Was drag racing really that big?

[Thxcuz]

It seems that all the old ads for muscle bikes mention drag racing. Was it a big fad in the late 60's or something? I grew up at the very end of the muscle bike craze and at the very beginning of the bmx thing, so a lot of those ads are before my time. I'm surprised it had such an influence that the "Big Three" american bike companies would design their bikes around it. I can see BMX, a motocross cycle and a bike are similar (like an electric and acoustic guitar) but bikes being inspired by cars kind of blows my mind
discuss

 

[Toeslider]

When I was a kid (early 70s), drag racing was on television every weekend, sometimes on ABCs Wide World Of Sports. It was kind of a big deal back then.

 

[B607]

We had a drag strip in the 70's called Motion Raceway. I was in high school and was there every weekend. It was great. I can still smell the nitro fuel after they did a burnout. I'd get there early and volunteer as "pit crew, go getter" for one of the small time racers so I could get right in on the action. They also had a class for street cars, unmodified, so you could pay a few $ and race your piece of junk car against other junk. I raced my '65 Mustang all the time. They put white paint on your windshield with the class you were in and your fastest time. After all the racing was over, you drove back to town and proudly displayed your drag racing tattoo for a few days. Good memories. Gary

 

[mikeeebikey]

In the 70s it was that big!
Saturday Dad raced motocross/hare scramble on his Bultaco. Sunday was Martin 131 drag way, all us kids went!
BMX ruined muscle bikes......

 

[Thxcuz]

I agree that bmx killed muscle bikes. All I wanted was to turn my rollfast scoot that I HATED into a "dirt bike" I had knobby tires and a bmx saddle once the nanner seat broke and was determined unsafe at a Cub Scout bike rodeo. I never got the cool bars. Then of course there were the pads....oh how I loved all those pads on dirt bikes.

 

[Bicycle808]

I'm too old to know much at all about how "big" drag racing was during the musclebike craze, but even though I never witnessed it firsthand, it seems like it was massive BITD. I think, the muscle-bike type bikes that were popular in the early 2000s reflected that kids had a custom motorcycle fantasy, and they were selling bikes around that. I'm thinking, late 60s/early 70s, with all the negative press the Angels were getting, and the "outlaw" nature of motorbike clubs being generally frowned upon, kids probably didn't aspire to a custom moto as much as they would to a crazy-powerful car, built for the drag strip. The styling and ad copy for the bikes would have reflected this...

BMX "killed" musclebikes? Yeah, there's a valid argument behind that, but the first bmx bikes were home-modded musclebikes. Then, the big companies started making BMX-flavored versions of musclebikes, before true purpose-built BMX rigs became popular. Arguable, BMX evolved from musclebike DNA. It's kinda like saying H-o-m-o sapiens killed the Neanderthal man, which is kind of true, but it's just part of progress.

 

[jerrykr]

Car Guys (kids) read Hot Rod Magazine.

 

[mikeeebikey]

Car Guys (kids) read Hot Rod Magazine.

I grew up on, Hot Rod, Car craft, and Cycle world magazines.

 

[Thxcuz]

I grew up on Dynamite (remember that one) and Mad Magizine

 

[Raoul Dude]

There's a really great "history of Kustom Bicycling" website at http://bikerodnkustom5.homestead.com/brainhistory58.html

(Unfortunately, the site has a lot of dead links at the bottom where we should be able to cilck to go from year to year, so often you have to just change the year in your browser's address bar.)

The bottom half of the 1963 page particularly addresses the "yes, we're copying motorcycles but it would be marketing suicide to connect ourselves with outlaw bikers -- so we'll pretend all these features are from drag racing instead!" Apparently Schwinn was one of the first companies to try to force that linik with ads featuring "their" Stingray next to the Chevrolet version.

So, yeah...drag racing WAS big and all over TV back then, AND the manufacturers thought it would safer to associate themselves with that rather than the miscreant hoodlums who were causing trouble.

 

[ZygoteLittle]

I was a kid during the heyday of the “Muscle Bike Era” in the 60’s in Manhattan’s East Village (Schwinn Sting-Ray in Coppertone, w/springer, 2-speed kickback hub, sissy bar, etc…); we kids were heavily influenced by drag racing’s Super Stock Class and the muscle “Pony” cars produced by Detroit’s Big 3, we would reduce our rear tire pressures in order to wrinkle the side walls just as the S/S Class would do at the Hole Shot! Another indicator of muscle car influence on muscle bike accessory design was the “console shifters” put on some of the muscle bikes from manufacturers back in the day.

Good times indeed back then and privileged to have a return to those pleasant memories today thanks to the great crew at NERRB and my 7-speed BFK and hopped-up ’06 Manta-Ray!

It’s kind’a tough to grow old when your feet are sitting on a pedal!

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

^^Now there's a quote to use in my signature!

 

[Thxcuz]

It would make sense to copy motorcycles but the wholesome bicycle companies didn't want to be associated with motorcycle culture....it all becomes so clear. Unless you consider how many illegal drag races have taken place since the invention of the automobile

 

[Phiredog]

^^Now there's a quote to use in my signature!

Agreed!

 

[B607]

It would make sense to copy motorcycles but the wholesome bicycle companies didn't want to be associated with motorcycle culture....it all becomes so clear.

Indeed, Ignaz Schwinn went in the motorcycle business and ended up buying Excelsior and Henderson. Then, after a test driver was killed, he closed the 3 motorcycle plants. He didn't sell them, he CLOSED them and washed his hands of motorcycles. That happened in the late teens or early 20's. Gary

 

[Raoul Dude]

"Unless you consider how many illegal drag races have taken place since the invention of the automobile."

Yeah, but the ILLEGAL drag races weren't all over television on Saturday afternoons -- just like the often-cited "99%" of law-abiding motorcyclists weren't really newsworthy.

"Then, after a test driver was killed, he closed the 3 motorcycle plants. He didn't sell them, he CLOSED them and washed his hands of motorcycles. That happened in the late teens or early 20's."

I'd never heard that before and did some Googling just now. Two sources indicate that Schwinn said “Gentlemen, today we stop” in the summer of 1931 because of his concerns about the Great Depression continuing for up to eight more years. http://www.hendersonmotorcycle.com/History 1918.htm

That was ten years AFTER Bob Perry, test rider for Excelsior Motorcycles, was killed -- Schwinn's reaction to that tragedy was to withdraw "the new bikes" from the scheduled race. Excelsior never got back into racing, but continued building motorcycles until 1931. http://www.wheels.ca/news/excelsior-may-have-ruled-if-test-rider-hadnt-slipped/

 

[ZygoteLittle]

It’s kind’a tough to grow old when your feet are sitting on a pedal!

^^Now there's a quote to use in my signature!

Agreed!

I’m flattered gentlemen, thank you.

 

[Mike G]

Well OK guys... let's take a look at what was around for influences:
Late 60's to mid 70's:
George Barris, he's at peak popularity, every TV show seemed to have a car he designed
Hot Rod Magazine, even my Dad had a subscription!
Cars that didn't have complex suspension... the easiest thing to do was go fast as heck in a straight line. Therefore, how hard was it to find a straight road in the middle of nowhere?!
Was drag racing popular? Just take a look at what Hot Wheels did with marketing "Snake and Mongoose".
I mean the whole car craze/drag racing phenomenon was something that the bicycle industry was not something that could be blown off. Bout that time I remember all kinds of cool muscle bikes, slick tires on the rear, little "funny car" influenced front wheels, I even remember one kid had a bike with a frame integrated wheelie bar. What do you think influenced those crazy "ram horn" bars? The whole custom car craze was also super big, big production car shows, radical body mods, lots of metal flake paint jobs... all of which made transitions into the bicycle world.

I don't think the motorcycle influences translated as well cause if you were into motorcycles, well you had a motorcycle, every motorcycle company was pushing 80cc (75cc in Honda's case) for kids.
... then my parents bought my brother one of those Yamaha MX bicycles, suspension rear, triple clamp motorcycle style forks... That pretty much killed it (no longer cool muscle bikes!) for me! Shortly after I discovered a thing called a Yamaha YZ 125, could go faster, fly higher... just by twisting the throttle!
It was all over at that point!

 

[ZygoteLittle]

^^^
I too ride a motorcycle, however, give me a bicycle to ride any day, the smiles are wider and the feelings euphoric! Just say’in...

 

[Bob Gray]

It was a pop culture phenomena. The big TV shows were things like Dukes of Hazard, Happy Days and Starsky and Hutch and all of them featured plenty of car chases or in the case of Happy Days, Fonzie jumping schoolbuses or sharks or something. Evel Knievel was rock star huge. Hot Wheels were something every boy had. There was just much, much more enthusiasm for auto and motorcycle racing in general.