The Associated Press recently uploaded a ton of vintage video clips to YouTube, giving fans of vintage motorcycles a lot to watch.
Going through the material, there is a mixture of silent footage in black-and-white and colour footage, some with sound and some without. There’s no GoPro-style footage of Grand Prix finishes of the past, but if you’re interested, there are plenty of flybys by the likes of Mike Hailwood. Remember when East Germany was its own country, with its own Grand Prix? That’s here. How about some footage of the 1964 Dutch TT? Or the 1975 Daytona 200? Or an off-road race in the Andes in 1973?
It’s not all racing, either. Here’s footage of Moscow’s first post-Soviet biker rally, before the Night Wolves had a reputation as international troublemakers. Here’s a world record jump attempt gone wrong.
Warning: some of this stuff is definitely viewer-beware. There’s a clip of a stunt rider whose attempt at riding through a tunnel of flame ends in a very nasty death, and there’s probably similar stuff in there.
However, this release will likely prove a treasure trove for vintage bike enthusiasts in coming days as they pore over footage from the past and find even more to argue about over the Internet.
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