Bob Freitas wrote: "MONTHLERY was the site of one of the BICYCLE LAND SPEED RECORDS,I do not recall the rider but recall 135 MPH and much bravado."
The land speed record wasn't set at Montlhery, but on the German
Autobahn, behind a Mercedes, by Jose Meiffret. Meiffret did at one time
attempt a motorpaced hour record on the Montlhery track, with very
nearly fatal results. From the article by Dr. Clifford Graves in
Bicycling! Magazine (reprinted in Best of Bicycling! and also at
http://www.ahands.org/
"Undisputed record man of the hour and of the kilometer on the road, Meiffret next turned to the track at Montlhery. Here, the Belgian Vanderstuyft had ridden 78.159 an hour behind a motorcycle in 1928. But Montlhery in 1928 was new. In 1952 it was old. The pavement was starting to crack, and the turns were atrocious. The track superintendent shook his head. He had seen many try. But Meiffret was determined. On the appointed day, he rode his first lap at 80 miles per hour. Suddenly, coming out of the turn on the seventh lap, his bicycle started bucking. Nobody knew what actually happened. Perhaps the pedals, which had less than an inch of clearance, scraped. At any rate, Meiffret flew through the air, hit the ground, tumbled three hundred feet, slid another twenty, and came to a rest, a quivering mass of flesh. Horrified attendants carried him to an ambulance, and newspapers announced his imminent death. That night surgeons found five separate skull fractures. Unbelievably, Meiffret lived through this ordeal."
Meiffret was 49 when he set the land speed record of 127 m.p.h. Naturally, this record isn't really attained by means of incredible strength, but by supreme motorpacing skills and nerves of steel. The man who broke Meiffret's record, Dr. Allan Abbott, wasn't a professional racer, and John Howard and Fred Rompelberg, who broke the record subsequently, were already past their racing prime. Meiffret was riding what looked like an ordinary motorpacing bike, with wooden rims and reversed fork, of course excepting the 130-tooth T.A. chainwheel with "MEIFFRET" spelled out. I remember seeing a picture of Meiffret next to his bike in some book or magazine. Does anyone know where it appeared?
You can see a picture of Abbott's bike and John Howard's "Pepsi
Challenger" here:
http://www.canosoarus.com/
Mordecai Silver
NYC