Motorcycle Racing in Toronto - City of Toronto Archives

[Scarcat]

Now how cool are these pics? It looks like Toronto had a fantastic history of motorcycle racing. Makes me wonder what happened ...

 

[HerrDeacon]

Nice find Scarcat, I love looking at old pics like that. That hill climb looks daunting, especially for the small engines I'm assuming they had in the bikes. Those James boys had quite a lean going around that corner, quite impressive seeing they are on a dirt track with skinny tires.

Thanks for posting those.

 

[DrJ]

Now how cool are these pics? It looks like Toronto had a fantastic history of motorcycle racing. Makes me wonder what happened ...

This happened:

 

[bluemetaldog]

great photos scarcat!! wicker side cars....excellent find!

drj you link is broken.

 

[Tim]

Are these available through the archives online? Great stuff. Now we just need to photo shop a Tim Hortons logo in here and there

 

[Tim]

They're comin for us!

 

[HerrDeacon]

LOL, nicely done Scarcat

 

[Tim]

Hey, is that Noel in his Sunday best wishin' he was sitting on the lap of that hot hot mama in the wicker basket?

 

[TonUpSoldier]

Wow look at that old Briggs and Straton. Crazy...nice find Scarcat!!

 

[Tim]

Best part is it's plated. Would be great to build one of those, take the photo into the Ministry and see if you could get it registered and plated for road use. Of course a few performance mods would be needed like a 'busa engine, 12 inch wide rear drive wheel etc. etc...

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Try pulling that sled now. 7 days license suspension, and 6 points isn't it? Ahhhh, we've come a long way. :

 

[TonUpSoldier]

As far as the brakes go, the motorized wheel WAS the brake. If you look at how its all driven, that is my guess. Kinda like a sewing machine drive or the like except in bigger scale. Obviously had no gearing, so full open was as fast as she went, dead closed was stop.

As far as the sled, i loved those things when i was younger...that steering wheel was only ever good for one thing tho..wrecking..lol

 

[Tim]

Brake lines? We don't need no stinkin' brakes!

 

[TonUpSoldier]

I think perhaps maybe the brake lines are actually ignition/battery lines?? But then again, they prolly hand cranked that to start back then. Dunno for sure, but like i said i dont think that it actually had brakes. And if those were brake lines, why two?

 

[fugue]

Maybe one line is the brake, and the other is the throttle? No wait, you've got the throttle up at the top there... now I see it. Maybe one is a 'clutch' to disconnect the drive and freewheel it? Hmmm.... Would be a fun ride to tool around on though.


This thread reminds me of the days of my youth when my friends and I would tie a GT SnowRacer to the back of a car by a long rope, and see how fast we could ride that racer down the snow covered streets. We dubbed it 'Canadian Surfing' and I was the stuff of legend for all of a week as being the guy with enough balls to do more than half-the-ton (80+ kph) on that sucker, going sideways, laying down sparks every time I hit a patch of pavement. We ground the runners on that racer down to mere stubs.

Man, those were the days. Good times.