William S. Harley and Walter Davidson, 1910

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William S. Harley and Walter Davidson pause at a checkpoint along the 505-mile route of the 1910 Federation of American Motorcyclist (FAM) Endurance Competition. The two men from the Harley-Davidson Motor Company were among the record 126 entrants to compete in the 9th annual endurance event early that August. Obviously the duo piloted the latest 35ci, 4HP machines that the Motor Co. had to offer and were accompanied by two other factory men, Frank Ollerman and Alexander Klein on two more of the same model. The major brands of Indian, Excelsior, Merkel, Reading Standard and Thor filled up the field of entrants, but smaller manufacturers like Bradley, Emblem, Yale, Reliance, Mack, MM, New Era, Haverford, Marvel, and Pierce rounded out the list. None of the “Harley-Davidson team” were professional racers, though one could argue that Walter Davidson was the company’s first racer as he frequently competed in a variety of events once joining the company in 1907. The remaining entrants covered the spectrum of early American motorcyclists, from professional racers and manufacturer teams to your everyday motorcycle enthusiast, all competed to test their machines and themselves alike.

After a hard rain made thick clay out of the course roads on the first day  nearly 90 of the entrants fell too far behind in the points to place though several continued forward. The mud-bathed boys from Milwaukee pushed through the difficult conditions and each man finished the event with near perfect scores. William S. Harley, the high man on the HD totem pole finished in the top 10 with a score of 986 points out of 1000. An account of the event speculates that if William Harley had not stopped to help his teammates through the nastiness of that first leg he would have easily claimed a perfect score. With the help from Bill Harley, Walter Davidson came in 13th with 916 points, Frank Ollerman finished 20th with 846 points, and Alex Klein rounded out the team in 23rd place with 712 points.  Only 24 men, including all 4 members of the Harley-Davidson team finished the 1910 FAM Endurance Competition out of the 126 that entered. The next week a full page advertisement announcing the accomplishment and superiority of Harley-Davidson motorcycles was taken out in the newspapers and trade magazines proclaiming that “it’s the road, not the race track that really tests a machine.”

The Bojete Chopper 1910

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Arguably one of the most influential men in American motorcycle culture, California’s Thomas Bojete never knew that the radical modifications he made to his 1906 Merkel single would lay the foundation for a revolution in motorcycle design over half a century later. It was in the fall of 1910 that Tom took his 4 year old Merkel and added over 3 feet of extra metal to the fork legs. The new longer fork captured the look that Tom was looking for, but reports from the time claim that the machine sat at such a steep angle that Tom simply slid off of the saddle. To correct the issue Tom lengthened the entire front half of the frame, added additional bracing, and fabricated a new foot rest assembly. To further set himself apart from the stock crowd Tom finished his new creation off with his own tank emblem, a privateer in his own right the old Jolly Roger seemed to fit his new machine perfectly, and the Bojete Chopper was born.

Tom was an immediate sensation as he piloted his creation about town. He had anticipated the attention from his peers, it was a large part of his initial motivation to create such a radical machine, but what he never anticipated was the effect it would have on the young women. In an age when polite women were to act modestly and keep most all of their skin covered by the days full length dresses, the sight of Tom cruising up and down the boulevard stirred them into a such a frenzy that a few of the more brazen ladies began to flash Tom their ankles as he sputtered by. With all of the new found attention Tom then began to fall into the entrapments of popularity, constant conflicts with the wild women that were dumping out their ankles, an increasing problem consuming Pabst Blue Ribbon in great excess, snorting Coca-Cola that he dried out in the sun, and succumbing to the refer madness flooding into America from Mexico.

Unfortunately, very little information exists after those initial reports of Tom Bojete and his 1906 Merkel chopper, but those that know the legend of the Bojete Chopper say that Tom settled down with a older lady and the two headed out onto the open roads of America. Others say that Tom and his close friend William loaded some of his powdered Coca-Cola into their fuel tanks and headed east, in search of freedom and the American dream. Never the less, 50 years later, after Tom was long forgotten this, the only photograph ever snapped of the man and his creation was discovered and a new generation began to create their own “choppers” inspired by the radical lines that Tom had created at the turn of the 20th century.

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Happy April Fools everyone, the chopper image is just a lovely photoshop job that has been going around the internet for quite a while, I would love to know who originally made it. The original photograph that it was made with comes from the Library of Congress and was part of the Chicago Daily News collection of 1906.

The Invincible MC

This Week In History:

This week marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Brooklyn Motorcycle Club, known by their chosen name as the Invincible MC. Formed by an elite group of motorcycle enthusiasts on a brisk Tuesday evening in 1911, the club was established to act as a cornerstone for local motorcycle culture. The Invincible MC took their name in part from an existing social and political club of the day, and though the two clubs were separate organizations the new MC arranged to share use of the social club’s $30,000 property. The Invincible’s clubhouse, shown in the background of this photo was located at 78 Herkimer St. and featured an array of amenities including a library, restaurant, gym, billiards room, and bowling alley, all of which were at the unlimited disposal of the newly formed club. Remarkably the original house still stands today just off of Atlantaic Ave in the heart of Brooklyn, though it appears to be vacant and in a state of disrepair.

Membership to the club was limited to 50 men and was setup to be quite exclusive, only allowing the top class rider to enter its ranks. As such, several of the 27 original founding members were counted as some of America’s top professional racers. AG Chapplle, Walter Goerke, and John U. Constant of the legendary Indian factory racing team were all charter members of the Invincible MC, John U. Constant even serving as the club’s secretary. The Invicibles wasted no time in organizing their first event, a 150 mile Spring Run up the north shore of Long Island was scheduled for May 21st and would be the first of countless events put together by the new club. Unfortunately the men in this clipping were not individually identified and the quality is too poor to pick out the faces, though I do believe that is Walter Goerke on the far right, one of the Invincible’s Executive Board members and pioneer champion of the Indian team. Here captured in their first ever photograph are a few of founding members of the Invincible Motorcycle Club of Brooklyn NY in front of their clubhouse the last week of March, 1911.

Smoke hound and the 9E

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Fireman McGrew of the East Point Georgia Fire Department sits in the drivers seat of the company's first engine, a 1911 American LaFrance Type 10 Combo circa 1913. McGrew was the only paid fireman at the time but he is joined in the rig by his friend Lewis F. Little and a very photogenic hound up front. Also in the frame is a nicely appointed 8HP, 61ci Harley-Davidson model 9E, which due to the popularity of Harley's v-twin the year before came with a substantially higher price tag of $350.

Countless more exclusive photos and stories from motorcycling's earliest days can be found in the pages of Georgia Motorcycle History: The First 60 years 1899-1959 available HERE