Fastest Man on Earth Glenn Curtiss and His V 8 Motorcycle

MotorTube: Fastest Man on Earth Glenn Curtiss and His V 8 Motorcycle.
Glenn. H. Curtiss soon after setting a speed record for the two-chamber class. Pictures cordiality of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.
January of 1907 discovered Glenn H. Curtiss of Hammondsport, New York, an unassuming, calm bike and motor maker, heading out via prepare to bright Ormond Beach, Florida, for the second time in four years. He was gone to take an interest in the authority weeklong time trials known as the Florida Speed Carnival. Going with him on the 1,500-mile travel were three of his Curtiss cruisers and his long-lasting companions Leonard "Tank" Waters and Capt. Thomas S. Baldwin, for specialized and moral help.
On entry, with the trials in progress and no opportunity to lose, Glenn initially drew out his single-chamber, 3-drive cruiser, a stock machine he was creating for business deal. After a few trials to figure out the shoreline, Glenn set a formally planned record of 1 minute, 2 seconds for the one-mile keep running in the single-chamber class on January 21st. Contending in the one-mile race for two-barrel cycles on the 23rd, Curtiss came in first on his other stock machine and discovered he had again set yet another record time of 46.67 seconds. With eagerness running high among the three companions, Glenn drew out his freshest bicycle the following day, fueled by a 40-pull V-8 motor of his own outline.
Clearly not a standard cycle, the V-8 couldn't be gone into any race on the docket. Be that as it may, authorities agreed to a period trial, permitting a two-mile begin to get up to speed. Curtiss, inclining so far forward he was for all intents and purposes lying level on the bicycle, canvassed the following mile in 26.4 seconds - more than 136 miles for every hour! It took him another mile to convey the bicycle to a stop. Minutes after the fact he would discover that he had smashed the world speed record, turning into the speediest man on earth. That week would be viewed as the best in Glenn's bike vocation and would truly push him into general society eye and on to greater achievements.
Glenn's remarks on the record-breaking run were somewhat stifled, as befitting his tendency. He was cited as saying, "Riding an eight-barrel bike isn't probably going to wind up plainly exceptionally well known," and at such a rapid, "everything I could see was a dash of shoreline with wild surf on one side, sand slopes on the other and a dark spot where the group was." He proceeded with, "The machine set up a stupendous and peculiar vibration; it was great to the point that it didn't make completely consoling considerations." However he said of the experience, "It fulfilled my speed needing."