Floyd Clymer
Floyd Clymer (26 October 1895 in Indianapolis[1] – 22 January 1970 in Los Angeles[2]), a pioneer in the sport of motorcycling, was a racer, a motorcycle dealer and distributor, a magazine publisher, a racing promoter, an author, and a motorcycle manufacturer.[3] He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998 and into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on March 17, 2020.[4]
Floyd Clymer
October 26, 1895
January 22, 1970 (aged 74)
American
Motorsports racer, dealer and publisher
Clymer repair manual series
Early life[edit]
Clymer was a natural salesman and became the youngest Ford dealer in the USA at age 14, in Greeley, Colorado. He began racing motorcycles in the 1910s, and was very successful though the 1920s, winning the National Sidecar Championship in 1920, the Pikes Peak Hillclimb and several other hill climb championships. He was involved in motorcycle racing throughout his life, including race promotion and organization. He owned a Harley-Davidson and Excelsior motorcycle dealership in the 1920s in Greeley.[3]
Motorcycle manufacturer[edit]
Clymer attempted to purchase the Indian motorcycle brand in the 1950s, and was successful in buying it in the early 1960s. By 1967, he had begun distribution of Indian-branded minicycles, with Jawa, Morini Franco and Morini Minarelli engines and chassis components using names such as Papoose, Ponybike and Boy Racer. The success of these small machines lead to the design and small-run assembly of the Indian Velo 500 from a mix of British drive train components from Velocette, Royal Enfield and Norton, in a specially-commissioned Italian chassis. The chassis included frames by Italjet, forks by Marzocchi and wheels by Grimeca He also sought to promote the Münch motorcycle as an Indian, and commissioned Friedl Münch to create a motorcycle using a sidevalve Indian Chief V-twin motor in a Münch chassis. While his minicycle line continued, and expanded, into the 1970s, the realization of these full-sized Indian cycles came to a halt when Clymer died of a heart attack in 1970, at age 74.[3]