BSA AutoRacer

From my friend Benny Ludolphy in Holland... a very sad looking, but highly unusual Autorace machine with a BSA B31/33 engine. This must be from the pre-tarmac days, when our Japanese friends were still allowed to race on proper dirt tracks....

親愛なる日本人の読者の皆さん。

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この困難の時、私たちは互いに強く結ばれており、私たちはみんなあなた方のことを思っていることをお伝えします。











Fukushima Surfers and their stolen paradise





Image source: Surf Session

親愛なる日本人の読者の皆さん。

.





この困難の時、私たちは互いに強く結ばれており、私たちはみんなあなた方のことを思っていることをお伝えします。











Fukushima Surfers and their stolen paradise





Image source: Surf Session

1950s Vintage Japanese Motorcycles

Now, not many people realise that the Japanese motorcycle industry is actually over 100 years old. Technically, it can be traced back to the first powered bicycle that was imported into the county back in 1896, but within 10 years, there were a number of talented engineers building powered two-wheelers in backyard workshops, notbaly Shimazu Narazo, who had built his own chassis and engine in 1909. By the end of the 1930s, contrary to most motorcycle history books I have read, Japan actually had a thriving motorcycle culture with over 50 manufacturers producing everything from 20cc motorised bicycles to licensed Harley-Davidsons. There was a need for cheap, reliable transport outside of the cities, where the road infrastructure was poor at best. Within the cities, there was also a growing band of motorcycle hipsters who loved posing, touring (tonori) and racing and to satisfy demand from the Imperial army, Harley-Davidson had been exporting bikes to Japan since 1917! There was also a growing Motorcycle Riding Club scene, in fact there were over twenty active clubs by 1920 and at least three specialist motorcycle magazines. The Japanese had also witnessed motorcycle racing similar to the events being staged in Europe, America and Australasia - racing on horse tracks and cycle tracks, road racing on unmade roads and path racing around parks and lakes were all popular and there were also some purpose built stadiums like the Tamagawa Speedway. Motorcycles at the time were known as Tetsuba (Iron Horses) or Nirinsha (simply two-wheeled vehicles), A later slang term used to describe motorcycles was Tansha, derived from the word jidojitensha meaning powered bicycle.

The motorcycle scene virtually stopped as soon as Japan forced their way into World War 2, although one or two companies did continue to supply the military during the war. Unfortunately, one of them, Kuro Hagane, had their production plant in Hiroshima.

Following their surrender, Japan had to slowly rebuild itself. The occupying American forces began to entertain each other (and the locals) by staging amateur motorcycle races and a new motorised bicycle industry began to emerge as the nation started to mobilise itself once again. Some of the pre-war names like Meguro and Miyata returned to motorcycle manufacture and many new names joined the scene, some drawing inspiration from British and German designs, others, like Honda and Bridgestone, started slowly by buying up small capacity army surplus engines and fitting them to bicycles. By the end of the 1940s, Japan had entered its 2nd Transport Revolution, but this time, the only war on the horizon was a motorcycle war! - With over 100 manufacturers producing powered two-wheelers, there were bound to be a whole load of casualties, and as the history books have proved, less than a dozen companies survived the 1950s and of those, only the "big four" of Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha have survived to this day.

Motorcycle Racing at the Tamagawa Speedway, November 1949.

The following photographs are from the Asama Memorial Cottage, at the foot of Mt Asama, the home of the legendary dirt road races which were the Japanese version of the Isle Of Man TT. The bikes are all from the 1950s and were produced by companies that will be virtually unknown in the West, and as you can see, the Japanese were producing some tasty wheels at the time, so much for Edward Turner's famous gaffe - "We have nothing to fear from the Japanese".

ASAHI FA-II / 1954 - 250cc; 7.6bhp; 4200rpm.
The Asahi was manufactured by Miyata Seisakusho of Tokyo, who had been producing motorcycles since 1933.
The Asahi  AA of 1933 was the first mass produced motorcycle in Japan.

CABTON RBH / 1954 - 350cc; 16bhp; 5500rpm. 

COLLEDA ST5 / 1957 - 123cc; 7.5bhp; 5500rpm:
Colleda and SJK were both names used by the Suzuki Loom comapny, later to become Suzuki motorcycles.

HOSK DB / 1958 - 498cc parallel twin; 26bhp; 5200rpm:
The Hosk was very closely based on the German Horex 500 and was produced to very high standards.

LILAC LS18II / 1960 - 247cc V-Twin; 19.5bhp; 7800rpm:
Lilac produced some highly advanced v-twin machines and also produced the 500cc Marusho Magnum which was exported to the USA in the early 60s.

MEGURO Z7 / 1959 - 498cc; 20bhp; 4400rpm:
Meguro eventually became part of the Kawasaki empire and their designs were the basis of the first 4-stroke motorcycles produced by Kawasaki. Thev Meguro Z7 and Z97 were very popular because of their European styling and relatively high-performance.

RIKUO / 1958 - 750cc OHV V-Twin:
Harley-Davidson licenced Sankyo Nainenki  to produce HD Flathead VL models in Japan in the early 1930s in response to a request from the Imperial Army. By 1937 the company had been rebranded as Rikuo - (loosely translated as Road Kingor King of the Road). At the outbreak of WW2, the Americans were sent home and the Japanese continued to produce the VL as the Rikuo. Between 1937 and 1942 over 18000 Rikuo machines had been supplied to the army. Rikuo ceased production in 1958. 

TOHATSU PA55 / 1955 - 80cc; 3.5bhp; 4800rpm:
Tohatsu produced some very high spec, small capacity machines, including the famous Tohatsu Runpet racer.
Tohatsu are still producing engines today, mainly for agricultural use and  boats. 

YAMAHA YA1 / 1957 - 125cc; 5.6bhp; 5000rpm:
Yamaha are one of the "big four" companies to have survived Japan's "Motorcycle Wars".
This is their first attempt at a production off-road racer. The history books usually tell us that the DT1 was their first proper off-road bike, but this factory produced special known as Akatombo (Red Dragonfly) with modified head, telescopic forks and alloy guards was raced at Asama in the mid 1950s.

Junk Motor Linkert Candy

Need something Hand Made for your Linkert , look no further than Toms fantastic Horns & stacks at Junk Motors

R.W.K

Two Sweet Knucks Taken by Our Friend Tom at Junk Motors

Black Sign Garements

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We love the inspiration of Black Sign.

Photography KIYOTAKA HATANAKA
Styling DAISUKE ARAKI
Hair AMANO
Models / ALEX , KEIVAN , MICHAEL , KYLE
Direction / HIGHVISION CO.,LTD

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Black Sign Garements

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We love the inspiration of Black Sign.

Photography KIYOTAKA HATANAKA
Styling DAISUKE ARAKI
Hair AMANO
Models / ALEX , KEIVAN , MICHAEL , KYLE
Direction / HIGHVISION CO.,LTD

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Trump Pipes For the Knucklehead build

Post came today with some old unused Trump cocktail shakers Made In Japan , time for the Grinder & presto my exhaust System is Born , just need to weld them on ,De chrome them & paint them Black , always tough knowing whats going to work , but at the moment i dig these on the Knuck.

メグロ350ccレックス號Y型 MEGURO ON THE DIRT TRACK

I  must thank my friend Streetracker for discovering this Japanese promotional film of the Meguro Rex-Y 350cc on You Tube. I've been looking for this film clip for ages.

The origins of the Meguro Works can be traced back to 1909, but the Meguro brand name does not appear until 1927. The company had begun to build motorcycles from sourced parts around 1922 and produced their first complete motorcycle in 1937 leading to major contracts to supply motorcycles to the Japanese Army and Police in 1939.

Motorcycle production was halted in 1941 when the Meguro Works was commandeered for the war effort and full production did not resume again until 1949. By the mid 1950s they were just about the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in Japan, producing 4-stroke singles and twins based quite closely on British and German designs, but financial difficulties forced Meguro into a business partnership with the Kawasaki Aircraft Company in 1960, leading to a full merger in 1963 and the formation of Kawasaki Auto Sales (the forerunner of the Kawasaki Motorcycle Company). Some of the first Kawasaki motorcycles were simply re-badged Meguro models and the Meguro logo actually formed part of the Kawasaki Motorcycles logo for many years after. Even today, the Kawasaki W650 model can trace its ancestry back to the Meguro K1 models from the late 1950s.

The best bit comes right at the end of the film though. There was once a time, pre Autorace and its regulation tarmac ovals, when the Japanese enjoyed dirt-track and speedway racing on tracks made from compacted volcanic ash. The Meguro single was the engine of choice for many Japanese riders at that time and here is some cinematic evidence of those oriental "go fast - turn left" race meetings. Check out their race suits, the big shoulder pads and goggles make them look like motorcycling Samurai... This is a fantastic piece of Japanese motorcycle history.

Tamagawa Olympia Speedway; November 6th 1949.

Vintage Racers at the Auto Race

Just picked up these beauty old Honda racers from the Japanese Auto Race blog.

HKS Hasegawa Autorace bike from the 1980s.

YES THERE'S MORE - AUTO RACE BIKES FROM THE 70s

I really can't believe how many motorcycle and bicycle images I've collected over the years. I have just bought myself a diskette reader and transferred literally hundreds of old images to my laptop, most of which I had completely forgotten about. My previous posts about the Japanese auto race bikes prompted me to find these particular pictures again. I have no idea where most of them came from but they do prove that there's more to the Japanese motorcycle industry than just Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha!

350cc Kyokuto KT

Meguro... Eventually became part of the Kawasaki empire. This engine bares a remarkable resemblence to the British J.A.P. unit

Another Meguro, this time with external cam-chain instead of the push rods in the previous picture.

TOYO - I really don't know much about this make at all, but they were succesful on the pre-1960 Japanese dirt tracks and continued to be so on the tarmac auto race tracks.

Another TOYO from the 1970s

AUTO RACE - THE BIKES "UPDATE"

We now know that this is not a Kyokuto, so what is the mystery twin cylinder engine in this Autoracer? It's a Toyo. Take a look at the image below and compare, this is a twin cylinder, DOHC Toyo with a 4-valve head... Thanks to Bennie Ludolphy in Hollland for his valuable information.

 I've dug out my old silver halide images and scanned in a photograph of a genuine 1971 Kyokuto KT2 engine to compare and it is clearly very different.

This particular engine has been fitted into a 1970s Jawa speedway rolling chassis and is a replica of the bike that was tested at Canterbury speedway in 1972. A similar set-up was also tested in Australia in a Hagon Chassis. The engine has been modified to run on methanol with the addition of an amal carburettor. The engine and chassis were restored by ace speedway collector, sometime poet and ex-Berwick rider Ian Paterson and form part of his magnificent Cinder to Shale collection. Ian also has a genuine HKS Hasegawa Auto Race bike in his collection (see below). This bike dates from the early 1980s and is similar to the bike Barry Briggs had on display at the old Speedway collection at Donington Park.

Finally, I have to apologise for the poor quality of this image, but this is the only picture I have ever found of an EiCoH Auto Race bike....

EiCoH, or Engine Company Honda to give it its full name, was a side project of Kazuo Honda, one of the family members behind the Kyokuto. Kazuo was also developing the JRM (Japanese Race Motor) for road racing at the same time. The EiCoH was a 500cc single based on his families KT2 unit but with some modifications. This photo from a Dutch magazine shows the complete 1967 EiCoH speedway bike, basically an Auto Race machine without the asymetric bars!

AUTO RACE - THE BIKES

Here is a cool Triumph powered Japanese Auto Race bike from the Dan Rouit Flat Track Museum:

This rare Triumph powered racer was found in the early 1990s under a wood pile, behind an antique store in Tokyo. Wayne Bialls, an American car collector from Phoenix, returned to the USA with his prize and proceeded with the restoration. When Bialls decided to sell the machine, he chose the VFT "For Sale" page and a quick call to Dan resulted in it being added to the growing museum collection. Dan’s good friend Aver Hensley, from Clovis, provided a proper set of handlebars, additional chroming and installation of the knee hook and number plates. The motorcycle was most likely raced until the early 1980s.

The picture above shows another Autoracer fitted with a twin cylinder Triumph 650cc engine, whilst the picture below is a Japanese Meguro engine, showing it's Triumph ancestry very clearly.

This Autoracer above looks like a Japanese Kyokuto KT2. * Thanks to Bennie Ludolphy we now know that this bike is not a Kyokuto but a twin cylinder, DOHC 4-valve Toyo; see this update *.

Kyokuto, (roughly translated as "sunrise" or "rising-sun"), were one of the oldest motorcycle engine firms in Japan. The Kyokuto Motor Industry Co Ltd produced its first engine in the mid 1930s, and ironically, the family name behind the company was Honda, in no way linked to the Honda Company of today. By the early 1960s, Kyokuto were producing around thirty 350cc and 500cc single cylinder engines every month

Todays Autoracers are powered by Suzuki SEAR (Suzuki Engine Auto Race) units, mostly AR600 twins but 500cc units are also produced for the novice riders.

Many other engines have been used in Auto Race over the years including BSA, EiCoH and HKS Hasegawa. At least two Kyokuto engines have found their way to the UK and are in private collections. I also know of at least one complete HKS powered Auto Racer in a UK collection too.