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Vintage Fuel Drag Bikes

1M views 3K replies 270 participants last post by  JOHN HANSON 
#1 · (Edited)
This is a new thread I am starting dedicated to Nitro Fuel Drag Bikes. If you were involved with a Top Fuel or Junior Fuel Motorcycle team in the 50s, 60s, 70s and up to 1994 (25 years ago) we invite you to join in and share some of your memories. Or, if you didn't belong to a team but share our passion please join in too. There are other threads here on drag racing so let's keep this about "Nitro". My first fuel bike was an A/F Harley back in 1969. My last was the twin-engine Harley "Freight Train" that I retired in 1985. I will be sharing many fond and a few not so fond memories. This video was filmed in '83 and '84. The opening burnout was me and "The Freight Train" at the 1983 IHRA Spring Nationals in Bristol Tennesee. That was back when Top Fuel Motorcycles were occasionally invited to join in with the cars in a special T/F Motorcycle class. The rest of the video was filmed by my wife and is a little shakey at times but a treasure to me since it is the only film I have of my 21 year motorcycle drag racing career. For some of you it will be the first time you have seen a T/F Motorcycle started on rollers. I hope you enjoy.
 
#2 ·
Thank you for sharing your video. Excellent! I remember seeing Elmer Trent on a twin engine H-D, Russ Collins, Sonny Routt, Boris Murray, T. C. Christensen and others. There was another guy named Chantland who raced Triumphs and also made 750cc cylinders for Triumphs. Also Joe Smith back when he had the single engine H-D. Once again thanks for the memories.
Do you still own the bike? It would be nice to know that it still exists.
 
#4 ·
Old Codger, "The Freight Train" IS Elmer Trett's old twin engine Harley. I renamed it when I bought it from him in '83. I sold it to my crew chief in '85 when I quit and he still has it.

I still keep in touch with many of the "old farts" you mentioned including Sonny Routt, Larry Welch, Boris Murray, T C, and Joe Smith, who is about to turn 80!!!!!!!!!

Thanks hawgleydangerson, I believe you are right.
 
#7 ·
ironwigwam,

You might be surprised to learn Larry "Rocketman" Welch, at age 67, has a new wife of 4 years and a 3 year old daughter. They live in Virginia. The other "Rocketeer", John Dixon, lives in North Carolina.
 
#9 ·
Thanks twistedtee,

Jim McClure was a good friend. He was one of the first T/F Harley racers to make a GIANT cubic inch single engine bike outperform a twin engine bike. When I quit racing I quit going to races. But I kept in touch with him and a few others. He and Elmer Trett were both brilliant racers.
 
#13 ·
I might go back a bit too far. This is one of my all time bike heroes.

 
#15 ·
I might go back a bit too far. This is one of my all time bike heroes.

You can't go back too far. That photo is considered by most racers I know to be the most awesome ever taken. I WAS THERE. It was at the AMDRA Motorcycle Nationals at Bowling Green Kentucky in 1971 or 72 and it is Boris Murray, one of the greatest rider/tuners ever, on his Twin Engine Triumph. Boris had won there the year before and this was a qualifying run that set the new record and of course qualified him #1. He broke a chain in the final and lost to Larry Welch on Sonny Routt's Twin Engine Triumph.
 
#16 · (Edited)
When I was in my teens I had a crappy BSA that I rode miles to see Clem Johnson and his Vincent. That bike always amazed me.



This is in a friends shop. He has never tod me about it as I don't think he knows its history. Stretched featherbed with two 750 Commandos. AMC trans with a Sportster clutch adapted to it. He's thinking of turning it into an LSR bike. Sure hope he does as he wants me to ride it.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Ok, here is my old fueler. 96" ironhead, Truett lay down tanker, nickle plated no less. This bike was built in the mid 70's not sure by who. I took it over in 86 and finally got it on track in 90. I have talked to Bonnie a couple of times about it, can't remember who built it. A black dude named Herbie is who I got it from.

Sorry the pic isn't period correct but the bike is.

It spent most of its life in KC, I know very little about it other than what I have said. I ran it exactly like it was built, antique ceriani front end, jap bike front wheel and brake, Cragar super trick car wheel, 3 foot long wheelie bars, Truett single stage slipper, welded sporty mainshaft, high gear only, Truett prepped cases, and an S&S B fuel carb

By the time this pic was taken we had shit canned the 3 foot wheelie bars. Those things were terrifying once we finally got it to hook

Best time of 5.26 around 130 mph in the 1/8 mile

I am currently rebuilding it in a more modern 3 rail sit down frame with the intentions of running it in the Nostalgia class Arlie is trying to orchestrate
 

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#21 ·
hoofhearted,

Clem Johnson's "Barn Job" is probably the most famous Fuel Bike in existence. I was reading about it in car and bike magazines while I was still racing street bikes in the early 60s. He was one of the first guys to get me interested in dragsters. His bike is a work of art and that is evident when you spend time looking at that picture. I have never met him though. He stayed on the west coast and I didn't travel that far from the Carolinas. For those who don't know that is Clem with the leather jacket. Joe Smith rode it a few times when Clem decided to hang up his helmet and Jim Leinwebber rode it until it was retired.

That twin engine Norton is one I don't believe I have seen before. Thanks for posting both.

FearNoEvo,

Thanks for posting your bike.
 
#22 ·
I know I have asked to keep it nitro but it is OK to show us how you got there. This is the first Harley I raced. It was a '62 Sportster XLCH that I rode on the street. It had stroker flywheels but was otherwise stock. It ran in the low 13s at just over 100 mph in the 1/4. This photo was taken in 1965 at the old Charlotte dragstrip. That is a '63 Super Stock Plymouth I was racing.
 

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#25 ·
This is the same Sportster in 1966 after having a 75 cubic inch engine built for it. My times improved to low 12s at 113 mph in the 1/4. There was not a car or bike on the streets of Charlotte that could outrun it that year. At the '67 Daytona Bike Week I took it to try and come home the fastest. Didn't happen. I got outrun by a guy I had never met but we became best friends until he passed a few years ago. His name was Danny Johnson. I rode it for another year before being talked into trading it for a Harley dragster......by Danny Johnson.
 

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#26 · (Edited)
A few years ago the local track booked in a Harley Fueler show. This guy wasn't part of the circuit, he just showed up and made some passes. I don't even know who he is, but the bike is the old Show & Go (Ike Shelton & Paul Jones) twin engined shovelhead. It put on a pretty good show with the front wheel bouncing off the ground through the lights.
Larry T
 
#28 ·
Thanks for that post. T.C. Christenson is one of the greatest motorcycle drag racers of all time. He was the most dominate Top Fuel racer at the Bowling Green Motorcycle Nationals in the '70s. From 1970 through 1978 he was in the finals 5 times, more than anyone else, and won three times...also more than any other T/F rider. He had that triple Norton at the Bowling Green Reunion back in 2006.
 
#805 ·
I remember seeing him win at Bowling Green back in the early 70's. I'll never forget that race as it was the last race my Uncle "Glenn Kerr" ever ran. He had "Double Trubble" in the Van and a drunk driver came down a one way street in Memphis and rammed them. Anyway he put together a single engine and took it to Bowling Green but 1st run burnt clutch all the way down the track, 2nd run popped a wheelie at every shift. I remember when TC fired up those Nortons we were in line behind him and everyone was running for the wall because the Nitro fumes were so bad you couldn't breathe. RC Engineering with their tripple Honda looked like they were going to take the day but when the final came down between TC and RC, RC broke a chain about 1/2 way down the track and TC took the day! What a race weekend to remember! ;D
 
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