Out back.

Not mine.  Just interesting as I hardly ever run into motorcycles way out back.

 

World War Two U.S. Motorcycles: National Museum of Military Vehicles Dubois Wyoming.

At one time, decades ago, I know a lot about motorcycle, but that's no longer the case, so I can't really comment that much.

World War Two was the golden age of the US military motorcycle.  Other armies made very extensive use of motorcycles in World War One and World War Two, with the Germans being particularly notable.  The US experimented with motorcycles early on, but they never took off in U.S. use they did in other armies.  The military continues to experiment with them off and on today.

Depicted above is a Harley Davidson WLA.  A Harley Davidson with  a side car is just to its right, but I failed to get a photo of it.

I unfortunately didn't get the data on all three of these motorcycles.  The one on the far right is an Indian, and the one in the middle might be as well.

Last edition:

World War Two U.S. Vehicle Livery: National Museum of Military Vehicles Dubois Wyoming.

Labels: 1940s, 4x4, 6x6, Automobiles, Dubois Wyoming, Jeep, Military, Trucks, United States, wepaons, World War Two, Wyoming (Dubois)

Friday, June 6, 1924. Coolidge speaks at Howard, the Reichstag approves the Dawes Plan.

The Reichstag approved the Dawes Plan.

President Coolidge spoke at the Howard graduation, stating:

It has come to be a legend, and I believe with more foundation of fact than most legends, that Howard University was the outgrowth of the inspiration of a prayer meeting. I hope it is true, and I shall choose to believe it, for it makes of this scene and this occasion a new testimony that prayers are answered. Here has been established a great university, a sort of educational laboratory for the production of intellectual and spiritual leadership among a people whose history, if you will examine it as it deserves, is one of the striking evidences of a soundness of our civilization.

The accomplishments of the colored people in the United States, in the brief historic period since they were brought here from the restrictions of their native continent, can not but make us realize that there is something essential in our civilization which gives it a special power. I think we shall be able to agree that this particular element is the Christian religion, whose influence always and everywhere has been a force for the illumination and advancement of the peoples who have come under its sway.

The progress of the colored people on this continent is one of the marvels of modern history. We are perhaps even yet too near to this phenomenon to be able fully to appreciate its significance. That can be impressed on us only as we study and contrast the rapid advancement of the colored people in America with the slow and painful upward movement of humanity as a whole throughout the long human story.

An occasion such as this which has brought us here can not but direct our consideration to these things. It has been a painful and difficult experience, this by which an other race has been recruited to the standard of civilization and enlightenment; for that is really what has been going on; and the episodes of Negro slavery in America, of civil war, and emancipation, and, following that, the rapid advancement of the American colored people both materially and spiritually, must be recognized as parts of a long evolution by which all mankind is gradually being led to higher levels, expanding its understanding of its mission here, approaching nearer and nearer to the realization of its full and perfected destiny.

In such a view of the history of the Negro race in America, we may find the evidences that the black man’s probation on this continent was a necessary part in a great plan by which the race was to be saved to the world for a service which we are now able to vision and, even if yet somewhat dimly, to appreciate. The destiny of the great African Continent, to be added at length, and in a future not now far beyond us, to the realms of the highest civilization, has become apparent within a very few decades. But for the strange and long inscrutable purpose which in the ordering of human affairs subjected a part of the black race to the ordeal of slavery, that race might have been assigned to the tragic fate which has befallen many aboriginal peoples when brought into conflict with more advanced communities.

Instead, we are able now to be confident that this race is to be preserved for a great and useful work. If some of its members have suffered, if some have been denied, if some have been sacrificed, we are able at last to realize that their sacrifices were borne in a great cause. They gave vicariously, that a vastly greater number might be preserved and benefited through them. The salvation of a race, the destiny of a continent, were bought at the price of these sacrifices.

Howard University is but one of the many institutions which have grown up in this country, dedicated to this purpose of preserving one of the races of men and fitting it for its largest usefulness. Here is a people adapted, as most people are not, to life in the tropics. They are capable of redeeming vast luxuriant areas of unexampled productivity, and of reclaiming them for the sustenance of mankind and the increasing security of the human community. It is a great destiny, to which we may now look forward with confidence that it will be fully realized.

Looking back only a few years, we appreciate how rapid has been the progress of the colored people on this continent. Emancipation brought them the opportunity of which they have availed themselves. It has been calculated that in the first year following the acceptance of their status as a free people, there were approximately 4,000,000 members of the race in this country, and that among these only 12,000 were the owners of their homes; only 20,000 among them conducted their own farms, and the aggregate wealth of these 4,000,000 people hardly exceeded $20,000,000. In a little over a half century since, the number of business enterprises operated by colored people had grown to near 50,000, while the wealth of the Negro community has grown to more than $1,100,000,000. And these figures convey a most inadequate suggestion of the material progress. The 2,000 business enterprises which were in the hands of colored people immediately following emancipation were almost without exception small and rudimentary. Among the 50,000 business operations now in the hands of colored people may be found every type of present day affairs. There are more than 70 banks conducted by thoroughly competent colored business men. More than 80 per cent of all American Negroes are now able to read and write. When they achieved their freedom not 10 per cent were literate. There are nearly 2,000,000 Negro pupils in the public schools; well nigh 40,000 Negro teachers are listed, more than 3,000 following their profession in normal schools and colleges. The list of educational institutions devoting themselves to the race includes 50 colleges, 13 colleges for women, 26 theological schools, a standard school of law, and 2 high-grade institutions of medicine. Through the work of these institutions the Negro race is equipping men and women from its own ranks to provide its leadership in business, the professions, in all relations of life.

This, of course, is the special field of usefulness for colored men and women who find the opportunity to get adequate education. Their own people need their help, guidance, leadership, and inspiration. Those of you who are fortunate enough to equip yourselves for these tasks have a special responsibility to make the best use of great opportunities. In a very special way it is incumbent upon those who are prepared to help their people to maintain the truest standards of character and unselfish purpose. The Negro community of America has already so far progressed that its members can be assured that their future is in their own hands. Racial hostility, ancient tradition, and social prejudice are not to be eliminated immediately or easily. But they will be lessened as the colored people by their own efforts and under their own leaders shall prove worthy of the fullest measure of opportunity.

The Nation has need of all that can be contributed to it through the best efforts of all its citizens. The colored people have repeatedly proved their devotion to the high ideals of our country. They gave their services in the war with the same patriotism and readiness that other citizens did. The records of the selective draft show that somewhat more than 2,250,000 colored men were registered. The records further prove that, far from seeking to avoid participation in the national defense, they showed that they wished to enlist before the selective service act was put into operation, and they did not attempt to evade that act afterwards. The propaganda of prejudice and hatred which sought to keep the colored men from supporting the national cause completely failed. The black man showed himself the same kind of citizen, moved by the same kind of patriotism, as the white man. They were tempted, but not one betrayed his country. Among well-nigh 400,000 colored men who were taken into the military service, about one half had overseas experience. They came home with many decorations and their conduct repeatedly won high commendation from both American and European commanders.

The armies in the field could not have done their part in the war if they had not been sustained and supported by the far greater civilian forces at home, which through unremitting toil made it possible to sustain our war effort. No part of the community responded more willingly, more generously, more unqualifiedly, to the demand for special extraordinary exertion, than did the members of the Negro race. Whether in the military service, or in the vast mobilization of industrial resources which the war required, the Negro did his part precisely as did the white man. He drew no color line when patriotism made its call upon him. He gave precisely as his white fellow citizens gave, to the limit of resources and abilities, to help the general cause. Thus the American Negro established his right to the gratitude and appreciation which the Nation has been glad to accord.

We are not all permitted the privilege of a university training. We can not all enter the professions. What is the great need of American citizenship? To my mind it is this, that each should take up the burden where he is. “Do the day’s work,” I have said, and it should be done, in the remembrance that all work is dignified. Your race is entitled to great praise for the contribution it makes in doing the work of the world.

There will be other crises in the national history which will make other demands for the fullest and most unselfish contribution to the national interest. No generation will be denied its opportunity, will be spared its duty, to put forth its best efforts. We devoutly hope that these contributions will not be demanded upon the field of battle. But they will be just as truly needed, just as urgently summoned, in the activities of peace, the efforts of industry, the performance of all the obligations of citizenship. We can not go out from this place and occasion without refreshment of faith and renewal of confidence that in every exigency our Negro fellow citizens will render the best and fullest measure of service whereof they are capable.

This odd photograph was taken:

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 3, 1924. Gila Wilderness

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Albania, Aldo Leopold, New Mexico, United States Forest Service, Wilderness Areas

The Work Truck Blog: Not a truck at all.

The Work Truck Blog: Not a truck at all.:  

Not a truck at all.

 A Ural motorcycle with a sidecar.  Urals are Russian knockoffs of the World War Two era BMW, and frequently have sidecars. They were designed for military use.

Tuesday, September 5, 1922. East Thrace, Missoula, San Diego. Big Pictures, the result of the Greek Defeat, Air Records, Motorcyle Races.

Missoula from Penwell block, September 5, 1922.

Turkey stated a demand for East Thrace, which had been ceded to Greece in 1920.

East Thrace.

This meant that Turkey was declaring that it wanted to reclaim recently lost territory, lost to Greece, across the Bosporus.  This would of course give it completely control of the straits, and hence entry into the Black Sea.

Greeks had comprised about 38% of the population there before the Greco Turkish War, and Bulgarians about 4.3%.  Bulgarians had been subject to a pre-war set of expulsions and violence due to the Balkan Wars that foreshadowed World War One which, at the same time, increased the Muslim population as Muslims fled into the area for refuge due to Ottoman lands being lost elsewhere.  Greeks would now be subject to the coming population exchange between Turkey and Greece, which also impacted the remaining Bulgarians.  In 1934 the Jewish population was expelled in the Thrace Pogroms.

Today, 15% of the Turkish population lives in the region.

Aviator Jimmy Doolittle set a transcontinental flight record.

Dealing with speed of a different type, motorcycle racer Billy Denham was photographed at a motorcycle race.

Denham is wearing elements of the wool U.S. Army uniform of the period, to at least the extent that he's wearing a wool service shirt.  Note also that he's wearing a tie, something you wouldn't see a motorcycle racer wear now, and for good reason.

 

Thursday, July 20, 1922. Echoes of wars.

A press photographer in Washington, D. C. took a photo of men on motorcycles.

Another took a photograph of the dedication to Lt. Samuel J. Harris, U.S. World War One veteran who had died during an insurrection in Lithuania, where he was serving as a volunteer.

Around 1,000 Americans had volunteered to serve the Baltic nation against the Reds in the same time period.

German colonies were transferred officially to European powers under League of Nations' mandates.

Limerick was taken from the IRA by the Irish Army.  The Irish Army also shelled IRA held Waterford.

Saturday, June 23, 1922. Portents.

The Saturday Evening Post hit the stands with an enduringly popular Leyendecker illustration.

Judge, which had recently combined with Leslie's, made fun of the cost of a dinner date.

Walther Rathenau, German Foreign Minster, was assassinated by right wing German nationalist.  Germany's march towards Nazism was commencing.

On the same day Hitler began serving his prison sentence.

The American Professional Football Association voted to change its name to the National Football League.

The English Ladies Football Association hold its only championship.

Japan announced it would withdraw its occupation forces from Siberia, save for Sakhalin Island, by the end of October.

Monday, April 13, 1942. The MP

 

Thursday, September 1, 1921. Launchings

On this day the first "Super dreadnought" USS Washington, a battleship of the Colorado Class, was launched.

Jean Summers, daughter of Senator Summers, who did the honors.

She'd serve only three years and then be sunk as a target, due to the Washington Naval Treaty.

One heck of a waste of money.

The first Washington State Highway Patrol officers were sworn in. Their vehicles were, at first, Indian Motor Cycles.

Tuesday, August 23, 1921. The pieces of the Ottoman Empire.

President Harding signed the New York Harbor bill into law.

I have utterly no idea what the statute did, but the photograph is of fairly high quality.

Faisal I bin Hussein bin al-Hashemi was crowned King of Iraq.  The kingdom was sort of a consolation prize for not getting Syria, and not a particularly good one.  In later years, he'd note that "this country is ungovernable."

In another part of the former Ottoman Empire, the Battle of Sakarya commenced in Turkey.  It would prove to be a long, and pivotal, battle in the Greco Turkish War, with the Turks ultimately prevailing three weeks later.

And a photographer took the following photo contrasting new and old two wheeled means of transportation.

Blog Mirror: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (1941)

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming (1941)

Mid Week At Work: Vermont State Trooper, 1936

Some states have state troopers, some have highway patrolmen.  In any event, this week's reflection on work is put up noting the dedication of the first freeway in the United States on this date in 1940, four years after this photo was taken across the country.

Electric

0 TO 60 IN 3 SECONDS

Get instantaneous power the moment you twist the throttle. No clutch to release. No gears to run through. All you do is flick your wrist and take off.

What Harley-Davidson has to say about their 2020 Livewire

Their day has arrived.

Electric vehicles, that is.

I've predicted this for quite some time, but the sudden arrival surprises even me.  I frankly though that electric vehicles would really seriously start to come in, in about ten years, and their fully adoption take another ten after that.

I was wrong.

They're hear right now, and 2020 will really start being their year. 

A friend of mine who was in California last week reports seeing Tesla's everywhere.  Looking at their site, they commonly report their vehicles as having a 300 mile range.  Ford is introducing the Mustang Mach E as an electric vehicle next year, also with a 300 mile range. And Ford's introduction in that fashion is brilliant. The Mustang Mach I was the heavy duty muscle car variant of the Mustang, back when muscle cars were a thing.  The Mach E is a muscle car, albeit an electric one.  One that will be marketed like this based on its performance, and already is.

That's the same approach that Harley-Davidson is taking on its Livewire, which you can buy right now.  The heavy duty motorcycle manufacturer with bikes famous for their V Twin engine and sound are flatly claiming that the Livewire is the motorcycle of the future.  As a city bike, it remains fairly short range at 146 city miles, it boast impressive performance and looks like a Harley, and doesn't, at the same time.  On Harley's website the Livewire is the first bike you see.

It's also really expensive and none of the electric vehicles are cheap. But Tesla did manage to get their new truck down to the price that a lot of 4x4 trucks are, and their cars and Ford's Mustang are competitive.  My prediction on the Tesla truck is that it will go nowhere as it was clearly designed by people who don't know anything about actual trucks, but Ford is coming out with an electric F150 in 2020 or 2021.

Electric F150s will be city trucks at first, I suspect.  A range of 300 miles, which is about what the Tesla gets, is probably what it will get as well. But it's been designed by people who know a lot about trucks.  It'll be popular for businesses that use trucks in the city. The average plumbers truck, or light work truck, probably doesn't go 300 miles in an average day.  So it'll break in.

The remaining problem is range.  My diesel D3500 has a range of about 600 miles, twice any electric vehicle. But these are just breaking in and most people, most places, don't drive 600 miles in a day.  Within five years that 300 miles will be 400, and then higher, and then they'll rapidly start to overcome other vehicles.

At the same time, focus is really going to start to come on in regard to charging stations.  They're expanding now, and Wyoming's Senator John Barrasso pushed through a bill to fund charging stations nationwide, drawing the ire of some groups.  But beyond that, a visit to the Tesla site shows Tesla already marking options to convert your house into a solar powered, at least partially, charging station. That may seem wild, and any proposal to install solar powers on our roof, besides cost making it unfeasible, even though we have all electric utilities and heat, would meat with an objection from long suffering spouse, but that day is coming as well.

Blog Mirror: M&ATA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THE SHEEPSHEAD BAY SPEEDWAY, OCT. 11, 1919 (FILM)

From a century ago, today:

M&ATA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT THE SHEEPSHEAD BAY SPEEDWAY, OCT. 11, 1919 (FILM)

Some things throw back.

Note:  I have a lot of old threads I started, but never posted.  The ship has sailed on the topics for a lot of them, so they're just going.  But this one didn't have any text.  I'm not sure if I ever intended that it did.

Anyhow, a modern Royal Enfield motorcycle painted by the Indian manufacturer to look like a motorcycle in World War Two service.  I wonder how it would actually do in rough country?

1919 Motor Convoy

It was a bad day for the Motor Transport Convoy. . .

August 22, 1919.

Nothing was going right.

And the water had to be hauled in by horse.

Elsewhere, the U.S. Army was travelling by horse:

In other localities, things were more tranquil.

San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 22, 1919.

While the U.S. Army was crossing the United States on the Lincoln Highway. . .

RAF Captain C. K. Shepherd was crossing by a more southerly route by motorcycle.

This year an eccentric American duplicated his route, on a vintage motorcycle, as near as could be done.

Tuesday July 22, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy makes Iowa, Volstead Act Passes the House.

The Motor Transport Convoy made 90 miles on this day in 1919, besting their previous record set yesterday, arriving in Clinton Iowa after 10.24 hours on the road.

On the same day, in Washington D. C., where riots had finally been stopped, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Volstead Act, the bill to provide for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment.

Andrew Volstead.

The act was named after Andrew Volstead, who introduced the act.  It was actually largely drafted, however, by Wayne Wheeler of the Anti Saloon League.   Volstead, a lawyer and a Congressman from Minnesota was chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee at the time, and supported the goals of the bill.

Wayne Wheeler.

Volstead would go down in defeat in 1922, when he failed to secure an eleventh term in office.  He would, however, go on to work for the National Prohibition Enforcement Bureau in the role of its chief legal adviser.  Upon Prohibition's repeal, he returned to private practice.  He lived until 1947 and died at age 86.  Wheeler, also an attorney, would not persist as long, falling into criticism as Prohibition proved rapidly unpopular, and dying at age 57, just two weeks after his wife died in a tragic fire.

Monday, July 7, 1919. The 1919 Motor Transport Corps Convoy departed Washington D. C.. .

with an intended destination of San Francisco, California.

World War One vintage Motor Transport Corps recruiting poster.

This would be a long trip by contemporary standards, but in 1919 it was daunting in the extreme.  Only adventurers with cash tried to drive across the United States as a rule.  While it had been done quite a few times by 1919, it was not a short trip by any means.  People who wanted to cross the country did it the logical and safe way. . . by train.

The purpose of this trip was several fold.  A primary one was to test the inventory of trucks that the Army now owned, thanks to the Great War, in order to determine which ones were the best and weed out those that couldn't endure.  Additionally, however, problems with the railroads during World War One, by which we mean labor problems, inspired the service to see if trucks were a viable means of transporting men and equipment for mobilization in time of war.

The scale of the test was massive.  Over 250 men were detailed to the experimental operation which included repair vehicles and bridging equipment.  Vehicles were highly varied and ranged from artillery tractors to to motorcycles.  It's significance was appreciated at the time, and the Signal Corps was detailed to film the convoy in route, which was proceeded by a Publicity Officer and a Recruiting Officer who arrived in towns along the route several days ahead of the convoy.  The route was that of the already established, but far from modern, Lincoln Highway.

Lincoln Highway route as of 1916, which was the same as it would be in 1919.

Command of the overall operation was in the hands of Lt. Col. Charles W. McClure with the actual "train" commander being Cpt. Bernard H. McMahon.  Officers who were familiar with motor transport, including Bvt. Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, were detailed to the operation.

So how did day one go?  Well, the official log of the trip gives us a picture, albeit a brief one, of the same.

Forty six miles. . . in 7.5 hours.  And that on excellent roads.