board tracker look, modern build and technology

Fire-medic · Feb 11, 2020

The seating position is extreme, but these bikes (the original board track racers) weren't supposed to be comfortable, they were designed to go! This is a 500 cc single cylinder air-cooled Honda engine, about as-reliable as you can imagine, but the design of the rest of the bike is modern. The detail is there, I think this is one of my favorite builds I've seen.

The artillery wheels are striking, carbon fiber spokes and aluminum hub, according to the description. I like the front end, drawing on roadracing technology from the not too-distant past, attributed as a Hossack design. There are a lot of features to see, a good execution of a traditional style once-built to race on wood-surfaced tracks with extreme banking, from 1/2-mile to two-1/2 miles in length, popular before WW I into the 1920's, but which vanished before the 1930's. Media of the day often criticized the tracks as being 'murderdromes' or something similar, because of the number of fatal accidents occurring on them.

Anyway, I like this bike design, its execution is masterful.

Be sure to read the Smithsonian article and the others, on the history of board track racing. I think the H-D is a mid-Twenties JD racer.

https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/abc500-a-bike-company-the1moto-show/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-early-deadly-days-of-motorcycle-racing-787614/

https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/1912indianracer.html

https://wheelsthroughtime.com/board-track-america/

Board Track Harley-Davidson-Smithsonian.jpg

Harley-Davidson Otto Walker avg 100 mph.jpg

Itgoes · Feb 11, 2020

Wow that's cool! I've never seen that done on a "replica" of something of that vintage.

The father of my best friend as a kid raced an Indian on board tracks mostly in the armory in northern NJ. He instilled the the passion for motorcycles in my friend and my friend passed it on to me.

rebeltaz83 · Feb 11, 2020

That's awesome!!! Thanks for sharing fire medic.

Fire-medic · Feb 11, 2020

Itgoes said:
Wow that's cool! I've never seen that done on a "replica" of something of that vintage.

The father of my best friend as a kid raced an Indian on board tracks mostly in the armory in northern NJ. He instilled the the passion for motorcycles in my friend and my friend passed it on to me.

rebeltaz83 said:
That's awesome!!! Thanks for sharing fire medic.

Thanks, I enjoy finding articles of interest and making them available for the forum members to read.

"Make motorcycling great again"

gentsvmax · Feb 11, 2020

Great pics!Interesting read. The Red-E Sparkle is how Iv seen the original's. No brakes! The reason the press called the tracks "murderdomes". The rider's called it 'shaving weight".

Fire-medic · Feb 12, 2020

gentsvmax said:
Great pics!Interesting read. The Red-E Sparkle is how Iv seen the original's. No brakes! The reason the press called the tracks "murderdomes". The rider's called it 'shaving weight".

"Red-E Sparkle" is the Yamaha factory color for the 1992 VMax in the USA.

In the mid-1920's a 1.25 mile board track was built in Miami FL. It was a popular place to race, and speed records were set, as it had a very-high-angle banked track. Many famous racers of the day were there.

The car pic is a Miller 8, 122 cubic inches, which qualified on the 1.25 mile track at 141.9 MPH, in 1926. It was driven by Ralph Hepburn, a former motorcycle racer, who finished 3rd at the Indy 500 in 1931, and 2nd in 1937. The cigar-chomper next-to him is Barney Oldfield, one of the most-popular racers of the era. The engine was a design first introduced by Peugeot, a DOHC, before WW I, at Indianapolis. The design was copied by Miller and eventually became Offenhauser, when they bought the rights to Miller when Miller went bankrupt. Offenhausers were the engine of choice in Champ Cars/Indy Cars from the 1930's to 1980, when the Cosworth/Ford DFV DOHC V8 took-over.

Ralph Hepburn Miami Board track 1926-Miller 8.jpg

A horrible hurricane hit Miami, and the track was destroyed, along with most of the local architecture. The track was ruined. It was disassembled, and the lumber was used to help rebuild the city of Miami. The track didn't last two years, but it lived-on in its material helping the hurricane-ravaged area to rebuild.