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1917 Hd 1000cc Boardtrack Racer Engine Number: L17T 4430…
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Auckland
Date:
22-Jul-2008
Lot No.
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Description:
1917 Hd 1000cc Boardtrack Racer Engine Number: L17T 4430 Stripped F Head Stock Racer Full On The first board track opened at the Los Angeles Coliseum Motordome near Playa del Rey, California, on 8 April 1910. Based on and utilising the same technology as the French velodromes used for bicycle races, the imposing track and others like it were created with 2 inch x 4 inch boards, and banked up to 50 degrees, or more. Timber was cheap, labour was plentiful, and board track racing offered a level of spectacle not seen since Roman times and by 1915, around a half-dozen tracks had opened for the engrossed public. Patches of oil, gaping holes and splinters too numerous to count meant that the riders endured brutal riding conditions in their quest for victory and there was the ever-present danger of laying the bike down at high speed. Race promoters made fortunes as did the pilots, with up to 80,000 spectators clambering around the track. Daily gate receipts of $10,000 were common. True to form, the lure of big money encouraged a troupe of privateers to strip down and build up purpose-built race bikes with the highest attainable horsepower they could squeeze from their motors. The design philosophy was fair and pragmatic - if it didn't make the bike lighter or faster (such as brakes!) it was removed. It was also common to do away with the complication of having an actual throttle - instead the pilots preferred to hard wire the throttle 'full on'. Very high speeds and a complete lack of safety precautions lead to spectacular wrecks on the board tracks in the 1910s, often killing a half-dozen competitors and spectators at a time. The effect of the banking was higher cornering speed and greater G-force on drivers. Fans sat on the top of the track looking down at the racers. When a pilot lost control, he would scream up and off the track and into the crowd. The press started calling circuits 'murderdromes'. This controversy over safety eventually marked the demise of board track racing and by the 1930s the sport was virtually extinct. This example has been meticulously restored by Dave Oldham, one of New Zealand's best emerging American motorcycle specialists.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified