinburgh race for the third time on one of his father's machines, a single cylinder 500cc Brough.  Yes, George could ride, and his father's bike was reliable.
But George didn't emerge fully-formed from the head of Zeus; his father, W.E. Brough, was also a motorcycle manufacturer of great renown, and an engineer of some skill, who built his own engines, among other things - something his son rarely did.  Some might say William Brough was a Real motorcycle maker, while his son was a clever assembler of components, but the rules in those early years were different than the post-WW2 era, and most manufacturers used bought-in components (engines, gearboxes, wheels, forks, etc) to assemble their machines.  The arrangement of a machine's frame and tinware created a marque's 'identity', of equally validity to a marque which made its own engines and gearboxes.  This was in large part due to supplies of 'loose' sporting engines by JAP, MAG, Rudge, etc, which had performance on par with any other engine.  By the mid-30s, when such engines were no longer competitive in racing, they quickly lost favor with manufacturers; even Brough Superior switched from JAP to AMC V-twin engines, which were hardly sporting, but were sophisticated and reliable, and thus Broughs became Grand Tourers in the end.  Other marques relying on purchased motors either disappeared, or built their own engines, and after WW2, the era of the bought-in engine was over.
A Brough catalog shot of their 500cc flat-twin ca.1922
William E. Brough emerged in the Pioneer era of motorcycling, and was a perfect example of a Victorian engineer; innovative, a clever designer with high standards, and modest.  He built his motorcycle in 1902, and his first production machines appeared in 1908, which were well-built and conventional, with a standard of fit and finish to rival top-tier competitors Sunbeam and AJS.  He used single-cylinder and V-twin engines, but was later convinced of the rightness of the flat-twin engine, which was vibration-free. In the early 1920s, Douglas flat-twins emerged as serious speed machines, and in 1922 a Douglas was the first motorcycle to record 100mph in Britain (with Cyril Pullin aboard), so Brough's move to this engine type was timely.
George and Mrs Brough - his mother!  Aboard a V-twin Brough with wicker sidecar.
Dave Clark, a well-known Brough Superior enthusiast of many years' standing, found a unique example of a W.E. Brough Model W engine at the Spring 2012 Bonhams Stafford auction, and here relates the tale of creating a motorcycle around his purchase. I've edited his account for brevity - there's a lot more technical information about building his own 'D' section frame tubing and making lugs etc, which can be found via the Brough Superior Club newsletter, or via Dave himself.
Dave Clark with his restored 1922 Model WS Brough 

A BROUGH REBORN


by Dave Clark

"I usually look through auction catalogues to see if any Broughs are listed, and the Bonhams Stafford October 2012 catalogue had Brough Superiors, but I hadn’t given much thought to the  OHV 500cc flat twin W E Brough engine listed in the automobilia section. “Good external condition, and turning over with some compression.”

The Model WS Brough engine as seen in the Bonhams Stafford sale catalog
I looked again and noted that the engine had no number; I’ve dealt with several  W E Broughs, and knew where the engine number should be.  With interest growing I rang Bonhams, who confirmed no number anywhere, and the bike was from the granddaughter of a Brough factory electrician. The only person who might know something was Barry Robinson; I had hardly finished the story when he told me exactly what the engine was – a factory works racer which had been on display in the Brough Superior factory canteen, after being cosmetically restored by Ron Storey. It was the only  WE Brough factory racing engine known, and anyway there are only 14 W E Broughs on the BS Club register.

The very engine - at George Brough's feet!  Here on the display from the Brough Superior engineering works' canteen in the 1950s, when motorcycles were no longer made, but the factory did specialist machine work.  The bike is, of course, the prototype Brough Superior 'Golden Dream' flat-four cylinder 1000cc tourer (Colleen Edwards aboard)
I could never think of buying a Brough ‘Superior’ racing engine - I would be blown out of the water by big money collectors.  But I asked everyone I’d spoken with to please keep this information quiet. Initially I thought a maximum bid of £6000 would suffice, but I set my bidding increments on a spreadsheet, and could see the final totals with commission and VAT. I registered with Bonhams for phone bidding; came the day and I was watching the auction online, and finally got the phone call…Lot number 11 came up... bidding started at £10,000. Going up in £500 steps, by the time it had got to £14,000, I was literally shaking with excitement, or was it fear? The bids kept going and at £16,500 I went for one last bid, to £17000. I heard the auction room go very quiet, and then the wonderful sound of the hammer. The Bonhams chap on the other end of the phone said, "We've got it."

A steering head lug from a Brough motorcycle, recovered from the demolished concrete foundation of the Brough Superior works, when the grounds were built over as housing units
Also I had taken a real step in the unknown, what if the engine internals had major problems? I collected the engine from the Bonhams depot in North London, and spent time looking it over; eventually I took off the front head and cylinder for a peek inside – and had a wonderful surprise - standard bores, plus the crank and rods were quite highly polished; it all looked good.


Laying out tubing over a life-size frame drawing, developed by enlarging period photographs to life size, using 'known' measurements as a guide (wheel diameter, engine width, etc)
Barry Robinson kindly sent a 1923 Model W catalogue photo, and a finely detailed 1922 picture of a similar machine. The 1922 machine had 26”x 2.75” wheels, the other 26” x 3”. Howard Wilcox also gave me a catalogue reprint; I then scanned the model W photograph found in Ron Clark’s book ‘The Rolls Royce of Motorcycles’.  These few photos were all I had, there was no chance whatsoever of finding correct frame; I would have to build one.


A 1922 photo of the Brough racing team - Freddie Stevenson in the center, whose machine almost certainly housed the Model WS engine.  The other two riders are Brough agents
Still, John Wallis provided a genuine Brough steering head casting! This had been used as scrap-fill for the concrete extension to the Vernon Road works in the 1930s, probably after William Brough died. In the 1980s, Mike Edwards was at Vernon Road, when part of the site had been sold off to build houses, in what is now Kingfisher Court. The yard was being broken up, and various castings emerged from their concrete tomb, mostly Brough Model G steering heads, but there were flywheels and a cylinder too, and my Model W steering head.


The timing chest of the Model WS Brough, showing the lovely Victorian script of the logo
To replicate the frame, I scanned the 1922 image into Photoshop, tweaked it to remove distortion, then drew it up life-size on white board.  I was able to check known measurements (the engine, gearbox and wheels) as I gradually built up the drawing, which occupied many hours, scratching my head over the details in between the gearbox and the rear wheel. I kept a pad by my bed and woke during the night quite a few times to scribble down possible solutions; I probably redrew the gearbox/frame part at least 6 times, when I realised a measurement or some other requirement had not been taken into account.

The frame as it took shape, with the crankcase in place
One aspect of my frame showed clearly in the picture from Ron’s book; the saddle tube lug forks into two, totally unlike any other WE Brough frame. That Model W, registration AU 6012, was ridden by Freddy Stevenson in the 1922 Edinburgh trial.

Progress, as the tank and engine are assembled
I had to make everything; the frame, the D-shaped tubing to build the frame, the lugs, the Druid side-spring forks, the exhaust pipes, the saddle, the chainguards, tool boxes, etc. The petrol tank is quite unlike any other Brough, and I suspect George Brough influenced its design [George is generally credited with introducing the ‘saddle’ tank we know today – pd’o].  It has an oval-section body, with tapered tails and what I can only describe as a shark-type nose piece. When all the components were built, after a considerable time, or so it seemed, all the parts were back from the painters and the platers. Assembly went quickly, and I only needed to file a shallow scallop in the offside rear engine plate to clear the exhaust pipe.

Starting to look like a motorcycle...
The controls are different from original; I used a Bowden quadrant-type for the front brake, and an Amal internal twistgrip for the throttle. A firm in called Motomania in Czecho makes excellent quality repro levers; you can find them on the internet (www.motomaniastore.com). I had made all the cables and chains before things went away for plating; eventually I wheeled the bike outside, filled it with petrol and oil, and primed the oiling system.  I flooded it, and run-and-bumped down the garden path. I got some hiccoughs showing it was going to fire, and eventually it did, but not too well. Checking everything over, I readjusted the tappets - still not good.

The completed machine - quite a looker!
Perhaps the Amac carburetor? I built up a type 6 Amal from new bits; next try it went! It was very noisy with straight-through pipes, and it started to smoke….I tried to leave as much original kit inside the engine as possible, but the original rings needed to go.  The heads and cylinders can be taken off with the motor in the frame; I had new rings installed in just under two hours. Starting was much improved…I just need to quieten it down a bit.  Next on the agenda is the Kop Hillclimb at the end of September. Probably the last time a W.E. Brough ran up Kop was in 1922, when a team from Nottingham competed in the ACU quarterly trial. And that will be about in for this year. The Brough is indoors for the winter, so I can sit on a crate and look at it.

The 1922 ex-factory racer Model WS Brough
To quote the Motor Cycle review for the 1922 Olympia show, "The model in question is one of the best-looking machines in the show, having a nickel-plated tank with rounded corners and of course the  long separate exhaust pipes ending in an aluminum fishtail, which all good sporting models should have."  The Brough Model W is very low, with a saddle height just under 29” and the weight is less than 200 pounds.  All the effort has been worthwhile, and those who have seen it think it stunning [as do I – pd’o]. One thing, it will never leave these shores while I am still about."

 Thanks for sharing your story, Dave!


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THE WORLD'S FASTEST VELO - EVEN FASTER

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Stuart Hooper with his ultra-fast single-cylinder Velocette-based 732cc special, with his record speed of 183.37mph
Stuart Hooper of Australia has been featured several times on The Vintagent via his exploits with a Velocette-based special land speed record machine.  His supercharged 732cc one-lung beast is more interesting every year, as are his adventures on the salt of Lake Gairdner, the Australian version of the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Racing was cancelled in 2011/12 due to wet conditions, as the lake is the only catchment for a huge landlocked watershed in South Australia, with rainwater entering at only one point on the northern tip of the lake, and taking its sweet time to drain as the lake broadens out over 270 square miles.

Hooper and his team of Velocette arch-enthusiasts have brought the bike to Bonneville as well as Lake Gairdner, and are currently, as far as I know, the World's Fastest single-cylinder motorcycle with a 'normal' riding position.  A full 'cigar' body would likely net them the World's Fastest without an asterisk!  As generally reliable as the Velo has been, there's still drama on the salt; imagine a 'hiccup' from a nitromethane backfire locking the rear wheel at 150mph...read on.

From Stuart Hooper yesterday:"The Big Velo has run another year on the salt at the 2014 Lake Gairdner speed trials and ended the week with a new record run of 183.374 mph ...295.112 kph
After a pounding on a rutted salt surface at over 170mph, pushed by the hammering pulses of a big single-cylinder engine, this chain has cried enough!
 It was not all plain sailing this year as dyno time was cut short by a last minute main bearing failure necessitating a new scratch built crankshaft. This lack of final tuning led to the first couple of runs being hampered by some massive nitro  backfires almost stopping the back wheel around 150 mph. Luckily the engine is built like a tank and somehow withstood this brutal punishment. After 3 days of work searching for the correct set up and a salt surface that was very soft and rutted like a sandy motocross track and an engine that was starting to show metal in the oil ,a rear chain that was threatening to self destruct from the sledgehammer blows of the big supercharged single firing once every wheel revolution, the organizers opened a new track which gave us our one and only chance for a record run.  The gearing was raised and the supercharger drive altered ,fuel changed back to straight methanol and with a last minute start line ignition timing alteration and fingers crossed we were off.
A mechanical tell-tale shows the maximum revs of the 732cc engine; 6600rpm.  A 'normal' Velo engine is redlined at 6200rpm, but racers occasionally took them up to 7200, which is very hard on their roller big ends.  
With very little warm up the almost 100mph first gear launched us down the track with a light hand on the throttle because on an earlier run, almost uncontrollable wheelspin had started a tank slapper and almost ended the weeks fun..... I short shifted into second and again into third at less than 150mph and did not use full throttle until well tucked in behind the screen and the bike started to dodge and weave across the ruts caused by some of the Hyabusas and big cars that had run before me. The revs started to creep up past 6500 as the engine temps approached melting point and the Velo started to waltz a little on the soft surface as the final mile marker flashed by and I reluctantly closed the throttle on another year on the glorious white expanse of the Australian salt flats.


The question now is......Just how fast can a Velo go ?"

'THE PLEASURES OF LIFE'

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While every sign and security guard says 'No Foto', I couldn't help but document the surprising discovery of a motorcycle on the floor of the National Gallery.  I suppose that puts me in the camp of the Photo Liberation Front, a group of artist-tourists sick of being reprimanded for taking photos in museums!
If you happen to be in London, I recommend a visit to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, which houses one of the best painting collections in Europe.  The original building (there have been lots of extensions added) was designed by William Wilkins in the 1830s, and is the neo-classical heap you'd expect of a big national institution of the 19th Century.
A broader shot of Boris Anrep's murals in the National Gallery lobby
I've visited many times, but the particular path I walked last November led across a delightful mosaic of 'The Pleasures of Life', and discovered a cartouche labelled 'Speed', which of course features a motorcycle!  The entire entry and mezzanine level floors are covered in mosaic murals, but the upper right mezzanine is where you'll find the bike. The image is stylistically rooted in the late 1920s/early 1930s, and depicts a readheaded woman astride a 'flapper bracket', with a fishtail exhaust beneath her high heels.   The exhaust is distinctive; a sedate production item, and not a full-house racing 'Brooklands Can', and very much in the style of a four-valve Ariel single-cylinder ca.1930, or perhaps a Rudge.
A 1928 Ariel Model D (image courtesy Yesterdays Motorcycles)
As the mosaic covers the entire floor around the grand 1889 staircase (by Sir John Taylor), it's not easy to find an information plaque explaining them, but a quick search revealed the artist as Boris Anrep, a member of the Bloomsbury group, which included the writer Virginia Woolf, economist John Maynard Keynes, and painter Vanessa Bell.  Anrep was a Russian lawyer who abandoned his practice in 1908 (age 25), to study art in Paris and Edinburgh, eventually settling on the mosaic as his chosen medium by 1917.  He spent WW1 as a Russian officer in Galicia (an ethnically diverse kingdom in the Austria-Hungarian empire, now straddling Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic).  In 1917 he was sent as a military attaché to London, and never returned to his homeland, probably because of the Revolution in Russia, as well as his burgeoning art career, and the commissions for mosaics which kept him busy the rest of his life.
A search revealed a photo from the Getty Images Archive of Anrep working on Oct 28 1929 on this very mosaic, 'Speed'
Anrep's work at the National Gallery began in 1928, the 'Labours of Life' and 'Pleasures of Life', of which the Flapper on a motorcycle is part; the mosaics took 5 years to complete.  In 1952 he returned to lay the 'Modern Virtues' at the foot of the staircase, which incorporates portraits of Winston Churchill, Dame Margot Fonteyne, and Bertrand Russell...whereas the earlier mosaics included Virginia Woolf and Greta Garbo, but no attribution is given for the woman on the Ariel.
Greta Garbo as Melpomene, the Greek muse of Tragedy...
If you're interested, there's a book available on Anrep's National Gallery work here.

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THE FUELIST: CHANGING THE GAME

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The gearheads behind TheFuelist.com; Matt Hamilton, Dr.Thomas Rand-Nash, and Eric Maas, here with a Ducati 175 in their Berkeley warehouse/office
My old friend Matt Hamilton contacted me recently to reveal the 'web startup' he's been quietly working on the past 2 years, with Eric Maas and Dr.Thomas Rand-Nash (their chief data scientist).  Matt is one of the biggest gearheads I know, who collects vintage bikes and cars, and keeps the Alfa Romeo blog Giuliettas.com.  I recently visited the Berkeley headquarters of their new venture, TheFuelist.com, and if their website succeeds at what they're attempting, it's going to permanently change how people buy and sell vintage motorcycles and cars.
Home page of TheFuelist.com; the start of your data search, and possibly the loss of many minutes of your time!
The concept of The Fuelist is simple: track every public auction in the collector's vehicle market worldwide, break it down to year/make/model for every category and eventually, every option, and create informative, interactive graphs tracking prices over time.  Each graph point represents an actual sale, whether on eBay or another web-auction site, or from a live-auction house such as the various Bonhams, MidAmerica, or H+H sales worldwide, or the Las Vegas mega-sales.


Even at this early date, TheFuelist has nearly 1300 BSAs listed in their auction sales ranks over the past 10 years.
By clicking on a graph point, all the information and photos of that sale come up in a sidebar; the date and sale price, the location of the sale, the photos and details of the machine as provided in the auction. So, if you're looking for a late 1960s Triumph Bonneville, you'd click on 'motorcycles', then 'Triumph', then 'Bonneville', then set your target years in a date bracket, and voilá, you'll have every single public sale of that particular type of machine in a big graph, and you can set the search from a 6 month range to as far back as 10 years ago.  Click any point on the graph (which is a confirmed sale), and a sidebar shows a brief summary of the machine; clicking on the photo or the 'details' button sends you to a page with all the auction photos and detailed description of the machine
Here's a Fuelist comparison on 750cc Triples from the 1970s; BSA Rocket III, Triumph Trident, and Kawasaki H2 
You can actually compare prices on 5 different models in one graph, by clicking on the 'add item' button on the bottom of the screen.  On the example above, I compared 1970s 3-cylinder 750cc bikes - the BSA Rocket III, Triumph Trident, and Kawasaki H2; each model appears as a different colored dot on the graph.  Or, you can compare prices of Norton Commandos and BSA Rocket 3s, or Corvettes and Brough Superiors. This is potentially a massive amount of information, so it's best to keep your searches specific, unless you want general sales trends for thousands of old vehicles!  As of today (Mar.25 2014) they have 6000 motorcycles and 12,000 cars in their database, with about 100,000 more which are currently having their numbers crunched.  As The Fuelist fills its tank of information over the next few months, the details available will become even richer, such as breaking down bikes by color or region or options.  The boys at The Fuelist emphasize this isn't a price guide...but it sure acts like one.
TheFuelist.com office...gearheads one and all...with an Austin Healey 3000 keeping a Honda Super Hawk company
In the very near future, people like me will appear in guest blogs to interpret trends or make note of developments in the classic motorcycle and car market, and I think this feature will augment the site greatly, and become very popular.  An unlimited database is one thing, but an intelligent analysis of market trends using actual data is the real deal.  I've been an auction company consultant for years at Bonhams, and kept track of the highest-selling machines on The Vintagent's 'Top 20' Auction updates (now the 'Top 35' and growing; I don't delete previous sales), so working with The Fuelist seems like a natural extension.  It doesn't hurt that these guys already did the hard work of raising the money and writing the code!  The Fuelist is in 'beta' or testing mode right now, and they're still crunching data every hour, adding to their stock of information, but it's live, and you can check it out here.  Expect a mobile app and their full launch very soon.

1000 WORDS WORTH: BONNEVILLE 1953

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It's true there's an essay in every photo, but the story's always better when the image is packed with exceptional machinery and good clues to the date..  The 1953 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible in the background was brand new when this shot was taken at the Bonneville Salt Flats, and the Vincent Black Lightning (#9) in the photo is a famous machine which changed configuration dramatically by 1954... so I'm fairly certain we're gazing from the top of a ladder through a magic window onto September 4th, 1953.
Marty Dickerson aboard his Rapide, the 'Blue Bike', at Bonneville
Marty Dickerson is being push-started at the head of the line, on his infamous 'Blue Bike'; he is about to break the magic 150mph barrier for a 'Class C' production machine on one run, while his record average was 147mph...all the more impressive as the rules limited machines to 90 octane pump fuel and an 8:1compression ratio.  Dickerson's record stood from this day in 1953 until 1973, when a Kawasaki Z1 broke it (at 155mph).  Dickerson is being pushed by an SCTA official with a walkie-talkie on his Hawaiian shirt; the SCTA organized the Bonneville events then, and still does with Speed Week.  The flag-man on the far right has already waved green, signaling the all-clear on the track. Bonneville isn't a drag race, as miles of salt are required to build up speed for even the quickest bikes, so there's no histrionic flag-waving at the start. Dickerson's 1948 Series B Touring Rapide was significantly developed by this date, and bears little resemblance to the small-wheeled and heavy-fendered machine he purchased as a lad of 18. He thought the Vincent was ugly when he purchased it, but he wanted the speed it promised, and campaigned his Rapide from 1948 onwards, first making the rounds of the Southwestern states, challenging locals to drag-races while in the employment of Burbank Vincent importer 'Mickey' Martin.  Read all about it here.
Joe Simpson's Lightning in '52
Another shot of Simpson in '52












Next behind Dickerson is the 1949 Vincent Black Lightning of Joe Simpson, the first Lightning imported to the USA.  Simpson was also out for a record that day, and succeeded, averaging , before it evolved into the blown monster you can see today in the Solvang Museum.  Note the interesting black fairing above the front wheel of the Lightning...it almost looks like the hood of a Ford!  If this photo was taken in 1953, Simpson's Lightning is running on methanol, and producing about 90hp @6000rpm, and he recorded 160.69mph, taking the American record away from Rollie Free's 1950 Vincent record of 156.71mph (the only time a Vincent held the World Speed Record was Russell Wright's 184.83mph run in New Zealand in 1955).
Marty Dickerson wheel-starts the supercharged Lightning with Matchless power, from the looks of it a c. 1952 G9 twin with a single-sided front brake hub.  Rollie Free observes in the plaid shirt, while the owner of the Lightning, Joe Simpson, stands right in the t-shirt
Simpson felt he'd reached the limit of development with a normally aspirated, pushrod motor, and decided to fit a Shorrock supercharger the next year, following the lead of the Reg Dearden Vincent (featured on The Vintagent many years ago), and in fact following the layout of the Dearden machine closely.  By 1955 his blown machine was back at the salt, but nobody would ride it, with an estimated 190mph top speed - only Marty Dickerson was brave enough, and recorded a 177mph average that year, although he saw 196mph on one run with a following wind.  Given the utter lack of safety gear for the riders as seen above, its no wonder at all why riders shied from such speeds...the salt is incredibly abrasive, and nobody had ridden a bike at that sort of speed on the notoriously bumpy and greasy-feeling salt lake surface.
Marty Dickerson aboard the supercharged Lightning ca.1955; he was the only rider brave enough!  Note the protective racing leathers and heavy boots - saving his skin
Simpson had just installed a set of Vincent factory racing cylinder heads with extra-large inlet ports (1 7/16") and matching oversize Amal TT racing carbs, and oversize intake/exhaust valves and exhaust pipe (the same as supplied to Rollie Free), but the bike wouldn't exceed 155mph during his tests.  Marty Dickerson examined the machine and suggested the valves were not sealing properly. Shockingly, the racers had come all the way to Bonneville with few tools, or at least not valve-grinding equipment, and the nearest town (Wendover) had none, so Marty 'made do' with a power drill and a file as an impromptu lathe!  His work was good enough for Simpson to average 160.69mph the next day.  Simpson is one of 3 men who really established the Vincent legend in the USA, and the world, right beside Dickerson and Rollie Free.
The Indian Brave was a product of England!  In 1950, Brockhouse Engineering bought a bankrupt Indian, and began badging its own 250cc sidevalve lightweight as an Indian, while still producing the Chief and vertical twins.  It was built through 1953, when Indian went bankrupt again, and Floyd Clymer bought the name... Here is the Del Branson Brave in Bonneville guise in an Indian ad from 1953.
Between the two big-gun Vincents in the photo sits a pop-gun of a record-breaker; a Brockhouse-built Indian 'Brave' with a 250cc sidevalve engine, which would have struggled to reach the top speed of the Vincents' first gear!  Its rider, Delbert Branson, looks pleased enough to participate in the day, and set a 250cc record in 1952 on a Brockhouse Indian at 80.62mph,  which is pretty fast in Bonneville's thin air (4200' above sea level).  A stock Brave was tested by Cycle magazine that year with a top speed of 68mph, but Branson managed a highest speed of 87mph on one run. The Indian Brave was a product of England; in 1950, Brockhouse Engineering bought the bankrupt Indian company, and badged its own 250cc sidevalve lightweight as an Indian, while still producing the Chief and vertical twins.  The enterprise lasted until 1953, when Indian again went bankrupt, and Floyd Clymer bought the name...carrying on through a succession of hands for decades. 
American Velocette importer Lou Branch placed this ad touting Lloyd Bulmer's accomplishments with his KSS Velo in the Dec.1952 issue of Cycle magazine
Immediately behind the Indian is a 1948 Velocette KSS Mk2 with Dowty air forks, and a dramatically lengthened inlet tract. This is Lloyd Bulmer's Velocette record-breaker, which was featured in plenty of US Velo advertising in the early 50s, as it was the fastest anyone had taken a 350cc Velocette on the USA to date.  In 1952, Bulmer's two-way average was 119.87mph, the fastest 350cc bike that year and an AMA record. In our top photo, Lloyd sits his Velo, with his wife(?) beside him.  The previous year, he'd only managed 106mph on the KSS, but he'd found considerable extra urge in the intervening year, and learned how to 'do the Free' for minimum drag (as seen in the ad above).  In fact, looking at various bikes in our Bonneville photo, 3 are equipped with planks instead of seats for a fully stretched-out riding position, which is now illegal for record-breaking.  As is the total lack of skin protection (ie, racing leathers) and decent boots (most riders are wearing hi-top sneakers or boxing shoes).
 I couldn't find a better photo of the Bonneville Triumph with reversed heads, but they're fairly common in drag/sprint racing.  This machine - Mirage - is pictured in a 1968 Alf Hagon parts catalog
The last motorcycle in our power quintet is a ca. 1952 Triumph Tiger 100 with reversed cylinder heads!  A shield to keep grit out of the carbs is attached to the frame downtube, while a remote fuel float peeks just outside the shield, and the big megaphone exhaust shoots straight out the back.  This is a trick used occasionally in sprint/drag racing, but I'm not familiar with this machine, and my luck in researching this photo ran out with the most 'common' machine in the bunch!  Any info or guesses are welcome. It's interesting to note the total lack of protective clothing, the cool variety of protective eyewear, and the 100% saturation of riders with Cycle magazine t-shirts... this particular run may have been sponsored by Cycle magazine itself, as (at least) four of the 5 motorcycles pictured took the top speed in their class that year.

Somer Hooker who forwarded this photo, adds this about the Lakester cars:


"This is a pretty iconic shot. It reflects on the days when the Salt Flats was casual and not a 'profiling' event.  The coupe on the far right is a 33 or 34 Ford 3 window coupe. It has what is known as a 'lakes chop'. The top was chopped and made to slant back to increase the aerodynamics. They later had to incorporate a rule about how far you could go with this. Note the white 1936 Ford five window coupe has also been chopped in the same manner. The white roadster in the LH side is a modified 1927 Ford roadster. It was a popular body because of its aerodynamics. This one has the engine in the front but quite often, they moved it to the rear and the driver sat in front. Black coupe behind Simpson bike (#9) may be a Chevy? There is a DeSoto grille which was a popular modification. Note the Triumph in lower LH corner has a board on back. This is where the rider would put his body for high speed."

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE

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Readers of BikeExif and other custom bike blogs are already familiar with the name 'Matt Machine'; his Moto Guzzi LeMans Mk1 was voted a 'Top 5 Moto Guzzi Custom' by that blog, and the work from his shop 3 hours south of Sydney earned him a spot in the global custom bike survery 'The Ride', which I co-authored with Chris Hunter, Gary Inman, and David Edwards.  In his former life, Matt was a popular architect in Sydney, but the lure of working with his hands was strong, so he set up shop on motorcycles, earning a worldwide reputation quickly, and lots of attention to his blog, Machine Shed.
My text for File #001 of The Machine Files, with ultra-clear layout and super hi-res photographs
Clearly a man with a restless mind, Matt contacted me late last year to explain his next project; a magazine which focussed on only one motorcycle per issue.  To be called The Machine Files, Matt's concept is to counter our developing iCulture of constant image-skimming, and dive deep in one spot, using excellent photography and writing, clear technical talk, and a straightforward format.  I was honored that he chose me to write the editorial text for Issue #1 of The Machine Files, which has just gone live, and can be accessed here.  It's not free, because Matt reached into his pocket to put the magazine together, and there are no advertisements.  It's not expensive though - $9/year for a very high quality quarterly publication.  At the moment, The Machine Files are only online, but that will change if he finds 'proof of concept' - that real motorcycle enthusiasts will appreciate this unique effort, and go deep with the experts on exceptional machines.
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