The other Panther

Talk of the Panther monoshock made me wonder about the bikes built by Phelon & Moore that came out of Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire and whether they'd ever turned out a dirt tracker. Seems they did, right back at the dawn of speedway in the late 1920s.

But this, below, also caught my eye, a Panther-Cotton hybrid that sold at auction (I'm not sure when) for around £2500. You can get more info on the Bonhams site. Looking at these bikes now, they seem like a precursor to the laid-down motors typical of speedway's modern era.

Panther built bikes from 1904 - 1967 and the big slopers were by far their most famous models, though always more associated with sidecars than hot shoes. MP

Blueprints Back In Stock + New 1930 Norton DT print

Since issue 13 we have printed technical drawings and accompanying history pieces about some of our favourite dirt track race bikes. The blueprints are drawn exclusively for us by Mick Ofield.

We started to offer high quality Giclee prints, created with an Epson Pro 11880 on Somerset Enhanced Velvet 330gsm paper with archival quality Ultra Chrome K3 pigment inks. The prints we sell come complete with 'folds' and the appearance of timeworn degradation, added by Ben Part.

They are 40x30cm, a size chosen to look great in a cheap frame. They are £22 (plus postage) and are sent in a heavy duty mailing tube with free stickers, flyers and posters we have hanging around.

We have just added the 1930 Norton DT, shown above. In stock we also have: Wood Norton, Yamaha TZ750, Harley-Davdison XR750, Trackmaster BSA A70; 2014 Bonneville Performance; Wood Rotax. Bultaco Astro is back in stock in a few days.

Click to buy Sideburn blueprints

If you want to read about the bikes (and others that we haven't made into blueprints), here are the issues they featured in.

Sideburn 13 Wood Norton (sold out)
Sideburn 14 Bultaco Astro
Sideburn 15 Yamaha TZ700/TZ750 (sold out)
Sideburn 16 Harley XR750
Sideburn 17 Trackmaster BSA A70 (sold out)
Sideburn 18 Bonneville Performance 2014 (sold out)
Sideburn 20 1930 Norton DT
Sideburn 22 Wood Rotax

We also have limited numbers of the XR750 blueprint T-shirt for £18 plus post. G

Les and his wooden balls

Maxxis, take note. Whatever happened to Les and his balls-out Douglas DT? MP

Deadman and Wolves

I've banged on about Wolverhampton and the English Black Country before, but I've yet to mention the brilliant Tommy Deadman. A pioneer of British speedway, Deadman captained one of the first English clubs, Wolverhampton Wolves, formed in 1928, as well as racing hillclimbs and grasstrack. He was also a pioneer of motorcycle football, later to be known as motoball and still responsible for the bloodied shins of devotees around the globe. A test rider at Sunbeam, he built the bike he's pictured on here, his 'Sprint Special', using bits cadged from broken factory racers. Loads more over at Wolverhampton History, along with photos and clippings, such as these here, supplied by Deadman's daughter, June. MP 

Meccano treasure trove

Meccano Magazine was started in 1916 by Frank Hornby, inventor of the Meccano hobby engineering sets (and later Hornby model railways and Dinky toys, some hat-trick) that did a brilliant job of keeping the minds of millions of teenage boys off their own nuts, for a while at least.

A bunch of insanely dedicate people have scanned and made available pretty much every copy of the magazine, which ran until 1981. There's even a searchable index. If you go in there, don't expect to emerge in less than an hour. The bikes, by the way, are from August and October 1929. Many thanks to Brownhills Bob for the tip-off. MP

Super X on ice

Americano-Norse insanity, 1930s-style. 

Get the story from American Motorcycles Norway. MP 

Desert Racer

Who made this wonderful internet trawl GIF animation?!
I'm guessing the bike is a late '30s Triumph Tiger 90? BPUP DATE: Indeed, it is a clever viral teaser for The Master staring the superb Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix. Set in the '50s, based on the stirings of Scientology, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Out in September. Promises to be great. And it's a late '40s 16H, ES2? Norton.
UPDATE ON THE UPDATE:

1939 Ohio Flat Track

From Roger F (who regularly finds the good stuff). Even assuming the early section of this film is cranking slightly faster than it should, they are flying. Check out riders with the turned-down bars. You can see one best when the riders line up at 2:38. G

These guys are really hauling and the quality is pretty good, although I don't know any of the riders. There's two locations this may have been. My guess is the present harness racing track in Northfield, but wasn't there another "Northfield" half-mile further south on old Rt8 just before Cuyahoga Falls on the right? Closer to Akron? Anyway, this was in our backyard when all we know was country....r