I have had the distinct pleasure of being asked to give a guest lecture at the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum this Thursday, February 27 at 7 pm EST, available for anyone to attend for free via Zoom.
Curtiss was one among America’s first class of motorcycle pioneers, equal parts engineer, entrepreneur, and fearless sportsman that helped give birth to the machines themselves. Often overlooked given his diverse mechanical interests and successes in the earliest days of aviation, Curtiss stood alongside men like Charles Metz, Oscar Hedstrom, and Joseph Merkel as the founding fathers of both the American motorcycle and the sport of motorcycle racing. Join in tomorrow, February 27 at 7 pm EST for a look back to the beginning of motorcycle racing and the invaluable contributions made to the culture by Hammondsport’s own Glenn Curtiss.
I’m looking into re-releasing my first book, Georgia Motorcycle History soon. It was a project which marked the beginning of my interest in writing about this unique history back in 2013 which was funded with the support of the community. Though it was a narrow niche the response was inspiring, and after 3 pressings sold to enthusiasts in over 20 countries I fell in love with researching motorcycle history and decied I wanted to do what I could to help preserve stories from the early days of this rich culture of ours. The project quickly evolved into Archive Moto, and I have thuroughly enjoyed the ooportunity to dig deeper into my passion, connect and collaborate with so many like-minded folks, and share in this collective interest. GMH has been sold out for the better part of 5 years now, and though the printing house in Georgia I used to produce it is no longer available, I have been exploring ways to have another pressing.
Indian’s Big Base 8-valve was the very concept of speed, raw and uncompromising, distilled by one of the most talented engineering pioneers specifically for the task at being unbeatable yet refined in its simplicity as only Oscar Hedstrom could accomplish. And for that, the Big Base remains a legendary machine, equal parts brutality and elegance, the embodiment of the thrilling age of the board track motordrome, … and in a word, a purebred.
In early September 1910, Ray Seymour returned home to California as one of the world's top motorcycle racers. He was the newest recruit on Indian's dominant factory team as an understudy of the undisputed greatest motorcycle racer in the world, Jacob DeRosier. Only four years prior, Seymour had thrown his leg over a motorcycle for a race at LA's Agriculture Park for the first time, but in 1910, he returned with the crown of National Amateur Champion resting on top of his dusty blonde hair. He reacquainted himself with California's warm winter climate with a few dirt track races in San Jose before returning to Los Angeles. Once home in LA in late September, Seymour and his Indian cohorts soon gathered to assault the records at the large 1-mile wooden circle at Playa Del Rey.
