1911 Flying Merkel Board Track Racer

Reader Contribution by Mc Staff
Published on October 10, 2012
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1911 Flying Merkel Board Track Racer

This classic Flying Merkel motorcycle is part of a new display of board track racers at the National Motorcycle Museum. The following is excerpted from a history by Joe Michaud:

“Originally centered in Milwaukee, … (Merkel’s) machines featured integral exhaust systems that used frame tubes as silencers, and easier-to-use incorporation of throttle opening and spark advance, and an innovative oil system. The Merkel company soon merged with a small manufacturing firm in Pollstown, Penn., where the machines continued to incorporate other ingenious designs, most of which were quickly adapted by the telescoping front fork that are clear predecessors of modern frame design. Merkel was offered another merger and he joined a bicycle-manufacturing firm in Middletown, Ohio where manufacturing began in earnest with the introduction of the first big-bore V-twin, which used a 61-cubic-inch motor. He now called his machines “Flying Merkel.”

“Merkel insisted on superior build-quality and he personally scrutinized the building of most Flying Merkel models. … The 1911 sales brochure for Flying Merkel advertises that a “Flying Merkel achieved a distance of one measure mile in 41.4 seconds.” That’s a tick under 87mph.” 

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