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Archive Moto
Добавлен 21 дек 2008
Welcome to the Archive Moto channel, an ongoing research and publishing project dedicated to rediscovering America's rich history of motorcycle culture, one story at a time.
Thank you for your support!
Chris Price
Chris@ArchiveMoto.com
Support Us at Patreon.com/TheArchiveMoto
Thank you for your support!
Chris Price
Chris@ArchiveMoto.com
Support Us at Patreon.com/TheArchiveMoto
The First Motorcycle To Hit 100 MPH!
How fast do you dare go on Two Wheels? This is the story of Lee Humiston, the first man to hit 100 MPH on a motorcycle back in 1912, riding an *Excelsior* motorcycle on a *Board Track* Motordrome in Los Angeles.
To be the fastest is a drive held by only a few, but for those who have it, the pursuit of speed can be life-changing, all-consuming, and, at its worst, even fatal. Still, the pursuit is a never-ending quest to push slightly beyond the limits, be them of others or ones self. Still, for the scant few who were bold enough, fearless enough to push the farthest before anyone else, their names are the ones forever etched into history as the pioneers of speed, the first to make the mark....
To be the fastest is a drive held by only a few, but for those who have it, the pursuit of speed can be life-changing, all-consuming, and, at its worst, even fatal. Still, the pursuit is a never-ending quest to push slightly beyond the limits, be them of others or ones self. Still, for the scant few who were bold enough, fearless enough to push the farthest before anyone else, their names are the ones forever etched into history as the pioneers of speed, the first to make the mark....
Просмотров: 5 885
Видео
Rare Film of Motorcycle Board Track Racing, Beverly Hills 1921
Просмотров 87 тыс.7 месяцев назад
*Board Track Racing* on the massive wooden super speedways of the 1920s captured on film at the height of motorcycle racing’s Golden Age. A truly special piece of American history, this rare and remarkable film offers a glimpse into the high stakes sport of professional board track motorcycle racing during the Prohibition Era. Shot at the height of the sport in 1921, the film not only captures ...
GRIT (Full Length) - The History of Motorcycle Board Track Racing
Просмотров 198 тыс.8 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *GRIT*, the full and uncut documentary exploring the history of one of America’s most infamous and sensational sports, motorcycle *Board Track Racing*. For six action packed years the American motordrome captivated the nation, but in a flash they were all but gone. A multitude of factors led to the eventual decline of the venues; maintenance issues and expenses, weather ...
The Murderdrome! Motorcycle Board Track Racing Part 3.
Просмотров 2,3 тыс.8 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *GRIT* , *Part 3* of a three part documentary series looking at the history of one of America’s most infamous and sensation sports, motorcycle *Board Track Racing* . *Part 1* ruclips.net/video/TiWvf6TXYJo/видео.html *Part 2* ruclips.net/video/TKy-3vPYlks/видео.html Rise of the Murderdrome! Within a decade of their American introduction, motorcycles had matured at a frenz...
Board Track Motorcycle Racing - A History of the Deadly Sport
Просмотров 2,2 тыс.8 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *GRIT* , *Part 2* of a three part documentary series looking at the history of one of America’s most infamous and sensation sports, motorcycle *Board Track Racing* . *Part 1* ruclips.net/video/TiWvf6TXYJo/видео.html Just as quickly as bicycle fever swept the nation in the 1880s, so too did motorcycle mania in the early 1900s. Motorcycles followed the blueprint of the ind...
Motorcycle Board Track Racing Begins
Просмотров 2,7 тыс.9 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *GRIT* *Part 1*, the first of a three part documentary series looking at the history of one of America’s most infamous and sensational sports, motorcycle *Board Track Racing*. Born of the second industrial revolution in America, the motorcycle emerged out of the booming bicycling craze of the late 1800s. With an diverse enthusiast community, expansive industry of manufac...
A History of Motorcycle Board Track Racing
Просмотров 9279 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *GRIT*, a three part documentary series looking at the history of one of America’s most infamous and sensational sports, motorcycle *Board Track Racing*. Often conflated with carnival thrill shows and the massive wooden speedways of the 1920s, America's original timber race tracks, called motordromes, were dangerous and exhilarating saucers where the toughest of the toug...
Rare Film of Harley-Davidson Racing at Daytona Beach in 1920!
Просмотров 2,2 тыс.11 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *Harley-Davidson Racing, Daytona Beach 1920* This episode is based on remarkable and exceptionally scarce archival film footage from the golden age of American motorcycle racing. It was originally taken as members of the famed Harley-Davidson Wrecking Crew attacked the sands in Daytona Beach, Florida to best most every existing land speed record in the books. There are s...
A Brief History of Speed (Full Length) - Motorcycle Racing History
Просмотров 35 тыс.11 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *A Brief History of Speed* the uncut, full-length documentary exploring the remarkable history of motorcycle racing in America. It all began with Indian’s Oscar Hedstrom on the sands of the Floridian coast, coming full-circle nearly a half-century later on the very same shores when motorcyclists from around the world arrived for the inaugural Daytona 200. In the decades ...
American Motorcycle Flat Track Racing History!
Просмотров 10 тыс.11 месяцев назад
*Archive Moto* presents *A Brief History of Speed - Part 6* looking at the history of motorcycle racing in America. What started with Indian’s Oscar Hedstrom on the sands of the Floridian coast in Part 1 of the Brief History of Speed series will end on the very same shores a half century later in the upcoming finale, coming full circle after birthing a vibrant culture of motorcycling in America...
The History of the Motorcycle Hillclimb
Просмотров 2,5 тыс.Год назад
*Archive Moto* presents *A Brief History of Speed - Part 5* looking at the history of motorcycle hillclimbing in America. By the early 1920s, motorcycle racers had kicked-up tails of dirt and dust on flat tracks, kept crowds breathless and on the edge of the motordrome bleacher, and stretched out to the limit the capabilities of iron and rubber on the colossal board track speedways. The first t...
The History of Board Track Speedway Motorcycle Racing
Просмотров 1,8 тыс.Год назад
*Archive Moto* presents *A Brief History of Speed - Part 4* looking at the history of motorcycle racing in America. This episode picks up as the legendary but volatile board track motordromes in America began closing their gates for good. Road racing and flat tracks were the next, most obvious focus for the industry and sport, but a new, massive type of track would soon take the country by stor...
Motorcycle Racing Before World War 1!
Просмотров 2,1 тыс.Год назад
Motorcycle Racing Before World War 1!
The Birth of American Motorcycle Racing
Просмотров 1,5 тыс.Год назад
The Birth of American Motorcycle Racing
Sons Of Speed, Vintage Motorcycle Race 2019
Просмотров 5 тыс.5 лет назад
Sons Of Speed, Vintage Motorcycle Race 2019
The Vintage Motorcycles of Daytona Bike Week 2019
Просмотров 27 тыс.5 лет назад
The Vintage Motorcycles of Daytona Bike Week 2019
American Motorcycle History, One Photo At A Time - Archive Moto
Просмотров 1,3 тыс.5 лет назад
American Motorcycle History, One Photo At A Time - Archive Moto
This was very risky at that time
WISH WE COULD RACE LIKE THAT AGAIN MAN ❤SO COOL 100 MILES AN HOUR NO BRAKES THAT TOOK SOME BALLS 😁
Photo at about 35:03 one of the two bikes appears to have a DISK on the front wheel? WAY before disc brakes and these racers had no brakes so what are we looking at? Edit never mind it is part of the motor on other bike seen through the wheel...I was like WTF?
These dudes were so tough they’d chuck the discs too if they had them.
Good work
Thanks so much
L'époque change, l'exploit reste, une banalité me direz-vous, exact !!! VROOM RACING, Sud Gironde, France encore Libre et pour L'ETERNITE
Was ich immer wissen wollte!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
It sure is.
Wunderbar!!!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Well made video. A couple of spots where your narration/storyline repeated itself unnecessarily but still very informative. I'm not possitive but I think I produced the first RUclips documentary about the the Los Angeles Motordrome at Playa Del Rey , back in 2013? Very amateur never having made a video before using still photos and printed graphics telling a brief history of the once fastest track in the world. I had no idea that there was a track in Playa Del Rey. Having grown up and living until I was 30 years old in Westchester/Playa Del Rey spending almost everyday at the beach there was never any mention or any old signage or plaque stating that property once was home to the top track in the world as well as home to air shows. So I did some researching, not a lot but some and pieced together a short video that is still on my channel with a small number of views. Lately I've noticed and been watching recently made and uploaded documentaries about the beginning of motorcycle racing in the U.S. and the L.A. Motordrome in Playa Del Rey gets a small mention and not at all the attention it deserves. Even though it was a short lived track due to a fire destroying it only four years after opening it was a very significant venue for motorcycles and automobiles and hosted the world championships before Indianapolis Motorspeedway became the premiere venue only after the fire at Playa Del Rey. Enjoyed your video very much
Love your channel sir🥂👌🏻
Much appreciated
I get Very emotional looking back at this history, these guys risked it all on those loud fire breathing bikes, an they where superstars in their day age , brave men in a deadly sport.
It was quite an era
Thank you very much from Germany, One of the best documentarties about vintage and antique motorcycles ever! An uncle rode a late 1929 JD in the races after 1945. the bike is not here anymore, to sorry... Old Harleys and Indians were very common in the years after 1945, the "Daredevils" use them still nowadays in the "Wall of Death". They are everywhere, big show, spectacular!
Thank You for creating this video and sharing it with the public. Well written and narrated. I actually made a video of the Playa Del Rey Motordrome about 10 or so years ago for RUclips. It is the very first effort of mine trying to create a video using sill photos and producing a slide show with amateur graphics and only music no narration. I made the video because I grew up in Westchester/Playa Del Rey, born in 1965 and have always been curious about the history of that area and how it used to be oil fields and the mansions built for movie stars and directors of films, with Culver City being next door and it being the actual film capital of the world as much or more so than Hollywood. Also with the incredible history of airplane manufacturing and air shows and the automobile racing industries all within the same neighborhoods in about a 4 mile radius. I then discovered that there was a board track at one time off Culver Blvd just as you were in the Ballona Wetlands and entering Playa Del Rey and its hidden gem of a beach town. It is so strange that there is absolutely no indication that there ever was a world class board track that held the world championships of motorcycle racing and car racing as well as air shows and racing that drew thousands of spectators between 1909 and 1912 when it burned down. There also seems to be some kind of need to supress the racing history of Los Angeles and the neighboring cities . There were so many race tracks as this video mentions, somewhere around 22 tracks in the 1910s thru 1930s or '40s then they mostly all disappeared. Again, thank you for providing this history of racing in L.A. My very terrible video is still on my channel here on RUclips. Check it out and hit the like button
Thank you Ken for the kind words as well as your contribution to keeping this history alive. I watched your video when I was beginning my interest in the history and thanks to folks like you taking the time to compile information and preserve it here my fire was stoked. From my vantage point, LA has always been the epicenter for the gas and oil set in America, despite manufacturing being elsewhere, you Californians really injected the culture and heritage into motoring. The area is a wealth of history, and I hope to dive in a bit deeper in the future to do my part to help preserve it for those to come. Thanks again and take care.
Would love to see this sorta modernized concrete. But with the affordable replicas. ....would be great fun.
I agree, the thing I here the most is how cool it would be for folks to see this in person again. My neighbor Billy Lane has his Sons of Speed for the wild ones that like to run the heavies, and some fine folks in Germany get together from time to time on an old velodrome I believe. I actually looked into trying it myself in Atlanta but the velodrome there is just too small, even for lightweight replica bikes. Great fun indeed.
Great loook at early racing in the big three......I never knew the 'wrecking crew' started with HD and not Indian.......another school day has emerged
GET IT ON IM READY ❤
BOARD TRACKING WAS THE COOLEST ❤
I was unaware of this sport till I saw a painting by Robert Williams, a friend of Von Dutch and that whole genre of creators.. Look it up, it's an epic depiction of the sport.
Don't know if they held night races, that would be a site to behold. Screaming cycles with flame shooting out of barely if any exhaust pipes.
The night races were lit with arc lights, with exposed wiring on wooden posts which led to one of the nastiest incidents ever on a motordrome at the Ludlow track in 1913. Odin Johnson’s bike hit one during a crash, clipping the wire and igniting his fuel throwing flames onto the crowd. Very grim stuff.
@@ArchiveMoto I'm going to research. Thanks.
How did they measure the speed of the bikes?
Stopwatches and timing devices for the record events
I shudder to think of those primitive tires and nail construction of the track mixed together. Yikes.
Thankfully the boards were nailed from the sides instead of the tops… but the tires were way worse than we can imagine and the track surface and even rough mess. Tire failure was the leading cause of incidents at the time.
Thank you, best film I've seen about Board Tracks
Thank you for the kind words, happy to hear you liked it.
Sure beats working in a factory somewhere.
The money was good, when the promoters paid up of course.
@@ArchiveMoto Still beats working at a factory. Have you ever actually worked in a sweety factory job?
imagine getting dumped at 100 sliding down the track on some highnail heads!
Thankfully the boards were nailed from the side not the top, but even still, it was a really bad day to dump it on a board track.
At 10:20 3 oil derricks in the background. Been a long time since I lived and visited but are "donkeys" still pumping there?
The site is in the heart of Beverly Hills, so no derricks but Im sure a few donkeys can be found ;)
They should have concrete raceway instead of wood which is dangerously. 🙂
Given how old concrete is you would think, but the tech then couldn’t make it work at scale or for the same cost as wood. Happy they figured it out by the 1930s though
Beverly Hills looked so much nicer then
Definately a faster crowd for sure, and so much racing.
How many of them live to see 30 years old?
Quite a few, many went on to work in the oil and gas industry, others in automotive. These early 1920s races brought about a changing of the guard as well, with many if the remaining pioneers bowing out of the game
Excellent documentary, keep it up!
Thank you kindly, I appreciate the kind words
What’s amazing is how California has changed imagine a 1 mile and 1/4 track dam wood industry that built that design. The work to build that .
Its a shame too to think how short such a structure lasted as well. Who knows, I'm sure a lot of those boards are still around out there though, hiuding behind walls and holding up porches.
Amazing, rare video of a time gone by in motorcycle history. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I ride a motorcycle and of course never want to think of an accident , but i couldn't imagine wiping out going 100 mph on a wooden track that's been nailed down . I could only guess like a wooden deck at your home the nails have a tendency to pop back up . YIKES you would be torn up from that as well as friction burns
I've always wanted a bike like that.... early days. A heavyish bicycle, with a motor.
Yeesh....wiping out on wood....splinters and nails.... scary stuff.
Just the amount of wood blows me away
It is staggering for sure
Oh look, mopeds! 😂
1000cc iron mopeds!
3:48 "... 275 acres of land." BTW - 1 Square mile = 640 acres 275/640 = 0.4296875 1 mile X 0.43 miles = 275 acres BTW BTW Roadway banking is called superelevation. A bicycle or motorcycle straight up perpendicular to 60 degree banking would be experiencing 2 G of downforce. You standing on sidewalk experience 1 G of downforce. 165 Lbs on sidewalk is 330 Lbs on 60 degree banking at speed matched to bank.
100 mph on a motorcycle with no transmission and no brakes. How cool is that?
Wild no doubt
This really is dangerous.........I lost consciousness three times before this was done.
Oh boy
Perfect!
and a century later the snowflake soy boys of today would be scared shitless just being in the grandstands . With the noise and dust and exhaust fumes .WTF happened America ?
No
😮
Outstanding documentary, watched it with "Why We Ride" Thank you.
High praise and great company, thank you kindly
Have any of these bikes survived in to preservation?
Thankfully yes, a handful of which have been preserved in a largely original state as well. Several museum around the US have one or more old board track racers, Wheels Through Time, Barber Motorsports, and Motorcyclepedia just to name a few.
@@ArchiveMoto are these the same type of bike that you see in the wall of death show you some time see at the local show ?
@@TheFowler99 The Wall of Death thrill shows tend to use Indian Scouts from the 1920s at the oldest. The motordrome machines were very spartan and raw, ranging from 1909-1914 typically. That specific genre was dominated by Indian, but other brands common on the motordrome were Thor, Merkel, and Excelsior.
Well Done!!!!!!
Thank you 🙏🏻
I've read about board track racing. YIKES! Those guys we're a combination of badass and crazy.
That they were
Heroes...
Manly men pushing the boundries. Great vid. No computers, electronics, or digital anything. Just mechanics and pure power and grit. What a time! Love those old bikes. 👍🇺🇸❤️
You and me both, what a time that would have been to take in a night race
Back in the 70's I watch a bicycle race on TV and they where on a board track only it was indoors. One guy was hauling it on what looked like a 10 speed or what used to be call an English racer, anyway he went into that banked turn and his front wheel folded on him and he did a face plant into the banked turn instead, I thought it killed him, but nope he didn't die, can't remember exactly but I think he actually walked off the track carrying his broken bike! Haven't seen one of those races since but I'd sure like to. I believe it mayhave been on the Wide World of Sports a show that used to come on saturdays back then.🤠👍
@user-is3bp6ii4n Plenty of track racing coming up in the Paris Olympics from the 5 Aug. Not quite so fast but...
100 mph+ in 1921. Not too shabby.