Motorcycle land-speed record

The first generally recognized motorcycle speed records were set unofficially by Glenn Curtiss, using aircraft engines of his own manufacture, first in 1903, when he achieved 64 mph (103 km/h) at Yonkers, New York using a V-twin, and then on January 24, 1907, on Ormond Beach, Florida, when he achieved 136.27 mph (219.31 km/h) using a V8 housed in a spindly tube chassis with direct shaft drive to the rear wheel.

The first FIM-sanctioned record to exceed Curtiss's 1907 speed did not occur until 1930, at Arpajon in France, when an OEC special with a 1,000cc supercharged JAP V-twin engine averaged 137 mph (220 km/h) over the required two-way runs.

After World War II, the German NSU factory battled Britain's Vincent HRD and Triumph for top speed honors during the 1950s, with British-engined machines dominating the 1960s.

New Zealand's Burt Munro (of the film The World's Fastest Indian), set a speed record at Bonneville in 1967 of 183 mph (295 km/h) for a motorcycle with an engine under 1000cc.

That record stood for 16 years before being surpassed in 2006 by the Ack Attack team's twin Suzuki engined machine at an average of 342.8 mph (551.7 km/h).

Breedlove never intended Spirit of America to be classified as a motorcycle, despite its tricycle layout, and only approached the FIM after being rejected for record status by the FIA.

Furthermore, most people think of the tricycle Spirit of America, now part of the permanent collection of Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, as a car and not a motorcycle.

However he had to leave America before Allen could make his run, and so the same equipment was used by two Americans who had been given written authority to act as timekeepers on behalf of the FIM.