Category Archives: Uncategorized

ISDT 1961: report of opening days appearing in Motor Cycling issue of the 5th October 1961

12 Monday Aug 2013

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hello and apologies for the recent poor abandonment of service, partly due to a rather hectic race season backed up by some good weather that could not be missed. What have I missed whilst I was missing.. well looks like issuu.com altered the embedding code they provide to embed their documents in wordpress blog pages which now work no longer so apologies I can’t embed the latest treasure uncovered from the wonderful world of eBay an original copy of the Motor Cycling Issue of the 5 October 1961 covering the first 3 days of the ISDT in Llandrindod Wells, Wales. I am now desperately seeking the next weeks issue.

 

This event was the last to venture into North Wales where it crossed the Berwyns from Llandrillo over the ancinet road more commonly known these days as the ‘Wayfarer’ named after the memorial at the summit of the pass dedicated to the memory of one of the great cycling journalists and part founder of the Rough Stuff Fellowship an organisation for off-road cycle touring.

Motor Cycling issue of the 5th October 1961 covers the opening of the event

Motor Cycling issue of the 5th October 1961 covers the opening of the event

Click on the link below to take you to the document on issuu.com

ISDT 1961 Llandrindod Wells report

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Browse the online library of historical motorsport programmes and pamphlets maintained by the Technisches Mueseum Wien

10 Saturday Aug 2013

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Browse the online library of historical motorsport programmes and pamphlets maintained by the Technisches Mueseum Wien

One of our most reiable sources of material on the ISDT is the Technisches Mueseum Wien, The Technical Museum of Vienna which has amassed a considerable collection of historic programmes and pamphlets connected with all forms of Motorsport which have all been scanned and can be viewed online at issuu.com where they have a dedicated page – http://issuu.com/technisches-museum

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Future SpeedTrackTales Features

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, Germany, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Italy, Poland, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Spain, Sweden, UK, Uncategorized

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Approaching the end of the first 9 months after taking over and updating Taff Isaac’s old ISDT site I have mostly focussed on consolidating and correct the errors in the material as well as start filling some of the years missed. I have been able to re-discover some rare archive material. For the first anniversary I am hoping we can start to create new original material that adds to the understanding of the ISDT rather than just gathering old archive material to allow SpeedTrackTales to become more of a publication, although always free to anyone wanting to read.

I have been looking through the Search Terms that have driven visits to the site and looked in particular at those search terms I think we might be deficient in that appear high in reader search terms. I am proposing over the next year 3 months to prepare articles on the following and would encourage anyone who can help me with material or copy to make the articles from.

Photo of Brit Trophy Rider Ken Heanes looking happy in ISDT 1961

Zundapp Motorcycles
Ken Heanes
BMW R67
BMW R68
MZ
Cheney Triumph
Triumph Trophy
BSA Empire Star
Georg Meier
Marjorie Cottle

As a post script to this post I must sadly add that i have just discovered of the recent passing away of Ken Heanes in October 2012. Another great loss to the community of the ISDT and hopefully we can ensure his achievements can be preserved here for future generations of Heanes family members to discover.

http://www.classicmotorcycle.co.uk/news/2012-10/obituary-ken-heanes-mr-isdt

ISDT Centennial Rally: Sunday 18th August 2013 Carlisle

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Enduro, England, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK, Uncategorized

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Hot on the heels of our announcement for the Launch of a campaign to create events to commemorate the centenary of the ISDT next year, which first took place in August 1913, has taken a major step with news just in from Jim Jones, one of the bedrocks of the Enduro and  Big Bike Rallye scene in the UK.

The event will cover four days and on one day will follow the original route of day 1 of the first ISDT. There will be classes for the usual big trail bikes and also off orad bikes that are road legal and classes for classic bikes. The event has the support of the Carlisle City Council who are producing a commemorative program and I am sure if any readers of this have any memorabilia of the first ISDT then I am sure they would like to be able to feature it. You can enter as a solo or in a team of three for motorcycle clubs or trade teams.

Image of Day 1 Course Map for ISDT 1913

Event details supplied by Organiser:

The Centennial Rally is to be held over four days in Cumbria, England from 15th to 18th August 2013.

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The First International Six Day Trial 18 ~ 23 August 1913: A centenary anniversary 2013

22 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in Enduro, England, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK, Uncategorized

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With the 100th anniversary of the holding of the first International Six Day Trial less than 1 year away, as the event was hosted by the ACU in England before becoming one of the most truly international of top class motorcycle events. Which, with the toughness of the six days of effort quickly saw the event being likened to the ‘Olympics of Motorcycling’ a name that has stuck with it ever since as it has been hosted on most of the worlds continents.

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A Hundred Years of ISDT Approaches 1913 – 2013

28 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Enduro, England, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK, Uncategorized

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As the century of ISDT approaches I would like to launch an appeal to gather as much of the lost information, photos and stories as we can gather to be exhibited in the public domain to help the riders, the families of riders, the industry and social historians to see how the technology changed as new influences impacted on the motorcycle industry and associated sport. Back in 1913 a group of British Motorcycle enthusiasts backed by the British Motorcycle Industry set otu an event over 6 days in which riders had to navigate around a series of day long courses in a test not only about the abilities of the Rider to ride a motorbike but also for maintenance and to test the bikes reliability. This Blog / Website keenly follows the history of that event from this beginning…

Photo of riders and motorcycle typical of the times , and just 1 year before the outbreak of World War 1

to this Continue reading →

Two German Giants of the ISDT ‘Bull Rider’ Class

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Europe, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Uncategorized

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German riders Rolf Witthoeft and Herbert Schek were legends in their riding era which was partially due to the longevity of their time riding and also they became best known for riding some of the largest bikes to ever, later known as the Bull Rider Class. These bikes over 750cc may not have had the greatest power to weight ratio but they were powerful and it took a good rider to get these items of heavy metal around a typical ISDT course.

Photo of four-man BMW team in the United States including #295 Herbert Schek ISDT 1973

Photo of Rolf Witthoeft as a BMW factory rider in 1979

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If a Picture paints a 1000 words what about a video

07 Saturday Jul 2012

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Our panic last week when a lot of our historic images were lost when a server provider evaporated our data is close to being resolved as we have moved a backup of the images to another server. The remaining url’s linking to the old images need to be updated and unfortunately WordPress.com does not have an automated batch text update so I’ve got to correct each link one paste at a time.

Back to the good news of more new content we have recovered from the internet. This time amongst the fantastic treasure trove of the internet’s video libraries we discovered a film created by Christian Sulleman of the 55th International Six Day .In an amazing timeless classic dedicated to the period I recall very well  I would hope our site’s visitors enjoy this unique footage. Please enjoy and check out the other videos on our ISDT Tube page dedicated to collecting these fantastic troves of ISDT treasure.

Next post should be a collection of new ISDT material

Small Technical Hitch at Speed Track Tales

01 Sunday Jul 2012

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Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that the WordPress site, to save time during compilation, took direct links to many of the images from a previously archived website that was still accessible on line. We have now noticed that it appears the host has now taken the entire archive site off-line which means many of the images have now gone and will not show in our articles.

We have access to the old images and will slowly correct this and we are grateful for your patience whilst we do so.

In the meantime there is a further unmanaged archive of the original Speedtracktales site which is associated with the National Library of Wales. If you are wanting to see images before we restore them we hope you can see them here.

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20110228233545/http://www.speedtracktales.co.uk/4598.html

Marjorie Cottle and the women of the ISDT

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, Uncategorized

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The image of motorcycle racing is often defined in popular culture by the vision of men motors and leather. There should, however, be no doubt throughout the history of motorcycle sport, which predominantly post dates the era defined by Women’s campaigns for the right to vote and the germination of the principles of equality the ACU banned their taking part in road racing in 1925. Women although few in number instead became active and competitive entrants in off road motorcycle racing Cottle and Edyth Foley both winning Gold Medals in the ISDT in 1925.

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Marjorie Cottle competes in the ISDT 1939

Marjorie Cottle pictured riding a road motorcycle. (courtesy of Getty Images)

Photo: circa 1920: Four women motorcycle racers in Germany, including Marjorie Cottle. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ISDT

In more recent times riders like Katrina Price have been able to show women are as competative and skilled as men and able to take on events of the severity of the ISDT/E. The involvement of women in the sport is featured in its own page. Continue reading →