Managed to make it out to the Barber Vintage festival today.
http://www.barbervintagefestival.org/Hell of an event. THOUSANDS of bike on display in addition to the 800 or so in the Museum.
When I was in my teens and would mention getting a bike mom always had stories about how dangerous they were. :dunno
My folks Rode in the 50's and 60's. They had some interesting friends including Dot Robinson (founder of the Motor Maids) and her husband.
http://www.motorcyclemuseum.org/asp/museum/exhibits/heroesofharley/biopage1.asp?id=78Joe and Alma Rocheleau Who raced side car and even went to Isle of Man.
http://www.iomtt.com/TT-Database/competitors.aspx?ride_id=3028&filter=RRon Finch
http://www.finchscustoms.com/ Duane McDaniels
http://motorcyclehalloffame.ca/mcdaniels_duane.htmProbably the most famous being Bob Leppan who held Worlds motorcycle speed records in 65 at 212.689MPH and in 66 at 245.667mph.
http://www.gyronautx1.com/ In 1970 He was trying to reclaim the record. Don Vesco in "big Red" had bested him at 251.924mph. Then Cal Rayborn got the record at 265.492.
Bobs 1st pass was 264.437. He return pass for the avg he was going 274mph when the fork broke. The resulting crash almost cost his arm.
Well Somehow that crash as well as some had by their other friends was always brought up as how dangerous motorcycles were. Not that I ever planned on going 274mph at Bonneville but I got it with both barrels a few times. The other and much more convincing story is were my folks dumped the bike and mom bounced a guard rail and ripped the back of her leg open and has nice scare to prove it. Got to see that often.
Well today I got to see the restored GyronautX-1 was on display AND Big red is a full time resident of the Museum. It was pretty cool to actually see the bike I had heard about often in my youth. Also got to see an overwhelming amount of nice Airheads including some 20's an 30's in the Museum.
