Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1190846
VOLUME 56 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 10, 2019 P125 on a factory Indian. By beating these other top amateur riders, Johns was given the chance to ride DeRosier's factory machine in record-setting attempts at the Playa del Rey board track. He set a slew of speed records that day for amateur riders and even the outright record for two miles. His amateur records weren't without controversy. It was argued that Johns having the opportunity to ride a full-factory Indian as an amateur was an unfair advantage. Johns turned expert in 1912, but in one of his first races out- side of Southern California, Johns was suspended under the most bizarre circumstances. While racing at a board track near Chi- cago, rider Dave Kinney crashed. Johns stopped to help Kinney and actually fainted while trying to help Kinney pull out a large splin- ter. The race referee suspended Johns for fainting on the grounds that if he fainted by simply pulling out splinters, then he wasn't fit for the rigors of racing. Johns sat out almost a year before the factories applied pressure to allow him to come back. After being reinstated Johns promptly won the Western Cham- pionships in San Jose, California, riding a factory Excelsior. At the end of 1914, Cyclone hired Johns to ride its new racing machine. The Cyclone had many features that were ahead of its time and was by far the fastest, albeit often unreliable, of the Class A factory racing machines of the era. In a 1941 magazine interview, Johns recalled some things about the legendary Cyclone. "The yellow rig attracted a great deal of attention wherever I raced it," he said. "It used special Swed- ish precision bearings and was very light and very powerful. The motor was so powerful that I would wear out a set of tires in just a few laps. I switched from U.S. Tires to a newly designed Goodyear and that helped. It was the first racer to turn over 5000 rpms. It had a unique sound and was often five to seven miles per hour faster than the other factory rigs." One legendary victory for Johns on the Cyclone was a win- ner-take-all one-lap race around a mile dirt track in Phoenix on November 18, 1913. The promoter offered the princely sum of $1000 to the vehicle that could lap the mile the fastest, and that included planes flying just above the mile oval. Johns and the Cyclone beat out automobile ace Barney Oldfield and barnstorming pilot Lincoln Beachly to win the prize. The Cyclone, while often the fastest motorcycle at a race, suf- fered from reliability problems. Johns easily turned the fastest lap times and many times built big leads only to suffer a mechanical failure with the bike. The most infamous race for Johns and Cyclone was the epic 1915 Dodge City 300. A total of seven manu- facturers fielded factory teams in the event. Harley-Davidson, debuting in the classic race, and Indian each had eight riders. Johns, on the Cyclone, turned laps over two mph faster than Dave Kinney's qualifying speed in the early laps and was heavily fa- vored to win the race. He opened a large lead, lapping a number of riders in the first 50 miles. Then the bike began to fade, and he lost the lead just before the 100-mile mark and later dropped out of the running. Johns also led similarly in the 100-mile national at Ascot Park until the Cyclone again failed before reaching the checkered flag. Johns did win a number of shorter races on the Cyclone, in- cluding the one-mile FAM National held in Sacramento in July of 1915. Johns, frustrated by the unreli- ability of the machines, left Cy- clone and closed out his racing career riding an Indian. Cyclone would cease production in 1917. In 1916, Johns' last full year of racing, he again was victorious in the one-mile national, this time held in Columbus, Ohio. Like many rid- ers of the era, World War I brought a close to Johns' racing career. Few of the factories returned to racing and Johns faded from the racing scene taking up a career as an oil-drilling toolmaker in Texas. In all, Johns rode for Thor, Excelsior and Indian, but he will always be remembered for his exploits on the Cyclone. Johns was one of the original inductees into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives