Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 37 SEPTEMBER 15, 2015 P127 cally called ahead along the route to alert the other helpers. One dealer was awakened at the last minute and had to throw on an overcoat over his pajamas to meet Ham at the fueling stop. On the entire run, Ham was only stopped once by police in Anaheim, California, and when the officer learned what he was doing he waved him on. Roy Artley, who set the Three-Flag records in the 1910s, waited at a roadside café near San Diego and was to escort Ham to the Mexican border. He sat drinking a cup of coffee when Ham went flying past. Artley ran out to his bike and pinned it to over 100 mph and eventually pulled alongside Ham. Ham looked over and smiled and the two riders lowered their heads for the final push to Mexico. At 7:07 a.m. on August 31, a Mexican border official signed the final entry on route card. Ham had cov- ered 1,478 miles over twisty highways in 28 hours, 7 minutes, chopping over 10 hours off the existing record. While not officially recognized by the AMA, Harley-Davidson advertised the Three-Flag record extensively. In April of 1937, Ham and a team of friends took a Harley to Muroc Dry Lake to attempt to break the 24-hour mileage record. In the months before the record attempt, Ham swam every night at a local YMCA and dropped from 210 to 180 pounds. He was also coached by former board track racing great Fred Ludlow on how to ride in the most aero- dynamic position. Ludlow also taught him to relax his hands and arms while riding, something that would be very important over 24 hours of riding. A giant, five-mile oval was laid out and Ham made several 100-mile trial runs. A full crew was assembled and an AMA referee was on hand to officiate the run. Ham began the record attempt at 2:20 in the afternoon. He had already been up for 24 hours by this time and Roy Artley and Fred Ludlow stood ready as relief riders should Ham need assistance. The record run almost ended early in disaster. At the first pit stop, Ham overran the pit crew and hit a camera stand. Fortunately no damage was done and Ham re-entered the course. Throughout the 24 hours, the crew battled to overcome several mechanical problems. At one point, the primary chain stretched, overheated and had to be re- placed. Because of the load created by the frozen primary chain the engine overheated and spark- plugs had to be replaced. In addition, several members of the crew fought to shovel loose sand off the vast course in places were the big Harley had broken through the hard crust of the lakebed. Despite these problems, Ham established a new 24-hour mileage record of 1,825 miles along with 44 other speed and distance records. The 24-hour record helped found the legend of the Harley-Davidson Knucklehead. It spurred sales of the newly designed bike and helped Harley-Davidson recover from the Depression. The engine that set the record was put on display at Graves' Harley shop before it was shipped to Harley-Davidson. Ham became known nationwide for this record. For several years afterwards, Ham kept trying to rally another crew to make an attempt to crack the 2,000-mile mark, but with his record going unchallenged he couldn't get anyone excited about another attempt. Ham even challenged other riders to try to break his 24-hour mark so he could make another attempt. On December 9, 1940, just a few weeks before Ham was going to attempt some speed runs on the dry lake, he was killed in a traffic accident while on duty as a motor police officer in West Covina, California. His death shocked the motor- cycling community. It was written that his funeral had the greatest procession of motorcycles ever assembled escorting him to his final resting place, Mountain View Cemetery. Ham will always be remembered for his extraor- dinary feats of endurance on motorcycles. He certainly earned his nickname of Iron Man. He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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