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/1465013
M otorcycle racing in America emerged from the bicycle velodromes on the East Coast when someone got the bright idea that it might be exciting to actually race the motorized bicycles that were originally used simply to pace bicyclists. There were city-to-city races, of course, but most of those were more like endurance races that would test the reliability of a machine. The real racing was happening on the board tracks, and naturally many of the earliest stars of motorcycle racing came from the bicycling ranks. Such was the case with America's first true motorcycle racing star, Jake De Rosier. De Rosier is considered to be one of the very first factory- backed motorcycle racers. The great racing champion of the first decade of the 20th century rode for Indian Motorcycle (and later Excelsior) and was the fastest rider in the United States in the early 1900s. His name was synonymous with motorcycle racing during the first decade of the sport. Such was the fame of De Rosier that stories about him appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. And his fame reached across the ocean. The British wanted to see just how good this De Rosier really was, so they invited him to race in motorcycle racing's biggest event. De Rosier's appearance at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy in 1911 was the first entry of an American rider in that classic event. De Rosier gained tremendous popularity at home and abroad by competing in--and winning—a series of match races against Charles Collier, who was the British Champion. De Rosier raced until early 1912 when he suffered a career-ending crash at the Los Angeles Motordrome. De Rosier's leg was badly injured in the accident, and he ultimately died almost a year later from complications of a third operation on his leg. De Rosier was born in 1880 in Quebec, Canada, and as a young boy of four, he moved to Massachusetts with his family. The young De Rosier took up bicycle racing in his teens, during the heyday of the sport, and was one of the top racers in New England by 1897. When Frenchman Henri Fournier brought the first bicycle pacing machines to the United States in 1898, De Rosier became infatuated with the motorized machines. After much persuasion, De Rosier convinced Fournier to let him ride one of the motor pacers. P100 MOTORCYCLE RACING'S FIRST STAR BY LARRY LAWRENCE CN III ARCHIVES