Pierson - The perfect vehicle: what it is about motorcycles

The motorcycle passenger sometimes takes the position of third wheel. In 1906 Mr. and Mrs. Willie Kay took the air on their Indian Tricar. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Women riders have long attracted both stigma and benefit as a result of being highly noticeable. Early in the century, Clara Wagners fame as an endurance racer was capital to the Eclipse Machine Company, as shown by this advertising postcard. It bears a note on back claiming that Miss Clara Wagner the most successful and experienced lady motorcyclist always uses the Eclipse Coaster Brake. Her renown also contributed to a rash of rather aggressive insecurity among race organizers.

A very happy man: Weishaar, winner of 100 mi. race. Norton, Kan. Oct. 22 14. Time 2 hr. 1 min. World Record. It probably stood, too, at least until the following afternoon. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Taking the scenic route in a 1933 race, probably in California. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

War, in general a perfectly tautological enterprise, used motorcycles to gun men down and then to carry away those hit (in particular, as in the two pictures below, Indians on behalf of American troops in World War I; British units similarly employed Royal Enfields as machine-gun mounts). By World War II, the motorcycle dispatch rider was a romantic figure, a motorized cowboy, as in this Belgian boys story.

Let it not be said that motorcycles have no socially redeeming use. In the instructional photo at left, illustrating a 1922 edict that was to make Washington, D.C., cops politest in nation (courteous tone of voice, no bawling out), a fast woman gets a ticket for 25 in an 18 zone. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

The potentials of commerce are improved by Harley-Davidsons Servi-Car, introduced in 1931 as an efficient means to tow disabled automobiles to a garage. (Courtesy Ronald G. Hand)

The running start of the 350cc event in the 1951 Dutch TT. Number 53, at center, is a Norton (with famed featherbed frame) piloted by Geoffrey Duke, who would take World Championship laurels for the year in both 350 and 500cc classes. (Photo John Schaepman)

There Will Always Be an England: A vigorous game of sidecar polo at the Kings Oak track, Loughton, date unknown. Britons have even been known to use sidecars in cross-country scrambles, where they frequently become airborne. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Mike the Bike Hailwood in form on a 500cc MV Agusta in 1963, the year he won the World Championship. Ditto in 1962, 1964, and 1965; on 250s in 1961, 1966, and 1967; and on 350s in 1966 and 1967. He had a stirring comeback win at the Isle of Man in 1978 at the age of 38 aboard a 900cc Ducati, and the company quickly trotted out a production Hailwood Replica model. (Photo J. L. Ranscombe)

Grandmothers are bikers, too, as this undated photo of a chipper Clara B. Brown of Leamington, England, attests. Its original caption maintains that she has achieved a feat without parallel by learning to ride a motorcycle when over 50 years of age. She daringly makes frequent lone spins and spends her holidays in extended tours of the whole country, while she is recognized by the clubs as being their oldest lady member. (Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

In 1941 in Essex Junction, Vermont, a carnival barker attracts an audience for motorcycle daredevils, who from the beginning of the century were as often as not women. Nothing could be more exciting than watching them challenge gravity on the Wall of Death, a wooden cylinder with 20-foot-high walls that was perhaps evolved from banked board tracks. An American troupe of Wall of Death ridersincluding one Plucky Jennie Perrytoured the world in 1929, and a newspaper reported of their South African performance, No wonder we cheered with relief when these intrepid motor cyclists once more reached terra firma. (Photo Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration collection, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress)