1960s Scramble - The Sounds of Motorcycles at Speed

Cross-Country Motorcycle Races at Andre's Farm. Great motorcycle collectible from the 1960's. Great to listen to or frame the cover art and display.

Tracks include: Side 1: Harley-Davidson 165, Honda 125, Zundapp 250, Harley-Davidson 250, BMW 500, Triumph 500, Norton 56, Triumph 650, Bantamweight Race 125cc, Lightweight Race 175cc; Side 2: Mediumweight Race 350cc, Heavyweight Race 500cc, Mixed Class Race - 125 to 650cc

On irregular Sundays from April until October, the New York Berkshire hills are host to the assortment of sounds you will hear on this record. These are the "scrambles" - cross-country motorcycle races at Andre's Farm in East Fishkill, one of the finest circuits of its type on the east coast.

Scrambling, in the United States, is a unique form of motorcycle competition. While it is unlike the more familiar hill-climbs and black-top road races, it has elements of both. The circuit at Andre's Farm consists of .85 miles of trail, hacked out of the side of a mountain. The starting grid, which accommodates up to fifteen side-by-side bikes, leads immediately into a three-bike-wide straightaway. It is a terrifying thing to watch everyone trying to be among the first three out: tires against mud-encrusted tires, they leap into the first 50 feet, jockeying for position, engines screaming at fantastic revs, drivers leaning backwards to help spinning rear wheels...then leaning forward to keep front wheels from coming up and spilling bikes end over end. Somehow they sort themselves out, and barrel down the 300-foot straightaway. Midway, as the riders hit the "broad jump," bikes sail four feet into the air, and come down hard...

Scrambling is a development of European grass-track racing and T.T. road racing. Continental motorcyclists who were bored with the circular routes used for grasstrack races stretched their courses out into irregular shapes, and included whatever the terrain had to offer. Almost immediately, scrambling superceded grass-track racing; it is now one of the most popular forms of international motorcycling competition, with world championship events boasting entries from a dozen countries.

The scrambles at Andre's Farm are sponsored by the Crotona Motorcycle Club, a 49-year old organization carefully limited to about forty very active members. Their activity is under the guidance of veteran motorcyclist Reggie Pink, who is also a member of the Competition Committee and the Technical Committee of the American Motorcycling Association, the American sanctioning organization. He is in charge of technical inspection at Andre's Farm, and provides colorful commentary over the circuit's public address system...

Vintage 1960s Scramble - The Sounds of Motorcycles at Speed - LP Record Album available at www.DadsVintageAds.com in the "Motorcycle Gifts & Collectibles" category

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1964 Motorcycle Scramble Sound Effects Vintage Record Album

Great motorcycle collectible. Listen to vintage motorcycle scramble sound effects or use the vintage motorcycle record album cover as a work of art. Frame and display!

Tracks:

Side One:

A1 Start Of First Five Lab Heat 0:51
A2 Sounds Of Shifting On Hill 2:35
A3 One Motorcycle (Expert Class) 0:30
A4 24 Motorcycles (Expert Class) 0:25
A5 Climbing 45 Degree Hill 1:10
A6 Class Two Amateur 2:15
A7 One Motorcycle (Amateur Class) 0:45
A8 Five Motorcycles 2:00
A9 Class Five Expert 0:55
A10 Drivers Talk 2:10

Side 2:

B1 Welcome To Scramble 1:20
B2 Class Five Expert 2:05
B3 Drivers Talking On Start Line 0:48
B4 Sound Of Many Motorcycles 2:25
B5 One Motorcycle 1:30
B6 Down 35 Degree Hill 1:45
B7 Passing Flat Ground Then Climbing Hill 1:35
B8 Back To Pit Area After Race 1:48
B9 Two Races, Six Seconds Apart 0:52
B10 Class Four Expert 0:37

If you think that ski slopes will henceforth be taken over by jackrabbits and woodchucks in the summertime, think again. They'll run from them the way a teenage ballplayer dodges his daily violin lesson. and ther's a reason. The slopes will be used for Motorcycle Scrambles. To put it another way, many motorcycle riders compete for points by racing their bikes over a five lap cours that takes them up the awesome slopes in apparent defiance of Newton's Law.

The participants are not the "wild ones" of Marlon Brando disposition; you won't find a black leather jacket in the bunch. Rather, they are respectable businessmen - of professional calling for the most part - doctors, lawyers, engineers, actors, and dentists. And all are members of the American Motorcycle Association which sanctions no less than 51,000 such events annually.

Why do they race? Well, for one thing, they seek the A.M.A.'s "Expert" label, a title bestowed only on those who amass 60 points at a scramble. For another, scrambling is a form of relaxation. As many riders told us, it's a way of escaping from the pressures of business and the office. But there are other less-easily defined motives for hugging the power of as many as 55 horses and propelling yourself five times around 8/10ths of a mile of rough terrain. Listen to the sound of this scramble. You may get the idea. And, to be fair about it, we issue this record with a warning: your life may never again be the same.

This "Study in High Fidelity Sound" captures a sense of an individual mated with power. The rider and his bike are an entity - perhaps more truly so than a man in a plane, boat or four-wheeled contrivance. Some of the sounds you'll hear are man-made: pit conversation and off-hand talk during the tense moments at the starting line fefore the starting flag goes down. But more meaningful is the superb and gutty sound of the well tuned motorcycle engine.

The engine speaks a language of its own. It growls with impatience at the starting line; the rider's right-hand on the throttle draws a series of angry statements from it. It heads for the slope and assaults it with a full-throttle cry of exaltation and release.

The tone-of-voice changes on the slope. The lighter bikes shift into lower gear and slower speed; heavier models labor upward in high. But always the voice is firm with power potential. Once over the top, the downward course over a 35-degree grade is run. The rider "shifts down" and the compression slows the forward motion with a pop-pop-pop-pop-ping of burning gas. In the riders' parlance, this is the "backing off" sound.

As in any sport, the participants have a jargon of their own. Sometimes, they're "airborne," an explicit enough term for leaving the ground. They often do. Being airborne, may or may not be deliberate. If a rider hits a rise that drops off sharply, he simply soars - sometimes as high as eight feet - to a safe, two-point landing.

A "full lock slip" is a turning maneuver and it's for experts only. Who else could sharply and fully reverse the direction of the front wheel - this way and that - to slip around a turn. "Full bore" describes covering the course with throttle fully open all the way. Listen to 24 bikes of the Expert Class assaulting the slope full-bore. The combined sound has the piercing roar of a jet plane.

The scramble recorded here took place at the Davos Ranch in Woodbridge, New York and was promoted by the Davos Motorcycle Club. As at all AMA sanctioned scrambles, a doctor and ambulance were standing by and all riders wore AMA approved helmets. The doctors, by the way, are rarely needed. The riders are there for a serious purpose and they pursue it with intelligence and skill.

This recording is unique. No one has ever attempted to record the excitement of a Motorcycle Scramble up a ski slope for the simple reason that Scrambles have previously been held on somewhat tamer terrain. If, in listening to it, you decide to forsake other modes of transportation for the motor-driven two-wheeled kind, we won't blame you. The rabbits and the wood chucks might complain but don't listen to their chatter. Just tighten your helmet, open the throttle, and head for the slopes full-bore.


1964 Motorcycle Scramble Sound Effects Vintage LP Record Album available at www.DadsVintageAds.com in the "Motorcycle Gifts & Collectibles" category

Search our Magazine Back Issue Index for old Motorcycle Magazine Back Issues for sale.







To search our full inventory of Vintage Motorcycle Advertisements, Articles, and Road Tests CLICK HERE.

1965 Isle of Man TT Records - Vintage Ad

1965 Isle of Man TT Records Cycle World Recordings Ad available at www.DadsVintageAds.com

Cycle World Records and England's Stanley Schofield Productions now offer Sound Story recordings of the 1965 Isle of Man TT races. Recorded on the spot with Schofield's new E.M.I. equipment, developed especially for location recording.

Two new high-fidelity volumes of long playing sounds of Europe's road racing greats, captured in startling reality, crispness and clarity. Hear the screaming Honda sixes, fours and twins; the high whining Suzukis and Yamahas turning up to 20,00 rpm at speeds over 140 mph; Benelli, MV, Suzuki, Honda four-cylinder bikes howling through their six to eight speed gearboxes; MZs, Jawas, Derbis and most of the world's exotic motorycles in action. LP-574 contains the 250cc and Junior (350cc) events, plus interviews with Jim Redman, Phil Read, Frank Perris, Derek Woodman and Derek Minter, conducted by Murray Walker. LP-575 contains the 50cc, 125cc, Sidecar and Senior (500cc) TT events, plus interviews with Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Ernst Degner, Jack Ahearn, Paddy Driver, Joe Dunphy and MZ designer Walter Kaaden....








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