The sense of freedom, adventure, and uncut joy that comes standard to every kid when they first throw their leg over a bicycle is something rarely matched in life, if ever. It truly is one's first taste of sovereignty, the ability to create and control your own experience, interact with and expand the world around you on your own terms, and live within the thrills and meditations of the moment. Imagine how amplified those same feelings must have been in 1900 when the world didn't expand endlessly on screens forever in hand but was instead limited to the tangible, immediate proximity. For a child, books and imagination could take you far, but the real world ended at the horizon. The bicycle, very much the revolution of the day at the turn of the 20th Century, offered a chance to push that boundary ever farther, for as far as one was willing to pedal. For a skinny boy in Wichita, the bicycle became the center of his world; it became a passion that would shape the life of an American motorcycling icon.
Elvin Austin Shoemaker, an amateur trade rider from Sacramento, California, posing with his race-configured 1911 Excelsior Auto-Cycle Model G. The 19-year-old Shoemaker was a sales clerk at Sacramento's Excelsior dealership, William A. Langley's capital for all things motorcycle in Northern California at the time. The young clerk had just won the Sacramento Motorcycle Club's 5-mile championship race at Agriculture Park on October 21st, 1911. Shoemaker jockeyed his stripped-stock Excelsior twin around the dusty trotting track at an average speed of 55 mph, taking the amateur championship prize as well as a third-place finish in the stock twin race. His mount was the latest release from the Excelsior Supply Company, their first twin-cylinder offering, and their last machine under the companies founding owners. A deal was struck only days before, handing over the fledgling Excelsior brand to bicycle magnate Ignaz Schwinn, a steal at only $500,000.
On the warm autumn evening of October 21, 1912, beneath the arc lights of the Lake Cliff Motordrome in Dallas Texas, a stadium full of racing enthusiasts witnessed a miracle on the boards. The country was still in shock as the tragedy at the Valisburg Motordrome occurred only weeks before on September 8. The horrific and now infamous crash, the precursor of the “murderdrome” moniker claimed the lives of Indian racing stars Johnny Albright and local Texan hero Eddie Hasha along with 6 spectators, 5 of which being but teenaged boys. In the weeks that followed the Valisburg track shutdown, papers nationwide ran stories of the carnage, and an outcry for improved safety standards had organizers and promoters implementing new rules and infrastructure. For the riders, however, racing was their livelihood and though their friends had just perished, death was just another aspect of their daily lives so most were eager to get back onto the boards.
Three years ago I began a project involving one of the most historically significant collections of photographs from the Golden Age of American motorcycle racing. It has been an incredible journey full of discovery and I am excited to finally be sharing this remarkable collection, as well as the story of the man behind their preservation, Mr. Ashely Franklin Van Order.
I can’t wait for you to see this book, pre-order information will be coming soon, but if you would like to stay in the loop I have created a special Pre-Order notification HERE, sign up today!
