Why is there exhaust ports and pipes?
railguy

 

Answer here:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/.../topics/129456

 

Yeah, these races were hard core. They raced at over 100MPH, on, essentially, unsprung mountain bikes with no brakes, and wide-open throttles, with their speed controlled only by a kill switch and spark advance, with no padding or helmets, on rough board tracks, where if they did take a spill, they would pick up splinters that could be four feet long, and, if they were still alive, be lucky not to be run over (by the other riders with... NO BRAKES).

Those guys had cojones of steel.

This is billed as the only existing film of a board track race:


- Eric

 

The answer says exhaust ports at the bottom of the stroke.Why are the flames coming out of the head?
railguy

 

Great Video! Thanks for sharing.

 

Better explanation I found is the cylinder ports might be used to saturate the rider's leg with blowby oil so the flames from the head can ignite it.

 

Here are another couple:




This one has a dumb modern song playing in the background, and steals a number of frames from the others, but also has a lot of good stills of the riders and machines (with that stupid pan effect). They were just kids.

(also, it has a lot of shots of non-board-track bikes)



- Eric

 

Cool vids - thanks for sharing. However the sheer thought of splinters make me cringe!
I do not know how they did it with so many risks. I am sure the prize $$ motivated them I'm sure...

 

Apparently, riders who won a lot could bring in the modern equivalent of almost $500,000 a year.

- Eric

 

WTH would you want brakes for?
Brakes just SLOW YA DOWN!
Evidently chain guards are deemed unnecessary weight also
That additional exhaust coming out the head is quite interesting. Who needs skin anyhow?