The golden age of motorcycle road racing spans 50-some years
-starting back in the 1930s.
The vintage cycles still race in eastern Iowa.
What do you get with fearless drivers, two wheels,
a motor and lots of noise?
You get the Antique Flat Track Motorcycle races in Davenport.
The Chief Blackhawk chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of
America has been racing at Davenport's Mississippi Valley
Fairgrounds for well over twenty years.
It's held at the same site, on the same weekend as a "swap"
meet where enthusiasts can shop for almost anything
motorcycle-related.
Back on the track, there's several afternoon practice runs
and heats to watch.
The evening brings ten main race events where motorcycles are
divided by eras ... from the 1920's up through the '80s.
Racing is a lot of fun.
Keep it that way.
Don't go out and cause something to hurt yourself
or someone else.
Dan: As a race promoter, and a racer himself,
Matt George stresses safety first to the drivers.
Its good advice anytime - but especially when riding some of
the vintage models made without brakes!
And some of these antique bikes can reach speeds of more than
90 miles per hour.
Dan: The cycles are old but the gear they wear is not, correct?
George: The Board Track bikes.
They wore leather helmets, wool vests, leather pants.
Since we do in this day and age have good safety equipment,
we make them wear those.
Dan: Matt says there are typically more than 125 racers
who participate in this event.
And I found out their backgrounds are as diverse as
the motorcycles you see here.
I watched my dad do this since I was a little kid.
Its preserving history.
This is one of the places in the country you can come out
and see something like this.
We'll definitely put on a show for the crowd.
This is a 1921 Harley Davidson race bike.
A last year I was running 71-72 miles on the straights.
I'm racing my 1956, 165 D-2, 2 stroke Harley Hummer
with a Ridge frame.
The first year I raced here I ended up with 4th place
and the second year I raced here I actually ended up with third.
So hopefully I'll be doing pretty good this year.
I ride an XL 350 and a Yamaha 650.
Dan: I understand there's a story behind the decoration on this bike.
Tell us about it.
Well, I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009.
The bike was plain white.
And I came home on leave in April 2010 and my friends had
torn the bike apart and completely repainted it.
Dan: Tell me why race vintage bike instead of brand new one?
Because I'm 70-years old and I love em.
Dan: Tell us about your bike.
That's a 1973 Norton.
Probably best motorcycle here and if it had a young rider he'd
probably win all the time.
Dan: How's your hearing?
What did you say?
[laughing]
Dan: It is quite a noisy venue for both the riders...
and the spectators.
But the crowd doesn't seem to mind.
After all, how often do you have the opportunity to see so many
working antiques doing the job for which they were intended?
These races are held just once a year in Davenport ... but drive
about 75 miles north and you can see hundreds of vintage
motorcycles year-round - at the National Motorcycle Museum
in Anamosa.
Our collection is growing.
Probably cleared 400 motorcycles and 40 or 50 bicycles also.
Dan: What if you making trip and have just an hour or two.
What strategy of getting most out of museum?
I would say you need to see the celebrity bikes:
McQueen Indian, Easy Rider machine,
Evil Kaneeval jump bike.
Great collection of Harley Davidsons,
toys are a lot of fun.
And check out the bicycles cuz that's where a lot of us started
our two-wheel adventure.
Dan: Mark says there are more than a half-dozen
Significant motorcycle museums in the U.S.
And it's an unusual story on how Iowa got one of them.
This museum was originally established in Sturgis,
South Dakota ... until an Anamosa motorcycle enthusiast
and entrepreneur with a vision got involved.
In 2000 they considered closing so I took it over.
Hard to run from 800 miles away so I moved it to Anamosa.
Its sort of build it and they will come.
It's a beautiful day so we rode 200 miles
to come to this museum.
Most amazing thing I've seen out here had to be some of the drag bikes.
First one to go 250 miles per hour.
Dan: There something for everyone with such a wide range
of motorcycles and memorabilia on display.
In addition to the history of motorcycles,
there's also the history of some of the motorcycle clubs.
One of the better known cycling clubs for women are the Motor Maids.
They started about 1940 and I think their club roster numbers
about 4,000 members right now.
Dan: After seeing so many motorcycles here,
I can't help but wonder - do any of them still work?
Dan, I think if you picked out at random and gave me about
3 hours, anywhere from 1 to 3 hours,
I could get it running for ya.
They all got engine internals.
We might have to find a battery, do a little bit of service to
fuel tank and carburetor and I think it'd fire off.
Dan: Mark may get some of them up and running,
but don't ask to ride one!
They are after all, museum pieces ... darn it!
We'll all just have to snap a photo of one of our favorites...
and dream about how nice it would be to
take one out for a spin.