San Francisco Motorcycle Club - Est. 1904

[1962siia]

Wow that is awesome. Hope to make it out there some day.

 

[m0t0_ryder]

Congrats to SlimJimsix66 Hoogerhyde!
Another salt record!
Cool stuff!



Thanks SFMCjohn for sharing.

 

[SFMCjohn]

............... "now sports the coveted Red Cap of a member of the 200mph Club " ......

Indeed an accomplishment!!

Wow that is awesome. Hope to make it out there some day.

Congrats to SlimJimsix66 Hoogerhyde!
Another salt record!
Cool stuff!

Thanks SFMCjohn for sharing.

thanks for reading and posting guys!

unfortunately, here today to share sad news about Friend-of-the-SFMC, Mr Ralph Hudson:

from today’s SCTA press release:

Motorcycle Racer Ralph Hudson dies from Injuries Sustained in Bonneville Crash
Hudson, 69, had raced bikes almost his entire life.

Motorcycle racer Ralph Hudson, current FIM World Record holder for the all-time fastest non-streamliner motorcycle at 297 mph, died from injuries suffered three weeks ago at Bonneville, according to a statement released by the family.

Hudson was competing for an SCTA (Southern California Timing Association) record at Bonneville Speed Week on August 14, 2020 when he suffered a crash after exiting the timed mile at a reported 252 mph.

A gust of wind sent him into a speed wobble – also known as a tank-slapper - from which he did not recover. Hudson was flown to Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where he was initially stabilized in the ICU, but finally succumbed to his injuries on Sunday, September 6. He was 69 years old.

RIP, Ralph ...

 

[budman]

Ralph

Condolences to his friends and family

Balls up at 69.. much respect for living life rather than watching it slip away.

 

[Cincinnatus]

Dammit. RIP, Mr. Hudson. Long may you ride.

My condolences to his family & friends.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Our club historian, Brian, has been working with the folks who put on the cool displays at the SFO airport for a pre-1920 motorcycle exhibit, and he has been poking around in our old scrapbooks and talking with citizens, and he presented the club with this pic at our weekly Covid Zoom business meeting last night.

Brain says the pic is the San Francisco Motorcycle Club's very first ride, taken in October, 1904 ... and I believe him.

 

[budman]

Nice... love looking at the old school pictures.

Dressed for the ride meant something different back then.

 

[1962siia]

Wow that is awesome.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Nice... love looking at the old school pictures.

Dressed for the ride meant something different back then.

we're very proud of our "Best Dressed Club" trophy in our trophy case from the exact Hollister AMA rally made famous
by the Life Magazine biker-riot article and Mr Brando's "The Wild One" ...

Wow that is awesome.

think we're getting prints made up, looking forward to see how they turn out and finding a spot on the garage wall for my copy ...

we have some cool bikes in the club, and here's an example of the latest cool bike that showed up on our club ride on Sunday:

it's a Honda NS400R:

This Honda 3-cylinder two-stroke is a street racer replica of the machine Freddie Spencer took to the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship in 1983.

As one would expect from Honda in the 1980s, the NS400R was packed with high-tech features, had a build quality second to none and, most importantly, was the first Japanese production motorcycle with peerless handling, the little two-stroke laying the foundations for a new era in Japanese motorcycling, when specialist chassis builders were no longer needed to get the best out of Honda’s powerful engines.

Honda managed to translate the excellent handling of its Grand Prix machines into a road bike, while also smoothing out the twitchiness and sharpness from its racing manners.

The NS400R was a proper race replica built between 1985 and 1987 that used the interesting 90-degree engine configuration of Spencer’s championship machine, but with a “reversed” layout: two cylinders forward-facing and the middle cylinder vertical, a change no doubt made to accommodate road equipment like a starter motor, electrical system and airbox.

our friend and SFMC member, Eric, who owns SF Moto found it in VT and said "I've wanted one ever since I was in high school ..."

Eric rode the bike on our Sunday SFMC group ride, where our club historian, Brian, lead us on an interesting tour of historic grave markers in the cemeteries of Colma ... we had a pretty good turn out:

see you around the corner ... arty

 

[budman]

Sweet little ring ding ding!

That picture will be easy to date as far as the year.

Good stuff John.

Colma... the City of Souls. Did you hit the one with the historical Cowboys and explorers in it?
Can't remember who it was... but I checked it a couple decades ago.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Sweet little ring ding ding!

That picture will be easy to date as far as the year.

Good stuff John.

Colma... the City of Souls. Did you hit the one with the historical Cowboys and explorers in it?
Can't remember who it was... but I checked it a couple decades ago.

our club Historian, Brian, puts on a pretty wonderful Colma tour:

think one of the NS400R pics was snapped near the Emperor Norton headstone ...

 

[Cabrito]

Nice!

 

[budman]

Earp was the one I remember. Thanks John.

 

[SFMCjohn]

[YOUTUBE]UKNNAkfP_Xw[/YOUTUBE]
Moving house: 139-year-old building moved six blocks in San Francisco, 02/21/2021

so, the house was 22 years old when the SFMC had its first club meeting, 24 years old during the 1906 earthquake, and 66 years old when the Chief in the pic was made ...

you can catch a brief glimpse of the Kalle and the Indian in the vid at 1:47 ...

 

[bikewanker]

Thank you John for making me feel youthful.

 

[SFMCjohn]

Thank you John for making me feel youthful.

check out SFMC member Kalle, he started his latest Indian project today, a pre-war 1939 hardtail Chief with 18” wheels and a front disk brake:

https://m.facebook.com/1497044908/posts/10225074411596246/?d=n

pretty sure he welded up the pipes, himself, too ... arty

 

[bobl]

I love the fact the he rides these old beasts, and doesn't turn them in to beautiful but not used garage queens.

 

[SFMCjohn]

yes, he’s a rider, for sure.

fun to see it start right up ... I’ll have to ask him if he knows how long it’s been since it last ran/how long it had been sitting ... he does ride them, he’s talking about a Baja run for one of his vintage Indians someday soon, maybe.

 

[SFMCjohn]

now at the SFO Museum:

Early American Motorcycles
“Early American motorcycles reflect a bygone era of mechanical innovation and bold industrial design.”
International Terminal
Departures - Level 3
Feb 11, 2021 - Sep 19, 2021

George A. Wyman at the end of his transcontinental ride July 1903
California Motor Bicycle 1902
California Motor Company, Inc.
San Francisco, California

Have heard that at one point the California Motor Company had a factory in San Francisco at 18th Street and Folsom, where the PG&E yard is now ... the exhibition has quite a collection of old motorcycles, good pics of which you can see at the link above.

we had a group ride over this evening to see it, and they said it was awesome. Our club Historian, Brian, helped the folks who put the exhibition together with some of our club pics and our archive ...

Early American Motorcycles: Self-Guided Tour and Supplemental Teaching Materials for K-12 Teachers

 

[Cabrito]

This looks cool. I'm going to check it out.