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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/885168
VOL. 54 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 10, 2017 P99 scorned was determined to take revenge on him. She stood track- side waiting for the motorbikes to pass. When Erle came by, the girl threw a broomstick into Erle's front wheel and sent him crash- ing to the ground. A year later, Erle gave up the risky single life when he met and married the former Maude Miller of Denver. By 1909, Armstrong built enough of a reputation to be- come a factory rider for Indian. This was the beginning of a nearly life-long association with the Springfield, Massachusetts- based manufacturer. Armstrong raced for Indian in many of the top races of the day, such as the Dodge City 300, but most of his fame was earned on the numer- ous board tracks across the country. His biggest victory came on the boards in a 300-mile cham- pionship race in Tacoma, Wash- ington, in August of 1915. He won that race in record-breaking time over a star-studded field that included Harley-Davidson rider Otto Walker and fellow Indian star Don Johns. By 1915, Armstrong gave up the dangerous board-track racing circuit and in what seems to be the proverbial "out of the fry- ing pan and into the fire" move, began a short-lived career as a stunt rider. Armstrong built the special Silodrome, a large bar- rel built with wood slats so that spectators could watch from any angle. Setting up the Silodrome in theaters and dubbing the show "The Whirl of Death," Armstrong and another rider would ride in the small cylinder doing various stunts. The act became so popu- lar that Armstrong was asked to perform the show (with a much larger cylinder) during the Pana- ma-Pacific Exhibition held in San Francisco in 1915. His wife often rode in the show on a specially built tandem motorcycle. As World War I approached, Armstrong took a full-time posi- tion with Indian. His first assign- ment for the company was run- ning an Army motorcycle-training facility at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Armstrong would continue to do military and police training for Indian throughout most of the 1920s. In 1919, Armstrong was a sidecar passenger in an ill-fated cross-country record attempt with the legendary Cannonball Baker. The two were stopped in the Midwest by heavy rains that turned the roads into muddy quagmires. Armstrong opened an Indian dealership in Worcester, Mas- sachusetts, in 1927, and ran it until 1940. During this period, he formed the Armstrong Roamers Motorcycle Club and served as president of the New England Motorcycle Dealers Association. The club put on many AMA-sanc- tioned events, including races such as the Laconia Classic. Armstrong entered his final race in 1931 at the age of 43. He also captained a motorcycle polo team in the early 1930s. One of his teammates was legendary New England racer Woodsie Castonguay. Tragedy struck the Armstrong family in 1930 when Erle's oldest son Bob, an AMA hillclimbing champion, drowned in a boating accident. After closing his dealership in 1940, Armstrong became pro- duction manager for Indian. He remained with the company until its final days. A fervent Indian loyalist, Armstrong, along with several other Indian enthusiasts, tried in vain to keep Indian alive. In retirement, Armstrong, by then acquiring a new nickname "Pop," kept the history of Indian and the old Class A racing days alive. He frequently gave talks on his racing days to various motor- cycling enthusiast groups. Armstrong suffered a diabetic coma and died on April 29, 1978, fittingly in Springfield, the home of his beloved Indian. He was one of the original inductees into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Pickerington, Ohio, in 1998. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives