jim rozen wrote:

I would be a heck of a lot more scared on that indian board track
racer than on curtiss's bike.

Sand can be a strange and unforgiving surface to go fast on. I'm sure
the section of beach he chose was scrutinized well. And as long as
everything went well, no problem. But if he'd gotten into any sort of
high speed wobble, it probably would have been all over. Such wobbles
can be induced by seemingly minor bumps or upsets. The bike does look
like stability was part of the design criteria, they just didn't have
much data on those speeds back then.

I'd take the board track over sand until it came time to land on my
head...G
Heh, that reminds me of something I saw on TV years ago, probably late
70's. Some beach beauty contest, with various events relating to beach
activities. One was a timed race down the beach and back on lawn mower
engine powered minibikes. Don't think they had any rear suspension,
maybe an inch or two up front. The women were in skimpy bikinis, but
they did at least make them wear helmets. Well, there were puddles
everywhere on the "track", and I knew that meant a low spot. One poor
girl didn't figure that out in time. Hit one dip full tilt, did a couple
tank slappers, and went down hard. Show might have been live, as I
recall the announcer saying something like "Looks like we ought to take
a break". When they came back from commercial, they'd moved on to
another event...

Jon