This is one of the most famously circulated photos of this sport, and for a good reason. The machine shows a great level of finesse right down to the swept header and whitewall tire. All you need is a helmet, a few tools, and a whole lot of adrenaline.
If you want to read more about that, I think it comes up on every electronic device’s first screen and mentioned at least once in every piece of print that’s dated 2020. Here, the only PPE I want to talk about is a helmet, and not just any helmet, a crash helmet. In this sport, they don’t wear crash helmets as a “just in case” accessory to prevent minor bumps and bruises, but rather out of necessity, as these guys are a special breed of daredevil exhibitionist. This is about the American National Unimotorcyclist Society. That’s right; there’s a whole society of people who ride these crazy looking things.
It all started in 1991 with William “Sidecar Willy” Nassau and ten commandments that differ drastically from the biblical ones, but are every bit as important to the environment they’re enforced. They’re also the easiest way to understand how the sport works. Basically, it’s a drag race that goes for one-hundred feet on any unpaved surface in any season, featuring exclusively one-wheeled machines. Engines must be stock and unmodified, at least five years old, and fit into one of the six classes. Since Class A is unlimited, pretty much anything goes. The entire machine can’t exceed four feet in width or eight feet in length and must have an ignition disabling safety switch tethered to the rider in the event someone falls off and a throttle is stuck. Nothing forward of the axle can touch the ground during a run, meaning wheelies aren’t only allowed, they’re mandatory. Touching the ground behind the axle is allowed, and works well, as most riders stand on these wheelie bar ski assemblies for control. The best part? Steering and brakes are optional. In one-hundred feet, not a lot can go wrong, nor are the speeds that high. Steering with only one wheel would be hard to engineer, aside from a pivot point behind the axle like an old Bolens snowmobile. As for brakes, when the throttle is released, the front of the machine touches soft ground and acts like an anchor. Honestly, it’s the perfect, low-budget, fun sport that I’ve never heard of until just recently, and there are only ten easily understandable rules. The NHRA handbook is like a city phonebook. With a combination of wrecked motorcycles and a well-stocked scrap pile with the odd snowmobile engine here and there for good measure, it wouldn’t be difficult or expensive to slap together a few of these things and have some fun in a farm yard. You figure one-hundred feet to race, the same to slow down, and put the return road on the other side of a hedge for a safety fence. A simple track could take up very little space, and give you less grass to mow as a bonus.
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