All of the pictures on these pages were taken by readers of
The Acceleration Archive who have kindly agreed to share them with us.

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I thought it would be a nice idea to publish a  Readers' Gallery devoted entirely to motorcycles for a change.  I think you will find there are some fascinating and unique pictures.

And what better way to start than with some of the most powerful two wheeled machines ever to grace a drag strip - I refer of course to rocket-powered bikes.  We in Europe think of Eric Teboul in this connection although those with longer memories will recall that Henk Vink was the first to debut such a machine over here.
However, I am indebted to Franklin Ratliff from the USA for sending me some fascinating information on the origin of these machines.  Arvil Porter was the inventor of the hydrogen peroxide rocket-powered motorcycle and was a central figure in this field.  He was also involved with rocket-powered go-karts and supplied the powerplants for Captain Jack McClue.  Franklin sent me a scan of a short article about Arvil Porter which you can read by clicking here.
Arvil was also involved with two other early pioneers of rocket bikes, namely Larry Welch and John Dixon.
We will start with Franklin's pictures of Larry Welch's bike which was the first motorcycle of any description to go over 200 mph in the quarter mile.  In addition to providing the rocket motor, Arvil also designed and built the frame for this machine.  Interestingly, it had a progressive throttle rather than simply the on/off arrangement we see today.

John Dixon's bike also benefitted  from Arvil Porter rocket motors.  You can read more about the man and machine by clicking here.

The next collection of pictures are from Barry George.
This is Pete Gray's 1250cc Harley Davidson, quite a rare choice of engine back then.

These are two very interesting pictures and I am grateful to motorcycle guru Keith Lee for providing information on them.  
"It is 'Pommie' Pete Allen's double blown Triumph, pictured in 1967.  As I am sure you know, he took the bike to Australia, and was the top guy there for many years.  Had he not left, he would surely have been second into the 9s over here.  More interesting to me is the rider on the bike. I believe it is Alf Hagon.  I remember he did have one ride on the bike - and with that pudding basin helmet it just has to be him."

Another very interesting shot by Barry shows Moonraker which was an exhibition bike powered by a unique 2000cc flat four engine.  It was designed by Archie Butterworth and comprised four single cylinder Manx Norton engines, it was intended for use in Formula 1.  The bike was ridden by Ian Richardson and Pete Allen, Dave Hirons was the mechanic.

The unmistakeable blown twice Norton-engined
Super Cyclops of Mick Butler.

Three pictures now from Martin Quince commencing with . . . yes - you guessed it . . . Mick Butler's Super Cyclops burning out against the fence at Santa Pod.

On the left is US rider Danny Johnson's mighty double engined Harley which, unsurprisingly, was called Goliath.
On the right is a candid shot of the late Danny Johnson.

An interesting set of pictures submitted by Colin Wood showing his friend Martin Wildash's 250cc BSA which was called Kudu.
Colin recalls that the bike was incredibly loud and was built in a workshop only six inches longer than the bike.
The picture at  bottom right shows a broken exhaust valve doubtless caused by valve bounce.

This picture was sent in by George Woods' and shows his nine second Puddlejumper machine but who is that trying it for size?
It is none other than the late George Davey whose Pubcrawler dragster was unique in that it ran on propane gas.

Ian Hodges sent me this shot of Paul Taylor's 750cc Triumph which he christened Paradise.
My thanks to Clive Rooms for providing the name of Paradise's rider.

Keith Mitchell took this shot of Dutchman Rob Jannsen's Pro Stock bike launching hard at the international meeting at Santa Pod in September 1983.

We have Laurent Roy to thank for this shot of Rob Jannsen's Bulletproof double Norton Top Fuel bike.

Mark Richards sent in the last two shots.
This is Swede Stefan Reisten's Shark Magic Honda-powered Top Fuel bike.
Stefan was the second man in Europe to record a seven second pass - Henk Vink beat him to it by a mere ten minutes!  Don't you just hate it when that happens?

This is Ag MacPhail on his scary Jade Warrior device which featured a home-built four cylinder engine using a Cosworth cylinder head.  There were a host of other revolutionary features on this machine, Ag certainly believed in thinking outside the box.  He ran a best of 7.9 seconds at 189 mph on methanol in 1985.

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(First posted on 12 June 2014)
 

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