Took a short ride today to the 19th Annual Hillclimb Championships. Wanted to see what it was all about since I've never seen this type of racing before.
Basically, riders on specially designed bikes try to be the quickest up a steep, steep hill. In this case, a 500 foot hill. Judging by the amount of people watching, it's a very popular sport.
The bikes are nothing like what we ride. Here are a few examples :
Anyway, I put together a short 2 minute slideshow of my photos.
nitrous? holy cats. i saw a hill climb once, probably over 15 years ago. i don't think they were running nitrous back then. it seemed as if the power was more than plenty. the only factor that really mattered was keeping the rider on the bike.
the winner was the guy who flew over the timing gate at the top. they weren't sure if he was the fastest, he just won on style points. it was like the hill climb was vertical drag race on a giant motocross ramp.
I was dreaming when I wrote this, forgive me if it goes astray...
Great pictures Michael...I've always loved hill climbs...I'd love to see the Widowmaker...love the bit in 'On Any Sunday' were MS gets half way up..relizes he didn't turn the petrol tap on..and turns and rides back down.
Now that's not your everyday outing. Very interesting machines.
I remember watching them climb the Widowmaker when I was a kid. I thought dirtbikes and hillclimbs were the coolest.
A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting AMA champ Tiger Strank. We were seated together at a Carrot Top show in Vegas. He was in town for the AMA Banquet.
Great stuff Michael! I love watching these and we often get German events shown on Eurosport. The machinery they put together sometimes defies belief, like a twin engined harley with a 9 foot swingarm and spades bolted to the rear tyre that shook its rider off the course before he got to the bottom of the hill...
Odd this, just turned on Men and Motors channel and they were showing a film about Laconia bike meet and the Gunstock hillclimb..
Way cool.
