Friday, April 1, 2011

A vintage racer takes on the “Isle of Man Challenge”

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By Legacy Motorsport





Ron Halem has been riding BSAs for a while. “I don’t know why I chose the BSA, I just did. Over the years I acquired more Gold Stars, some as basket cases and some as complete bikes. At the time, I had no idea this bike would turn in to an obsession!” says Ron. “I moved from Los Angeles to northern California in 1990 and it was then that I found the BSA Owners Club.


I began to put a lot of miles on two of my Goldies riding the back roads of the bay area and I found myself going quite fast, indeed, for such an old bike.” Then, in 2000, Ron and a few buddies flew their bikes to England and made the pilgrimage to the Isle of Man. Ron remembers “the Isle of Man was like no other place in the modern world. We saw thousands of old bikes being ridden.


And then there was the Manx Grand Prix where many of these old bikes were being ridden very fast! I was hooked.” And so began the “IOM Challenge.” According to Ron, no one has ever completed a lap on the IOM TT course at over a 100 mph average on a BSA Gold Star. The late Paul Dobbs had come close several times at a bit over 99 mph, but never passed 100... Read more

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