YOU'RE
FIRST
WITH
Field meets gave everyone a chance t o show their skills.
Best Wishes
to the AMAon
their Golden
Anniversary!
" Pi pe down " and fight no ise po llution
H on dll 2· m 1
used
Whe n sy!>tem shown IS
,t meets presen t norse
f e~ u l il li on s
on nlOM nOI Included . bUI
fS
Oldell'd se para lt'ly
Mo u nh n g br a ck e ts
I ll rn lsh+!d
r"u mph 7 50 RE "h"
ment do .....n Pipe
c c
B o n n e v il l e and
M ou n h rlg
chfOf'l"le
re p lac e
F,t'Ji 73 Tnumph 750
blacke ls
rlger
f u rn .sh ed
models
Mutflcrs
not oncluded
Troump h 750 I T 1 J",;," c hrome P'P':
designed 1 I T use Fit!> 73 T"lImph
01'
750 c c
Bon neville & TIger mooers
M~v
Mou "''"9 brackets ftllnlSI'\ed
used WIt h muffle's at
be
saeocers
M CM expa nsion cha mbers fea t ur e a Simple bolt-on in stallat io n ,
are quie t ru n ni n g , m eet legal noise standard s . Con es are dvnotest ed to ma tch each ma ch in e. an d each pipe has a bu ilt in f iber g lass s i le n cer w i th r em o v ab le c o re that may be clean ed o r
rep la ced . Chro me hea l sh ield and all necessary m ou nt{ng b rac kets are included
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KK SELLS ••"'..
TOM.C.
DEALERS ~A,.
:~.
ONLY
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"THE EN THUSIAST'S SUPPL Y HOUSE"
MEMBER
MOTORCYCLE
INOUSTRY
COUNCIL
~J~E~,M~!~~CO!~~!02S'~~!'!'8i'
QJ;t) "I (~ m l\ ~.~,~ IZ'
em
14
lU CAI
T II
WfA
the amount of ind us try con tribution of
time and money and at the sa me time in
the amo u nt of in dustry control allowe d .
DEVELOPMENT
,m an ever to top the Lansing hill . On the
West Co as t. th e hillclimb sce ne was being
d omin ated by a smiling youngster-from
the Sa n Francisco area by the name of
"Daring" Dudley Perkins. T he Peoria
m o to rcy cle club staged its first hillcl im b
i n 1 9 2 5 , t he same yea r that a
Pe n nsy lvan ia Dutch boy by the name of
Jules Horky took a job as a deli very boy
for the U.S . Mail. Horky would playa
major ro le in the AMA from 1946 until
his retirement in 1974, and his father
bough t him a four-cylinder motorcycle
on which to make his rounds.
It was obvious that the initial
influence of the American Motorcycle
Association wo uld be in the area of
competition. With its roots in the ol d
M&ATA Competition Committee and
composed of the same officers, the
AMA got down to business with the
running of championship events for the
1924 season , the conducting of the
THE REIGN OF E.C. SMITH
annual Gypsy Tours and the st aging o f
the fir st American National Six -Da ys
No one in the history of American
Trial . A six-day long endurance test
motorcy cling so influenced the sport as
p atterned after the Internati on al
did the e ne rge tic·E.C . Smith. Appointed
Six-Days Trial which was ge tting a
an FAM referee in 1914 , Smi th devoted
t oe hold in Eur op e , th at fir st su ch
his full energy for th; next 44 y ear s t o
American eve n t ran fr om New York to .
th e ca us e of organ ized motorcycling. A
Columbus. Ohio. and b ack again .
sm all man w ith a prominent nose and
F ort y -s e ven of f orty-nine sta rt e rs
d ark e yes th at flas he d with enthusiasm ,
fin ished the run, "most wit h perfect
Smith w as see m ing ly everywhere during
s cores," leading the prop onents o f
the form ative years o f the American
Eu ropean style Six-D ays compet iti on to
Motorcycle Ass ociation.
write off the Am e rican trial as "to o
He became full -time secretary of th e
easy ."
American Motorcycle Association in
The first major confrontation for th e
October 1928. A.B. . Coffman, because
AMA also came . in the busy year 192.4
of other business interests , was unable
when the promoter at the o ld Ascot
to devote full -t ime as secretary, a job
race track in Lo s Angeles chose to run
which had grown along with the MIA .
an " o u t!aw " event, that is, a motorcycle
Then -president of the M&ATA,
ra e e wit h 0 u t a sa n c t ion.
"Dynamite" Jim Wright of A uburn,
MOTORCYCLE AND BICYCLE
Ne w York , saw the need for a spark to
ILLUSTRATED quickly jumped in t o
push the AMA into new ar eas of
the fray, noting of the par ticipants in
involve ment. He hir ed Sm ith wi th
the "outlaw" event, " It won't be lon g
orders to move the AMA offices from
before they discover that without th e
Chicago to Columbus, O hio, and to go
app ro val and backing of the contro lling
to work .
body, things will no t go very well . The
With a m emb e rsh ip of 4 ,200, with 62
riders will fin d that with no one to back
MIA clubs on the charter ro les and
the m up whe n they have a just grievance
wit h a staff of one gir l in the office at
against the promoter, that they will be
252 North High Street ill Col u mbus,
at the mercy of track management. The
Ohio, E.C . Smith got down to business.
promoters will discove r that the best
Coming off 14 years of co mpetition
riders will have no th in g to do with them
experience as a referee, Smith felt that
and th at maintaining discipline among a
motorcycle racing was well established
bunch of independents who neither owe
and would perpetuate itself, b ut he
allegiance to nor are backed up by a
espoused then and feels to th is d a y th at
controlling body is not as simple as it
the strength of organized m o torcy clin g
m ight seem. No sport has
ever
is in cl ub activity and public relations
amounted to anything without a strong
efforts designed to gai n acceptance for
co n tro lling body, loyally supported b y
the sport among the general p ub lic.
it s membership . If your Los Angeles
With those guidelines in m ind , E.C.
friends want to kill the goose that lays
left his lone secretary to man the office,
the golden egg, they have ta ke n an
armed him self with a mo vie p roj ect or
effective way'"to do it. It is to be hoped
and a box of motorcycle films m ad e by
that wiser council will prevail and cause
Firestone and Goodyear Tire Companies
the dis contented ones to reconsider
and took to the stum p to organize
their move that will bar them fro m
clubs .
organized sport."
In t he ten-year flurry of activity that
Whether it was th e effects of wiser
saw hi m cropping up in pic t ures with
co u nci l, falling rider support or anothe r
i nd ust ry l e a d e r s , civi c officials,
facto r, Ascot indeed did return to the
legislat o rs, club members and plain "J oe
fold and the name became synonymous
Motorcyclists" from co ast -to -co ast and
with West Coast American Motorcycle
border-to-border, E.C . Smith built a
Association racing for the next half
n a t i o n a l organization with a
cen tu ry .
m e m b e r shi p of 17 ,39 0 and 1,000
Some new nam es had begun to emerge
chartered clubs .
on the m o t o r c y cl e scene in the
D uring the same period, American
m id -1920s as we ll. A predecessor of Eve!
mo t o rcycle racing heroes were born
Knievel by the name of Morris Moffatt
who would be remembered--in fact
broke his own record 100 feet when he
wou ld grow in stature --during the first
jumped a motorcycle 210 feet off a
50 years of the AMA .
ramp into Lake Ontario! Hillclimbing
J oe Petrali won his first national
was .a mainstay of AMA co m p e t.it io n ,
championship d irt track title in 19 25
and In fact h ad re p lac ed track racing as
and added a hillclimb ch ampionship in
the m os t p opular form o f motorcycle
1928 . Three seas ons, 1929, 19 32 and
co mpe ti tion . In Michigan, Oscar Len z ,
193 3, w ould find Petrali the ch am p in
b oth classes .
wh o later gain ed fa me as orga ni zer of
th e ack Pine End uro, became the-:fi c:s~t_.:.-_...; :.:ith :.::.:e:n.-::li=ke Ray Tauser, Co rd y an d
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