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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 4, 2022 P99 bones steel shell with no padding. Ludlow donned a thick fur coat in a futile effort to gain some protec- tion, but was still battered around in the sidecar on the rough beach at speeds approaching 90 mph. His entire body was said to be covered with bruises afterwards. Ludlow raced in most of great races of the day, such as the Dodge City 300. He achieved his greatest success, however, on September 19, 1921, on the fa- mous Syracuse Mile in New York. That day, Ludlow earned a clean sweep of all the national titles up for grabs. Ludlow took five wins in five races on his factory Har- ley- Davidson, besting most of the top stars of the day, including the likes of Jim Davis, Don Marks and Ralph Hepburn. It was one of the most dominant performances in the history of the sport. Ludlow 's popularity was such that Harley-Davidson employed him to travel the country in a sidecar to host racing film shows to various clubs and other orga- nizations interested in racing. Surprisingly, Ludlow's success at Syracuse in 1921 proved to be his swan song on the racetracks of America. He was summarily fired by Harley-Davidson in 1922 and went to work as a mechanic for C. Will Risdon's Indian dealership in Los Angeles. And in 1923, he joined the South Pasadena Police Department as a motorcycle of- ficer. A year later, he transferred to a similar post in the Pasadena Police Department. While he did very little track racing, Ludlow turned his atten- tion to top-speed-record attempts on the various dry lakes in South- ern California, and he became known as one of the best in the field of record speed runs. Lud- low topped all riders at the AMA- sanctioned Los Angeles Speed Trials on Muroc Dry Lake in 1936 before an estimated 3000 spec- tators. Ludlow averaged 128.57 mph on a 1936 Indian Sport Scout to top an impressive field of competitors. Indian proudly advertised Ludlow's accomplish- ments in the motorcycle maga- zines of the day. Muroc was later closed to the public and became part of Edwards Air Force Base, site of the first sound-barrier jet flights and, later, NASA space- shuttle landings. In the fall of 1938, a group of Indian enthusiasts, headquartered out of Hap Alzina's Indian dealer- ship in Oakland, California, made an ill-fated attempt on the world mo- torcycle land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Lud- low, then 43, was selected to ride the totally enclosed streamlined machine christened the "Arrow." To warm up at the Salt Flats, Ludlow first rode an Indian Sport Scout and set a new AMA Class C record of 115.226 mph. He then wedged himself into the tight con- fines of the "Arrow" for the land- speed-record attempt. On only the second run, the rear tire blew out and the torn tube struck Ludlow, though he was able to wrestle the machine to a stop. After extensive repairs, the "Arrow" was ready for a run the next morning. On the first run, Ludlow experienced a wobble at 135 mph. The crew cut off two small stabilizing fins thought to have caused the problem. The next day another attempt was made. This time, at approximately 145 mph, the Arrow went into gyra- tions so violent that the handlebars were torn from Ludlow's hands. Alzina ordered further "Arrow " runs scratched and the "Arrow " was never run again. It was later restored and was part of the Motor- cycle Hall of Fame Museum exhibit presented by Progressive Insur- ance titled "A Century of Indian" that marked the 100th anniversary of Indian's founding. Ludlow spent the rest of his working days with the Pasadena Police Department. He was a favorite speaker at various mo- torcycle gatherings and was an authority on early motorcycle competition. Ludlow died in 1984 at the age of 89. CN If you want to dig deeper into Fred Ludlow's story, Don Emde just released a book compiled from Ludlow's personal scrapbook of photos and handwritten captions. You can learn more here. This Archives edition is reprinted from the October 29, 2008, issue of Cycle News. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones com- ing down the road. -Editor Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives