Chatham Motorcycle Club, Savannah, Georgia, 1934

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I just returned from a quick trip down to Savannah, a city busting at the seams with beauty, charm, and culture. This magical old town also boasts a long running heritage of motorcycling and a rich history of racing. With one of the oldest motorcycle clubs in the country, Savannah’s dusty roads and cobblestone streets, lined with noble oaks dressed in Spanish moss have been a favorite for riders since the turn of the century. With the completion of the Grand Prize Circuit in 1908, America’s first Grand Prix racing course, local enthusiasts grew to become fierce competitors and the city became one of America’s earliest racing capitals. Beginning in 1913, nationally sanctioned GP races were held on the aging Grand Prize circuit, bringing legendary names like Maldwyn Jones, Cannonball Baker, Ray Weishaar, and Joe Wolters to Savannah. American racing icon Jim Davis recalls watching that race as a teenager in that year after having traveled to Savannah with his father who was there on business in 1913 and credits watching Maldwyn Jones blast around the sandy roads at that first races as a major inspiration for his own racing career. The same event the next year brought the first ever officially backed Harley-Davidson factory racing team, along with their first official podium with team rider Irving Janke finishing 3rd, a monumental turning point in American motorcycle racing history. 

As the years marched on local men continued racing on the Grand Prize Circuit as well as ringing out their machines on the long, flat, wide stretches of sand on the nearby barrier islands. By the 1930’s a new class of racer began to emerge, the fizzling interest in robust and expensive factory supported Class A was replaced with the hearty, every-man appeal of AMA Class C competition. In 1932, in an effort to boost sales amidst the depression regional industry owners decided to band together and sponsor another long distance endurance race over parts of the once mighty Grand Prize Circuit. Again top class riders from around the country, a new generation of champions like “Ironman” Ed Kretz, Rody Rodenberg, and Rollie Free arrived in Savannah to compete. It was that event, the 200 mile long road race that began in Savannah which eventually became the beloved Daytona 200 in 1936.  

Despite hosting so many milestone events, and perhaps because of the massive shadow cast by the city’s deep local history, Savannah is often overlooked as a historically significant motorcycling hub in America. However, the town remains a time machine for those who know its importance and anyone lucky enough to ride beneath the oaks can feel a direct connection with that heritage, one stretching back to the origins of motorcycle culture in America. Here, a group of likeminded enthusiasts, members of the Chatham Motorcycle Club post up on Bull and E. Perry St. downtown for a picture in 1934. The overly confident man in the middle is a local racer named Breman Sykes, he had just won the 200 mile race becoming the first awarded AMA Class C Champion a few weeks prior. It is also worth noting that another local racing hero named Ralph Edwards, winner of the first 200 mile event in Savannah in 1932, the first champion of what would become the renownedDaytona 200 poses a bit more discretely, with the cap and goggles third from the right.

Learn more about the rich history of racing and motorcycle culture in Savannah in the pages of Georgia Motorcycle History: The First 60 Years 1899-1959, available now HERE

Three Gray Fellows, Summer 1910

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Three Gray Fellows sitting in a row, but the men onboard are not your average enthusiasts. These men were at the heart of the revolution, pioneers of American motorcycle culture in every sense of the word. From left to right are William Sylvester Harley, Frank William Ollerman, and Walter Davidson Sr. in the summer of 1910 mounted on machines made from their own hands. The stories of both Harley and Davidson, two of the company’s founders have been written about countless times. Given that their names are now synonymous with the very idea of the American motorcycle it is an interesting fact to point out that at the time that this image was taken, the now mighty Harley-Davidson Motor Co. had really only just turned the corner into becoming a true manufacturing company. 

The quite murky origin story of the 1903 Harley-Davidson had slowly progressed to a legitimate, though not staggering number of production of machines by 1907. The Motor Co. officially incorporated that same year but still only around 150 machines were produced, compared to the mighty Indian who cranked out over 2,000. Frank William Ollerman, the towering gentleman in the center of this photo, was one of the company’s original 18 employees that same year. Having immigrated from Berlin, Germany, the teenaged Ollerman was a capable mechanic, machinist, and had a reputation for jumping into any role that the growing company had need for. Along with Walter Davidson and William Harley, Ollerman was one of the most active participants in the early days of competition for the company and was one of the few factory men who could truly hold his own at the track. As such Ollerman and the two bosses were some of the earliest racers for the Motor Co., the forefathers of the Wrecking Crew. 

By 1909 production had swelled to just over 1,000 machines, a new record for them but still 5 times less than the likes of Indian. However, after acquiring their first automatic machines, adding plant employees, growing their sales force, and beginning construction of their new “red brick” facility, the upstart American motorcycle maker began a more steady and rapid ascent to the top of the industry. 1910, the same year that this photograph was taken Harley-Davidson produced over 5,000 new machines, a corner turned, and Harley-Davidson began to claim their spot at the top of the American motorcycle food chain. Here, both Harley and Davidson sit onboard two 4HP, battery equipped Model 6’s which sold for $210 at the time, while Ollerman piloted the more expensive, magneto equipped Model 6A. The photo most likely comes from around the time of the gentlemen’s great showing at the gruelingly muddy 505 miles of the 9th Annual FAM Endurance Contest in August, 1910. 

A special thanks to my pal Lucian from dWRENCHED.com for sharing the image.

Frank Murray and his bear, Wallingford, VT, January 1917

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Running short on time today so just a quick throwback to motorcycle life 100 years ago. A sporting man’s favorite utility, the motorcycle, especially those equipped with sidecar rigs offered an essential and rugged means of transport to and from the wilderness for hunters, their supplies, and their harvest since their introduction. Here, Frank Murray from Wallingford, VT hauls back a black bear in his Harley-Davidson sidehack during the first frigid days of the new year, 1917.

Mystery Pope Special, ca. 1913

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Photographs like this one are what initiated my interest in researching early American motorcycle culture. Most of us have seen it a million times thanks to the internet, but we seem to know so little about it. However, despite it ubiquity the image still pulls out the same feeling as it did when I first stumbled across it. All of the buzzwords apply, but they never quite capture that common feeling that stirs in all motorcycle enthusiasts, shared equally back through the decades. I hope that collectively we can root out the details of this very unique moment in our past, so I throw the challenge out to the community, what do we know about this photo?

What we can surmise is that, based on the livery, this Pope would most likely have come from between 1911 and 1918 based on the Westfield, MA manufacturer’s production years. Though a handful of Pope’s were raced throughout those years, there seems to have been no great factory racing program like those of their competition rivals, and the machines that did pop up at the track tended to be more “stripped-stock” iterations of the production 1,000cc OHV twin platform. Based on the castings of the shortened, keystone frame as well as the modified fork arms, which include what must be the most bizarre handlebar placement in history, this machine was most likely assembled in the mid-teen’s with the 1/2 mile dirt track in mind. The single cylinder, direct chain drive engine is most likely between 2 and 5 HP, though the mag placement behind the cylinder points more towards the 5HP, OHV Model K from 1913. The rider, who seems determined to split his face open from chin to brow is tucked in tight like a seasoned pro, but his coveralls allude to his possible responsibility in the machine’s creation altogether.

Enough with the speculation, what do you guys think?