Crater Camp

[panhead_jim]

It's funny how sometimes one picture can lead you to an interesting story. Crater Camp was an informal weekend hangout for bikers in the 1940's and 1950's. Life Magazine did a short piece on it and talked about the good clean fun these riders were having out there on the weekends, setting up amateur racing events. Apparently the "hip flask carrying cycle cowboys" were not welcome there... Found a short video with some great vintage footage of some of the racing events they held there.


Crater Camp

[exeric]

That was a great video, thanks P_J. Oh yeah, loved the music. . . Even more than the 'Teenage Murder' song from the Cannonball clip

[c.o.]

Ahhh... life before the "safety police"... Thanks for sharing that with us Jim.

[Tom Lovejoy]

That was a blast, thanks.

[sirhrmechanic]

Wonder if that piece by Life was done before or after they did the 'rake over the coals job' at Hollister?

Were they trying to make up for their journalistic failures on Hollister coverage (and placate motorcycle-riding readers?). Or did they find a story that tittilated the public and later knew that they would get a ton of attention and magazine sales for the Hollister story. Editors, even at Life, would never turn down sensationalism if meant sales!

I'll have to look up the dates... Great video. When you consider that a lot of those bikes are hand shift, foot clutch, etc. That's some serious riding skill. I can see some BSA's, I can see what look like some early Sportsters or K-models. Indians (including verticals). Some fantastic machinery being ridden hard. Thanks for posting!

Cheers,

Sirhr

[exeric]

The Hollister "riot" happened in 1947 and I would suspect that it was big news in the more gentle America of 1947. There has always been the "bad" motorcyclist going way back to the teens, but it wasn't until the late 50s that outlaw motorcycle gangs forged the image that still haunts us today.

[indianut]

It is plain to see that riders then, as now, did not keep their bikes Factory Stock at all! Why anyone would want a bone stock, as left the factory, Harley baffles me. Nobody did it then and Nobody does it now. Look at the bikes in this video. This is American Motorcycle History at it's Finest!!

[exeric]

I don't know if that is a fair comment Danny. Southern California has almost year-round riding weather, and not much rain so you could have a "bobbed" motorcycle without the inconvenience. Also, Southern Calif. had a culture of custom cars and bikes before the rest of the U.S. From what I've seen of vintage pictures from the colder climates, riders kept their bikes much more stock because of the riding conditions.

[Rubone]

It is plain to see that riders then, as now, did not keep their bikes Factory Stock at all! Why anyone would want a bone stock, as left the factory, Harley baffles me. Nobody did it then and Nobody does it now. Look at the bikes in this video. This is American Motorcycle History at it's Finest!!

Look at period photos of large gathering such as Gypsy Tours and the majority of machines are stock. Then as now people did what they wanted with their bikes. Some folks like stock, some do not. But making a blanket statement as to what all riders did is just not true.
Out here in the west lots of machines were stripped for use in the dirt. And the majority of roads were dirt as well. Endurance runs, field meets, TT races, etc were popular and common. People stripped their bikes because that is all they had. By the late '50 and the advent of better European and British off road specific bikes many riders quit using their big bikes and switched over to purpose built off roaders. And the big Harleys went on to be the rides of choice of touring riders and the bad boys, the mainstream riders had moved on, many to the new Japanese machines.
So those post-war depictions of riders at play are indeed history, just not all of it.

[Skirted]

The unseated dead engine start at 0:43 in the video brought back memories of when I raced some off road hare scramble type events where we did exactly the the same thing. Not sure if they still do that or not but I always liked it. It was surprising the seapration that resulted at the start by the extra effort and skill required by running, starting, and launching the bike quickly.

As c.o. said "life before the safety police"......and I'll ad to that and say "lawyers".

Thanks for posting