SPRINGFIELD MILE 2010

Hot off the press from Poppa Wheelie... "JAKE JOHNSON WINS SPRINGFIELD MILE"

Jake Johnson blitzed the opposition on the Zanotti Harley at the Springfield Mile. Kawasaki mounted Bryan Smith stunned the Flat Track World by beating Kenny Coolbeth jnr on the factory H-D into third place.

Thanks Poppa Wheelie, I wish I was there to take it all in too.

Jake Johnson wins the Springfield Mile

Bryan Smith's Werner-Springsteen Kawasaki 650 Ninja based twin surprised just about everyone with a superb 2nd place. Read more about the Kawasaki here

JETS ON RAILS

On July 23rd, 1966, the residents of Western Ohio watched in awe as New York Central train, powered by jet engines roared by streaking to an American Land Speed Record for a locomotive of 183.85 mph! a record that still stands to this day. Driven by Don Wetzel, who was wearing a one-off white helmet painted with the New York Central Railroad logo, this amazing feat has all but disappeared from the history books.

Wetzel and his crew adapted two General Electric J-47-19 jet engines, which had been originally designed as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber. These were mounted just above the engineer’s cab at the front of the train, designated M-497. Wetzel’s original design had the jet engines at the rear, but this changed after his wife drew some sketches on a dinner napkin and convinced him that the locomotive would look better with the engines mounted up front. This switch also helped keep the nose of the locomotive on the tracks. The Cleveland shop fashioned a black streamlined cowling for the front of the engine which earned it the nickname of "The Black Beetle". Later, Wetzel and his team reused the jet engines for another research project, a high-powered snow blower for opening winter tracks!

Russia also designed a similar jet Train prototype in 1970. It had engines from a Yak-40 passenger jet plane and could go as fast as 249 km/h (only a little slower than an M-497). It remained only a prototype, possibly because of the condition of Russian railroads at the time!

For more information on Jet Trains take a look at this page on Futuristic Trains or buy the book by Don Wetzl himself

MAY 21st - A GOOD DAY TO FLY THE ATLANTIC!

At 7.52am on May 20th 1927, Charles Lindbergh gunned the engine of the "Spirit of St Louis" and aimed her down the dirt runway of Roosevelt Field, Long Island, USA. Heavily laden with fuel, the plane bounced down the muddy field, gradually became airborne and just about cleared the telephone wires at the end of the field. A small crowd of 500 well-wishers thought they had witnessed a miracle. On the evening of May 21st, he crossed the coast of France, followed the River Seine and after 33.5 hrs and 3500 miles, he touched down at Le Bourget Field, Paris at 10.22pm where he was mobbed by a crowd of 100,000. Lindbergh - "The Lone Eagle" - the first to fly across the atlantic solo, became an instant hero.

On his return to the USA, New York City gave him the largest ticker tape parade ever and the president awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross. More importantly, Lindbergh was the inspiration for aviators all over the world to test man and machine to their limit.

On May 21st 1932, the 5th anniversary of Lindberg's Atlantic flight , Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 14hrs and 56min. She was awarded the National Geographic Society's gold medal from President Herbert Hoover and Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross. The world's most famous female aviator disappeared in 1937 as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world. She was last heard from on July 2nd 1937, about 100 miles from the tiny Pacific atoll of Howland Island. President Roosevelt authorised an immediate search but no trace was ever found of Eahart or her navigator, Fred Noonan. The disappearance of Amelia Earhart has spawned almost as many conspiracy theories as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the Kennedy assasination.

VINTAGE BICYCLE RACING POSTERS

WW1 MOTORCYCLES - No2

A second selection of motorcycle images from the first World War.

YES THERE'S MORE - AUTO RACE BIKES FROM THE 70s

I really can't believe how many motorcycle and bicycle images I've collected over the years. I have just bought myself a diskette reader and transferred literally hundreds of old images to my laptop, most of which I had completely forgotten about. My previous posts about the Japanese auto race bikes prompted me to find these particular pictures again. I have no idea where most of them came from but they do prove that there's more to the Japanese motorcycle industry than just Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha!

350cc Kyokuto KT

Meguro... Eventually became part of the Kawasaki empire. This engine bares a remarkable resemblence to the British J.A.P. unit

Another Meguro, this time with external cam-chain instead of the push rods in the previous picture.

TOYO - I really don't know much about this make at all, but they were succesful on the pre-1960 Japanese dirt tracks and continued to be so on the tarmac auto race tracks.

Another TOYO from the 1970s

AUTO RACE - THE BIKES "UPDATE"

We now know that this is not a Kyokuto, so what is the mystery twin cylinder engine in this Autoracer? It's a Toyo. Take a look at the image below and compare, this is a twin cylinder, DOHC Toyo with a 4-valve head... Thanks to Bennie Ludolphy in Hollland for his valuable information.

 I've dug out my old silver halide images and scanned in a photograph of a genuine 1971 Kyokuto KT2 engine to compare and it is clearly very different.

This particular engine has been fitted into a 1970s Jawa speedway rolling chassis and is a replica of the bike that was tested at Canterbury speedway in 1972. A similar set-up was also tested in Australia in a Hagon Chassis. The engine has been modified to run on methanol with the addition of an amal carburettor. The engine and chassis were restored by ace speedway collector, sometime poet and ex-Berwick rider Ian Paterson and form part of his magnificent Cinder to Shale collection. Ian also has a genuine HKS Hasegawa Auto Race bike in his collection (see below). This bike dates from the early 1980s and is similar to the bike Barry Briggs had on display at the old Speedway collection at Donington Park.

Finally, I have to apologise for the poor quality of this image, but this is the only picture I have ever found of an EiCoH Auto Race bike....

EiCoH, or Engine Company Honda to give it its full name, was a side project of Kazuo Honda, one of the family members behind the Kyokuto. Kazuo was also developing the JRM (Japanese Race Motor) for road racing at the same time. The EiCoH was a 500cc single based on his families KT2 unit but with some modifications. This photo from a Dutch magazine shows the complete 1967 EiCoH speedway bike, basically an Auto Race machine without the asymetric bars!

TEAM USA from Lonigo, Italy

As an update to my earlier post on the return of the USA to the Speedway World Cup qualifiers... here's a couple of photo's from the event.

The USA team line up before the meeting.

l-r Tommy Hedden,  Kenny Ingalls, (mgr), Chris Kerr, Ryan Fisher and Gino Manzares (Kneeling).

Chris Kerr takes the lead.

MOTORCYCLE ART; No3

A third selection of vintage motorcycle posters for your delectation...

AUTO RACE - THE BIKES

Here is a cool Triumph powered Japanese Auto Race bike from the Dan Rouit Flat Track Museum:

This rare Triumph powered racer was found in the early 1990s under a wood pile, behind an antique store in Tokyo. Wayne Bialls, an American car collector from Phoenix, returned to the USA with his prize and proceeded with the restoration. When Bialls decided to sell the machine, he chose the VFT "For Sale" page and a quick call to Dan resulted in it being added to the growing museum collection. Dan’s good friend Aver Hensley, from Clovis, provided a proper set of handlebars, additional chroming and installation of the knee hook and number plates. The motorcycle was most likely raced until the early 1980s.

The picture above shows another Autoracer fitted with a twin cylinder Triumph 650cc engine, whilst the picture below is a Japanese Meguro engine, showing it's Triumph ancestry very clearly.

This Autoracer above looks like a Japanese Kyokuto KT2. * Thanks to Bennie Ludolphy we now know that this bike is not a Kyokuto but a twin cylinder, DOHC 4-valve Toyo; see this update *.

Kyokuto, (roughly translated as "sunrise" or "rising-sun"), were one of the oldest motorcycle engine firms in Japan. The Kyokuto Motor Industry Co Ltd produced its first engine in the mid 1930s, and ironically, the family name behind the company was Honda, in no way linked to the Honda Company of today. By the early 1960s, Kyokuto were producing around thirty 350cc and 500cc single cylinder engines every month

Todays Autoracers are powered by Suzuki SEAR (Suzuki Engine Auto Race) units, mostly AR600 twins but 500cc units are also produced for the novice riders.

Many other engines have been used in Auto Race over the years including BSA, EiCoH and HKS Hasegawa. At least two Kyokuto engines have found their way to the UK and are in private collections. I also know of at least one complete HKS powered Auto Racer in a UK collection too.

THE KILLS

It must be my age, but there doesn't seem to be much new music out there that excites me, it all sounds so clinical, manufactured, recycled or just plain boring. There are glimmers of hope though, bands like The Brute Chorus mix rockabilly sounds with greek mythology and great coats! but my current fave is a band called The Kills (not to be confused with The Killers!). I've been following them for a few years now since I first saw them on the NME stage at Reading... two skinny figures dressed in ripped jeans and leather jackets, cigarettes hanging from their lips and playing a stripped back, lo-fi bluesy, punky rock'n'roll with a whole load of attitude and masses of sexual chemistry.

Imagine a grungier, dirty White Stripes with elements of PJ Harvey and Jon Spencer thrown in for good measure... The boy rips some fuzzy guitar riffs and the girl chain smokes and vocally teases you from behind a long black fringe. No backing band here, just the two of them relying on the guitar, vocals and a drum machine to create a big refreshing modern sound.

The enigmatic duo are Alison Moshart (aka VV) on vocals and Jamie Hince (aka Hotel) who plays just about everything! Alison first came to light in the 90s Florida punk band  Discount, whilst Jamie played in British rock bands Scarfo and Blyth Power. When Scarfo and Discount disbanded the two of them struck up a songwriting partnership. For months they air mailed tapes across the Atlantic to each other before Mosshart eventually moved to London from her Florida home. The first album "Keep On Your Mean Side" was as stripped back as you can get, just a minimalist garage rock album recorded in around 2 weeks on an old 8-track. Even the cover was "home made" featuring portraits of the duo taken in a photo booth.

The second album,  "No Wow" was a bit edgier and darker and was supposed to feature Hince's old Moog, but it broke and the album was quickly re-recorded using his trusty guitar again. The third album "Midnight Boom" takes its inspiration from a 1960s documentary about kids in inner-city schools in the USA. The album features rhythms influenced by playground songs played on an old school hand-punched MPC-60 hip hop drum sequencer. It's notjust the music that I like either, it's the image, the onstage performance and the attitude... At a New York City show following the ban on public smoking, Mosshart went on stage with three bottles of water, lit up a cigarette and proceeded to smoke constantly from the first song to the last note of the set... Rock'N'Roll!!!

Whilst waiting for the completion of their fourth album, Mosshart has teamed up with Jack White in another of his side projects, "The Dead Weather". Check out the video for "Treat Me Like Your Mother" where Jack and Alison rip each other to shreds with machine guns!!! and she never drops her cigarette in that either!

IS THIS THE MOST EXPENSIVE PIECE OF SPEEDWAY MEMORABILIA EVER?

Speedway by Sybil Andrews (British Artist, 1898-1992) Sold at auction for £37,600.00!!!!!!

Produced in 1934. Linoleum cut composition: Size 325mm x 232mm: © 2010 Estate of Sybil Andrews

WW1 MOTORCYCLES

Links taken from 2ID and Ride The Machine