VOLUME 57 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2020 P115
first pro hillclimb gave way to
his first career AMA National
win in 1968, Bowlby putting in a
winning run of 7.87 seconds. His
AMA Hall of Fame bio states, "To
illustrate how quickly hillclimbing
changed during Bowlby's era,
16 years after setting that time at
Muskegon, Bowlby came back
to set a new hill record in 1984 at
4.71 seconds."
Bowlby would go on to win 10
AMA national titles, including a
record-setting four consecutive
titles from 1976-1979, during his
25 years of professional racing.
That 1984 season was clearly
his greatest, as he set the Michi-
gan record and won the AMA
and Canadian National hillclimb
titles in the same season.
During his career, Bowlby,
who was not only a BSA fan
but also a dealer for the brand,
became well respected by the
competition for his immaculately
prepared machinery. He rarely
suffered a failure and continued
to put in consistent points-gath-
ering performances even in the
face of the new-fangled, high-
revving Japanese inline fours
that began to invade the hills as
his career reached its twilight.
"These high-tech machines...
there's no question that when
they're running right, they are the
fastest thing on the hill today,"
Bowlby said during a late '80s
television interview. "But my mo-
torcycle is set up in such a way
that it is more likely to run every
week."
True enough, as the sport was
well into that four-cylinder era
when Bowlby scored the last of
his 10 AMA National titles at the
Devil's Staircase in Oregonia,
Ohio, October 14, 1990. Bowlby
finished fourth in the event to
lock down the crown. He then
retired with more than 80 na-
tional wins and also six Canadian
national titles.
After hanging up his helmet,
Bowlby continued to help other
riders, including fellow Ohioan
Tim Frasier, who went on to win
the AMA 540cc National Hillclimb
title aboard a Bowlby-backed
BSA. Bowlby continues to run his
own dealership, Bowlby Motor-
cycles, in Ohio today. CN
This Archives edition is reprinted
from issue #37, September 22,
2004. CN has hundreds of past
Archives editions in our files, too
many destined to be archives
themselves. So, to prevent that
from happening, we will be revisit-
ing past Archives articles while
still planning to keep fresh ones
coming down the road. -Editor
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THE HILL:
BOWLBY
Bowlby won
more than 80
hillclimbing
nationals, and
the Ohio native
also won six
Canadian titles.
