January 24, 1907. Glen Curtiss climbed aboard this motorcycle on the sand at Ormond Beach Florida and drove this 40 HP, V-8 monster of his own design to an astounding 137 miles per hour, covering a measured mile in twenty six and two fifths seconds after a 2 mile running start. He wore no goggles or safety gear, just bending down as much as he could to reduce drag.
This was the climax of 7 years of motorcycle building and racing that Curtiss started with a set of rough castings he learned to build into a working engine, using a soup can for a carburetor.
After this he started his career building aeroplanes.
Is there any wonder I see Glen Curtiss as an ispiration?
I took this picture last weekend while at the Glen Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport N.Y. attending the Mid-Winter Cycle Therapy event. There were over 100 vintage motorcycles there, along with the museums regular displays. It was a great day. My favorite was an original barn-find1911 Indian that the owner was allowed to fire up every now and then to huge applause.
This all fueled my interest to work on the motorized bicycle project. I have a pre-WWII Western Flyer bicycle that I plan to modify into something that looks a lot like the above Indian. For an engine I have a 1932 Maytag model 72 2-cylinder (Stay tuned), and I'm working on the drive system. I plan this to be "practice" for following in Curtiss' footsteps and building a motorcycle engine and all.
I plan to get the help of some friends who have more experience in machining than I do. You'll meet them soon enough. They do some pretty interesting things too. I also plan to stumble my way, maybe dragging my friends along, through the learning process of casting parts for the engine I hope to build.
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