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.
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Chris Price
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imagine getting dumped at 100 sliding down the track on some highnail heads!
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
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 .
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.
Motorcycle Exotica
I am 65, and I was always told that safety was the reason these board tracks died.. The stories however were far far from this story.. Reports of boards coming up and impaling riders was a big one... Did that ever even happen?
I think some this footage is 1959. I WAS there in 58.
Great stuff Thank you sharing it with my 27 year old son now I have been riding for 50 yrs raced amateur motocross 75 to 78 love the history 🤙
Thanks for the kind words and I am happy to hear you are passing it along to the next generation.
You haven't posted a video in 4 months, please tell me you ain't done making videos yet
Thank you for keeping up with the channel, and I’ve got more coming very soon. Thanks again
Glen Curtis went 130 mph on his 8 cylinder motorcycle in 1903 Daytona Beach.
That is what is written, but there is a lot of speculation about the truth behind the stories. I’m working on a project now on the story.
@@ArchiveMoto The Bike is in the Curtis Museum Hammond New York.
Not once did they mention the greatest rider Shrimp Burns how could you not mention him?
No doubt Burns one of the greats, but he was still a little whipper snapper when these early circular motordromes were popular though there are brief mentions of him being turned out of some drome races for being too young, so he was trying. Shrimp didn’t rise into the sport until his mid teens, which with the interruption if WWI, meant he didn’t make a name for himself until after the war. Another one of my videos, the Beverly Hills race from 1921 features him prominently though.
I know he was a Johnny come lately but he was a hell of a rider
Absolutely was
Most of those guys were hugely talented riders and died awfully Young funny thing is the fact that they risked everything for fortune and fame and people still do that today
Crashing a motorbike is one thing, but SPLINTERS!!!! imagine, I'd rather not...
Unpleasant. Glen ‘Slivers’ Boyd would certainly agree given his nickname as well
Bring it back!
its not rarer as you make out seen it several times before!
too short! Where's Shrimp Burns, Ralph Hepburn, Larry Fleckenstein, Blick Wolters??? Barely scratched the surface.
You are right about that, there were so many legends to get until the sport in the later board track super-speedways on the late teens and 20s. A few are featured in some of my other videos, but I hope to continue this series with a more in depth look at the second generation of board track racing, as well as the hill climbs, flat tracks, and other venues over the years and the icons that raced on them. This was just the early motordromes, but stick around there is plenty more to come.
Board track isn't totally forgotten, according to Guy Martin in 2014. Just sayin
Totally right, I was honored to contribute a bit to that show myself, but still, the world hasn’t quite seen anything like the original motordrome tracks, before the name was lifted for the wall of death thrill shows as featured in the Martin event. A banked timber saucer at 1/3-1 mile around would be something to see these days with or without the bikes… I vote with bikes though.
Cool man. Very cool. 💪
Thanks so much
Fascinating!
Thank you kindly
Spectators went to these deforestation and pollution palaces for a chance to see young men kill themselves, and maybe a few hapless bystanders as well, the same impulse that made them hold picnics at public hangings.
Harde stock of riders
Without question
Excellent video!!
Thank you very much!
@@ArchiveMoto truly an excellent historical fim of the men who paved the way for us!! Thank you
Geez, fantastic, but leathers weren’t a thing back then?
Thanks. Leather was definitely in use, but only rarely do you see a racer in a full suit, and even then I don’t think Ive come across a one piece like what we are used to today. Advertising was also a factor as the sport matured in its early days, so I’m sure the dollars and cents played a role in wearing branded sweaters. Still, by the time they were racing on these big speedways the events were long-distance endurance affairs and I imagine temperature control and comfort played a role as well.
@@ArchiveMoto Geoff Duke was the first racer to use the one piece racing suit.
This makes no sense on so many levels. Why build something like this when bulldozers and concrete existed at the time.. It's crazy.
They did, but I imagine the cost and level of refinement if the materials paled in comparison of wood at the time for the scale and banking involved. Asphalt eventually provided the answer, but in comparison to some of the first track surface experiments at places like Indy or Savannah, wood may have been preferred by the racers as well.
Awesome video ❤thankyou for sharing...😮
Thanks for watching!
Don't EVER lose these historic videos!
Seems like something to put on the bucket list, or rather the "Do NOW bucket list"