Since the first introduction of piston to a bicycle, men have been trying to take their machines to their absolute limit, in an attempt to prove one machine’s supremacy over the other. While nothing much has changed in the modern competitive environment, its a whole world upside down when it comes to topic of how safe the early day motorsport were. Motorcyclists in the early days of motoring were men of valour pushing machines with scarce brakes wearing any particularly substantial clothing, reaching 100mph (160kmph) with inches between each other. All this on circuits made of wooden floors!
1930 Harley-Davidson DAR
The origin and history of this special “one off” Harley-Davidson racer is a mystery among historians today. What is known is speed competition in 1930 was a changing game. The board tracks of teens and twenty were now nearly a memory and dirt track racing during these depression years were less that the decade preceding.
The sport of motorcycle hill climbing had gained popularity in the twenty’s and was a competition that required only one thing being a challenging hill. It was not necessary to groom a round or oval track but simply invite the masses to observe daredevils known as “slant artists” climb the most notorious hills in the region. The same strategy for the manufactures as in other forms of racing was to win the race on Sunday and sell the production model on Monday. An already proven theory.
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