The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires two passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilometre while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/kilometre completed within two hours. These are special or modified motorcycles, distinct from the fastest production motorcycles. The first official FIM record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph. Since late 2010, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph.

History

The first generally recognized motorcycle speed records were set unofficially by Glenn Curtiss, using aircraft engines of his own manufacture, first in 1903, when he achieved 64 mph at Yonkers, New York using a V-twin, and then on January 24, 1907, on Ormond Beach, Florida, when he achieved 136.27 mph using a V8 housed in a spindly tube chassis with direct shaft drive to the rear wheel. An attempted return run was foiled when his drive shaft came loose at speed, yet he was able to wrestle the machine to a stop without injury. Curtiss's V8 motorcycle is currently in the Transportation collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Curtiss's 1907 record was the fastest any person had ever travelled under power: the rail record stood at 131 mph (electric powered); the motor car record was 127.66 mph (steam powered); while in the air, where weight considerations made the internal combustion engine dominant, the air speed record was still held by the Wright Brothers at a mere 37.85 mph.The first officially sanctioned Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at 104.12 mph. The first FIM-sanctioned record to exceed Curtiss's 1907 speed did not occur until 1930, at Arpajon in France, when an OEC special with a 1,000cc supercharged JAP V-twin engine averaged 137 mph over the required two-way runs. The 1930s saw an international battle between the BMWs ridden by Ernst Henne and various JAP-powered British motorcycles, with the penultimate pre-World War II record being taken in 1937 by Italy's Gilera, shortly before BMW set a final pre-war record of 173.68 mph that stood for 14 years. After World War II, the German NSU factory battled Britain's Vincent HRD and Triumph for top speed honors during the 1950s, with British-engined machines dominating the 1960s. New Zealand's Burt Munro (of the film The World's Fastest Indian), set a speed record at Bonneville in 1967 of 183 mph for a motorcycle with an engine under 1000cc. A record which still stands. The record stands as at 2024. A Japanese-engined streamliner motorcycle first took the record in 1970, and alternated with Harley-Davidson-engined machines as record-holders until 1990, when Dave Campos's streamliner powered by twin Harley-Davidson engines averaged 322.15 mph. That record stood for 16 years before being surpassed in 2006 by the Ack Attack team's twin Suzuki engined machine at an average of 342.8 mph. The BUB team, using a custom-built V4 engine, then alternated as record holders with Ack Attack over the next four years. As of November 2022, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at 376.36 mph since late 2010.

Jet-engine trike

The fastest record certified by the FIM is that set in 1964 by the jet-propelled tricycle, Spirit of America. It set three absolute land speed records, the last at 526.277 mph. While such records are usually validated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the FIA only certifies vehicles with at least four wheels, while the FIM certifies two- and three-wheelers. Breedlove never intended Spirit of America to be classified as a motorcycle, despite its tricycle layout, and only approached the FIM after being rejected for record status by the FIA. Spirit of America's FIM-ratified record prompted the FIA to add the new category of thrust-powered vehicles to its world record listings. Furthermore, most people think of the tricycle Spirit of America, now part of the permanent collection of Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, as a car and not a motorcycle.

List of AMA National and FIM World Land Speed records

Link to Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials AMA National and FIM World Records

List of "absolute" and Streamliner records