On This Date, January 28, 2000

On this date, January 28, 2000, Titan was named the Motorcycle of Choice for the Indianapolis 500. 

Titan Motorcycles and Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced as part of the agreement, that Titan would produce 100 limited edition "Indy 500" Y2K Gecko Rubbermount motorcycles. The bikes would be "available to motorcycle enthusiasts and Indianapolis 500 fans alike as the ultimate collector's piece".

Image source: Reddit 

The winner of the 2000 Indianapolis 500 would receive a free one. Titan Motorcycles was very proud to be affiliated with this great American tradition. And in another great American tradition the company went bankrupt a year later. 

The Indy 500 Gecko Rubbermount featured custom graphics, including the 2000 Indy 500 logo and an orange-and-checkered flag paint scheme. The bikes had a 70-inch wheelbase, 34 degree rake and polished billet aluminum wheels. The engine is an 1833cc, four-stroke, 45-degree V-twin. 

Phoenix-based Titan Motorcycles, founded by Keery and his son, Patrick, who was company president, started production of hand-built custom motorcycles with six employees in a 2,000 square-foot building. The company, which has seen sales climb from 181 motorcycles in 1996 to approximately 1,100 in 1999. 

Titan had strategic marketing partnerships with motorsports and entertainment companies such as Indy Racing League team Kelley Racing, Fender Guitars, Playboy, Shelby American, NAPA and NASCAR Winston Cup Series team owner Michael Kranefuss. 

2000 TITAN INDY 500 GECKO RUBBERMOUNT SPECIFICATIONS:

• Engine: Four stroke, 45 Degree, V-twin, 1833cc. Air-cooled with push rod-actuated overhead valves; two valves per cylinder with roller rocker arms and valve lifters. S&S Series "G" carburetor and K&N supercharger air cleaner. 
• Horsepower: 112 brake horsepower at 5,500 rpm. 
• Torque: 121 foot pounds at 4,000 rpm. 
• Mileage: 28 miles per gallon city/35 miles per gallon highway. 
• Bore/Stroke/ Compression: 4.0 inches/4.45 inches/9.8:1. 
• Drive train: 5 speed constant mesh with diamond chain to Titan racing-spec clutch.
• Wheelbase: 70 inches.
• Wheels: Polished billet aluminum. 
• Front: 2.15 x 21 inches. 
• Rear: 5.5 x 18 inches. 
• Rake: 34 degrees. 
• Front Suspension: 54 mm inverted forks with Titan billet triple trees. 
• Rear Suspension: Dual 13.5-inch shocks. Seat height: 24.75 inches. 
• Dry weight: 635 pounds.

Floyd Clymer: One of Indiana's Motorcycling Pioneers

On this day, January 23, 1970, Floyd Clymer, a true pioneer in the sport of motorcycling died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California at the age of 74. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Clymer was a motorcycle racer, a motorcycle dealer, distributor, inventor, promoter, importer, editor and publisher, was a true American original. 

Floyd Clymer astride a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle 

Clymer was a clean-living teetotaler who never smoked, always wore a business suit and started what was once the biggest automotive publishing organization in the world, Clymer Repair Manuals. The Clymer manual became shorthand among home mechanics as a useful guide to vehicle maintenance and repair. 

His motorcycle obsession started early. 

Clymer was a scintillatingly fast dirt-tracker who could run on pure adrenaline, a wild and crazy guy on a motorcycle to the very end, a businessman who loved the limelight, a master at promoting the image of motorcycling. 

A boy wonder operating his own auto sales agency before he was in his teens, young Floyd sold 26 Maxwell, REO and Cadillac cars in two years. He did this in 1904, at the age of 10 from a tiny, catalog-filled office next to his father’s doctors office in Berthoud, Colorado to which his father, a country physician, had moved the family after Floyd was born in Indianapolis. 

President Theodore Roosevelt declared him “The World’s Youngest Automobile Dealer.” 

As a teenager, Clymer lost the bulk of his hard-earned profits by investing in a now-forgotten motorcycle called the Thomas Auto-Bi. Clymer was captivated by the motorcycle's “Next to Flying” ad slogan, although the snail-like and unreliable Auto-Bi impressed nobody else but him. Clymer’s investment was worthless. 

By then, Clymer had discovered motorcycles and he knew right away that he was hooked. Noticing his skill and cunning, Harley-Davidson telegraphed for Clymer to enter the 1916 Dodge City 300-mile race as replacement for injured star rider Otto Walker.

Floyd Clymer's Historical Motor Scrapbook

In 110 degree heat, on an unfamiliar, ill-handling machine that “packed a lot of dynamite” into its 61 cubic inches, Clymer set fastest lap in practice, and in the race led Harley factory rider Irving Janke around the dusty horse track, both riders mounted on the potent four-valve Twins. 

After setting two new world records-83 miles in the first hour, 100 miles in 71 minutes, Clymer blew a tire at nearly 100 mph, headed into the pits, then got back on track and blazed into the lead again, until a broken valve sidelined him at the 218th mile. 

By 1916 he had become a member of the Harley-Davidson factory team. Clymer set a world 100-mile record that same year, in addition to a Pikes Peak record, but was eventually forced out of competitive motorcycle riding by a back injury. Clymer, undaunted, turned to promoting AMA motorcycle races in the Midwest and elsewhere. 

Sometime in the mid-1940's, Clymer, perhaps unknowingly, created a new genre of journalism. He put together a selection of photos, text, statistics, and articles on old cars first published when they were new into a single, thematically chaotic volume called Floyd Clymer's Historical Motor Scrapbook. 

Clymer’s last great crusade was trying to resurrect the Indian motorcycle. 

Clymer attempted to purchase the Indian motorcycle brand in the 1950's, and was successful in buying it in the early 1960's. By 1967, he had begun distribution of Indian-branded minicycles, using names such as Papoose, Ponybike and Boy Racer. While his minicycle line continued, and expanded, into the 1970s, the realization of these full-sized Indian cycles came to a halt when Clymer died. 

On This Date, October, 3, 1894

On this date, October 3, 1894, Edward J Pennington of Moores Hill, Indiana, applied for a patent for his "Motor Vehicle", notable for its balloon tires. Pennington built and demonstrated his original motorcycle design in Milwaukee in 1895.

 

Pennington submitted two documents detailing his versions of early motorcycles and he was awarded a patent for the "Motor Vehicle (motorcycle) with patent number; 574262 issued December 29, 1896. The most interesting note is the fact that the term “motor cycle” is traced to these documents and exact year.

Learn more about Edward J Pennington HERE

Central Union Telephone Company

In this photo, dated 1910, a Central Union Telephone company employee is on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in Marion County, Indiana. 

The Central Union Telephone Company provided telephone service to New Castle, Indiana and Indianapolis, Indiana in the late 1800's to the 1920's. Photo attribution: Indiana Historical Society

Iwo Jima Flag Raisers

The six Indianapolis policemen who escorted the Iwo Jima flag raisers through downtown pose on their motorcycles. The war veterans' appearance was part of a nationwide bond drive tour. 

A United States Mail truck, which bears an image of the Iwo Jima flag raising on a postage stamp, can be seen in the background. Photo attribution: Indiana Historical Society @1945

Edward J Pennington

Edward Joel Pennington was born in Moore’s Hill, Indiana in 1858. Although he didn’t stay in Indiana for very long, his early years in the state shaped him to automobile and motorcycle fame as well as equal infamy. Prior to moving to other parts of the Midwest and eventually Great Britain, E.J. Pennington first developed his ambitious and amazing skill at social engineering in various small Hoosier towns, where he conned people into investing in dud companies.

Despite his incredibly checkered past, Edward Joel Pennington had a passion for machines, going as far as having more than two dozen patents. He tinkered in engines and devices, even applying for some of the earliest motorcycle and automotive patents in the nation.

 

On October 3, 1894 Pennington submitted two documents detailing his versions of early motorcycles and he was awarded a patent for the "Motor Vehicle (motorcycle) with patent number; 574262 issued December 29, 1896. The most interesting note is the fact that the term “motor cycle” is traced to these documents and exact year. 

Both documents declared Pennington as the assignor for the “Motor Cycle Company of Chicago.” Although the word originally appeared as a company designation, Pennington also promoted the term to encompass cycles with motors.

He showcased his motorcycle prototypes at various exhibitions in places such as Chicago and New York around 1895 to garner interest for investment opportunities in more dud companies.

 

Drawing accompanying Edward J. Pennington's patent for a "Motor-Vehicle" (Motorcycle) Patent number: 574262, filing date: October 3, 1894, Issue date: December 29, 1896. SOURCE: Wikipedia

It was Pennington’s testing and showcasing of the prototypes around that time in Milwaukee that had caught the eye of William Harley and Arthur Davidson, who would later on found the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company. 

They weren’t the only ones who were captivated by Pennington’s show of future potential. Henry Ford himself was also taken in by Pennington’s automotive ambitions, going so far as to later create an engine that looked similar to Pennington’s own, but mechanically more sound.

E.J. Pennington’s name was well known in early automotive and motorcycle circles due to his amazing promotional capabilities and often publicized his latest ventures in numerous papers. That fact is incredibly well documented in mechanics, patent, industrial, automobile and bicycle periodicals of its day. Even though his engineering skills were pretty questionable at best- doing what needed to be done in order to make pitches to investors, many marveled and admired his tenacity to be a visionary.

 

Drawing accompanying Edward J. Pennington's patent for a "Motor-Vehicle" (Motorcycle) Patent number: 574262, filing date: October 3, 1894, Issue date: December 29, 1896. SOURCE: Wikipedia 

His enthusiasm for motorized vehicles no matter how shoddy his personal skills gave birth to automobiles and motorcycles that we know today. His death in 1911 was reported by dozens of periodicals and even though he was known as a charlatan and a swindler, his contributions to sparking the imagination and ambitions of many in the industry were well received. Source: Hannah at Imchs.org